Cookies are a hot topic on the internet, seemingly always arriving out of the fresh oven of privacy concerns. Whilst they may have an adorable name, their tracking features can allow some third parties to get overly specific with advertising. So if you ever get an advert about something you were just talking about – cookies are likely to blame.
Google aims to reduce this specificity with FLoC. This new privacy-focused tracker will change the way digital advertising works for both users and businesses.
So what is FLoC? How do cookies work, and why does Google want to get rid of them? Most importantly, how can you capitalize on FLoC technology as a business? Learn more with the experts at Wildfire Marketing – the number one SEO Agency in Leeds.
What is FLoC?
Federated Learning of Cohorts in the advertiser-friendly solution to the third-party cookie problem, as a part of Google Chrome’s new Privacy Sandbox.
The Privacy Sandbox is a series of new features designed to phase out cookies while mitigating advertisers’ losses. Unfortunately, the truth is that Google, no matter how privacy-focused its developers are, has a profitable monopoly on the advertising industry.
FLoC ensures advertisers can still find their demographic, but not find you specifically. This grouping is achieved by using ‘Federated Learning’, essentially algorithms, to separate users into cohorts based on similar demographics.
Say, for example, you’re a big fan of technology and Fitness. You might be in Cohort 26535 – which an advertiser can target with smartwatch ads.
FLoC ensures an advertiser will never know whom you are specifically by putting you only in large cohorts. So, for example, you’ll never be in the ‘Digital Marketer who likes Wildfire’ cohort unless it’s thousands of users large.
Why is FLoC replacing Cookies?
Firefox and Safari have effectively blocked third-party Cookies. This progress in privacy is ideal for users, but if Google follows suit will essentially decimate the online advertising industry. Google has a borderline monopoly via Google Ads, and hindering its effectiveness would be a severe loss. Not only that, advertisers are already beginning to turn to a far more invasive solution – fingerprinting.
Cookies already provide considerable info on you for advertising – but it is still relatively anonymized. Fingerprinting uses data such as screen size and IP Address to build a very easily identifiable profile on you.
Google is caught in a balancing act, which has already led to a delay in the rollout of FLoC. Google must improve privacy enough to keep users safe whilst offering viable alternatives that keep advertisers away from Fingerprinting.
What can your business do with FLoC?
Right now, not a lot. FLoC has been delayed from the end of this year to sometime in 2022-2023. After its rollout, however, learning its intricacies will be a critical factor in improving the quality of your ad targeting. If you’re a particularly savvy developer, FLoC is open-source and has a GitHub repository you can analyze.
For Digital Marketers, focus on the big picture. Don’t analyze your target audience for your next Digital ad campaign down to the smallest subsection. Soon, that won’t be possible. Instead, focus on finding the most effective, larger demographic.
FLoC is all about trying to find the best for both worlds, users and advertisers. So do your research, prepare for the change, and you can expect to stay on a steady path whilst others scramble to get their advertising in order.
We hope this blog has shown you the future of FLoC and what it’ll do to change your advertising experience as a business. Learn more about online advertising in more of our high-quality blogs, or leave it to the experts to reignite your Digital Marketing by contacting Wildfire today.