Importance of Cookies In Digital Marketing

Are you using cookies in your digital marketing strategies?

Over 51% of marketers in the US say that data from third-party cookies were very important for their digital marketing strategy. 

Today, nearly everything is done online due to the invention of the Internet. The Internet has both good and bad sides but it depends on the user’s opinion as to which is good and which is bad. For example, cookies are a necessity for some people whereas they are a nuisance to others. For digital marketing, cookies are a boon. In this blog, we will go over the benefits of using cookies in digital marketing. 

We are in the future. Today, marketing is exclusively done through social media platforms. 

Marketing is an important aspect of business, regardless of the type of product or service being offered. Even if your company offers cybersecurity services, you need to market your cybersecurity product on the Internet. Digital marketing has many layers, and it takes time to understand everything involved in it.

A business can have the best product on its hand, but without proper marketing, no one will ever even know about that product.

In the modern world, the Internet holds tremendous power when it comes to marketing. Not long ago, Ronaldo took two bottles of Coca-Cola and removed them from his view. This action caused Coca-Cola’s market value to drop.

If he had done this in the 1980s, it wouldn’t have had the same effect. The reason for this is it went viral on the Internet. The Internet can have a global effect on anything, and that’s why more and more businesses have moved to online platforms for advertising purposes.

Imagine that you are visiting a supermarket and browsing its aisles. You come back to the store every now and then to make purchases, and the employees there are familiar with your purchase history. When you visit the store next time, they offer you special offers and combo packs based on your past purchases to entice you to keep coming back and make more purchases.

This is what cookies do for digital marketers. In this example, the store is a website, and the employees who reported the buying pattern of the customer are cookies. Cookies allow digital marketers to gain insight into the people who visit their websites, which helps them improve user experience and generate more leads.

Let us have a look at all the benefits of using cookies in the digital marketing field. 

Measure Ad Impression

Advertising is a basic step for every digital marketer. It is one of the most prioritized strategies of a digital marketer. Everyone is aware of ads nowadays because they are so prevalent in our lives. People will click if they see an ad that interests them or if it pertains to something they need at that time. 

The reason for this is that cookies are used to track user behavior and serve relevant ads based on their preferences. Every marketer needs to know about the effectiveness of their ads. The only way they can improve their ads is by measuring them.

Cookies help digital marketers measure impression and click accuracy. An impression is the number of times your ad was shown to users, and click accuracy is the number of clicks on the ad. With these numbers, marketers can tell what works and what doesn’t and thereby, create better ads.

Targeted Ads

Why did the customer in the previous example keep coming back to the store?

Providing a personalized shopping experience did the trick. For an ad to be effective, it needs to be relevant to the individual person viewing it. For example, a 42-year-old will not respond to the same ads as a 20-year-old. Marketers need to place ads that appeal to their target audience.

For the marketer to place ads, cookies can obtain the necessary information like age, gender, location, interests, etc. This will improve user experience as well as marketing results over time.

Retargeting Strategies

Ad retargeting is a method in which companies show ads to people who have already been interested in their products. This is a promotion tactic most often used in digital marketing. 

You may have noticed these advertisements yourself—for instance, if you’ve searched for a watch on Amazon and added one to the cart, you may have seen ads for watches everywhere. This is because once you add a watch to your cart, Amazon’s marketing platform is aware that you are in need of a watch. So, it will show you watches and offers for watches across other websites you visit. 

Ad retargeting is used by digital marketers to convert more visitors at the point of sale. Digital marketers are able to do this because of cookies. They use third-party cookies to obtain the necessary information to track users and show ads pertaining to their preferences.

Improves Customer Engagement

Almost all websites have multiple pages. The user will spend more time on a page if it is engaging enough. Otherwise, it will result in a high bounce rate. It is a marketer’s responsibility to make the page engaging for its users.

Cookies can let marketers know how much time people are spending on each page and how they are interacting with them. If people are spending less time on a page, they need to optimize the page to improve its engagement. 

Let us have a look at some of the cons of using cookies. No, not the usual privacy invasion problems; more than problems, we can say that these are challenges a digital marketer face when using cookies. 

Strict policies against cookies

Cookie regulations in many regions are becoming a lot stricter. This can make it hard for businesses to make use of certain cookies, or even any at all. It can also make it difficult for digital marketers to market effectively and measure their marketing effectiveness in those regions. 

Invasion of privacy

Cookies over the last few years have gained a lot of attention for their tracking behaviors that ha sled may privacy laws to impose struct regulations. Now, most people often associate cookies with “privacy invasion.” While it is true to some extent, cookies do a lot more than that. Website visitors reject third-party cookies because of privacy concerns but they are often not aware of what these cookies are used for. 

There is no perfect solution to these problems. However, there are steps you can take to address them.

• It’s essential to use cookies in compliance with the privacy regulations like GDPR. The first and foremost requirement is to ask for user consent for using such cookies and only use them if they accept them. You should also be allowing them to opt out of these cookies and withdraw their consent at any time in case they deem it right. Click here to know how you can comply with cookie consent.
• Another step is to make people aware of cookies and their function. This can be done via a privacy policy or cookie policy page, linked in important places of your site, such as the footer. When users know more about the advantages of cookies, they’ll be more willing to accept them.  

Cookies are a great addition to the Internet. They can make your experience on a website great. It is great for users and businesses alike. Without cookies, it is near impossible for digital marketing campaigns to yield results. 

However, you should take proper measures when using them in your business. You should not use marketing cookies without user consent or revealing what these cookies are used for. Amazon learned this the hard way. Respecting user privacy and decision is better than paying out huge fines for violations.

Author bio: Bala Adalarasan is a content writer and digital marketing specialist. He has worked as a content writer for multiple digital marketing companies over the past few years and is passionate about increasing awareness of the value of technology in modern society through his publications. He has written articles for websites like Zegal and Insights for Professionals.

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and should not be taken as legal or professional advice. The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of our organization. We do not endorse any products or services mentioned in the article.