What information are you able to get from cookie monitoring?
To a non-marketer, tracking cookies sounds like a scavenger hunt for baked goods.
Sounds innocent, doesn't it?
For all of their cute sounding simplicity, cookies have come under fire lately.
With the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), cookies have played a central role in the fight for data protection on the Internet. This is just one of the newest legal issues facing online marketers today.
Cookies are small text files that collect data about users while surfing the Internet.
In detail, cookies do not collect any data about who you are as a person. They just give information about your web browser and trends. However, when bundled with other relevant cookies, they can be used to create an online "persona" that can predict behavior and look for trends in browsing.
This tactic has been known as behavioral advertising and, while providing marketers with incredible insight into consumer habits, it can be problematic if used improperly. The Cambridge Analytica scandal is a fine example of bogus behavioral marketing.
That doesn't mean that all cookies are bad.
Cookie tracking can be a great way to get valuable information about who is looking for your product, where it is searching from, and how likely it is to visit your website again.
In fact, cookies are still a powerful tool in the marketer's repertoire, offering in-depth insights into the people you are trying to reach.
Ethical cookie tracking is still possible and provides a simple, data-driven way to increase your conversions if used responsibly.
Still unsure? Let's dive a little deeper.
What is cookie tracking?
Cookie tracking allows you to collect data about users who visit your pages.
On the consumer side, they are useful for things like online shopping, where your shopping cart information is saved even when you exit your web browser.
For marketers, cookies help us understand who is engaging with our content, which parts they like best, and how often they revisit it.
This is valuable information for marketers looking to improve, change, or customize content for their users.
In addition, it provides important metrics that can guide us into useful remarketing techniques.
That being said, not all cookies are made the same. While some cookies are ripe for risk and data breach, others are required for web functionality. Let's take a closer look at our modern cookie jar.
Necessary cookies
Some cookies are essential for a good user experience. Functions such as login data, authentication and session management would not be possible without the use of cookies.
These types of cookies are considered necessary for the web to function properly and cannot be deleted by users.
Cookies can also improve the user interface and provide users with a smooth, personalized experience. We often refer to these as performance and functionality cookies. While they are useful, they are not essential. They can often be turned off by users. However, if it does, some features like video player may no longer work on a site.
Unnecessary cookies
Web analysis and customization cookies track browser activity by individual users. With the help of this information, website owners can collect data about who visits their website, how long they stay there and which functions are accessed or used.
There are also advertising cookies that are used to customize a user's advertising experience. These cookies are often tracked across websites and can help marketers make sure a particular ad doesn't appear too often or tailor ads based on a user's activity.
Social networking cookies are a recent trend. These cookies allow users to share content from a website directly on their social channels. While these cookies are useful for the user experience, they are one of the main reasons why third party sharing has become so controversial. They collect personal information and pose a security risk to users.
Because of these cookies, many new regulations such as the GDPR have come into force.
Don't worry, you can still use cookie tracking to help your business while being GDPR compliant.
What data can you get from cookie tracking?
According to the GDPR, no website is allowed to track cookie data unless the user gives their explicit consent.
Necessary cookies such as performance and function cookies are excluded from these laws.
Despite all the odds, the GDPR did not mark the death of cookies.
Many users give their unique permission to be followed while browsing your website.
This data can provide you with vital information that you can use to improve your product offering and understand any gaps or problems in your marketing strategy.
What data can you get from cookie tracking?
Interests and online shopping trends
If you are looking to maximize your ecommerce sales, cookie data can be a valuable way to understand your population, how they use your website, and how likely they are to become repeat customers.
Cookies make for a more seamless e-commerce shopping experience. They enable permanent shopping carts in which items are stored even when a customer navigates away from the site, wish lists, product recommendations, personalized customer interfaces and the storage of payment and address information.
If there were no cookies, you would have to log in every time you look at a new product.
No thanks.
Successful ecommerce websites use a combination of required and unnecessary cookies to improve the customer experience and get more conversions. You can also create personalized retargeting campaigns such as: B. Notify users when they have left a full shopping cart without making a purchase, or offer coupons when they have visited without making a purchase.
