Have you ever wondered how you are able to receive the data or specific ads that you are interested in viewing? How are you able to log in to a specific website even without the credentials? Many of you might not have noticed it, or many think it is invasive, but actually, it's normal.
Are you also the one who thinks that the internet knows everything about you? Actually, it's not the case. Sharing the right information with the right audience is all where cookies come into the picture.
Well! In this digital world, data (information) is most valuable and plays an important role, and this data is collected through website cookies by the website owners.
Digital cookies are a vital part of any Internet surfing experience. A computer cookie can also be referred to as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, internet cookie, and browser cookies, but they all refer to the same thing: a way to follow your website's activity.
A web cookie is a small text or code placed by web owners to save the information by your web browser. When a website is loaded or visited by you, the site may place cookies on your web browser so that it can track and recognize your device in the future.
Later on, if you visit the site, it can read that cookie to remember from your last visit and keep track of it over time. So you'll often see search results that are most relevant to you when you're using Google or other search engines.
Still confused? Need not worry! In this blog, you will get to know in-depth about web cookies and their importance in digital marketing.
What are Web cookies and their Importance?
Cookies are basically the small files that websites send to your device and that websites then use to monitor you and recall certain information about you—such as what's in your shopping cart on an e-commerce website or your login information.
Basically, it enables site owners to obtain information about the most visited pages, how much time visitors are spending on certain pages, and many other statistics on user behavior on their website.
Some website owners send you to accept the cookies before the site opens completely. This is all because cookies store your browsing behavior, so you will often see the most relevant search results for you when you use Google or other search engines.
Web cookies are used behind the scenes to activate many standard website functionalities. In addition, the data collected by cookies allows site owners to analyze how visitors interact with their site then make changes that enhance the site's performance and offer a better user experience.
These cookies will tell the webmaster what type of audience is looking for and which information is browsing for, and with the help of artificial intelligence, respective data will be passed to that particular device or web browsers.
What happens if you don't accept cookies? –The potential issue with refusing to accept cookies is that some website owners may not authorize you to use their websites if you do not accept their cookies.
Another drawback is that without acceptance, you cannot receive the complete user experience on certain websites.
Cookies have been of major importance to the digital industry since the commercialization of digital marketing and programmatic advertising. However, the scenario is changing, and the use of cookie-based information is on the verge of fading, as Google's updates to phase out cookies will take effect in less than a year.
For this reason, Ads publishers and advertisers will have to turn to alternative solutions to earn ad revenue and serve ads that are relevant to users.
Yes, Cookies have numerous uses, but the most important are session management, user customization, and tracking.
These are simple text files that you can open with Notepad. In advertising technology, cookies are basically used to track users across the web.
Certain cookies may monitor users through websites and devices. Cookies are also commonly used in automated advertising targeting, where advertisements are shown to users on the basis of their activity on your website or other sites.
For example, Google text ads, image ads, and video ads are advertisements on each of your blog posts, and it tailors the advertisements to the user based on the data collected by the cookies.
Even where cookie-based tracking is not related to a specific username or device, with certain types of tracking, it could still be possible to link a record of a user's navigation activity to his or her true identity. This information could be used in many ways for unintended advertising for surveillance.
In May 2018, the GDPR General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) came into effect. It states that companies should be transparent about what information they're gathering and why.
It's certainly good that various tech companies and website owners act more transparent with users as they know what they're doing with their data and how they're tracking them.
Impressed to know what cookies are used for. Great! Are you looking forward to knowing which type of cookie is for you?
Different Types of Cookies
Basically, various types of cookies available will help you improve your website traffic. It includes:
First-party cookies: These cookies are placed by the site you visit. First-party cookies are recorded by the domain (website) you visit directly.
They allow the site owners to collect analytical data, store language settings, and perform other useful features that help provide a good user experience.
Third-party Cookies: They are those that advertisers place to see what interests you, and in turn, you serve ads – even when you leave the original website you visited.
Third-party cookies are defined by domains that are not immediately visited by the user when publishers add third-party items (such as chatbots, social plug-ins, or ads) to their websites.
Session cookies: It expires immediately or in the seconds following the user's departure from the web browser.
Among various uses, these cookies are used by eCommerce sites to remember the product placed in the shopping cart by the user, to keep users connected, and to compute each user session for analytic purposes.
Persistent Cookies: All these cookies are stored on a user's device to help remember previous information, settings, preferences, or login credentials that a user has saved.
This helps to create a hands-on and faster website experience. These cookies have an expiry date released by the webserver.
Secure Cookies: A secure cookie is one that can only be sent to the server with an encrypted query through the HTTPS protocol. With this Secure cookie, sensitive information should never be stored in cookies, as it is intrinsically unsafe and the indicator cannot provide real protection.
The final Say
Indeed, cookies play a huge role in digital marketing. By making the best use of cookies, you can easily capture users' data, after which you convert the visitors into leads.
Hopefully, the points added above will help you understand cookies and their usage in digital marketing. So, what are you waiting for? Start making the best use of cookies and get high quality traffic time and again. Still have any issues, feel free to contact us.
Editor- Divya
