Does the cookie have a future?

Since the regulations on user tracking were drastically tightened as part of the GDPR and ePrivacy Regulation, the spectre of the demise of the entire industry has been circulating in online marketing.

Scenarios that threaten the very existence of the industry are being spun - which will certainly be the case for some providers of tracking solutions.

Difficult environment for tracking

Retargeting specialist Criteo, for example, which implements personalized advertising campaigns for online stores, already had to revise its sales forecasts downwards in 2017 after Apple introduced ITP (Intelligent Tracking Prevention) for its Safari browser.

However, the all-clear can also be given in some areas: The proportion of users who actively object to cookies being set is vanishingly small. Most users do not bother to read and edit the settings options listed in the cookie banners. Only around 29% of users no longer allow cookies to be set, according to the "Cookie Rejection Report" from adtech provider "Flashtalking".

Major problems due to anti-tracking measures

A much bigger problem for the online marketing industry, on the other hand, is the initiatives of browser manufacturers or ad blockers, which are increasingly blocking or even preventing the usability of cookies in desktop browsers and mobile devices. Apple, for example, has developed powerful mechanisms with "Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP)" and the browser manufacturer Firefox with "Anti-Tracking".

Other browser manufacturers will probably follow this example or generally prevent the setting of tracking cookies. Cookies could also simply be deleted by the browser after the user session.

Even the more or less newly developed alternatives to cookie tracking are being used as a weapon. For example, Apple is trying to prevent fingerprinting, in which a digital fingerprint of the user is generated based on browser and device information, by ensuring that the browser only provides very little information.

Problems with the calculation of data

It is not only the possible complete rejection of all tracking methods by users and software providers that poses a problem for online marketing. The 29 percent of users who generally prevent cookies from being set already lead to considerable inaccuracies in the calculation of visitor numbers and conversion funnels.

Studies show that the reach of campaigns is now regularly overstated, while the calculations of how often a user sees the ad are too low.

This is due to an interruption in tracking. If the customer journey is not interrupted, the path between product search, ad placement and conversion is clearly traceable.

However, if the user searches for the same product several times and uses several computers or cell phones, the tracking data indicates that several users have seen the ad. This increases the reach of the campaign in question because the ads are supposedly seen by more users.

In reality, however, this effect can mean that the same user has simply seen the ad significantly more often. Without reliable tracking, this shortcoming can hardly be remedied.

The bottom line: the cookie is still there and works. However, it is becoming increasingly unreliable. Alternatives are needed and are currently being developed to enable marketers to continue working.

Here you can find out which alternative developments to cookie tracking exist and how their future prospects are to be assessed: Alternatives to cookies.