Cookie monster: UK marketers still napping on the job

They have had three years to get their act together yet three-quarters (73%) of UK marketers say they are still not well prepared for the deprecation of third-party cookies, despite 92% believing that Google will stick to its 2024 deadline.

That is the damning conclusion of a new study by LiveRamp, carried out by Censuswide, which also reveals that despite Google’s withdrawal of cookies being announced as far back as February 2020 – and three stays of execution – most (60%) marketers are still developing their first-party strategies.

In fact, just under one in ten (8%) have no first-party data strategy, despite nearly half (45%) looking to first-party authenticated data to combat the loss of third-party cookies.

The study, which quizzed 250 UK brand-side senior marketers, also reveals that half (51%) are concerned about identity/addressability post-cookies; three-fifths (60%) are troubled about reaching audiences at scale; 56% about frequency capping; and 50% about measurement.

Many marketers are exploring the potential of the open web, with large amounts of marketing budget being allocated here: 26% of respondents said the open web comprised up to 40% of their budget, 20% said 20% and 15% said up to 60%.

Furthermore, open web marketing continues to increase in importance, as a sizable majority of surveyed marketers (72.4%) stated that they anticipate spending more there moving forward.

LiveRamp senior vice-president of activations and addressability Travis Clinger said: “Delivering targeted advertising to individuals at scale on the open web, without the need for legacy identifiers, is the ambition of all marketers right now.

“Even so, many brands are still delaying testing and adopting strategies, despite these being key to enable them to effectively target consumers in a privacy-safe way post cookies.

“Marketers may be intimidated by the complexity of the process, and should seek the support of reliable partners rather than trying to manage it internally – what they’ll find is that people-based marketing helps address many of their concerns, including frequency capping and measurement, as well.

“Most importantly, marketers should know that these solutions work today and can have an immediate impact on the reach and ROAS of their Q4 and Q1 campaigns. The time to start is now – authenticated identity is the gold standard and will give marketers better results today.”