The online environment makes our daily lives convenient, but in reality, a variety of data about online users is tracked (tracking and analysis of where specific users are browsing on the site). Did you know that? In addition, the tracked data is used for ”
targeting
“, and companies and marketers use the various information obtained through “data targeting” to implement measures to improve the businesses and services they provide. It can be said that “data targeting” contributes to discovering valuable points of contact with web users and supports the modern web marketing market.
However, in recent years, from the perspective of protecting personal information, there has been a movement to regulate tracking used for “data targeting”. Although tracking has various benefits, it is said that an increasing number of people have a negative image of it.
In this article, we will focus on “data targeting” and explain in detail future changes in “data targeting” and how to deal with it, while touching on its functions and features.
“Data targeting” used by marketers
In recent years, with the improvement of the Internet environment and the rapid spread of smartphones and tablet devices, online businesses and services are expanding year by year. The value of the online environment is immeasurable, so much so that it can be said to be indispensable in our daily lives. For example, when you have a small question in your daily life, you can use your smartphone or computer to easily find the answer that will lead to the solution. Additionally, the number of users using online shopping is increasing year by year. As long as you have an online environment, you can easily enjoy a variety of shopping online at any time and place of your choice without having to go to a physical store. It is also a situation where attention is increasing.
Furthermore, in the SNS market, various SNS apps are appearing every day, and the number of users is rapidly expanding. In fact, many users use SNS as a means of communication with friends and family, as a means of entertainment for their own hobbies, and above all, as a means of communication in their daily lives. It can be said that we have entered an era in which it is difficult to find people around us who say, “There is not a day in their daily life that they do not use SNS.”
As a result of the recent rise in internet usage and the spread of smartphones, customer behavior has become more complex, creating a need for more precise marketing strategy design and timely communication tailored to customer needs. Tracking, which tracks and analyzes where specific users are browsing on a site, plays an important role in this. Companies and marketers use the tracked data for “data targeting.” Cookies are often used for data targeting.
What are “cookies” used for data targeting?
Cookies
are an essential feature for data targeting. When you use the Internet to browse websites, you probably come across a display called a cookie more often. The actual display surface appears on the screen of the web page in a format similar to an alert display. There are various patterns for the text that is displayed along with the cookie display, but basically the text that asks you to enable cookies or consent is displayed.
To begin with, cookies have the function of using the Internet environment to store data from the website on the user’s smartphone, PC, tablet device, etc. when the user visits the website. The data saved has the characteristic that it is accumulated through the browser on each terminal used by the web user, and the data saved includes the date and time of use, location, ID and email address actually used on the web, Detailed data on site visitors, which is important when using a website, such as the number of times they use the site, will be accumulated. For example, you may want to omit entering your login ID and password from the second time onwards, which is often encountered when using online shopping. Users of a website can also use useful functions, such as being able to remain logged in when logging into that website.
Data stored in cookies is also used for location information services, which allow users to display the most appropriate information they need at that moment based on the user’s location information stored in the browser. also exists.
WebBy using cookies in this way, various things on a website function conveniently, making it possible to realize groundbreaking services that provide many benefits to website users.
The data stored in cookies does not use identifiers that can personally identify site visitors, so privacy was protected to a certain extent. However, in recent years, it has become a problem that by linking such identifiers with other data, it becomes possible to use them as data that can identify individuals, and regulations have suddenly become stricter from the perspective of privacy, such as the protection of personal information. Ta.
There are two types of cookies
There are two types of cookies that are widely used for data targeting: “first-party cookies” and “third-party cookies,” so we will briefly explain them.
First party cookies
First-party cookies are cookies that are issued directly by the domain of the website that the user actually visits. Web users can enable cookies on the site they visit to save information entered on the site and data such as IP addresses. In addition, by using Google Analytics, a service provided by Google, using data stored in cookies, it is possible to understand the behavior history and viewing history of site users, which can be used to improve business and services. An increasing number of companies are doing so.
Third party cookies
Third-party cookies refer to cookies that are issued by a domain other than the website that the website user is actually visiting. Third-party cookies are widely used in the web advertising market. By utilizing third-party cookies, it is possible to track users across websites, and it is also possible to implement web advertising using
retargeting
functions. For example, let’s say you view a housing site and then leave the web page. Later, while viewing another web page, you may see web advertisements for housing, which is where third-party cookies come into play.
