The cookie has started to crumble.
The phase-out of third-party cookies officially began on Jan. 4. Initially announced in February 2022 as a way to meet user demand for greater privacy, this big change has been a long time coming. But now that it’s here, marketers have plenty of questions about what to do next.
Morning Brew teamed up with StackAdapt to get you the answers. We created this three-step guide to making your ads thrive in a cookieless world. With this guide in hand, you might not even miss those once-beloved cookies.
1. Take advantage of contextual targeting.
As the phase-out commences, contextual advertising has emerged as a leading targeting method. Why? Because it allows advertisers to reach audiences in a scalable way, without depending on third-party cookie data.
Instead of targeting ads based on user behavior, contextual advertising serves ads based on what a user is searching, watching, or reading. Imagine an ad for running sneakers on a marathon registration webpage. Makes sense, right? It’s reaching the right audience at the right time in the right context.
If you’re taking the loss of cookies hard, these numbers on contextual targeting might make you feel better: Historical analysis at StackAdapt reveals that placing ads in the right context can increase user engagement by a factor of four to 10. Remember, those results come without relying on user data—just by reaching audiences when they’re in a receptive frame of mind.
2. Let AI do the programmatic heavy lifting.
In some ways, the cookie phase-out timing worked out well for marketers, and it all comes down to two little letters: AI.
Since contextual advertising is served programmatically, it uses AI and machine learning to collect and analyze data in real time. And the scale and speed of this data alone could have a game-changing impact.
Here’s how it works: When users interact with ads, AI gathers data. Then, machine learning steps in to analyze that data for useful behavior patterns. From there, advertisers use those learnings to make in-flight changes.
Those revisions have powerful potential, allowing you to optimize toward specific KPIs, improve performance, and reduce ad-dollar waste. And those are just the short-term wins. Those learnings could also have a major impact on longer-term advertising strategies, goals, and decision-making.
3. Meet StackAdapt’s Page Context AI.
At this point, you might be wondering about the challenges or barriers that come with contextual targeting, like how most demand-side platforms struggle to target niche categories. Or how little transparency they provide into the targeting performance.
StackAdapt is one step ahead of you. They saw those challenges and created Page Context AI using their patented algorithm to solve them. This method takes contextual targeting to a new level, giving you unparalleled control over where your native, display, and video ads appear.
With Page Context AI, you can build a custom strategy by specifying “in context” and “out of context” phrases. StackAdapt’s patent-pending algorithm determines the best ad placements based on a site’s content and the phrases you choose. Plus, you can make insights-driven updates to your input phrases thanks to their real-time feedback loop.
Obviously, there’s a lot to love about Page Context AI, but here’s the best part: It doesn’t rely on cookies or personal information. So you won’t have to worry about its capabilities going away or phasing out. StackAdapt built it to reach audiences without cookies, so it’s here for the long run.
Onto greener ad pastures
Navigating the ad world without third-party cookies can feel intimidating for marketers. Hopefully, the efficacy and advances within contextual targeting make the shift a bit easier. And with a partner like StackAdapt, with its innovative targeting methods and cutting-edge tech, we think the transition might feel more like an upgrade than a loss.