Digital Marketing Reset: 3 Conversation Starters for a Cookie-Less Future

With increased privacy regulations and many browsers removing third-party cookies, it’s likely that sooner or later, digital marketing based on tracking cookies will be gone for good. And now – before it’s too late – is the time for marketers to reset and evaluate their options for a cookie-less world. Here are three conversation starters that put this topic in perspective:

 

• Cookies have limitations: Even though cookies have long been a digital marketer’s go-to for targeted content based on a person’s online behavior, it hasn’t been a perfect method. Cookies provide an incomplete picture, indicating a person’s action (such as visiting a website), without knowing who they are or their motivation. Additionally, cookies are device-specific, so computers shared across multiple users could end up with “targeted” ads for a different person.

 

• Contextual and content-based marketing also come with a catch: As many digital marketers are looking to figure out what’s next, some are turning to contextual or content-based marketing – targeting an audience based on their “location,” such as visiting a website, search terms, or the content they’re viewing. The benefit is that it’s targeted at the right time, as your audience will see it when they’re viewing content based on the set parameters. But without data about the person, the information you capture may be irrelevant – the individual could work for a competitor and simply be conducting research or they may have come across the content by mistake. And if they are in-market, there’s no way to follow up on their interest with targeted content at a later time.

 

• Start thinking about IP address tracking: At OMI, we’re seeing the rise of Internet Protocol (IP) address tracking as a viable alternative to cookies. IP address data can be used to identify targets through monitoring online activities, such as website visits, content downloads, product reviews and more. This form of digital tracking can also be used to identify the companies that have visited a given website so that businesses can re-target them with follow-on marketing. The process involves the use of a lookup tool that matches the detected IP to an IP registry database to identify the company. However, this still leaves a gap in identifying and contacting the correct person behind the behavior.

 

Thankfully, using data you can close that gap by matching individual contact information to the correct decision-maker within the company. This combination allows digital marketers to pinpoint relevant individual contacts and target their marketing with that information. And with many people moving to an account-based marketing (ABM) approach, it’s even more important to narrow the focus and not waste resources on irrelevant contacts.

 

As a frontrunner in this area with a track record in high-quality business contact data, at OMI, our customers are using IP address tracking to drive their digital marketing and close the loop on identifying the correct prospects.

 

The demise of third-party tracking cookies may seem like another wrench in the gears for digital marketing, but it doesn’t have to be. IP address identification and contact matching offers a way for digital marketers to reach the right person, at the right time, on the right device, with the right content. Additionally, new strategies continue to emerge from companies offering innovative data strategies. For example, LiveRamp’s digital platforms and identity graphs bring together powerful data sets for highly targeted audience building.

 

We see great promise for digital marketers in a cookie-less world. If you have any questions about how to pivot for the changes ahead, give us a shout. We always welcome questions and conversation.

 

 

Outward Media’s proven data cleansing services and targeted, accurate B2B data can enable you to achieve better digital marketing ROI and, ultimately, convert more prospects into customers. Take a look at our case studies to find out more.