Despite Google’s procrastination: Advertisers can start their cookie diet today

Google may have yet again kicked the can down the road as far as depreciating third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. Other browsers, however, haven’t procrastinated in going cookie-less.

Both Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox browsers have dropped third party cookies. While publishers have lamented on the CPM delta between identical inventory placements on cookieless and cookie-enabled browsers, advertisers are able to reap the rewards as the industry sits halfway between a cookieless future and one still very much dependent upon them.

The CPM delta between cookie enabled browsers and cookieless browsers can be as much as 50 percent. This makes the ads served on Safari and Firefox often a certified bargain in comparison the same placements on Chrome.

But the rub is activating these high-value placements without relying on cookies. This can be achieved by leaning into tactics such as contextual targeting, geolocation and ensuring maximum viewability.

These targeting tactics have been considered second-rate compared to cookie-based targeting because of the over-reliance on cookies in the past. As a result, there is the aforementioned discount on cookieless inventory at the moment.

Now is the time for marketers to develop a sound strategy to unlock these placements and rely less on cookies and more on site content and user location.

By doing this, advertisers can not only prepare for the cookieless future, but also increase efficiency both in terms of performance and cost in the present.