Why is everybody so upset about cookies?

You visit a website and there it is again – a pop-up with the same question that you probably have to answer a dozen times a day, if not more. Something like this:

But what exactly are those cookies that you find yourself accepting way too often in a browser pop-up?

Cookies are basically just pieces of information that are stored on the user’s computer. They are usually used by websites in order to retain information while you’re switching from one page to another.

Now, why would that be necessary?

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First Party Cookies

An easy way to explain this principle is your shopping cart in an online store.

Have you ever shopped in an online store, put something in your shopping cart and decided not to buy it right away? Then you might’ve noticed that when you came back, your item was still in your cart, right?

That’s because a cookie has been placed in order to save your information – in this case, your shopping cart information.

Especially if you have an e-commerce store, you will have to rely on this type of information when your customer is being forwarded from one page to the next while buying something from your site. Because without using cookies, they would lose their shopping cart items every time they’re being redirected to the next page. And that includes just clicking on the next item they’re interested in.

This problem would make the online shopping experience a disaster!

Imagine you were in an actual clothing store and every time you put a nice pair of pants in your basket and keep searching for other clothes you might like, someone’s stealing your pair of pants because you haven’t been going to the cash desk right away. Wouldn’t that be annoying?

And that’s why cookies are being used!

So why is there such a fuss about them when they’re actually quite useful, even to the web user?

In order to answer that question, we need to make a small but highly relevant distinction between first and third party cookies.

Both types of cookies have a similar purpose and are used to track user behavior. Because cookies remain cookies, no matter what they’re being called. They have the exact same functionality. But the biggest difference between these two is the way they are created and used

Now, bare with me!

The cookie in the example above is a first party cookie.

First party cookies are strictly placed by the website you are currently visiting and are solely used on that website. The shopping cart information for example is only useful for the website itself and not really relevant to any other parties. And that’s why nobody really minds these types of cookies.

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Third Party Cookies

Third party cookies on the other hand, are the ones that are currently being regulated quite strictly. Mostly, because they are being used to track and identify users across the web. That’s why you might’ve heard of them as “tracking vectors”.

So what are they?

Just like first party cookies, third-party cookies are placed so that the site can remember certain information about the user later in time.

But in contrast to first party cookies, third party cookies are not placed by the website you are currently visiting, but by a completely different domain. That means that they are collecting your data for a third party, hence the name third party cookies.

(Or if you like a more technical explanation: a first party cookie is set from your highest privately-owned domain name, or eTLD+1, and a third party cookie is set from a different domain that is not sharing eTLD+1.)

Now, what are they useful for?

Third party cookies are typically used for advertising and analytics.

Let’s say while shopping online you were looking at two articles and decided to buy only one of them. Then you might notice that later on, you’re receiving ads from that shop on other platforms. Ideally, you will be seeing ads for the article that you didn’t buy. That’s because a third domain has collected your data and is now using this information in order to deliver the relevant ads to you.

Okay, but again, why are they bad?

The biggest concern about them is that the third party can use this information in a much broader spectrum and share it with other advertisers to advertise to you as well.

Let’s say, you were previously interested in blue running shoes. Then another sports manufacturer will now be able to advertise blue running shoes to you. Even if you’ve never been on their site.

And in order to prevent data sharing without your consent, third party cookies are now being regulated much more. Even web browsers, like Google Chrome, are now planning to restrict third party cookies altogether.

The problem that occurs with this transition though is that now, advertisers are not able to track and advertise the way that they used to anymore.

And this in turn drives their advertising spend through the roof without seeing the same conversions.

That’s a huge concern, especially when it comes to smaller businesses!

So if you’re not prepared for this third party cookie deprecation as an advertiser, you are basically f*cked.

The best solution for business owners

But what can you do about it without having to act against the current regulations?

That’s where we come into place!

We at OneTrack have been looking for a solution to this problem in order to help our clients get their ad results back. And that has led us on our journey to create the OneTrack server to server tracking!

Do you want to be able to track and retarget your ideal customers again while also lowering your ad spend?

We’ve got you covered: Simply schedule your free consultation today and stop wasting your money on ads that don’t work anymore:

https://www.one-track.io/pricing

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