October 19, 2022
Marketers know that delivering personalized experiences is an essential part of the buyer journey – and for marketing teams at dental manufacturer, dealer and laboratory organizations, finding effective ways to connect with potential customers is crucial. When marketing teams have a strong understanding of who their potential customer is, they can develop more accurate personas and deliver ads and experiences that speak to them, building long-term relationships that can be rewarding for both parties.
However, the impending loss of third-party cookies has many marketing teams concerned that they will no longer be able to access the accurate behavioral targeting information that they need in order to deliver rich experiences. Forward-thinking teams can turn these changes into an opportunity to improve their marketing targeting strategies.
For years, marketing teams have relied on Google advertising and retargeting strategies based on third-party cookies. Third-party cookies work to inform companies about the people who are visiting their websites and interacting with their ads on sites across the web. They do this through text files stored on the user’s computer that retain the web experiences and history of the user’s activity.
In early 2021, Google announced that it would be slowly phasing out the tracking of individual internet users across websites with the goal of preserving privacy. “Users are demanding greater privacy — including transparency, choice, and control over how their data is used — and it’s clear the web ecosystem needs to evolve to meet these increasing demands,” Google wrote in the initial announcement.
Marketing teams who rely on third-party cookies through Google might struggle with ad personalization, since behavioral and browsing data will be limited. They also might be unable to glean effective analytics from campaigns or tracking mechanisms that rely on third-party cookie data. As a result, marketing teams might feel as though they can’t connect with providers as effectively as before or deliver as much value to the sales teams trying to close business.
Since the initial announcement, Google has updated its project roadmap, with its most recent announcement stating that the company will be testing developer APIs in advance of phasing out third-party cookies in the Chrome browser in the second half of 2024. If you’re a marketer who uses Google ads to reach dentists with product messages or rely on third-party cookies for tracking performance of other marketing initiatives, this might seem like a scary prospect. And you wouldn’t be alone: according to a survey by Epsilon, about 80% of marketers said they depend on third-party cookies for their marketing and advertising efforts.
While the outlook might seem bleak, this impending update actually provides dental supplier marketing teams with a unique opportunity to supercharge their marketing strategy. Experts have noted that marketers can accelerate their own digital transformation by utilizing innovative marketing methods, including making first-party data their top priority. As we discussed in a previous post, first-party data is the data you collect directly from prospects and customers. Since many organizations have large gaps in the depth and accuracy of their own first-party data, best practice is to work with a trusted partner to clean and enhance in-house data with new sources of (non-cookie) third-party data.
What can marketers do in a third-party cookie-free world? The answer is straightforward:
And remember: the loss of third-party tracking cookies doesn’t have to be the end of the world. There are other types of third-party data that are actually better than what cookies offer because they’re based on how providers practice dentistry. These can reveal things like:
Don’t get caught with your hand in Google’s cookie jar. DentalMarketIQ has deep, procedure-based, behavioral insights on providers and practice locations, augmented by our own research and informed by more than 25 years of dental domain expertise. Once third-party cookies fall by the wayside, you’ll have all the market insights you’ll need to gain a clear understanding of where to find the highest-value potential customers and the data to craft a winning marketing strategy.
But there’s no need to wait for 2024 to come around: future-proof your strategy with insightful tools that can supercharge your marketing efforts and put you ahead of the competition today. Contact DentalMarketIQ.
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1 "Preparing for a world without third-party cookies." Epsilon. 10/27/2020. https://www.epsilon.com/us/insights/resources/research-preparing-for-a-world-without-third-party-cookies
We are excited to introduce Dental Market Insights, our DentalMarketIQ blog, which we hope will become a source of information and reference for anyone interested in oral health and the dental supply industry. Check back frequently for updates and resources, as well as product announcements and opportunities to connect with us at conferences and events throughout the year.
