TRAFFIC
AFFILIATE MARKETING IN A WORLD WITHOUT COOKIES
Apple ’ s privacy policy changes are just another step towards a changing world of cookies and permission-based marketing . Jonathan Moreland shares more about what this means for affiliates
C ookies , the files created by
websites you visit that save your browsing information , are becoming an endangered species .
Affiliates and their operator partners must now rethink what data they have , what data they actually need , and how to get this data in a post-cookies world .
For proactive , forward-thinking companies , all is not lost .
THINGS TO BEAR IN MIND ABOUT COOKIES
• Cookies don ’ t just improve advertising targeting but user experience too If you think a cookieless world is an advertising problem for advertisers to solve , think again . Cookies are used by sites to keep you signed in , remember passwords and site preferences , and give you locally relevant content . They play a valuable part in your everyday browsing experience .
• There ’ s more than one type of cookie First-party cookies are created by the sites you visit . This is the data you collect on your audience based on their behaviours directly on your site or app .
Second-party data basically comes from someone else ’ s first-party data .
Third-party cookies are created by third-party sites – aka advertising and BI platforms you likely have not visited . Third-party data is a collection of multiple first-party data sources aggregated across websites and applications by independent companies . Only this third-party cookie is being phased out .
• This is part of a larger , longer-term trend The ‘ death of the third-party cookie ’ has been playing out for years .
In 2019 , EU courts ruled that users must actively consent to all analytics cookies when they log on to a website .
If they don ’ t , the website can ’ t drop analytics or web tracking cookies on the user ’ s browser . This was the infamous GDPR ruling that requires explicit ( rather than implicit ) opt-in before any analytics or web tracking cookies can be placed on a browser .
Apple has been rolling out plans to make certain mobile cookies opt-in only , which will prevent cross-device tracking of visitors .
Google announced its plans to phase out cookies in early 2020 . The tech giant explained that this move was being done in response to online consumers demanding greater privacy , transparency and control over how their data is used .
Google is again making headlines after recently announcing that it will NOT be developing any alternative solutions that track users across different sites .
28 • ISSUE 89 • Q1 2022