Third-party cookies enable us to track users who visit web pages and deliver web advertisements targeted to their interests. However, from the perspective of privacy protection, in recent years, there has been an active movement towards regulating and abolishing third-party cookies, and data targeting has become a problem worldwide.
Regulations and abolition of data targeting
As explained above, there is currently a growing movement toward privacy protection around the world, and there is a trend toward regulation or abolishment of third-party cookies, which are widely used for data targeting. Third-party cookies are the core of data targeting for web advertising, and many companies and marketers around the world still tend to rely on their revolutionary presence. If an announcement were made such as “From tomorrow, the use of third-party cookies will be completely abolished all over the world,” it would not only be a huge impact for the web advertising industry, but also for the vast number of companies that develop businesses and services centered on the web. It could be a big deal. Additionally, in terms of what is currently visible in the movement towards regulation and abolition of third-party cookies, an increasing number of companies that operate websites are implementing stricter regulations on the use of third-party cookies. can be mentioned.
And most importantly, Google, which operates the world’s largest search engine, announced that it will completely abolish third-party cookies from 2020 to 2022, shocking the web market and attracting worldwide attention. . There is no doubt that there are countless companies around the world that use the services provided by Google to develop their businesses and services, so this is a major issue that affects company operations. In addition, Apple, which is famous for handling popular items such as the iPhone, completely abolished third-party cookies by installing a tracking prevention function called ITP (Intelligent Tracking Prevention) into the OS in 2020. This trend will continue to intensify worldwide, and it will gradually become impossible to acquire user signals used for data targeting in web advertisements.
Measures for future data targeting
In the future, it is expected that there will be an even stronger trend toward regulations and abolition of cookies, and current data targeting and tracking will no longer function. Therefore, companies and marketers who use cookie tracking data for data targeting and develop businesses and services need to take immediate measures.
Companies and marketers need to refocus their efforts on managing and understanding the customer data they hold, rather than relying on cookies for data targeting. In addition, in response to the growing trend of further regulations and abolition, it is important for each company and marketer to strengthen the acquisition and accumulation of customer data using owned media by coming up with concrete countermeasures. It will be. Rather than being satisfied with current customer data, it is important to keep a close eye on new customer trends, keep an eye out for various signals from web users, and conduct thorough analysis.
In order to protect personal information, please be careful when linking collected personal information with other data and potentially identifying an individual, as it is necessary to obtain consent from the user in advance. From a global perspective, the number of web users who use cookies in data targeting and the protection of personal information will likely increase in the future. Although there are countermeasures such as obtaining consent in advance, the number of users who consent to consent may decrease as a result from the perspective of risk avoidance. For this reason, we need to quickly break away from a cookie-dependent system and develop our own unique and attractive promotional plans, and build a pipeline to deliver our business and service content to web users without using paid advertising. It is also important to strive to improve the quality of all the tools you manage.
In addition, as a countermeasure to the function that completely blocks third-party cookies called ITP (Intelligent Tracking Prevention), which I explained above, the global site tag of Google Ads, which boasts the world’s top market share among advertisements, plays an important role. will be fulfilled. By using the global site tag, you can perform remarketing, which is a function that distributes advertisements to users who have visited your website once, and measure conversions. By introducing a system that can be used for first-party cookies, it will be possible to operate without using third-party cookies, which are subject to regulation or abolition.
Location of global site tag
Basically, try to install the global site tag on all site pages, as it avoids the influence of third-party cookies and functions conveniently for remarketing distribution and conversion measurement. When implementing remarketing, please note that remarketing distribution cannot be performed on site pages that have not been set with the global site tag. Also, regarding conversion measurement, it is mandatory to install it on the actual ad link destination, and also install it on other ad display options at the same time. By thoroughly performing each installation task, it is possible to prevent measurement omissions and obtain accurate data.
summary
We have touched on the functions and characteristics of “data targeting” and explained future changes in “data targeting” and how to respond. In the future, worldwide, it is expected that the movement toward regulation and abolishment of data targeting will become even stronger. It would be very reassuring for companies and marketers if there were currently countless countermeasures, but in reality, this is not the case. Therefore, it is necessary to take measures that can be implemented now and acquire the skills to respond to changes in data targeting. It is important for companies and marketers to prepare a variety of countermeasures in advance and keep abreast of global trends in data targeting on a daily basis.