Two months since Chrome reversed its cookie deprecation plans, questions remain on the future of advertising.
In the MENAT region, where Chrome dominates with a 79.2 per cent browser market share in the UAE – far higher than in the US (52 per cent) and the UK (49.5 per cent) – this decision carried significant weight: have marketers’ future-proofing efforts been in vain?
A hybrid cookie future
For us, this pivot points to a future where cookie-based and cookieless solutions coexist, matching the split of consumers across both environments.
Without a collective, GDPR-like data privacy regulation across MENAT, it can be easier to overlook the increasing consumer preference for privacy globally – as shown through Apple’s app-tracking transparency opt-in rates at an all-time high.
But brands wanting to level up their advertising should use this time as an opportunity to get ahead in future-proofing and performance by finding the right blend of solutions for their marketing objectives.
As such, we often see naturally cookieless solutions like contextual targeting outperforming cookie-based tactics, whilst cookies continue to support scaled retargeting.
What will cookie choice look like?
How Chrome provides cookie choice to users will be key. A simple opt-out model may mean no notable changes in consumer cookie behaviour.
Privacy Sandbox is a traditional opt-out and is active on 97 per cent of eligible Chrome browsers. Alternatively, a stricter, Apple-style approach that requires users to actively choose their privacy settings, could result in a major drop in cookie adoption.
In a region like MENAT where digital literacy varies widely, the presentation of the user choice will be decisive. Brands must prepare to address more tech-savvy audiences who opt-out of cookies, as well as less tech-engaged consumers who continue opting in by default.
Here, leveraging first-party data strategies will enable marketers to fill gaps in cookie coverage and maintain effective targeting and measurement.
Privacy Sandbox potential
Chrome’s U-turn positions cookies as a long-term competitor to the Privacy Sandbox, leaving the Sandbox in a precarious position.
Some projects feel particularly vulnerable: the protected audience API is a long way off parity with cookies and is currently a parallel auction which it now seems publishers are less likely to prioritise ahead of traditional RTB auctions.
Other elements such as the attribution reporting API could still have a bright future as our tests showed it captured an impressive 84.9 per cent of the same unique converters as cookies.
With high Android usage in MENAT, it’s important to consider the impact on mobile targeting. There’s been no communication so far on what this means for Android MAIDs – which were originally soft-signalled for phase out around 2025.
If Google introduces ATT-style consent for these in the coming years, then the need for Privacy Sandbox also increases.
If the Privacy Sandbox can become truly multi-platform, it gains much more relevance in this new context. If it can’t, its relevance will depend entirely on cookie consent rates within Chrome.
What’s next for MENAT advertisers?
A very likely outcome is that the industry will continue to employ a range of options for targeting and measurement, in order to reach consumers with varying levels of preference around data privacy at scale.
Perhaps, “both” is better – a recent retargeting test showed us that using both cookies and first-party data via cookieless identifiers together improved reach by 3x, with just a 1 per cent audience overlap.
At MiQ we’re going to keep on investing to ensure we support all the options advertisers need to achieve successful marketing outcomes. Only with this focus can we support a sustainable ad-funded web.
By Wassim Mneimneh, Managing Director, MiQ MENAT
