Cookie Management Solutions

Google’s recent decision not to deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome underscores the need for a diversified approach to account identification and targeting. While Google’s news is certainly a shift, the reality is that third-party cookies have been fading for years as other browsers have stopped using them and privacy regulations have changed. Google’s wavering on the topic of cookies doesn’t affect 6sense users, because we’ve built a robust, future-proof strategy for industry-leading account identification. Our patented 6signal™ system leverages multiple identifiers, including integrations with closed ecosystem ad platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, to ensure precise targeting. Additionally, our use of alternative identifiers like RampID and Unified ID, along with publisher first-party data, ensures we remain effective with or without cookies. Here’s how we’ve been future-proofing our identification and targeting solution: ✅ Integrations with Closed Ecosystem Ad Platforms • Platforms like Google, LinkedIn, and Meta provide robust first-party data. • 6sense's native integrations leverage this data for precise targeting, bypassing third-party cookies. ✅ Persona Targeting • Essential for targeting the right audience within identified companies to maximize advertising investment. ✅ Contextual Targeting • Advertising on pages about specific topics reaches audiences in the right frame of mind, improving results. ✅ Alternative Identifiers • Use of RampID, Unified ID, and others for cookie-free audience targeting and reporting. • More robust and privacy-conscious than traditional cookie-based identifiers. Despite Google’s latest move, the decline of third-party cookies continues. Our adaptable, multi-graph strategy keeps 6sense and our clients ahead of the curve, ready for whatever the future holds.

Your privacy team didn't sign up to become a cookie engineering department. But that's exactly what happened. Six enforcement actions in twelve months. Every single one about cookie banners, opt-out mechanisms, or consent tools. And just like that, cookie governance became your entire job. Not part of your job. Your. Entire. Job. Here's what ""cookie governance"" actually means in practice, because regulators seem to think this is a quick fix: → Audit every tag, pixel, and tracker across every digital property → Map each one to a vendor contract → Confirm those contracts contain CCPA-required terms → Configure your CMP to ensure symmetry of choice (""Reject All"" as prominent as ""Accept All"") → Validate that GPC signals are honored account-wide, not just per device → Test that opt-out requests actually suppress third-party tracking — not just your own → Scan at least quarterly (but honestly this needs to be done daily!) and maintain an inventory of everything → Document it all for potential regulator review (and there's much more) Many of us believe: "My CMP vendor handles this - they scan automatically, they alert you, they manage the categories." CMP tools have gotten so much better - but they are not magic bullets and teams are surprised by how much work is invlved in ongoing mainteance. And, no CMP can force you to check, review and approve a new tag that dropped, even if it alerted you that it did. It can't fix your vendor contracts or do employee training or ensure your webform opt-outs actually suppress third-party tracking behind the scenes (though some comapnies have solutions for this). Todd Snyder got fined $345,000 in part because their CMP was misconfigured for 40 straight days — and nobody caught it. A tool is only as good as the team configuring, monitoring, and acting on what it finds. The point stands: this isn't a task. It's a program. A program that requires engineering resources, vendor cooperation, QA testing, legal review, and ongoing monitoring. And most privacy teams were already understaffed before this became Priority #1. The CPPA ordered Tractor Supply to scan its digital properties quarterly and submit annual compliance certifications signed by a company officer — for the next four years. Disney has 60 days to report back on remediation. These aren't one-time fixes. They're permanent operational commitments. I've been in privacy for over 20 years. I've watched enforcement cycles come and go. And I've never seen a single compliance area consume this much oxygen this fast. So here's the question nobody's asking: What stopped getting done when cookies became 90% of the workload? More on that in my next post. I'm writing a 5-part series on what happens when enforcement priorities crowd out the rest of a privacy program. Follow along if you're living this right now. (1/5) Follow Teresa Troester-Falk for real-world privacy guidance grounded in how the work actually gets done.

