In late July, Google announced that they will not be deprecating third-party cookies and instead they will enable user choice. While this announcement was surprising, third-party cookies are still unlikely to remain as ubiquitous and valuable as they once were. Cookies have already been deprecated by many browsers other than Chrome, and many users might decide to disable cookies on Chrome when given the choice.

Although shifting to first-party data can come with challenges that may require significant investment in tech and data infrastructure, it continues to be the optimal choice for publishers looking to make their businesses more resilient against technological and regulatory changes and to provide better advertising solutions.

It’s a win-win-win

While the state of the advertising industry has accelerated, if not forced, the shift to first-party data; at The Times, we believe that first-party data could be the best thing to do for publishers, users, and advertisers.

A trusted relationship with their own audience, and the ability to facilitate advertisers’ targeting of particular segments of it, can be an important part of a publisher’s business model. A key benefit of employing first-party data is that it allows publishers to connect advertisers to their most valuable audiences. First-party data is also more reliable in creating targetable audience segments because it’s collected in context, meaning when a user is browsing the same site.

Another benefit of first-party data is that it allows publishers to show personalized ads that users prefer, which is especially true for the younger generations – a 2022 survey showed that 81% of GenZ respondents stated they liked personalized ads. Showing more relevant ads can lead to an increase in ad performance and enhanced ROI for advertisers. From an analysis conducted by New York Times Advertising in the first half of 2023, our first-party targeting solutions combined with our native display formats yielded an average CTR that was over twice as high compared to IAB benchmarks. Additionally, ​​according to an analysis from Business Insider, audiences targeted via first-party data were 57% more likely to take action than those targeted by third-party data alone.

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The resurgence of contextual targeting

The outsized importance placed on third-party cookies comes from a belief that the most performant way of targeting is based on user profiles built by piecing together many identifiers (or signals) from different websites. However, first-party data, often combined with emerging technologies for labeling content at scale, are questioning the supremacy of identity-based targeting built on third-party data.

First-party data allows publishers to build smart ways to contextually target users based on their interactions with, and reactions to, content. An excellent example of how these tools can operate under the power of first-party data is Disney’s recent launch of Magic Words. This is a solution that uses proprietary metadata tagging to target the right creative on the right content based on the moods of scenes across Disney’s expansive library, and the emotions they are likely to elicit. By employing first-party data, publishers can build a suite of audience and contextual targeting solutions that rival, if not outperform, targeting solutions built on third-party signals.

Preparing for change

Shifting to first-party data ensures that organizations are more self-sufficient in their operations and less disrupted by unexpected changes that might further reduce the availability and reliability of third-party data. A business that relies on first-party data sits on a stronger foundation.

The industry was not prepared for Google’s deprecation of third-party cookies first announced in 2020, leaving players in the advertising space still scrambling in 2024 to find alternative solutions. Many may have breathed a sigh of relief after Google’s latest announcement, but there has never been a greater time than now to make the switch to first-party data. Signal loss remains an inevitable trend that has already started years ago, and investing in a data strategy that relies on first-party data is an excellent way to ensure organizations can future-proof their strategies and safeguard from external factors.

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