Location and language settings
Cookies can also be used for location and language tracking. This is great for geotargeting, and it will also help you better understand where your customers are from.
Knowing who is buying where for your product can help you figure out where to focus your ad targeting or where your marketing strategy is already in place.
This type of cookie tracking is also useful for localization practices that can help increase conversions. Likewise, users who surf in other languages can save their language settings each time they visit. This can go a long way in increasing the time spent on site.
Previous browsing activity
Cookie tracking enables you to view a user's previous browsing activity. As long as you haven't cleared your cookies since you last visited your website, you should be able to see details about when you logged in, which pages you visited and how quickly you returned after leaving the website.
Understanding previous browsing history can be an important tool in figuring out which parts of your website are not working properly. For example, if you've noticed that many of your users are logging out of your website after visiting your FAQ page, it may mean that you don't have the information you were looking for. Broken pages and broken links can also be discovered by browsing activity cookies.
Expenditure of time
Cookies can tell you how long a user has spent on a particular page. This is useful information for anyone looking to improve their web traffic or better localize ineffective pages.
Knowing how long a user stays on a page can help determine if your content is engaging, if your links are working properly, and if your web copy converts as intended.
Understanding the time spent is an effective optimization tool for marketers. If you have a bunch of pages that users are quickly signing out of, it may be time to remove them. When some sites are receiving a lot of long-term visits, these are effective for turning on paid ads or promotions.
Visited subpages
Information architecture refers to the structural design of a website. A well-structured website should allow users to easily flow through sales funnels and end up with heavy conversions.
A poorly designed website leaves users stuck in dead ends and generally dissatisfied with product offerings.
With the help of cookies you can see which sub-pages a user has visited on your website. This can be helpful in determining how effective your information architecture is and finding ways to improve it.
If you observe these cookies, you can create a more powerful and high quality website.
The future of cookie tracking
Many browsers are now cracking down on the use of cookies and this can make it difficult for marketers to gather the information they need.
Safari now has Smart Tracking Prevention, and you can easily delete, enable, and manage your cookies in Chrome. Firefox also blocks third-party cookies by default.
Does this really mean third party cookie tracking is dead?
Could be. However, that doesn't mean marketers still can't gather the information they need to personalize ad experiences.
New developments in web analytics and PPC campaigns offer experiences similar to tracking cookies. By using behavioral data from online ads, we can understand what consumers want and tailor our content to meet those needs.
Techniques such as personal targeting methods can help collect unique user data that can lead to new targeting campaigns. Most brands already have access to a range of data about their customers, from emails to purchase details and device information. This data can be used in a first party targeting campaign to speak directly to an individual customer instead of using a vague dataset.
There has also been a lot of talk about contextual advertising, which involves showing ads to pages with relevant or similar content that matches what they're selling. For example, when a user is looking for a new car, ads for tires may appear on the same page. This is still considered a targeted advertisement as we understand that a person interested in a car is likely to be interested in tires for that car as well. It's easy, but it works.
It's also a good idea to look beyond digital data and understand your client's full profile. Call centers, for example, contain a large amount of data that often revolves around consumer vulnerabilities. Certain programs, like Signal AI, are designed to track conversions on calls and help brands understand their customers' complex demographics.
At the moment, the most important thing is to use cookies in such a way that they comply with the new regulations.
Remember that the US and the EU have different cookie laws. So be sure to check your local regulations before committing to any strategy. If you are still not sure, please contact one of our advisors.
Conclusion
While we may witness a third party cookie leak, there is still plenty of room to use cookies in an ethical and regulatory manner for the benefit of your business.
Cookie tracking is a great way to understand your target audience and find new ways to optimize your conversions.
You can also improve the user experience and create more seamless sales funnels that your customers can flow through.
Ultimately, cookies are not a black and white issue.
When used correctly, they improve the web experience across the board.
If used improperly, they can damage important marketer-consumer relationships.
Have you found cookie tracking helpful in your marketing campaigns?