As rumors persist around the demise of third-party cookies, Acxiom Chief Client Officer Tate Olinghouse explains why it’s the perfect time for brands to delve into and truly own their digital marketing strategies.

In case you didn’t know, Google has postponed the removal of third-party cookies in Chrome until “second half of 2024”. If this feels like déjà vu, you are right. Google has tracked down this possibility many times.

Every time that happens, some brands must be breathing a sigh of relief. But to me every announcement is more than a simple reminder that this is delaying the inevitable. This is a reminder that there are greater strategic opportunities around cookies and identities that can be realized today.

It’s too easy to procrastinate

See, I get it. Taking decisive action on important issues is difficult. His third-party cookies have become a comfort zone for so many businesses. We all want to believe that third-party cookies work just fine because it’s easier to maintain the status quo than to actually do the work and make changes.

If you’ve watched Stephen Covey’s Four Quadrants for Managing Work, you’ll see that it’s all too easy to ignore important but not urgent tasks. This determines your strategy, and thus your destiny, more than anything else.

I think the personal health analogy is very apt when it comes to cookie deprecation. Every morning I wake up and think, ‘I should go to the gym. And most of the time, they decide that tomorrow is a good day for that plan. This is an approach that has worked well for several years, but it won’t last forever if you want to do something in the future.

The point is, dealing with cookie deprecation is a difficult but important task. This is strategically important to your brand and will undoubtedly become an urgent issue before you even know it. There is much more that can be achieved, but now is the time to act. (We have long warned brands not to procrastinate.)

Who should be in charge of your digital destiny?

After all, why wait for someone to dictate the demise of something so important to your business? If you don’t act now, you’re effectively ceding strategic control.

We’ve already had to face such developments like Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention in Safari and security-focused browsers like Firefox that allow opting out of third-party cookies. So, you know that just like any new technology or tool, it’s best to invest time in testing and optimizing to deal with new changes in the digital marketing landscape. The deprecation of Google third-party cookies is no exception.

Don’t get me wrong, Google will almost certainly be a key strategic partner for most brands, but Google shouldn’t control your strategy.

After all, if you can’t effectively identify your audience, you can’t take meaningful action. Moreover, it cannot be measured. And if you can’t measure it, you can’t optimize it. If you can’t optimize, you can figure out what’s going on.

where do i start?

So what should brands do now that cookies have been all the rage in the Chrome browser for the last few years? Focus on what you can control: first party data and first party identity.

First, create a data strategy on how you will collect, manage, and use first-party data. What data do you need to understand your customers and what they want and need from your brand? Make sure you’re onboarding a different set of data sources based on your first-party efforts, including those that use party cookies. That way, you can improve your performance today while preparing for tomorrow.

Next, get a first-party identity graph to connect your data. Without this backbone, it would be impossible to effectively understand the customer’s identity, which is essential to creating a great customer experience. If you have data gaps, look for ways to fill them as you build your identity strategy.

We’ve worked with brands in industries ranging from retail to banking to help them manage and take ownership of their data and identities. Those who will work well in 2024 and beyond are those who act now, test now, and optimize now.

my advice? Don’t wait for someone else to dictate your strategy. Take control of your digital destiny today.