Recently, Google announced that they would be eliminating the use of 3rd party cookies across their Chrome browser. The change has not been implemented yet but is expected to arrive within the next year. This change comes well after Safari and Firefox have already made the change.
Marketing and advertising are ever-changing worlds, and at times it can be frustrating when the technology constantly changes, too. It forces marketers to adapt quickly and develop new ways of thinking. One can only imagine how excited businesses must have been when radio signals were first broadcast, or when televisions became a household fixture, as the opportunity to reach consumers directly grew substantially. While there was excitement, there was also the inevitable anxiety about adapting. The best marketers make use of the right channels, whether old or new.
The 3rd party cookie is the little piece of code that exists on nearly every website imaginable, Marketers can take advantage of cookies to target consumers via their browsing history. The cookie creates audiences, that we as consumers may fall into. Elimination of these audiences sounds like it could be frustrating for an advertiser, right? This change will require that marketers of all industries explore alternate ways of reaching consumers. Marketers have already shown a strong trend toward increasing print communications because of its power to target.
The best marketers and advertisers are symphony conductors. No, they might not have a musical gene in their entire body, but they utilize solo artists like digital and social media advertising with print advertising artists together to form a marketing orchestra. The best type of music comes through surround sound and the same idea applies to marketing; we can surround our target audience with multiple channels of effective advertising.
Direct mail is a great form of print advertising that can be started from or lead back to the digital world. Opportunities to include custom QR codes on direct mail allows advertisers to create first-party data as opposed to 3rd party data that is mostly going away. QR codes are easy to make and include on a piece of print media, and they push your consumer from the mail piece directly to a custom landing page. Once on that landing page, your own first-party data can create remarketing lists dependent on factors you set up.
But what if my unique landing page is not getting much traffic from the QR code? Well, that is when the conductor signals IP Targeting to take its featured segment of the performance. IP Targeting allows digital ads to be served to customers based on their physical mailing address. Like Facebook custom audiences and Google customer match, IP Targeting creates a digital customer based on physical targeting attributes.
The same methodology can be applied in reverse too! Maybe you have already been running digital campaigns but want to reinforce your message with a direct mail campaign. Reverse IP Append can create a list of physical addresses with custom parameters you can set, to get a direct mail campaign in the hands of solid prospects – only those who have been driven from the digital ad to your website. And this is regardless of whether they identified themselves. Even if they were anonymous during their website visit. Reverse IP Append can identify their home address and send direct mail.
Just because one technology changes or goes away does not spell certain doom for any advertising campaign, it just means there is an opportunity to try something new. It is going to be frustrating to adapt to the change as well as time-consuming, but in the end, it could turn out for the better. The world might be pushing more and more digital every day, but every good orchestra has that veteran player to carry a section. Print and direct mail can add great value to any digital campaign.
