The Disappearance of Cookies and Google Analytics 3

When Google announced its intention to withdraw support for third-party cookies from its proprietary Chrome browser, it sent reverberations through the entire digital marketing and sales industry.

Chrome is by far the most popular internet browsing application, with almost two thirds (60.89%) of users in the United States alone choosing it over its nearest competitor – Safari – as of July 2022. Naturally, this means that any significant changes to the way this browser in particular operates and gathers data is going to be of immediate concern to anyone looking to market themselves online.

The news of Google withdrawing third party cookie support from Chrome follows hot on the heels of Apple introducing an opt-in requirement for data gathering on iOS devices and Mozilla implementing a similar policy for Firefox. With three of the top five browsers now significantly restricting the ability for marketers to leverage user data, fresh solutions are necessary.

First Party Data

With third-party cookie date very much falling out of favor with users and tech companies, travel brands are going to need to turn their attention to more traditional digital marketing techniques and rely increasingly on first-party data to target their advertising in the right direction.

We are fortunate in this business that we have so many sources from which to draw first-party data. Booking platforms, airlines, hotels and resorts, experience providers, and so many more types of organizations form a network of interconnected brands which can – with permission – share information between them to develop more detailed customer profiles and target cookieless marketing more effectively.

Google has pushed the implementation of this policy back to 2024 so, if travel brands act now to form these open and transparent networks of first-party data sharing between them, they can get ahead of other industries and give themselves a significant advantage in this transformed marketing landscape.

"The change will be a reckoning for the advertising industry,” said McKinsey when Google announced the policy. "The loss of third-party data will leave marketers, ad agencies, and the publishing and media vehicles where advertising appears with little or no first-party data (data directly from consumers who consent to sharing it) in the dark about behavioral and demographic insights that currently help them create target audiences and segments.”

We’ve talked for years about how siloed information is no good for companies looking to advertise themselves in the global stage and the withdrawal of third party cookies from Chrome vindicates these predictions in spades. Travel brands need to act now, or risk trying to ice-skate uphill when the changes eventually come in.

Google Analytics 3

As if the withdrawal of third party cookies wasn’t seismic enough, Google has also announced it will, in 2023, also be wrapping up Google Analytics 3 and transitioning to the fourth edition of the platform.

The most impactful implication of this change will be when Universal Analytics officially retires and ceases processing new hits in July 2023. This means a generation of online measurement that was anchored in the desktop web, independent sessions and more easily observable data from cookies is officially coming to an end to be replaced by a system which operates across platforms, does not rely exclusively on cookies, uses an event-based data model to deliver user-centric measurement, and places the privacy of users at its core.

"Though Universal Analytics offers a variety of privacy controls, Google Analytics 4 is designed with privacy at its core to provide a better experience for both our customers and their users,” said Google in a blog post. "It helps businesses meet evolving needs and user expectations, with more comprehensive and granular controls for data collection and usage. Google Analytics 4 will also no longer store IP addresses. These solutions and controls are especially necessary in today’s international data privacy landscape, where users are increasingly expecting more privacy protections and control over their data.”

The main challenge from a marketing perspective will be the inability to identify individual users under the new regime. Current tools may no longer be relevant for marketing purposes and its likely companies will need to completely overhaul their software toolkits to operate effectively with Google Analytics 4.

Final Thoughts

The combined challenges of third party cookies withdrawal and the end of Universal Analytics creates a two-pronged attack which marketers will need to parry if they are to remain competitive in the online space. Thankfully, we in the travel space have multiple places from which to draw on data but will need to get all our ducks in a row quickly if we are to be ready in time.

The overhaul of Google data and analytics is sure to be part of the conversation at Digital Travel Connect 2023, being held in April at the Rancho Bernardo Inn, San Diego, CA.

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