Adam Deflorian is the Founder and CEO of AZDS Interactive Group, an agency based in Denver, Colorado.
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As hoteliers continue to grapple with the piercing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s a lesser-known obstacle emerging in the quest to win online bookings: the blocking of third-party cookies. Apple’s Safari browser now blocks all third-party cookies, and Google is planning to phase out support for third-party cookies in Chrome by 2022.
While it hasn’t yet been officially confirmed, chances are that these are the first of many sweeping changes we can expect over the coming years in conjunction with the California Consumer Privacy Act and the General Data Protection Regulation.
The way things are heading, the prospect of a “cookie-less” world is becoming increasingly likely (and alarming) for hotel marketers. Cookies have become an indispensable part of our toolbox in recent years and substantially help us optimize our advertising, create personalized content, run triggered email campaigns and measure the performance of our websites.
That said, everyone will be on the same playing field and the only thing we can do is innovate and create new strategies. The situation will surely evolve in the coming months, but here are some of my initial thoughts on how hotel marketers can adjust to this new reality.
Transition To First-Party Data
The premise behind the changes to cookies is to create more transparency in the brand-consumer relationship. As such, the best way to gain information on your consumers is through first-party data (i.e., simply asking your guests directly) as opposed to third-party cookies.
This doesn’t just have to be through your confirmed reservations where guests provide you with information through the booking engine. You can also tap into your call center records, which provide a treasure trove of data on guest intent, background, motivations and preferences. These can be quantified using predictive analytics technologies that analyze your conversations and transform them into actionable consumer data.
Collect Email Addresses
While collecting guest and prospect email addresses has always been critical for hoteliers, it will likely take on a new level of importance in a post-cookie world. By partnering with ad tech vendors, hoteliers will be able to synchronize email addresses with data that consumers have voluntarily provided to companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon. In lieu of cookies, this may be a hotel’s main outlet for third-party data going forward.
The question here becomes one of incentivizing guests to provide their email addresses. Hotels have many ways of doing so, from offering perks like complimentary Wi-Fi, refundable rates or early check-in/late check-out. Given the changing landscape of travel due to Covid-19, there will also likely be increased guest demand for keyless entry and contactless mobile check-in. So if you offer these as incentives, you might also be able to gather additional data points like the purpose of the trip, travel preferences, interests and more.
Use Contextual And People-Based Targeting
Advertising will arguably feel the greatest impact of cookie restrictions, given the role of third-party cookies in finding new and qualified audiences. Without access to cookies, advertisers will need to turn to alternate strategies to put their messages in front of the right audiences.
One way to proceed is through contextual advertising, which, in contrast to behavioral advertising, targets a consumer based on the pages they’re currently engaging with. For example, if a consumer is currently researching travel, they’ll be served ads for a hotel, and when they switch to reading about fashion, they’ll be served ads related to clothing. This type of strategy will force hoteliers to place renewed emphasis on distributing excellent content that is well-suited for high-performing keywords.
Another strategy that I believe will continue to grow in the coming years is people-based advertising. Made popular by Facebook, this method uses data that’s related to the behavioral history of the person behind the screen, not the device they’re using. This requires reliance on first-party data — as discussed above — so that your customer relationship management (CRM) tool can capture information about a certain consumer and match your content and campaigns accordingly. Pivotal to a successful people-based targeting strategy, of course, is partnering with a sophisticated CRM solution that allows you to collect, track and leverage advanced data insights using machine learning.
While the transition to a cookie-less future will create large-scale changes for the way hoteliers target and market to their consumers, it shouldn’t be cause for panic. It’s meant to create a more authentic and less intrusive online experience for guests, and I see it as a long-term positive change that will foster more trusting relationships between hotels and their consumers. The key will be for hoteliers to get both creative and methodical about collecting first-party data, leveraging powerful CRM tools and adjusting the way they communicate with and incentivize guests. I recommend keeping a close eye on this space over the coming years — as technology races to keep up with new policies and regulations, I expect to see quite a bit of innovation.
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Author: Adam Deflorian, Forbes Councils Member
