Digiday+ Research: Agencies are ready to move on from third-party cookies, while brands lag behind

This is according to a Digiday+ Research survey conducted in the third quarter of this year among brand, retailer and agency professionals.

Digiday’s survey found that, overall, marketers are almost evenly split on their plans going forward following Google’s July decision to keep cookies in the Chrome browser. Forty-nine percent of marketer respondents said in Q3 of this year that they will continue to rely on third-party cookies in light of Google’s decision, while 51% said they will continue with their plans to find alternatives to third-party cookies.

The story looks a bit different for brand marketers vs. agency marketers, though. Specifically, brands and retailers end up on the keep cookies side of things, while agencies will seek alternatives.

Digiday’s survey found that brands’ preference to keep cookies is not by a large margin. Fifty-four percent of brand and retailer pros told Digiday in Q3 that, in light of Google’s new plan to let consumers decide whether to be tracked via cookies, they’re more likely to continue to rely on cookies. Forty-six percent of brands and retailers said they would continue with plans to find cookie alternatives.

Meanwhile, agencies’ move away from cookies is more definitive. Sixty percent of agency pros said in Q3 that they will continue with plans to find cookie alternatives, despite Google’s decision, while 40% said they’ll continue to rely on third-party cookies.

The difference between brands’ and agencies’ cookie strategies moving forward could be due in part to the difference between the two groups’ preparation for cookie-less tracking. Digiday’s survey found that, while 44% of marketers overall agreed that they had a solid strategy for tracking consumers without third-party cookies as of Q3, agencies are more prepared to leave cookies behind than brands.

Exactly half of agency pros (50%) told Digiday in Q3 that they agreed their company had solidified a strategy for tracking consumers without cookies. In comparison, 40% of brand and retailer pros said the same.

The discrepancy between the two groups is even more apparent when we look at the percentage of respondents who disagreed their companies were ready to move beyond cookies as Google made its decision to keep them in the Chrome browser after all. Nearly a third of brand and retailer pros (30%) said in Q3 that they disagreed they had a solid strategy for tracking consumers without cookies. Just 5% of agency pros said the same.

It could be that brand marketers are lagging behind their agency counterparts when it comes to leaving cookies behind because they never expected Google to actually get rid of them. In fact, Digiday’s survey found that about half of marketers overall expected Google to change its mind about removing third-party cookies from the Chrome browser by the end of the year. Fifty-one percent of marketer pros told Digiday in Q3 that they agreed that Google would change its cookie plans by the end of 2024, while just 7% disagreed.

And there was no difference here between brands and agencies: Exactly half (50%) of both brand and retailer pros and agency pros said they agreed that their companies expected Google to change its third-party cookie deprecation plans before the end of the year.