Updated from March 25, 2022
Google has officially started to phase out third-party cookies, forcing marketers to pivot their digital strategies. Here’s what pharma marketers can do to stay ahead of the curve.
Sometime in 2025, third-party cookies will be a thing of the past. Since January 2020, Google has been working on removing third-party cookies from its Chrome browser to address rising privacy concerns among consumers and better adhere to stricter security regulations.
As of January 2024, Chrome has begun restricting third-party cookies by default for 1% of its users—approximately 30 million people. However, despite being forewarned by Google for years, many marketers have yet to embrace alternative channels. Some have even increased their cookie-dependent ad spend, with cookies representing 78% or more of programmatic ad buys across industries during the third quarter of 2023.
Even if Google announces another delay, the end is inevitable. Advertisers who hesitate to adapt and explore other data sources will find themselves at a significant disadvantage when the final switch is made.
If your pharma marketing strategy heavily relies on third-party cookies, it’s time to rethink your approach. Here’s how a “cookieless future” may affect your campaigns and what you can do about it.
Why is Google Removing Cookies?
Safari browsers have been blocking third-party cookies for years, and even major publishing houses like The New York Times are transitioning away from third-party advertising data entirely. Still, companies are particularly nervous about Google joining in on the cookie-free trend since over half of the web browser market is dominated by the search engine giant. Growing concerns over data privacy and the increasing use of ad-blocking technology pose further challenges. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey revealed that 81% of Americans are “very or somewhat concerned” about how businesses collect and use their personal data. This general uneasiness may also account for the steady increases in ad-block usage, with an estimated 912 million users worldwide adopting ad-blocking technology.
Cross-site tracking through third-party cookies monitors consumers’ online searches for anything from pet food to hotel stays. From these patterns, user interests, approximate age, and general location are inferred to display targeted ads. While most cookies don’t store personal contact information, consumers are often surprised to see highly specific ads following their every click. For the most part, on-site disclaimers let users know they’re being tracked, but many either blindly accept cookies or fail to understand the implications of the fine print.
To replace third-party cookies, Google is testing a new interface called Topics. This initiative is part of Google’s broader Privacy Sandbox project, aimed at balancing user privacy with the needs of developers by establishing new digital standards. Topics categorizes websites into one of 469 subjects, such as games, real estate, or arts and entertainment. The browser then collects a handful of users’ most frequently visited topics and shares this information with advertisers every week. This approach seeks to preserve user anonymity while enabling advertisers to deliver relevant ads. However, there are notable drawbacks, such as a limit of three topics per site, imprecise and delayed traffic feedback, and challenges in effectively targeting low-funnel consumers. While Topics is likely to be a win for privacy-conscious users, it presents significant hurdles for marketers.
The Implications (and Misconceptions) of a Cookieless Future
Despite Google eliminating third-party cookies for good, marketers can still deliver tailored and relevant ads. Consider leveraging Healthgrades’ effective solutions for both onsite and offsite targeting that do not rely on third-party cookies.
For onsite targeting, Healthgrades effectively uses contextual advertising, which targets ads based on the content of the web page rather than a user’s browsing history. This method analyzes keywords, themes, and subjects on the page to enable advertisers to serve appropriate ads.
For offsite targeting, Healthgrades leverages advanced predictive models powered by data science. These models create audiences based on modeled and predictive data, ensuring privacy is preserved without relying on one-to-one user targeting. By employing these innovative approaches, Healthgrades can help pharma marketers deliver effective and privacy-compliant campaigns.
In addition, the Privacy Sandbox initiative also provides privacy-preserving tools for ad targeting, such as the Attribution Reporting API, which monitors the performance of online ads without tracking users across different websites or apps. By employing a mix of these tactics, advertisers can strike a balance between effective, personalized campaigns and respecting user privacy.
Even if cookies were to stay, aggressive ad targeting through third-party data collection may not be the most effective tool. Third-party data is often imprecise since it isn’t directly obtained from users, compromising its quality and accuracy and potentially increasing costs for advertisers. Third-party data can also become fragmented when users clear their browsing cache or access the internet from multiple devices. Likewise, users can simply opt out of advertising cookies on most websites, and privacy laws further restrict the use of third-party cookies. These regulations make it crucial for advertisers to trust their third-party partners to ensure compliance and avoid potential damages from mishandling user data.
Ultimately, removing third-party cookies does not signify the end of targeted advertising. While marketing strategies will need to adapt, focusing on direct engagement with consumers rather than discrete tracking tactics will enable advertisers to navigate a cookie-free world successfully.
Effective Marketing in a Cookieless World
With Google planning to remove all cookies for 100% of Chrome users by spring of 2025, pharma marketers should shift their attention away from third-party data and toward creating marketing campaigns that resonate with customers and build trust. Patients respond best to emotional marketing, and focusing on people-centric stories of shared experiences can help nurture patient journeys and strengthen brand loyalty. Many studies show that emotion strongly influences decision-making, and according to a survey by Stackla, 88% of consumers consider authenticity a deciding factor on whether or not they like a particular brand. By humanizing your messaging and brand voice, you can better resonate with patients and build an emotional connection.
Healthgrades’ PatientConnect Video hubs, for instance, are designed to support this approach by providing platforms for storytelling and authentic doctor-patient experiences. These tools help pharma brands deliver impactful, people-centric content that builds trust and engagement. Aligning your campaigns with these offerings can enhance your marketing strategy and effectively reach your audience in a cookieless world.
