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 WTF Did Google Just Do? And What It Means For You.

Google has been in the news a lot lately for antitrust reasons. But you may have missed the Google story that impacts your work the most. Last week, Google announced that after five years of unkept promises, missed deadlines, and mysterious blog posts, it will keep cookies in its Chrome browser and abandon its so-called "Privacy Sandbox" experiment. 

This news has already set off a wave of confusion among public affairs and campaign professionals. In today's newsletter, we explain what Google's announcement actually means for your work.

How You're Using Cookies Without Knowing It

There are numerous ways that you're probably using cookies in your work without knowing it, but let's focus today on the two most important use cases in public affairs and campaign work.

• Influencer Targeting: Cookie-based matching to a dataset provided by a third party vendor. You may not know about this step, but if you're buying so-called influencer wheels or graphs, this is what your vendor is very likely doing.
  
  
• Voter File Targeting: Cutting the voter file and matching it to online signals, which is very likely a cookie.

If neither of these sounds familiar, you may have also heard the more general phrase "match rates." This is usually technocrat code for cookie.

Why You Need Cookie-less Solutions

Google's latest missive on cookies is just its latest red herring in the long saga of cookies. But here's what matters for you:

1. Chrome has about half of the browser market share in the U.S., and the other major browsers have already eliminated cookies.

Source: Statcounter

2.  Americans now spend less than 25% of their time consuming digital content on web browsers. This screen time has been replaced with platforms such as Connected TV, streaming audio, mobile applications, and gaming devices.

Source: ID5.io

3. Due to the California Consumer Privacy Act, users across the country now have the option to opt out of cookies. Only about 1/3 of Americans always accept cookies when asked.

Source: Statista

4. Taken together, this means that only about 15% of the time Americans spend online is in cookie-enabled environments.

So regardless of Google's latest announcement, you need cookie-less solutions to reach your targets.

The Stakes For Your Work

The constant theme of this newsletter is that the political sector is glacially slow to adapt to critical ad tech developments. In that vein, which of the following scenarios do you think is more likely in the coming months?

• The political sector recognizes that only 15% of online time is in cookie-based environments and deploys alternative ad tech strategies to reach political influencers and voters? . . . or
  
  
• Google's latest announcement gets used as an excuse to let business as usual persist. Political consultants and public affairs firms keep matching to the voter file and influencer targeting lists with increasingly low match rates, while missing millions of their targets in the process. When the legacy vendors are questioned, they throw out exclamation-filled lines like: "Cookies never went away!! Nothing to see here!!!"

You, dear reader, have the chance to be in the former, much wiser group. We have discussed the cookie alternatives numerous times in this newsletter and will continue to do so. Choosing these alternatives is not the easiest path. But it's better than losing to someone who puts in the work while you whistle past the cookie graveyard.

Three Ways To Operationalize This Email

🔱  Determine how you are matching to influencer and voter lists. Insist that your vendor explain their use of cookies.

🔱  Review the match rates in your last campaign. If your vendor balks at giving you this data, ask and ask again.

🔱  Instead of cookies, consider alternative digital paths to reach your targets.

🔱  If you're enjoying this content, please consider forwarding this email to a colleague or friend. If you'd rather not forward it because you think the content makes you seem smarter compared to that annoying co-worker . . . free cookie for doing it anyway

🔱  If you're not already a subscriber, please sign up here to stay up to date on the latest developments in political technology.

🔱  If you'd like to learn more about how to use cookie-less solutions in your next campaign, contact us today.