Google delays the end of third-party cookies to 2023: What's the impact?

The web "gods" at Google seem to have heard the cries of distraught marketers when they announced they were ending support for third-party cookies on Chrome from January 2022. The giant has announced that it will postpone the rollout of the Sandbox project to 2023 . 

The reasons mentioned are generally technical and logistical, but it is also a show of compassion towards web publishers and ad tech companies who will be greatly affected by this enormous change. In his statement, Vinay Goel, Director of Privacy Engineering at Chrome, explains the decision:

“…we have to move forward at a responsible pace. This will allow ample time for public debate on solutions, continued engagement with regulators, and migration of publisher and advertiser services. This is important to avoid compromising the business models of many web publishers that support freely available content. »

Another factor is, most likely, the investigation launched by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the United Kingdom, which aims to determine whether the blocking of third-party cookies on Chrome could prove to be a lever of unfair competition. Under an agreement with Google, the CMA will oversee the upcoming transition to ensure ethical practices are in place. It should also be noted that the United States Department of Justice and the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission are also closely monitoring the progress of the case. This means that Google will have no choice but to comply with the rules of the game.  

Regardless of the main reason behind the postponement, this news is encouraging for marketers who clearly also rely heavily on third-party cookies for live delivery and measurement of their audience targeting tactics.

Ideally, no. On the contrary, having the opportunity to save some time should motivate you to stay the course towards your “post third-party cookie” marketing roadmap. If Google is offering an extended transition period, it is because the American company sees the importance of the changes brought about by the cookie apocalypse and understands the magnitude of the management challenge facing industry players, a storm through which it will not always be easy to navigate.

Indeed, the announced change will require a considerable effort of adaptation on the part of publishers, marketers and engineers of intermediate ad tech platforms. Therefore, an additional year of preparation to avoid going through an overly chaotic transition appears less like a luxury than a necessity.

As an example, consider Facebook's migration to its Conversions API. There are three important levels of change to consider, or the three big “Ps” of IT:

1. (Platform) Manage the technical implementation  :  You have to consider the time and the technical issues related to this transition from measurement by pixel to measurement by API, on the side of the developers and integrators on whom your team relies.
2. (Process) Manage operationalization  : Next, consider the time needed to adapt to this new way of measuring once it has been properly implemented. It is also necessary to plan the issues of reconciling previous reports by pixels to those carried out by API.
3. (People) Manage the training of marketers  : Once the API is implemented and the operationalization processes are well defined, we must train the people in our teams to understand and implement these processes and this new way of doing things as soon as possible . It will take time.

In the example above, we are only talking about the Facebook Conversions API . Now imagine going through the same process to adapt to Google's FLoC and FLEDGE model, while getting used to the new Google Analytics 4 interface . Add to that the countless meetings your team will have to hold with each of your vendors and digital marketing ad publishers. They will all want to meet with you to explain how they will adapt their technological solution to a world without third-party cookies.   

It's starting to be a lot to manage, isn't it?

So instead of seeing Google's announced postponement to 2023 as a reason to slow down your plans to mitigate the effects of the announced apocalypse, see it instead as an opportunity to get some extra time to prepare for what's to come. is, in any case, inevitable.

So, take the opportunity to get ahead. Google is pushing back its deadline to help everyone adapt to this major change. Don't waste that precious time by spending the coming year procrastinating. There is a lot on the board, and this, for each of us!