As Jaywing’s resident Paid Media Director, I've researched Amazon’s ability to roll with the all the punches of a cookie-less future. This article will give an in depth look at Amazon’s strategy as experts in personalisation and explore the lessons we should learn from them in a future without cookies.
There’s one thing that all the experts can agree on in this – to succeed in a changing landscape, you must be able to adapt. As our use of cookies declines, retailers need to be thinking about how else they can engage their customers. If we can learn anything from Amazon’s targeting strategy, it’s that cookies aren’t a guaranteed way to secure effective advertising. So how else can we reach our audiences and give them ads they want to see?
Amazon's TV and marketplace ads are key examples of reaching audiences without relying on cookies. Amazon uses its vast customer data and algorithms to deliver targeted ads to audiences based on their viewing habits, interests and shopping preferences. This enhances the overall advertising experience for consumers, and ensures they are getting ads specifically personalised for them.
Amazon's ads show a unique ability to tailor content to each individual. A drawback of cookie-based targeting was that it was typically either too impersonal or too intrusive. This is not an issue for Amazon, which uses its wealth of consumer data to serve the most suitable ads for every consumer. Amazon can tailor ads based on all the different things that make you yourself - your favourite genre of books, whether you’re more free-weights or cardio, what you wear, your skincare routine, your car (or bike!), your go-to recipes, everything. And all of this is done without getting on the wrong side of the consumer. According to Statista, over 66% of UK consumers are willing to exchange their data to be served ads that are relevant to their needs2, thus emphasising the need for retailers to adapt their targeting strategies.
But personalisation isn’t all about having heaps of consumer data at your disposal. If your data is optimised for these insights and available as reports for a single customer view, you will be much more successful. If data is siloed, key information can be missed, which can bring down your personalised marketing initiative. It’s not just about the wealth of data Amazon has available to them, it’s also about how well they can organise and utilise it.
It’s likely, therefore, that your company might already have all the data it needs to achieve this. Your success lies within the structure of this data, and whether you can create a single customer view of online and offline behaviour.
At Jaywing, our creative and media strategy is all data powered. This means that, not only do we help brands capture and organise what they need for effective personalisation, but we can also ensure that personalised experiences are reflected through the customer funnel.
Most importantly, Amazon's approach prioritises transparency. A big issue faced with cookies was that users felt that they were being tricked or spied on by advertisers, which undermined their trust towards them. By allowing users to control their ad preferences and opt out of targeted ads if they wish, the consumer regains their choice and control over what they see.
You don’t have to be a retailer as large as Amazon to effectively personalise your ad targeting. In fact, the data produced by small retailers is typically much more useful than the data collected from ad servers. You also don’t need the budget of a large retailer to optimise your data – it only takes a small amount of investment to get this data into a workable format.
If you want full control over your data, avoid using an Amazon shopfront. While it can be tempting as a retailer to use Amazon as your shopfront, this hands over your entire customer relationship and all-important consumer insights. Collecting your own data gives you the all-important understanding of your customer base, and when you do this independently, you can use it to benefit your own sales, not Amazon’s.
In short, if you want to advertise successfully in the post-cookie world, take inspiration from Amazon’s method of personalisation. Amazon is paving the way for a cookie-free future. Their algorithms and data mean that they can deliver tailored ads with transparency and innovation, and without reliance on cookies. Their approach sets a precedent for retailers, promising a brighter future for advertising.
As featured in The Drum.