Google Chrome- 3rd Party Cookies Phase out- Easy explanation- By Sarang Kinjavdekar

Last week , Google has announced that by 2022 it will completely phase out 3rd party cookies. I have seen lots of content written about it but none of the articles have explained some o the basic stuff like- why, what, how etc. Finally, I will talk about the impact of the complete roll out on the Digital ecosystem. This article is aimed to explain things in Plain English.

Why the 3rd Party cookies Phase out is happening?

As per Google

Our goal for this open source initiative is to make the web more private and secure for users, while also supporting publishers. Users are demanding greater privacy--including transparency, choice and control over how their data is used--and it’s clear the web ecosystem needs to evolve to meet these increasing demands. Some browsers have reacted to these concerns by blocking third-party cookies, but we believe this has unintended consequences that can negatively impact both users and the web ecosystem. By undermining the business model of many ad-supported websites, blunt approaches to cookies encourage the use of opaque techniques such as fingerprinting (an invasive workaround to replace cookies), which can actually reduce user privacy and control. We believe that we as a community can, and must, do better.

How the tracking will happen ?

By the end of this year, the Google Chrome team will begin trials that allow for click-based conversion measurement without third-party cookies. will be tracked within the browser, not a third-party cookie, according to a Google spokesperson. When an advertiser needs to track a conversion, they’ll call an API  that will send the conversion value from the browser. Individual user data would not be passed back.

Why Chrome is so important for Advertisers?

First, lets us see why Chrome Browser is so Important

Chrome is the leading Browser and hold the maximum market share.

Safari and Firefox have already blocked the 3rd party cookies. One reason, why Google is not immediately phasing this out is- unlike Safari and Firefox, Google has a huge advertising business which create Billions of Dollars in revenue for Google and also is supporting the whole ecosystem - Advertisers, Publishers and Users. So wiping the 3rd cookie immediately, seems like a risky proposition.


Before we move further, lets first understand what exactly is the cookie and the differene between different types of cookies

3rd Party Cookies Vs. 1st Party Cookies-Difference?

Wikipedia says An HTTP cookie (also called web cookie, Internet cookie, browser cookie, or simply cookie) is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored on the user's computer by the user's web browser while the user is browsing. Cookies were designed to be a reliable mechanism for websites to remember stateful information (such as items added in the shopping cart in an online store) or to record the user's browsing activity (including clicking particular buttons, logging in, or recording which pages were visited in the past). They can also be used to remember arbitrary pieces of information that the user previously entered into form fields such as names, addresses, passwords, and credit-card numbers.

1st Party Cookies- First party coookies are stored in the Domain you are visiting directly. Example- Amazon. They allow website owners to collect analytics data, remember language settings, and perform other useful functions that help provide a good user experience.These are originated from the primary domain visited by the user, hence becoming first-party cookies.


3rd Party Cookies- Third-party cookies are created by domains other than the one you are visiting directly, hence the name third-party. They are used for cross-site tracking, retargeting and ad-serving.

Ex: Lets say you visit a news site www.nytimes.com


What happens now- A first party Cookie is created by www.nytimes.com and at the same time one third-party cookie is also created by the Advertiser who has bought inventory on www.nytimes.com. , [say,  ad.doubleclick.net ]. The reason for a third-party cookie is because the URL (ad.doubleclick.net) doesn’t match the domain (www.nytimes.com). The cookie is left by a third-party advertising provider, hence the name third-party cookie.

I saw a very good explanation and difference here , below is the pictorial to tell the difference

Ok, so now you might be wondering, are there 2nd Party Cookies as well? Yes, you guessed it right, we also have second party cookies. Second-party cookies are cookies that are transferred from one company (the one that created first-party cookies) to another company via some sort of data partnership. For example, an airline could sell its first-party cookies (and other first-party data such as names, email addresses, etc.) to a trusted hotel chain to use for ad targeting, which would mean the cookies become classed as second-party.




How will it affect Advertisers and the ecosystem

• Everything from Targeting to Measurement will be affected
• Chrome will support messaging/targeting a cohort of users, but 1:1 messaging and targeting will be out Question.
• Programatic media buying and usage of 3rd party data will be huge problem
• Cross device/platforms conversions looks nearly impossible after the complete roll out
• Vendors who depends a lot on 3rd party data will be severely affected
• Brands might move their budget to Social and Paid
• User will have more Privacy and less intruding advertisements will be served.
• Retargeting will also be affected, particularly Brands with heavy reliance on Retargeting
• Google;s own property like Youtube and Google.com will not be affected as they use the first party data. Google Display Network, for example, relies on third-party cookies to serve ads based on a person’s browsing behavior. For those ads to continue running, this Google product would need to use the Privacy Sandbox API.
• Data Management Platforms will also be severely affected 
• Content creation, syndication etc will be preferred including focusing more on Social Media strategy
• Audience targeting strategies will change in future after 2022 and Brands should also start planning in advance
• Attribution will also change as there will be no 3rd party cookies.
• View through attribution will completely be eliminated- so the brands who factor in View through, should now focus completely on Click through Conversions
• Browser targeting-  it’s going to be a challenge to targeting within Chrome.
• Outside ad tech providers would lose access to data they gathered through third-party cookies when they get phased out. 
• Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox is open, and any ad tech company with a third-party cookie offering would be able to call the API.
• These changes will affect Google’s business buying ads across the open web, often known as its DoubleClick business
•  Google’s partners – including publishers using Google Ad Manager to sell their ads – would likewise be affected
• Advertisers will now focus on second party data and will be relying more on Publishers directly to access the data- ex- identifiers like Login information/ Profile information
• Premium publishers will work more on the product which advertisers are willing to buy once the 3rd party data phase out happens
• The reach of advertising would decline and prices will likely rise as the supply-demand dynamic kicks in.
• Last click attribution might again rule and will the king
• Companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google will continue to thrive because they continue to have access to first party data. 
• The agencies and ad-tech providers and those who have been mastering third-party data will lose their privileged position in this new world
• Contextual targeting will overrule the Behavioral Targeting

