Even If Third-Party Cookies Vanished, We Would Have Been OK

Adtech is no stranger to hype—and hysteria. In an industry that moves as fast as digital advertising, marketers are understandably on guard for policy and technology shifts that could upend their status quo—not to mention their ROI.

The continually delayed—and now completely dead—deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome is a perfect example of the advertising industry working itself into an overblown frenzy, and that’s not just because the event isn’t happening anymore. Even if third-party cookies were to be deprecated, the level of industry anxiety that the idea induced was simply too much.

The path to where we are today gave the industry plenty of time to fret, both in conference rooms and industry opinion columns. But amid this fretting, many within our industry failed to acknowledge that our industry has weathered its fair share of shakeups over the last couple of decades—and has continued to push forward as strong as ever.

Lest we forget: Third-party cookies are a tool, not a strategy. They influence how marketing is delivered and measured, but they’ve never been a substitute for a sound marketing plan or strong data practices. Their demise would have required reorientation, not a wholesale abandonment of how marketers do their jobs.

For perspective, let’s look at some of the most consequential events and trends in digital advertising’s past two decades—and the ways in which they refined, rather than devastated, our industry.

CAN-SPAM Act (2003) 

The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act was enacted in the United States to set rules for commercial email. It established requirements for commercial messages, gave recipients the right to have emails stopped from being sent to them, and spelled out penalties for violations.

The CAN-SPAM Act changed email marketing practices by enforcing opt-out mechanisms and truthful subject lines. But did it throttle email as an effective marketing channel? Hardly. Two decades later, 18% of companies report that their email marketing ROI is greater than $70 per $1 invested. 

Ad blockers (2000s–present) 

The rise of ad-blocking software sent significant waves through the digital marketing industry. Ad blockers, which prevent advertisements from being displayed on websites, reduce the reach of digital ads, and increase the need for marketers to supplement those ad buys with alternative channels and tactics.