How Kantar Plans To Reinvent Measurement In Google's Cookieless World

Measurement will become a differentiator in the advertising space as the clock ticks down the two years until Google eliminates third-party cookie tracking in the Chrome browser.

The move is forcing companies like Kantar, which measures the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, to rethink strategies.

“Not all third-party cookies will disappear in one day,” said Jane Ostler, global head of media, Insights Division at Kantar. “It will likely be a phased approach.”

Some 65% of respondents to a Kantar’s 2019 Getting Media Right study said they consider the inability to track media via cookies a threat, but only 48% reported that they have begun to prepare for it.

Ostler declined to provide details on Kantar’s strategy to support publishers, but said clients want to measure as much of digital campaigns as possible -- not just campaigns that run on publisher sites, but also those running across Snapchat and Facebook, among other platforms.

She said marketers need to begin thinking about the actual effectiveness of campaigns such as measuring influencers or how podcasts contribute to overall success or failure.

“It’s not only cookies,” she said. “Marketers will need to future-proof the measurement framework and ask those providing the insights what they do. They need to start taking an interest in the processes.”

With the removal of cookies, advertisers will need to adapt to alternative measurement solutions. Kantar has been testing technical methods, forming direct integration partnerships and developing analytical models to continue measuring advertising effectiveness and audiences.

Marketers would lose the ability to know whether campaigns created an increase in awareness or performance if the industry remained stagnant and allowed third-party cookies to disappear, Ostler said. The elimination of third-party cookies tracking in the Chrome browser also means an inability to determine the brand lift of a campaign.

Kantar is developing other ways to analyze campaigns on their own, as well as the creative pieces in the context of the content.

Brands will have a range of options, Ostler said, such as direct integration. Some clients may want to measure an entire campaign that includes cinema, radio, television, traditional media, and digital.

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