A World Without Cookies Means In-Store Visits Are Critical for Growth

Cookies are disappearing this year which gives companies an opportunity to rethink their media approach. Here's what matters most for the future.

With cookies disappearing this year, advertisers have the opportunity to rethink their media plans and how they think about audience targeting. In fact, when considering the increasing competition for audience attention, higher demand for efficient ad spending and achieving real business results, now is the perfect time for companies to adjust your media approach. 

While cookies allowed advertisers to access specific audience segments, they were still confined to digital behaviors. Very few media platforms (except GroundTruth) combined online and real-world behaviors to create audiences most likely to take action towards advertisers’ goals. Now that cookies are disappearing, the value of offline behavior in audience segments is immeasurable. Need proof? Let us explain. 

In-Store Visits Prove Intent and Patterns 

Consider the way you browse online during any given day. Some behaviors, like restocking household items, show immediate intent and affinity. But most of our browsing is driven by curiosity. We want to know about the car we saw for the first time, or see the kinds of couches even if they don’t fall in our budget, or daydream about luxury hotels in Greece. 

Compare that to the various retail stores or restaurants you’ve visited. Likely, you don’t show up unless you have intent to buy. For advertisers, building audience segments around real-world behavior provides much greater value without the need for cookies. Performance metrics that matter most to executives, like ROAS and conversions, are much higher with precise audience targeting based on these behaviors and habits. 

Of course, the choice isn’t one or the other. Advertisers should use all tools available to them to run effective campaigns. However, when determining which platforms and tools to use for your new, cookieless plan, those that provide the most precise and relevant audience segments are the ones to invest your money in. 

In-Store Visits Support New and Existing Customer Journeys 

The other important reason to invest in media platforms that build audiences around real-world behavior is to support all stages of the customer journey. Especially in expensive markets, campaigns catered to existing and past customers help increase ROAS and other critical performance metrics. 

Knowing what campaigns bring new people to your locations, what compels people to come back, and what doesn’t, helps build more effective campaigns across all channels. That means not only will digital advertising improve, but offline channels, like out-of-home or direct mail ads will perform better. That omnichannel approach is the only way to get companies to grow in today’s market.

Get In-Store Visits and Other Real Business Results from GroundTruth

If you want to see what is possible for your ad campaigns with cookiesless audience targeting, contact us today. We can walk you through all the powerful features available to GroundTruth customers.