All organizations must comply with evolving privacy regulations and meet customer expectations. Clarity on what needs to be managed is critical. These are three key areas to focus on: 1) Privacy Rights Requests. 2) Consent & Communication Preference 3) Cookie Consent Management. Here are details: 1) Privacy Rights Requests (DSRs) These rights are governed by laws like GDPR (EU), CCPA (US), etc. They empower individuals to control their personal data, including: -- Access, Delete, Correct, Portability. Example: “Send me all data you have about me” -- Restrict Processing, Withdraw Consent. Example: “Pause processing my data for marketing” -- Object to Automated Decisions Example: “Request human review of a loan application instead of relying solely on an algorithm.” -- Opt-Out of Sale/Sharing Example: “Do not sell my data to third parties” (CCPA) -- Limit Sensitive Data Use Example: “Restrict use of my health data for analytics” 2) Consent & Communication Preferences Governed by: GDPR, TCPA (US), CAN-SPAM (US), CASL (Canada), etc These preferences give customers control over following engagement: -- Marketing opt-in/out (email, SMS, calls) Example: “Subscribe to product updates via email” -- Transactional notifications Example: “Receive SMS for delivery status” -- Terms acceptance Example: “Agree to app Terms of Service before use” -- Sensitive data consent Example: “Allow use of biometric data for authentication” -- Frequency & channel preferences Example: “Send me monthly newsletters, not weekly” 3) Cookie Consent Management These are governed by: ePrivacy Directive (EU), GDPR, CPRA, etc They ensure transparency and compliance with tracking technologies: -- Published cookie policy Example: “View detailed cookie categories on website” -- Consent banners (accept/reject/preferences) Example: “Choose analytics cookies only” -- Block non-essential cookies until consent Example: “No ad tracking until user opts in” -- Record and audit consent Example: “Store timestamp of user’s cookie choice” -- Editable/revocable consent Example: “Change cookie settings anytime via footer link” -- Essential cookies exempt Example: “Session cookies for login remain active”

At a recent marketer’s conference, a CMO asked me: "Cookies are dead. So, how do we measure performance without them?" Their question stuck with me because it’s one I hear almost every week. The truth is, post-cookie measurement isn’t about less data—it’s about doing it SMARTER. Let me explain... ---------------------------------- So, here's the situation that most brands face (many don't even know this): → Data fragmentation that doesn't give you a unified view of online and offline efforts → Metrics biased by inflated ROAS and platform spin → A skills gap that makes new tools feel out of reach The solution? It’s time to rethink your measurement stack. ---------------------------------- Here’s how to find the right tools in a post-cookie world: → Align with business goals Choose tools that measure: - Long-term growth - Incremental revenue, and - Customer lifetime value—not just short-term clicks → Look for cross-channel coverage Make sure your platform integrates with: - Paid - Organic - offline, and - Influencer marketing → Demand transparency Ask vendors how they derive insights. Don't just blindly trust black-box algorithms—remember trust is built on clarity. → Invest in training and onboarding Use tools that your team can actually use. Ask your vendors to support your team via workshops and training sessions. → Get stakeholder buy-in Explain to them the long-term benefits to your clients, teams, and executives. Show them how better measurement drives better ROI. ---------------------------------- How are you getting ready for a cookie-less future? Let’s chat in the comments.

It's finally here - as of yesterday, Chrome started blocking third-party cookies on 1% of users, and will fully phase them out by Q3. The next few months are going to really upend AdTech and the workflow of performance marketers. We've been hearing a lot of questions on this so I wanted to take a few minutes to share some early best practices we’ve learned through our work with customers. For publishing ads on your website: build first-party audiences. Ad publishers can earn more in auctions (and direct sales) by offering targeted audiences. 3P cookies were the go-to route for this for years but have already been losing efficacy. Our customer bol, a major European e-commerce retailer, replaced their 3P-cookie-driven audiences with ones they curated with their collected 1P data and were able to significantly improve ad performance. You can read their full case study here: https://lnkd.in/eXtuh4JZ For advertising on walled gardens: connect to Conversion APIs. Most social media and ad platforms like Meta, TikTok, and Nextdoor have built Conversion APIs to replace their deprecating 3P cookies (such as the Meta Pixel). You can send your completed conversions directly to these APIs to improve automated campaign performance and reporting. You can also leverage these on platforms like Google Ads (where they’re called “Enhanced Conversions.”) We’ve written a lot about this and have built integrations into many Conversion APIs through Hightouch; you can learn more here: https://lnkd.in/ezsDNyHQ For advertising on the open web: explore 3rd-party data alternatives. There are many solutions vying for dominance to help advertisers connect to customers on the broader internet. I’m personally really interested to see how this space plays out in the next few months. Google is offering APIs for advertisers and publishers to target audiences called “Privacy Sandbox,” while a slew of other players offer alternative IDs to stitch together user information, such as The Trade Desk’s Unified ID 2.0 and Epsilon’s CoreID. It’s cliche at this point to say that “the future of advertising is first-party data…” but we’re finally at that future. What do you think? How are you prepping for cookie-pocalypse? What other strategies should people take?

