With the introduction of ITP2.2. The cookie might crumble completely.

Digital Full Service
Online Advertising
Online Analytics/Measurables
Performance Marketing
Optimisation/Conversion

That’s the way the cookie crumbles, as the old saying goes. Well, how prophetic that might just be with the introduction of ITP2.2. The cookie might crumble completely. 

In short, ITP is a feature that Apple added to Safari in 2017 to curtail companies’ abilities to monitor people’s browsing behavior when they visit other companies’ sites - a strategy designed move towards eliminating cross-domain tracking. 

It does this by removing third party cookies placed on sites by platforms like Facebook and Google and ad networks such as Media.net and InfoLinks.

 

Working around the work-arounds

However, gradually the canny companies seeing they were coming under threat adapted a range of workarounds to help circumvent the issues. One such workaround was to store third-party cookies as first-party cookies.

Striking back against this ingenuity/impudence (depending whose side you’re on), Safari implemented the more stringent ITP 2.1, and began deleting these first-party cookies seven days after they were installed on a browser. But again that wasn’t enough. 

So in April, ITP 2.2 went even further, cutting the lifespan of first-party cookies that are created for cross-domain tracking purposes from seven days to just one day. Simply put, if Susie clicks an ad for some new football boots on Friday, but decides to take the weekend to think about buying them, that cookie, which would register when the person returns directly to the site to buy the product, would be gone by Monday. This shortening of the look-back window drastically reduces transparency and reach. 

But not for everyone. For sites like Google, Facebook, Verizon, Twitter, Comcast, AOL user identification, targeting, and measurement still won’t really be adversely affected because most consumers visit those web properties at least once a day. 

Publishers and ad networks with limited traffic, though, are in a bit more trouble as their ability to directly record conversion data will become very limited very quickly. 

 

What this means for brands right now

The overall market impact will vary according to that market’s share of iOS devices, which can be easily checked here, but In general, brands currently using 1st party tracking solutions with a 7 day or shorter look-back window should, for the most part, be unaffected.

Brands using a longer look-back window will see a drop in their cookie pools for retargeting and audiences, as only users of 7 days or newer will be targetable. However, brands using a 3rd party tracking solution will no longer see any conversions on Safari browsers, whereas they would have seen direct click to conversion events under IPT2.0.

Impact on spend should be very limited but those using GA etc. (including brands) might notice numbers, both reporting and conversion goals to import, are down while duplication of uniques will lead to marginally (depending on Safari reach) skewed numbers.

There are also other updates as part of ITP2.2, but these are mostly around enforcing these new restrictions and preventing tracking companies from exploiting other potential loopholes in the browser/cookie systems.

  

From the publisher side, they might struggle to monetize website views coming via Apple’s browser and will have to adapt. Buyers on the other hand won’t bid on inventory they can’t see. 

 

Alternative solutions 

However, cookies are not the only way to track data. For tracking conversions and attributions, investment in converting to non cookie-based options such as in-app, email and social solutions can deliver huge benefits. A brand’s analytics specialists should also avoid gateway tracking and redirects, as well as use of URLs that redirect users to final landing pages. During the redirect, a third-party cookie is dropped. The cookie would be rejected. Instead, they should use Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to leverage Google’s first-party conversion tracking. Finally, make sitewide first-party tagging a priority. 

But to take it to the next level of futuristic tracking, it is worth exploring using fingerprint ID and attributing it to visitor activities in analytics. FPJS https://fingerprintjs.com/ is a fingerprint ID generator, which creates a unique fingerprint ID based on relatively static attributes of user's browser and device. It removes the need for cookies or any local storage to store IDs, because fingerprint IDs can be generated when needed and would be the same all the time. By plugging fingerprint ID into GA 360 user-ID, for example, marketers can gain much more accurate count of unique person visits.

 

What this could mean for brands in the future 

 

Apple's claims to improve user experience and simplify cookie implementation for web developers could push others to follow in their footsteps (even Samsung for example are trialling new measures in their latest mobile browser “Samsung Internet Beta 9.2”) moving the issue beyond Safari.

One of the potentially most troubling of these is Google’s talk of ITP on chrome. If the current direction continues (and the work-arounds don’t ‘work’) then there is a worst case scenario where we lose all our data targeting and have to go back to relying on purely contextual data - like turning back the clock.

However, at the moment this is highly unlikely. But should our data dreams be entirely shattered, then we should remember that it’s still not the end of the world. Consumers are not going to stop using the internet and buying products online and digital will still be the most accountable media channel.

We’ve seen before that workarounds can work, and much of this thinking is merely preparing ourselves for worst case scenarios. But with intelligent planning, an open mind and an eye to the future, brands can come out of this relatively unscathed.  The Cookie hasn’t crumbled just yet.