The martech industry faces several challenges this year, including an increasingly complex privacy landscape, shifting trends in consumer attitudes on data-sharing, and an impending change in the way digital marketers can access and share tracking cookies. Here’s what digital marketers need to focus on for the rest of the year and beyond to navigate the changes that are happening now and those that are on the horizon:

The era of the third-party cookie is finally ending

Personalized content, whether it’s customized search ads, product suggestions, or other forms of digital marketing, starts with targeting. Targeting is created by consumer behavior via tracking technologies as consumers use the web or apps. For example, most consumers are familiar with the “accept cookies” button or box at the bottom of a web page. Cookies drive the creation of custom content, including retargeted ads that seem to follow us everywhere (and which can be very effective). However, the way cookies are used and shared will change in 2023 when Google Chrome becomes the last major web browser to eliminate third-party cookie tracking capabilities.

This upcoming change has been in the works for years, but digital marketers are now in the final stretch to adopt new custom content tracking technologies in lieu of third-party cookies. It’s also time for brands to discontinue selling customer data to third parties and find ways to replace that revenue stream. While considering new marketing strategies to replace third-party cookie tracking, it’s important to keep in mind the issues that information-sharing and tracking raise for consumers along with the potential benefits to the customer journey.

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Consumer data privacy concerns are ongoing

Targeted marketing has raised privacy concerns over the years, along with worries about informed customer consent and the lack of transparency in collecting and sharing individual consumers’ data. A 2021 Cisco consumer privacy survey found that lack of transparency about business data-handling practices was a major concern, with 76% of respondents saying it was “too hard to understand what’s going on and how their information is being used.”

So, the first step for the changing digital marketing environment is to review and improve privacy practices. Data privacy compliance is the cornerstone of a digital marketing program that builds consumer trust through customization—without endangering that trust by allowing outside parties to access personal information. Global and regional marketing campaigns must follow the privacy laws of each area those campaigns reach. For example, a campaign aimed at consumers in the U.S. and the EU must comply with the European Union’s GDPR as well as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States. Even in areas that aren’t explicitly covered by these laws, these regulations offer a blueprint for best practices.

At a minimum, the privacy policies you craft for your digital marketing data collection must contain information specific to that data, including:

• Your brand’s contact information
• What personal data is being collected and why
• How that data is collected
• The types of cookies installed through the site
• A consumer rights notice
• Notifications about changes or updates to the policy

The policy should also include a list of any other parties that may access customer data, including any third-party analytics tools used to capture and push out the data, along with links to their privacy notices and opt-out forms. Providing this information enhances transparency and trust with customers, which makes them more likely to opt in.

Customers still want personalized marketing

Before the pandemic, consumer privacy concerns raised the possibility of marketers giving up on personalization efforts as customers withheld data. After more than two years of conducting many aspects of our lives online, consumers increasingly expect personalized engagements with brands, so their data-sharing habits are changing. For example, Gartner now forecasts that “by 2023, the opt-out rate for mobile app tracking will decline from 85% to 60% as consumers learn that untargeted ads increase their exposure to low-quality content.” For trusted brands, Gartner adds, “there’s potential for a full reversal to ‘accept all’ tracking,” especially when there’s a financial incentive for customers such as loyalty rewards or personalized promotions.

Providing personalized interactions with the data that consumers are willing to share requires technologies and tools that make the most of that data. For example, AI-driven customer data platforms (CDPs) that unify customer data and analyze customer behavior in real time can suggest next best steps that enable brands to seamlessly serve the right content at each stage in the customer’s omnichannel journey no matter the channel. In addition, CDPs can learn from customer responses at each touchpoint to refine suggestions and create a more personalized customer experience over time.

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The data, privacy, and digital marketing evolution is coming for Web3 and the metaverse

The rise of Web3 — blockchain transactions, cryptocurrencies, and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) — may change consumers’ expectations for data privacy if Web3’s promise of seamless data portability comes to pass. The open-ledger nature of blockchain transactions raises its own set of privacy concerns, as user transactions are visible to the public, even if they’re happening under usernames rather than personally identifiable information.

Also worth watching is how the metaverse will collect, use, and protect users’ data as they visit virtual stores, send messages, consume entertainment, and interact with one another and their physical environments in extended reality. This scenario offers the promise of much more data that companies can use to personalize customer experiences. It also raises risks related to data security as customers share more—and more sensitive—data with metaversal organizations. Marketers need to understand these challenges to see where the technology, consumer sentiment, and best practices are headed.

Regardless of the technological setting for digital marketing—and despite the end of the third-party cookie era next year—there will always be three key components for success: the marketer, the end-user, and the technologies that enable their relationship. By ensuring that the technology enhances the customer experience and communicating clearly about how that technology will use shared data, marketers can create more trust and stronger relationships with customers.