7 Types of Cookies Important for Marketers

We have all heard about cookies, right? We’re not talking about the round, delicious snack that many people love eating. This article is about cookies related to technology.

So, what are cookies?

Simply put, cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites you visit. These files allow the website to store information about your visit.

Before we deep-dive into the types of cookies that are important for marketers to be aware of, let’s discuss the cookie policies:

Cookie Policies

Any website that makes use of cookies needs to have a cookie policy. It’s required because the users need to be informed of the ways your company is making use of data.

A cookie policy should include the following details:

• What personal data is processed by the cookies on your website?
• How long will the users be tracked?
• What types of cookies are used?
• What option should the customer click to opt-in or opt-out of cookie usage?
• How can users change their cookie preferences?

Having a cookie policy template not only ensures that you cover all the information mentioned above, but also makes sure that you’re compliant with all the different data protection laws. For instance, a cookie policy is a requirement for regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Let’s discuss the different types of cookies:

First-Party Cookies

These are cookies that are set by the website the user is visiting. First-party cookies are used to store user preferences that enhance the browsing experience. Marketers have access to the following user preferences:

• Login information of users
• Language settings
• Items used in the shopping cart

Marketers review these analytics from dashboards of websites to better understand user behavior.

Abandoned cart email examples often rely on first-party cookies to track items left in the shopping cart. By leveraging this information, marketers can craft targeted messages to encourage users to complete their purchases and improve overall conversion rates.

Google Analytics makes use of first-party cookies. For example, for WordPress website, Google Analytics plugin can be installed and marketers can gain access to even more data:

• Bounce rate
• Traffic source (social media, direct traffic, search engines, referrals etc.)
• Duration spent on each page
• Number of clicks on each page
• The geographical location of website visitors

A drawback of using first-party cookies is that marketers can’t give a lot of information about users if the website traffic is insignificant.

Session Cookies

Session cookies are temporary cookies that are deleted when the user closes their web browser. They are used to store user preferences and enhance the user’s browsing experience.

The information in session cookies is stored in a memory location that’s temporary.

Persistent Cookies

Persistent cookies are stored on the user’s device for a longer period of time, even after the user has closed their web browser. Persistent cookies remember settings, preferences, information and sign-on credentials:

Even after a user revisits some other website after closing a particular domain, the issuer of the cookie will receive data. Similarly, when a user clicks on a certain ad, the cookies will store the data.

Flash Cookies

These are cookies that are stored on a user’s device using Adobe Flash Player. They are often used in videos and advertisements on websites.

Adobe Flash is a popular browser plugin so flash cookies come into play whenever a browser requests content. When a user deletes cookies from the browser, it doesn’t affect flash cookies. To clear flash cookies, a user needs to go to Adobe Flash Player settings.

Flash cookies store specific information on the device of the end user. The information includes the place where the video of a user stopped playing or a place where the animated banner advertisement stopped rotating.

Do Not Track (DNT) Cookies

These are cookies that are set by the user’s web browser to indicate that they do not want to be tracked by cookies. DNT prevents online tracking.

DNT was introduced in 2011, but it never got widely accepted since it’s not a legal requirement.

It can be used along with other anti-tracking activities such as private browsing, setting up a VPN and hiding IP addresses.

HTML5 Cookies

These are cookies that are stored on a user’s device using a browser-based local storage. They are faster and more secure than conventional cookies.

Also known as HTML 5 Web Storage, HTML5 cookies were made to remove the security concern that comes with traditional cookies. They work by storing the data in the browser in two different forms:

• Local storage acts as the persistent storage
• Session storage stores data until the session expires

In this manner, confidential transactions are removed easily. At the same time, it can also store more data than other conventional cookies.

Third-Party Cookies

Third-party cookies are put last on the list on purpose.

This is because Google released an update saying that it will be phasing out third-party cookies by 2024.

Third-party cookies are set by a website other than the one being visited by the user. They are used for tracking user activity and showing advertisements accordingly.

Third-party cookies are used to track your shopping cart when you browse certain websites.

Let’s suppose, you’re browsing through an e-commerce store. You add a sweatshirt to your cart, but decide to complete the purchase later. If the browser has third-party cookies enabled, you will be shown ads according to your browsing done on the e-commerce store. In this case, an image of the sweatshirt will be shown to you.

How Important Are Cookies for Marketers?

Although cookies are of significant importance, as discussed above, marketers need to reduce their dependencies on third-party cookies.

This doesn’t mean that cookies are losing their relevance completely.

Server-Side Tracking

With server-side tracking, you can gain information about the IP addresses of users and the web browsers they’re using. In server-side tracking, a pixel is used to forward data to your organization’s web server. This is done via JavaScript requests.

Google Tag Manager assists in server-side tracking. Using Google Tag Manager, companies can control who gets access to data and who doesn’t. As a marketer, you need to demonstrate the purpose for which data will be used.

Tag management helps in conversion tracking, remarketing and site analytics. Marketers can change tags to track different activities and then show advertisements accordingly.

ID Providers

Marketers can make use of universal identifiers – unique IDs assigned to users. Unlike cookies, there’s no need to sync data from different websites or platforms.

How do unique identifiers work?

Unique identifiers are stored in the browser of users and then the identifier is checked when the website is visited by the user.

Once an “if-none-match” header is implemented, users can be tracked seamlessly.

Unique identifiers are hashed which keeps the personal information (phone numbers, emails etc.) secure.

With the help of universal IDs, advertisers can run cross-platform campaigns.

Building Your Own Subscriber Base

Having a strong subscriber base means you have a user-base who have shown interest in your brand. Consumers have shared their email addresses with you. This makes it possible to track their behavior on the website.

Marketing your new deals, products and discounts to them is likely to produce the required results.

Having subscribers means you don’t need to use cookies to gather data and analyze user behavior.

Contextual Targeting

This is a form of targeted advertising – something that doesn’t require collecting data from the users.

It works by showing consumers advertisements related to the theme of the content. For instance, if you’re reading an article related to a football match, users will be shown advertisements of the latest football.

This way there’s no need to collect consumer behavioral data through cookies. Show ads relevant to the niche of the content.

Device Fingerprinting

Fingerprinting is a method of identifying users according to their fingerprints. It’s the same fingerprints or thumbprints that are used to unlock devices or access websites.

Unlike cookies, fingerprinting is stored in a database on server-side. Through fingerprinting, the following information can be accessed:

• The devices of users
• Language settings
• IP address
• Web browser
• Operating system
• Screen resolution
• Time zone

As of now, fingerprinting is not regulated by the General Data Privacy Regulations (GDPR) so there’s a privacy concern. Users can’t choose not to get tracked via fingerprinting.

Through fingerprinting, the internet history of users can also be tracked, so marketers have access to more information than what’s considered ethical.

To conclude, it’s important for marketers to:

• Be aware of the different types of cookies
• Make sure the website’s sitemap generator supports cookies
• Understand how to use cookies effectively to track and target their audience.
• Know about the alternatives to cookies
• Respect users’ privacy

Follow relevant laws and regulations regarding cookie usage.