One huge tracking improvement you're not using (yet): → implementing a CDN. Why is this important? ITP in Safari blocks 1st-party cookies (used for GA4 / Google Ads conversion attribution) when they are set by 3rd-party IPs (e.g. your tagging server URL). I've seen cases of Safari / iOS making up over 70% of a client's website traffic. This means that even though you are using server-side GTM, your GA4 / Google Ads conversion window is only 7 days for 70% of your website's traffic. There are multiple ways to combat this: → Cookie keeper / recovery via Stape / Taggrs (indirect solution). ↳ These tools restore your removed cookies based on a "master cookie" that stores unique user IDs. → Implementing a CDN (direct solution). ↳ This makes sure website content serving and cookie placement work via the same IPs. I especially like the CDN solution, because it directly solves the 3rd-party IP issue and can be used regardless of tagging server provider. (And it possibly increases your website speed as well.) Google calls it "first-party mode"; same principle, different name. They wrote a great guide on how to set it up though. I feel like this is a huge tracking improvement many advertisers are not yet aware of, especially for those working with 7+ day customer journeys. #ppc #sea #googleads #googletagmanager

🚨 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗧𝗮𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗧𝗮𝗴 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲s 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 When implementing tags in Google Tag Manager (GTM), you might often need to create or update cookies in the user's browser. To make this easier and smarter, I've built two custom tag templates designed to handle cookie management with added flexibility and efficiency: 🍪 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 (𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁) 🍪 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝗹𝗸 𝗖𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 (𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁) Let's take a quick look at what each one does. 🟢 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 (𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁) Use this template when you need to create or update a single cookie. It lets you define the cookie name, value, expiration time, and more. This is likely the one you'll use most often. 🟢 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝗹𝗸 𝗖𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 (𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁) This template is ideal when you want to set multiple cookies in response to a single user action, for example, storing several identifiers or session-related values at once. It eliminates the need to set up multiple tags for each cookie. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁: ⚙️ 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼-𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗻: If this option is enabled, the cookie's expiration time is updated every time the tag fires, which is useful for extending session-based logic. ⚙️ 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀: Cookies won't be created if the value is null, undefined, or an empty string, saving you the trouble of writing custom logic or triggers. Both templates also allow for full control over standard cookie configuration settings. You can find them here: ➡️ The Cookie Setter (Smart) – https://lnkd.in/daUUF3J3 ➡️ The Bulk Cookie Setter (Smart) – https://lnkd.in/dPkks6B4 They've also been submitted for review to be included in the GTM Community Template Gallery. Keep an eye on the Attribution Insight Tag release announcement, plus a few GTM custom templates that were just approved by Google. One last thing: Always ensure that you obtain user consent before setting cookies. And if you need to read cookie values or retrieve data from localStorage, sessionStorage, or the data layer, check out the Advanced Storage Utility Variable, which I shared earlier in this LinkedIn post. https://lnkd.in/dYw7qSRF I would love to hear what you think, as using these tag templates helps you avoid using custom HTML tags or writing JavaScript from scratch. #Cookie #GoogleTagManager #GTM #Analytics

People often ask me, How do you handle European cookie consent easily? Here’s what I say: ▶ GDPR and ePrivacy require clear consent before using cookies. ▶ Non-compliance can lead to fines up to €20M or 4% of global revenue. ▶ But here’s the thing, 60% of websites still get it wrong. Let’s make sure you’re not one of them. How? 𝘎𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘶𝘱. If you’re: ▶ Using a cookie banner. ▶ Asking users for consent. ▶ Blocking cookies when needed. But still feel unsure, here are some simple fixes to get it right: Make your cookie banner easy to use. Don’t frustrate your visitors. ✔ Add clear buttons like “Accept All,” “Reject All,” and “Customize.” ✔ Avoid sneaky practices (like hiding the “Reject” button). ✔ Use plain language, no one likes legal jargon! Stop relying solely on a banner. ✔ Use tools like GTM Server-Side to block cookies until users agree. ✔ Regularly audit your cookies with tools like Cookiebot to see what’s running behind the scenes. Adapt to local rules. GDPR applies across Europe, but some countries have their own twists. ✔ For example, Germany may require extra confirmations. ✔ France expects you to keep consent logs for at least six months. Use CMPs like OneTrust & Cookiebot to manage variations. Make consent easy to change with a “Revoke” button and editable preferences. My advice? Take one step at a time. Start with these basics, then gradually improve your setup. 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘴. PS: When was the last time you checked your cookie banner? It’s worth looking into!