Digital Smiles
As technology-savvy business professionals, you may be familiar with the term "third-party cookies" and the impact they have on digital marketing. However, recent changes in the industry have led to the deprecation of cookies, leaving many companies wondering how to adjust their marketing strategy without this valuable tool.
A study by Basis Technologies found that despite years of warnings, half of marketing professionals do not believe their organizations are prepared for this change. But one company, Sentry.io, has successfully adapted to a cookieless world and offers valuable insights for others looking to do the same.
Sentry.io, a SaaS error and performance monitoring company, made the decision to remove all advertising and tracking cookies last July. According to Elaine Szu, the company's Vice President of Global Marketing, even with over a year of planning, there were still unexpected challenges.
"You just don't realize how deeply entrenched an advertising cookie can be in the ecosystem and in all the tooling that you use," she said.
Aside from the deprecation of cookies, Szu and her team were also concerned about over-relying on Google for customer acquisition. They also wanted to appeal to their core audience of developers, who are typically averse to being tracked or targeted by traditional marketing methods.
Sentry's open-source software and community of developers require a different approach to marketing, one that is authentic and in line with their values. Szu explains, "We've been very conscious and thoughtful about the fact that we don't push monetization or marketing onto that open-source community. We've really been investing in developer content, technical tutorials, and building an educational approach to marketing."
While there were concerns about the impact on customer acquisition without cookies, Szu and her team also considered the cost of constantly requesting visitor consent for cookies. By removing all tracking and targeting, they were able to improve the user experience and remove the need for a cookie banner.
Matt Henderson, Sentry's Global Marketing Lead, explains in a blog post that getting rid of cookies also revealed outdated and unused pages on their website, improving its overall quality.
Henderson also outlines other unexpected challenges that arose for Sentry after removing all tracking and targeting from their website. These included issues with attribution models, marketing reports, SEO reporting, and more.
One major problem was the impact on partner peer reviews, an important marketing strategy for the company. They were forced to find alternative methods for obtaining reviews since the use of cookies was no longer an option.
Despite the challenges, Sentry found success in adapting their marketing strategy without cookies. They focused on engaging their existing audience through retargeting and sponsorships, rather than relying on traditional prospecting methods.
For Google Search, they recommend using hashed pass-backs or offline signals/APIs and smart bidding strategies. For YouTube, they shifted to targeting based on video views and engagement. And for display ads, they shifted to viewable CPM bidding.
The Results of Going Cookieless
Through their efforts, Sentry saw increased views on their videos, improved user engagement, and a decrease in the cost of display ads. They also saw a 100% growth in people mentioning they heard about them from YouTube.
While the specifics of Sentry's case may not apply to every organization, their success in adapting to a cookieless world offers valuable insights for others looking to do the same. By sharing their journey, they hope to inspire others to embrace the change and find creative ways to reach their audience without relying on cookies.
For more in-depth information and advice on adapting to a cookieless world, check out Sentry's blog posts on the topic.
Originally reported by Martech: https://martech.org/how-one-tech-company-is-doing-marketing-without-cookies/
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