Everything points to the fact that 2023 will be a pivotal year for web browsing and online marketing based on data analysis. Since 1995, cookies have accompanied us by saving user information in web browsers, with which it was possible to determine whether a user had previously browsed a site and which internal pages or sections, save settings and preferences, and other relevant data. This data has different uses, such as, for example, recording data to be used for remarketing campaigns, or to offer a more personalized browsing experience.
With this little big paradigm shift, services like Facebook and Google Ads made some pretty big changes and are finishing up making so many others by releasing this data collection modality. Going forward, we’ll tell you about some of the implementations that different platforms have already made in order to release them.
What about browsers?
With privacy and personal data protection on the table, some browsers have already stopped using them or blocking them by default. Among them you’ll find Safari, Apple’s default browser, Opera, Firefox, and Brave.
While these browsers account for almost 30% of web browser usage in the market, they are followed by Google Chrome with almost 70%, who is finalizing the last details to get rid of cookies in 2023. It still has no implementation date, but has slipped that during the next year it will abandon working with cookies. Google had the idea of starting at the beginning of 2022, but then stretched the date a bit to the following year.
What’s next for data collection
In general, you will not have to adapt much on your site since most websites do not require them to work, but you may have to update some aspects if you are using external advertising services such as the ones we mentioned a few lines ago. The new methodology to collect data will be from the server side with the API method, Server Side, or First Party Data. We will talk about that next.
First Party Data
What we call First Party Data is the information collected when surfers authenticate on a system or website. This can be when you log into the Google Chrome browser, Facebook, an online diary, or an ecommerce website.
Upon authentication, the website itself will record the visitor’s behavior (with prior consent, of course) in order to segment them and offer them content according to their interests. In this way, a healthier and less invasive remarketing can be performed.
Data collected server-side
Server-side tracking, unlike cookie tracking, collects server-side data via an API. This is done from a pixel that measures the behavior of each visit and other data to cross-reference information, compare and make determinations to then create metrics.
Google Analytics 4
If you knew Google Analytics, you will know that it is the analysis and statistics suite for Google websites. It is currently on version 4 (Google Analytics 4), which was developed to comply with stricter privacy controls unlike the previous version, Universal Analytics, which, it is promised that between July and October 2023, will stop working. Therefore, it is necessary that you update the info collection properties before this date if you have not already done so. As this requires updating the data capture code on your website, if you don’t know what we’re talking about, have a chat with your developer friend.
Meta Pixel (or Facebook)
The Meta Pixel sends tracking information to your Facebook for Business account. This way, you can, among other things, generate your target audience, and optimize your ads by targeting visitors to your site. This tool is designed to capture data, measure and segment ads and content, in order to maximize your business conversions.
The way the API works is that it uses a “pixel” on the website to capture visitor behavior, and transfer that data to the Meta or Facebook server for storage and processing. The integration is usually simple whether you have a Shopify store, a WooCommerce, a PrestaShop or the old Magento, without the need to add programming code to your store.
