Ad agencies and marketers have been spoiled by third-party cookies - data that remembers a user’s actions and provides more personalized ads on websites other than the website the user has actually visited. They were able to gain information about consumers without having to actually meet (virtually of course) potential customers. But, now with the internet entering a cookie diet (got to shed off those lockdown lbs), these ad agencies and marketers are scrambling about looking for ways to continue promoting their goods to the right people at the right time.
One, quite obvious, way is through influencer marketing - partnering up with influencers across social platforms that have a loyal followers base with viewers that trust their opinion. The statistics speak for themselves: 80% of consumers have purchased something via an influencer recommendation, 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations, 51% of marketers say influencer marketing helps them acquire better customers, and to top it all off, Gen Z spend an average of 2 hours and 41 minutes each day on social media platforms (that’s a lot of time to be exposed to promoted products)
When it comes to the post-cookie internet, Content creators will play a stronger role in their relationship with advertisers as marketers will come to rely on them for access to audiences. As the CEO of CelebExperts put it - “We’re in the greatest economic boom for influencers the world has ever seen”. However, while there are a ton of articles around the web about companies needing to add influencer marketing into their marketing strategy in order to stand out in the cookie-less future, there aren’t many guides for content creators about how they should be leveraging the new and improved post-cookie world. Influencers, content creators, or our personal favorite, thought leaders, here’s your guide to ruling online marketing in the cookie-less era:
Without cookies, information about the audience is much harder to collect, analyze and, ultimately, act upon, making it even more vital. As a content creator on a social platform, you have data at your fingertips such as YouTube content analytics and specific demographics about your viewers, as well as, what content is more popular/relevant and first-hand, quite easily accessible, contact with a large audience.
According to Forbes, “Brands want to know how their campaigns are doing, and want to make sure they’re connecting with the right audiences in compelling ways. That’s where influencer campaigns come in. The influencers themselves have access to the first-party data from their own followers, data they can legally...it can be a gold mine for smart companies”
Brands will be turning to you as a funnel to not only gain information about your audience, but as a way to communicate to them in an effective, large-scale manner. In order to truly make brands eager to partner with you, you should take the time now to really get to know your audience and learn the analytics you already have access to. Keep in mind - the influencer data that you have quite easy access to is “invaluable in helping companies understand what’s working beyond a specific campaign”
In short, contextual advertising is a way for companies to advertise online by taking advantage of relevant content on a given site - through contextual advertising, advertisers can get their message in front of people who are more likely to be interested in what the brand has to say instead of just, well creepily throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks, or in the case of third-party cookies, hoping someone actually decides to taste the spaghetti.
What do you need to know?
Through the idea of contextual advertising, brands can actually sync with online content that is relevant to their product/service. So, pinpoint creators who have content relevant to the specific product/service and work together to make sure the audience sees the ad when they are most interested, most actively listening and most likely to purchase.
For example, take the diaper brand, Huggies - using third-party cookies, they may place ads for diapers on Facebook’s newsfeed. However, the chances that someone is scrolling through Facebook while changing a dirty diaper or let alone wanting to think about diapers while mindlessly on the social platform is slim to none. So, one might say the ad is not as effective as it could be. But, if Huggies was to partner with a YouTube channel that focuses on parenting hacks or a day in the life of stay-at-home parents, chances are the thousands of viewers that are exposed to the ad are eagerly looking for information about diapers.
Leverage this shift in advertisers behavior by truly pinpointing what your channel focuses on and ensuring that the content on your channel translates that clearly. You don’t only want to be top-of-mind when brands are on the search for a creator to partner with but, when you reach out to companies, you want to make sure they understand right off the bat the reason for this collaboration.
Retargeting can be accomplished in a number of different ways but here we will focus on forming a long-term relationship with a brand and working together to expose viewers to the same product/service repeatedly.
Consider this - viewers trust your recommendations, especially when it’s something you’ve recommended more than once. If you are able to work long-term with a brand and really match their DNA with the content you are already creating, it can really bring invaluable success to both parties.
Travel vloggers, Kara and Nate have partnered with SurfShark numerous times (over 18 times to be exact) highlighting some key points:
Get ahead of the curve
If it’s not clear already - the cookie-less revolution will bring content creators to the forefront causing influencers on all platforms to gain a lot of power. Instead of sitting back, editing content and thinking to yourself ‘the third-party cookies ban doesn’t apply to me’ - use this time wisely. Research what brands are desperately looking for and promote yourself as a powerful tool that can help them not only continue promoting their products/services in a successful way, but can even help them stand out in the industry.