What Google's cookie reversal means for travel

After approximately four years of touting the intent to eliminate third-party cookies from its popular Chrome browser, Google has reversed course, giving digital marketers an unexpected reprieve.

Following multiple delays and a series of lackluster alternatives, the company in July 2024 abandoned plans to deprecate third-party cookies altogether, opting instead to address privacy concerns via enhanced user choice. While the move may be welcome news for advertisers in the short term, momentum in the digital space continues to push us toward a future where third-party cookies have diminishing utility.  

Travel companies, along with advertisers across industries, have been preparing for years to target online customers sans third-party cookies. So, too, has Google. Stakeholders across the spectrum have focused heavily on leveraging first-party data and exploring other alternatives.

Yet Google’s about-face highlights the search giant’s heavy reliance on ad dollars and the difficulty of developing a solution to satisfy influential stakeholders. While third-party cookies are here to stay on the world’s most popular web browser – at least for now – their role in the digital landscape of the future is less certain. This article explores what the change means – and doesn’t mean – and highlights strategic implications for travel advertisers. 

Background 

Third-party cookies have long been a cornerstone of digital advertising, enabling advertisers to track user behavior across the web. Cookies are small blocks of data stored on a user's device that collect information about them.

First-party cookies are stored by the domain a user is directly visiting and are used to enhance the user’s experience on that website. In contrast, third-party cookies are placed on a user's device by a website other than the one they are visiting. As such, third-party cookies have been instrumental in the development of personalized advertising, allowing advertisers to track users across different websites and apps and build comprehensive profiles based on their browsing behavior.

This data is used to create targeted ads, measure campaign effectiveness, and retarget users who have previously shown interest in a product or service. For nearly three decades, third-party cookies have supported the ad ecosystems that funds much of the free content available online.  

However, the capabilities that make third-party cookies so compelling for advertisers have also made them a focal point of privacy concerns. Regulations including the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have provided consumers with greater transparency and choice regarding third-party cookies.

These laws have helped to spur significant changes, such as all websites being required to give users the option to opt in or out of certain types of cookies. Other popular web browsers, including Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox, already block third-party cookies by default. Apple, additionally, as of 2022, began requiring third-party apps to obtain user consent for tracking. 

However, Google Chrome is the world’s most popular web browser, with 64% market share as of July 2024, and advertising is Google’s (Alphabet’s) largest revenue stream. Therefore, Google’s stance on third-party cookies is highly consequential for the company as well as a substantial portion of the online public.  

The company’s decision to abandon plans to eliminate third-party cookies came amid ongoing concerns about alternatives available via Google’s Privacy Sandbox. These concerns included competitive issues cited by the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority as well as functionality issues raised by stakeholder organizations like IAB Tech Lab.

Tech Lab in 2024 released an analysis from its Privacy Sandbox Task Force highlighting areas where Google’s Privacy Sandbox APIs failed to adequately support key advertising use cases. The report indicated that most of the 44 use cases initially analyzed would not be effective using Google’s Privacy Sandbox once third-party cookies were phased out.  

In response, Google argued that it is “not viable” to replicate every existing marketing tactic made possible by third-party cookies while still making significant improvements to user privacy. Google advocated, instead, a more flexible approach to achieving key business objectives.

Ultimately, however, the company opted to leave the choice of whether to allow third-party cookies in the hands of individual Chrome users, citing the substantial impact a forced change would have on online advertising. Google likely was also swayed by the potential loss in ad revenue, since a less effective ad ecosystem logically translates into lower advertising spend. 

What it means 

For travel advertisers, particularly those that remain heavily reliant on third-party cookies as part of their digital marketing strategy, Google’s decision signals that, at least in the near term, access to third-party cookie data will not suddenly disappear.

The move also provides insight into the broader dynamics at play in the advertising business.

Among the key takeaways:

• No alternative to third-party cookies will do everything third-party cookies do – and that’s the whole point.
• Regulatory pressure and privacy concerns are here to stay.  
• Google will continue to strike a balance between the competing demands of regulators and advertisers, while ultimately acting in its own interests.
  Learn more

  Get Phocuswright's full report for a full analysis of each of the 3 key takeaways as well as more on what this doesn't mean for travel, what's next and four key areas for travel companies to future-proof their advertising strategies.