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Google is flexing its online advertising muscles. The company will eliminate third-party advertising cookies and will not replace them with technologies that make it possible to track individual users across the Internet. Google and other Technology giants control the most eyeballs and will continue to control online advertising spend. In addition to online advertising services, we believe Technology giants such as Google and Facebook will increasingly offer SMB customers technology-enabled services that facilitate ecommerce activity.
Rather than track individual users across the Internet with cookies and other cross-device techniques that identify individuals, Google will enable Ad buyers to target cohorts of anonymous users across its online properties. Companies with significant online presences such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Snap and TikTok will continue to capture the lion’s share of online advertising spend as these companies control the most eyeballs.
Further, the way in which we believe this will play out is that Ad buyers will develop tighter relationships with Google, Instagram, TikTok etc. not only in terms of Ad spend, but in terms of building out their online presence. This will mitigate the risk of losing the ability to track individuals across online properties and devices (even if companies such as The Trade Desk continue to offer third-party tracking technologies). For example, Ad buyers can leverage Google Retail to make it easier for customers to engage and transact online. Instagram is another example of a platform that business customers may leverage not only for promotional activities but to enable customers to transact. Google hired Bill Ready from PayPal (PYPL’s former COO), to lead Google Retail. Facebook recently acquired Kustomer to provide CRM tools to small businesses to cite another example.