Digital marketing in travel and tourism has always relied heavily on third party cookies for tracking target audiences and retargeting. While it has been a focal point of success for many brands, Google's mission to bring more privacy and power to online searchers has changed everything.
Google announced an updated plan to remove third party tracking cookies in Q3 2024, transforming how all marketers gather information on their target audiences. Although this announcement has been the center of conversations for the last three years, marketers are still afraid of the impact of a cookieless future. What will digital marketing without cookies mean for your business?
Fortunately, it doesn't have to prevent you from getting to know your audience and optimizing your digital marketing for tourism. With the right digital marketing agency for travel and the following tips for cookieless marketing, your destination will be able to get/remain at the top of the industry.
What are Tracking Cookies?
Tracking cookies have always been a saving grace for marketers interested in learning more about their consumer's typical behaviors and likes on the internet. Tracking cookies could be shared from website to website and service to service, allowing a more holistic view of your target audience. The knowledge gained from tracking visitors could be used to better target and appeal to a brand's audience when advertising or marketing to certain segments.
The problem, however, is it could also be dangerous for internet users if the information obtained via a tracking cookie is misused or exploited by data collectors. As more and more people demand power over their personal data — a Pew Research Center study revealed most U.S. adults view tracking cookies as more of a risk than a benefit — the need for new data collection tactics becomes essential.
What is Happening to the Third Party Cookie?
The increased demand for more privacy on the internet-fueled Google's latest announcements to remove third party cookies. In their 2020 report, the industry leader explained that "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."
In response to many concerns about the removal, Google also announced plans to replace cookies with a new initiative called The Privacy Sandbox. The concept of their new initiative is to protect online privacy with website web standards while still allowing advertisers to use behavioral targeting (through browser APIs).
The current Google Analytics and third party cookies will replace the privacy-friendly Google Analytics (GA4). Travel brands have been using cookie targeting to influence consumers to travel, but what are the alternatives without cookies?
How Travel Brands Can Advertise in a Cookieless World
Although it may be tough at first, advertising in a cookieless world is not impossible and will not be the 'end-all' for your travel and tourism digital marketing potential. Here are our top tips:
Rely on First Party Cookies
The most significant difference between first and third party cookies is that first party cookies are sourced on a single domain and not shared from website to website or advertiser to advertiser — they're more trustworthy because you collect the data from your audience directly. Third party cookies, on the other hand, are gathered by a 'third party' separate from you or a partner — therefore, they are more unreliable and susceptible to inaccuracies or misinterpretations.
You may wonder, will first party data be relevant to customers' interests, preferences, and booking behaviors? Not only will it be relevant, but it will also be more accurate and trustworthy since you're getting the answers to their inquiries directly from your audience as opposed to an outside organization that could be sourcing their information from the wrong people.
You can collect first party data through your social media channels, mobile apps, website visitor tracking tools, offline surveys, contests, and more.
Leverage Contextual Advertising
First and foremost, studies have found that contextual advertising elicits up to two times better ad recall and 43% better engagement than ads that aren't relevant to their content.
Contextual advertising refers to placing ads on websites with content relevant to your ad. For instance, a destination marketer delivering an ad for a travel brand in Rome may appear on a website promoting the top places to visit in Europe or Italy.
Leveraging contextual advertising in place of cookies can be a good solution for your travel business because it ensures you're getting your ad in front of relevant audiences. Using the same example, your brand would reach more of the right people on a website promoting places to go in Europe versus a website with content on traveling in the U.S. or irrelevant content about traveling in general.
Google's Privacy Sandbox
As stated earlier, The Privacy Sandbox is Google's proposed solution to cookie removal. The Privacy Sandbox website defines itself as an "initiative [that] aims to create technologies that both protect people's privacy online and give companies and developers tools to build thriving digital businesses. The Privacy Sandbox reduces cross-site and cross-app tracking while helping to keep online content and services free for all."
Advertisers will be able to get data on:
- Conversions
- Ad targeting
- Attribution
That said, the initiative is still in development. This means that although there isn't much known about how efficient it will be for your digital marketing just yet (as it is still in its trial period), experts expect it to make a significant impact in the future. Google has also emphasized the importance of ensuring advertisers and publishers are prepared for the transition, which is why the initial removal date of 2020 was extended to 2024.
McClatchy For Navigating Digital Marketing in a Post-Cookie World
As time goes by and we continue to navigate a cookieless world, more efficient solutions to targeting the right audience will emerge. Whether this is in the form of optimized versions of solutions available today or innovations, there will come a time (sooner than you think) when marketers realize that a cookieless future is better. And you don't have to navigate it alone. McClatchy is specialized in helping travel & tourism brands sail the digital marketing world without third party cookies.
