Marketers fear 25% revenue loss from cookie demise

Google may have delayed the withdrawal of third-party cookies until 2023 but the move is still set to have a devastating effect on the market with two fifths (42%) of marketers predicting it will slash revenue and nearly three-fifths (57%) expecting a drop of up to 25%.

Meanwhile, just over half (53%) of publishers foresee having to reduce their workforce due to revenue loss as a result of third-party cookie deprecation. Three out of seven (43%) publishers also see significant loss of programmatic revenue and loss of ad spend to walled gardens.

So says the second report by Lotame on the effects of Google’s decision, “Beyond the Cookie 2: Identity Solution Adoption & Testing Among Marketers and Publishers”.

Part one was released in February and examined how organisations are beginning to plan for the phase out of third-party cookies. For part two, Lotame surveyed 200 UK senior decision-makers in digital media and marketing to evaluate identity solution adoption amid the flurry of data privacy changes reshaping the open web.

Respondents were polled in September 2021, after Google revealed another delay to deprecating third-party cookies to 2023.

It also reveals major concerns over Apple’s privacy shake-up, with two out of five (41%) respondents expressing concerns about the impact on email hash identifiers, while a similar number (44%) said they were fearful of their ability to monetise their email channel.

Relatedly, email-based identity solutions (66%) were the most popular choice when asked what types of ID solutions marketers and publishers were planning to test in the next six months to one year. Contextual (51%) was in second place, followed by cohorts (33%) and probabilistic (28%).

Four in five marketers and publishers are open to using multiple ID solutions, with 60% of marketers currently working with an identity partner while a majority are keen to test further partners in the future.

While marketers said their primary reason for adopting new identity solutions is to support audience targeting (54%), for publishers, the central reason is data privacy (70%).

Meanwhile, over half (57%) of marketers and publishers said they are glad of the extra time to prepare afforded by Google’s cookie delay, whilst many said they expected the delay (39%) and that they were also suspicious of the reasons behind it (41%).

Lotame EMEA managing director Chris Hogg said: “The industry knows change is coming, Google’s 2023 deadline gives marketers and publishers some breathing space but it’s imperative not to take this time for granted.

“Open discussions and rigorous testing with a variety of providers — from authenticated to probabilistic — are an essential part of this journey. Only then can marketers and publishers really develop optimal, privacy-first identity portfolios to meet their full funnel strategies in a post-cookie world.”

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