First-party cookie VS third-party cookie

Cookies have become a hot topic of conversation. But what is a first-party cookie? And what is a third-party cookie? And perhaps most importantly, what is the difference between first-party and third-party cookies?

What is a first-party cookie?

When you visit a website, information is collected about how you move around the site, what you do and information about you. This is done via first-party cookies. This data is stored by the same company whose website you are visiting.

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Case for what this could look like:

Imagine you are on a website looking for coffee tables. You find some tables you like and mark them with a heart. But the decision over which coffee table to choose doesn't happen in a day. You shut down the site and think some more, maybe talk to your roommate. A few days later, you go to the same website. When you get to the website, all your heart-marked coffee tables are still in your list. This is because a first-party cookie has saved this information so you don't have to look up all the coffee tables again and to make your experience seamless.

The same can be achieved by "forcing" users to register an account, which is becoming quite common. So that's an option, the advantage of using cookies instead is that the user doesn't have to give away information about themselves and take the time to create an account, just to e.g. favourite a product or item and the site remembers the history etc.

How can you use this data?

• Getting to know your visitors
• Save choices that the visitor has made, such as heart-marking an item or adding a product to the shopping basket.
• Create a seamless customer experience by saving preferences such as language choice.

What is a third-party cookie?

Third-party cookies do just like first-party cookies, they collect information about you and your behaviour. However, unlike first-party cookies, this data is not managed and owned by the company whose website you visit. It is managed and owned by a third party. This is so that, based on your behaviour, they can then, among other things, serve you relevant ads when you click through.

Case for what it could look like:

Imagine you are visiting a website to look for shoes. You browse the website for a while, click on some shoes and put a pair of shoes in your shopping basket. Before you are about to pay, you change your mind and click down the page. After a few days, the shoes you had looked at and put in your shopping basket appear as ads on various sites, such as Facebook. This is no coincidence. The reason you're now seeing these ads is because your browser stored a third-party cookie and is using this information to send you targeted ads.

What are third-party cookies used for?

• Retargeting
• Personal ads
• Targeted social media ads

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What is a second-party cookie?

Second-party cookies are cookies that are transferred from one company to another via some form of data partnership. For example, a brokerage firm may sell its first-party cookies, along with other first-party data, to moving companies, insurance companies or perhaps alarm companies.

Cookie deaths!

You can't mention third-party cookies without talking about cookie deaths. Last year, Google went public with the announcement that as of 2023, they will no longer support third-party cookies in their Chrome browser. This has led to discussions about the future of tracking, with many wondering how communications will be tailored when this, our most common way of tracking users, disappears.

But we can be calm. The death of cookies does not mean the end of communication as it is today, but there are existing techniques that can be used to achieve the same results. First party data will also become even more important as cookies disappear. Below you have some examples of what is predicted to replace cookies.

Contextual marketing

An automated process where communication is matched with relevant digital content. In other words, it's about placing the communication together with content that the target audience is interested in. In this way, third-party data is not needed and information about the user is not tied to a single individual.

User cohorts with Google's first-party cookie

Google's first-party cookie creates cohorts (groups of people) who share the same interests and preferences. No one is tracked on an individual level, but marketing is targeted to the group.

Progressive profiling

This means that through your CDP or Marketing Automation platform you collect information about your users in small pieces so that the information comes directly from the user himself. All data collected is then first-party data and can be used to create relevant content for your users.

Location data

Through location data, certain attributes can be linked to groups of users and marketing can be based on these attributes.

And we're likely to see more smart solutions soon to help us on our journey to creating the very best customer experience!

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Sources:

https://www.cdpinstitute.org/data-talks/the-death-of-third-party-cookies-long-live-first-party-data/

https://blog.saleslayer.com/geomarketing-location-intelligence-the-spy-who-loves-you