Additionally, here are eight tips to help you shift smoothly into a cookieless model without compromising your marketing goals:
- Keep context king: Over time, visitor activity logs can become confusing, making ads from third-party cookies seem irrelevant and out of place. It’s like approaching someone in the produce aisle and asking if they need tax services. This is where contextual targeting can help. By using keywords and SEO-backed data, you’ll naturally attract interested consumers to your brand. However, for a more robust strategy, prioritize Healthgrades’ predictive model-based solutions. These models leverage advanced data science to create privacy-compliant, highly targeted audiences without relying on one-to-one user tracking. By combining these model-based solutions with contextual targeting, you can ensure your ads are relevant to the patient journey and the information they seek, effectively leveraging endemic content and physician profiles.
- Integrate intent-based media: Consider advertising on endemic sites featuring physician profiles and content that uses on-page keywords to discreetly display relevant ads to audiences actively seeking medical information or services. This leads to more organic and logical ad placement, influencing healthcare professionals and patients at the decision-making stage.
- Explore new channels for reach: Instead of relying on third-party cookies, pharma marketers can tap into channels like connected TV (CTV) to reach consumers. CTV allows targeting based on demographics, interests, and behaviors, enabling marketers to tailor campaigns to specific medical conditions, age groups, and other criteria. This approach delivers personalized messages, educating and empowering a broader audience about health concerns and treatment options.
- Invest in DTP marketing: Direct-to-physician (DTP) marketing focuses on getting your prescription or treatment in front of medical professionals who will prescribe your product. Provide digestible content to educate and empower these professionals, who can then share information with patients interested in your treatment options. This approach is not cookie-dependent as it leverages emails, National Provider Identifiers (NPIs), and direct outreach to physicians, ensuring targeted and personalized communication without relying on third-party data.
- Prioritize strategic partnerships: Enhance your brand’s relationship with healthcare professionals and patients beyond surface-level impressions. Invest in natural SEO tactics and premium content to inform, educate, and engage with readers. Collaborate with like-minded partners and participate in data-sharing initiatives that benefit all parties.
- Leverage AI tools: AI technology in pharma helps marketers analyze large amounts of data to identify patient segments, optimize campaign performance, and respond to patient queries. It can pinpoint doctors and specialists most likely to be interested in specific treatments, as well as those likely to change their prescription preferences. In addition, AI-driven patient research offers a sophisticated understanding of patient interactions across various platforms, keeping campaigns personalized, intuitive, and responsive.
- Devise a plan with durable IDs: Durable IDs use an encrypted string of contact information—such as email, phone number, or login credentials—provided by the consumer, linking it with their browsing history across platforms. This method offers more secure data collection for users and more precise targeting for marketers, ensuring compliance with healthcare regulations and enhancing trust.
- Focus on first-party data: Unlike third-party data, first-party cookies gather information directly from consumers browsing your website, eliminating the middleman.
In an ever-evolving industry, mixing core marketing strategies with innovative tactics can help your pharma brand effectively reach its target audiences—even amidst the complexities and uncertainties of a cookieless world.
Healthgrades Can Help You Reach Your Audience Without Cookies
Delivering highly targeted ads and personalized content without access to third-party data will become more challenging, but partnering with Healthgrades can help your brand successfully navigate the transition.
As America’s leading platform for connecting doctors and patients, Healthgrades can help maximize the impact of your pharma marketing—even in a cookieless world. Take advantage of our Advertising Solutions for Life Sciences to connect with patients actively seeking medical information and preparing to talk with a doctor.
Healthgrades offers powerful Direct-to-Physician (DTP) marketing products, including HG360 — a solution that integrates both consumer and HCP marketing efforts to help your brand identify and efficiently market to only the doctors most likely to be visited by a self-qualified patient. Whether a consumer visits condition-related content, searches for care for their condition on healthgrades.com, or researches a physician on your brand.com website, we flag all the healthcare professionals they view and launch an engaging, multi-touch branded messaging campaign to these high-value doctors.
To expand your reach, Healthgrades PatienTarget identifies qualified patients who have already connected with specialists on our platform. Predictive modeling extends your outreach to individuals most likely to require treatment for your target conditions. In addition, our latest offering, PatienTarget TV, allows your brand to reach your desired audience across major television networks and platforms at the critical moment between appointment scheduling and the actual visit. This feature utilizes insights from Healthgrades intelligence, targeting qualified patients who have engaged with relevant specialists on healthgrades.com. With over 100 channels and various CTV device types at your disposal, you can deploy your TV ad with precision and scale, even incorporating QR code calls-to-action for immediate viewer engagement.
Connect with low-funnel consumers through medically-reviewed editorial content in our PatientConnect Hubs—our onsite patient resource center for treatment-oriented content and educational tools—as they engage with highly targeted condition and treatment-related information. Embedded appointment guides help patients confidently discuss possible treatment options, including your brand, with their doctors.
Our Guided Physician Search (GPS), a doctor directory tool, is integrated into every PatientConnect Hub so consumers can make an appointment when your brand is top of mind. This doctor directory can be fully incorporated into your brand.com to close the loop for customers interested in your brand.
Contact us today to learn more about how Healthgrades can help better build your brand.
