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Google Chrome is set to phase out cookies by the end of this year, and marketers are looking for new signals to find and measure potential audiences. Transactional data, or records of what we buy, is emerging as an attractive alternative.
The promise of transactional data is fueling the retail commerce media industry, with U.S. ad spending expected to increase 28.5% to $59.6 billion this year, according to Insider Intelligence.
Retail media companies, particularly Amazon and Walmart, are using customer databases to target ads on their websites and across the internet, and link those ads to purchases, rather than relying solely on cookies for closed-loop attribution. can do.
Some wonder if transactional data will become a necessary currency for all media companies, not just retailers. Without cookies, companies like Meta and TikTok would not be able to track whether ads on their platforms led to purchases on the brand’s website, so only walled gardens that are successful in the commerce business You can succeed in his post-cookie world.
“You can’t build an advertising business without a payments business,” said James Borow, co-founder of e-commerce marketing technology company Market AI.
Some have pointed out that transaction data is not an identifier, so it cannot completely replace cookies. A retail media company needs an email address or a cookie to know if someone who saw an ad for a soap bought that soap. Still, in a world where many signals go dark for advertisers, transactional data may emerge as a more important resource.
Social commerce theory
Without cookies, even walled gardens would lose an edge for marketers who need to show that their ads drove conversions, Borrow said. When Apple retired Mobile ID on iOS in 2021, Meta struggled to accurately report conversions, causing some marketers to shift spend from the platform. These problems could be exacerbated if third-party cookies are no longer available on the open web.
“You need transaction data to optimize your auctions,” Borrow says. “I didn’t even know what kind of thing it was, [customers] Even if you buy, it’s very difficult to make sure you’re showing the right ads to the right people. ”
