Digiday+ Research: Publishers expected Google to keep cookies, but they’re moving on anyway

This is according to a Digiday+ Research survey conducted in the third quarter of this year among 40 publisher professionals.

Digiday’s survey found that the vast majority of publishers plan to find alternatives to cookies, despite Google’s decision to abandon their removal from the Chrome browser. A whopping 80% of publisher pros said in Q3 that their companies are more likely to continue with plans to find alternatives to third-party cookies, even in light of Google’s new plan to let consumers decide whether to be tracked via cookies.

Just 20% of publisher pros said they would continue to rely on third-party cookies in light of Google’s decision.

Digiday’s survey also found that most publishers did expect Google to change its mind about killing cookies, though. Seventy percent of publisher pros said in Q3 that their companies expected Google to change its third-party cookie deprecation plans before the end of the year, while just 13% said they disagreed.

Nearly half of publishers said they agreed somewhat that they saw Google’s reversal on cookies coming (43% said this). And more than a quarter (28%) said they agreed strongly that Google’s cookie reversal was expected. Meanwhile, a mere 5% of publishers said they disagreed strongly that they saw Google’s decision coming.

Despite the fact that publishers said they expected Google to backtrack on its cookie deprecation plans, Digiday’s survey found that they were already prepared to track consumers without third-party cookies. Seventy-seven percent of publisher pros told Digiday in Q3 that they agreed that their companies had solidified a strategy for tracking consumers without cookies. Thirteen percent disagreed.

Digging into the data a bit further, publishers feel strongly about this. Thirty-eight percent of publisher pros agreed strongly that they already had a strategy for tracking data in a post-cookie world as of the third quarter. Just 8% disagreed strongly. Forty percent of publishers agreed somewhat that their strategy for tracking consumers without third-party cookies had been solidified by Q3.