Thanks for reading!

Sarang Kinjavdekar

Google Display Ads- ‘Targeting Expansion feature’ explained -By Sarang Kinjavdekar

Google Display ads helps you to expand your targeting reach automatically with the Automatic Targeting feature called Targeting Expansion (previously Targeting Optimization). In this topic, we will talk about how to use it, key features, campaign level benefits and also some of the advantages and disadvantages

Basics- What exactly is Targeting Expansion?

This feature lets Google find more high value traffic to help you get more relevant conversions on top of the audience targeting you have already specified. Think of automatic targeting as a high-impact add-on that supplements the targeting that you’ve already set up.

When to use Targeting Expansion?

This works best for the Advertisers when they want to:

• Find more customers
• Identify the best targeting to reach their most likely customers
• Increase reach without increasing bids or cost per customer

Where to find it/activate it?

This feature can be found under the Ad Group level 

Click image to enlarge

If you move the slider to extreme left, it gets set to zero and that means no Targeting expansion. Use this when you want to deactivate this feature. As you keep on sliding it to right, the more reach you will get. To focus on reach or performance, you can maximise for both by increasing to the maximum reach setting.

Note- All the display campaigns are automatically set at the slider position as seen below. Please bear in mind your campaign targeting restrictions and then deactivate it or otherwise use it by moving the slider to the right position.

When you should not be using this?

Automatic targeting results in new placements, so it's suitable for advertisers who don't have strict brand guidelines about where their ads appear. Also, if you have a very strict requirements and a very specific strategy like Re-targeting, don't use this.

Scope of usage

This works for- 

• For contextual targeting, such as content keywords
• For re-marketing and similar audiences targeting

This does not work for

• Demographics
• Placements 

Examples of Targeting Expansion

Below is an example from Google for the Retargeting strategy and using Targeting Expansion

 If your remarketing list is for people visiting travel sites about Japan, automatic targeting may extend to show your ad to people visiting sites about Tokyo tourist destinations. If your similar audiences list is for people who have previously made a purchase on your site, automatic targeting may expand to include additional, highly relevant audiences. With the setting maximised, targeting might go further based on your performance and available, relevant audiences.

Another example from Google for the Content Strategy using Keywords targeting strategy and using Targeting Expansion

So if your keyword is 'pens', the first stage of slider may extend to 'felt-tip pens' and 'ballpoint pens', but the maximum reach stage might show your ads in contexts related to 'whiteboard markers' or 'mechanical pencils' – if there’s data to suggest that those keywords will lead to conversions. 

Thanks for reading
Sarang Kinjavdekar

Google search- Audience Targeting [New Update and announcement]

Google has announced Q4 last year (Oct mid 2019 to be precise)that Advertisers can now use Audience Targeting in Search Campaigns also. This is nothing different from a Display campaign (if I have to make it easy to understand). Here, you have various Targeting options like- Affinity, Custom Affinity, In market, Remarketing , Demographics etc. Good thing is, you can also use this for App Marketing if you are creating it under Search campaign

Why you should consider ?


I find this really useful, now you can combine the Intent with the additional audience layer who have previously shown interest in your product and service.

Below is an example from Google

For instance, let’s say you sell camping gear. To reach avid campers, you can pair an affinity audience like “Outdoor Enthusiast” with generic camping keywords. By adding this additional audience layer, you can reach people who are not only searching for camping products, but are also passionate about the great outdoors.

See the screenshot below and then I will explain it in depth

Here you can 3 options similar to Display Audience Targeting.

Lets see the 1st Option- Search


Here you can see auto populated - (i) Recently seleted audiences and (ii)Easily accessible inMarket and Affinity audiences based on your URL  

Then we click on Ideas - here you can see that based on your Business or Products/Services-certain ideas are auto populated- Feel free to use them or else you can create or mix audiences as needed

Then we will have a look at the Browse Tab- Based on your Goal, Strategy, Funnel level, and path to purchase you can select the audiences

My recommendations


Audiences targeting is an amazing way to reach the Audiences who have intent and also have shown previous Affinity or are in Market. However, I recommend not to combine your best performing campaigns immediately or in other words do not layer it on the existing campaign. I would recommend you to pick a campaign which is not performing well. For instance- Pick up a campaign with very high clicks but absolutely no conversion. If it is a Top funnel campaign, combine it with the Affinity audience and if it is a mid to Lower funnel campaign- combine it with in-Market audiences. Once you have started seeing the results, then slowly move to other campaigns.


Thanks for reading!
Sarang