The state of third-party marketing cookies | Analysis by Ebiquity x Cookiebot CMP

Ebiquity and Cookiebot CMP.

Published January 18, 2021.

Ebiquity and Cookiebot consent management platform (CMP) jointly analyzed the state of third-party marketing cookies (3PMCs) on large ad-funded domains to see what difficulties face media advertisers and end-users alike under a global pandemic, where consumers increasingly shop online.

In this blogpost, see some of the key findings from our joint analysis and learn more about how Cookiebot CMP can help balance data privacy and data-driven business on your website.

Download the full report at Ebiquity

Advertising risks and 3PMCs

In the time of a global pandemic, consumers increasingly turn to the internet to do their shopping.

The increase in consumers shopping on the internet presents many opportunities for online advertisers, but also comes with risks of breaking global privacy laws – and customer trust – when using third-party marketing cookies in non-compliant and privacy-infringing ways.

Even though Google has announced the end of third-party cookies in Chrome in 2022, these trackers are still one of the most-used ways of running web-based advertisement today – and processing personal data from end-users remains vital to making such advertisement successful.

Ebiquity and Cookiebot CMP. — Ebiquity and Cookiebot CMP found that over 90% of websites use at least one third-party marketing cookie without end-user consent.

Data privacy is increasingly becoming a consumer demand and a metric of brand reputation with 79% of consumers saying that it is a buying factor for them, according to a 2021 study by Cisco.

That’s why, in the busy holiday season of high user traffic and online marketing, advertisers risk both heavy fines for non-compliance with global data privacy laws like the EU’s GDPR and California’s CCPA/CPRA that require transparency and end-user control around the use of cookies, and negative customer relations if users don’t feel that their right to this data privacy is respected.

To shed light on the state of third-party marketing cookies and the difficulties facing media advertisers and end-users alike, Ebiquity – world leader in media investment analysis – and Cookiebot CMP teamed up to conduct a joint analysis of the state of third-party marketing cookies today.

Key findings from the Ebiquity x Cookiebot CMP report

Here are some of the key findings from the joint analysis. To see the full report, download it at Ebiquity.

51.6% of all cookies scanned were “marketing cookies”Ebiquity and Cookiebot CMP scanned a total of 185,600 cookies and found that half were “marketing cookies”, i.e. trackers used by the domains to serve advertisement to their end-users.

82.4% of all marketing cookies were third-party marketing cookiesEbiquity and Cookiebot CMP also found that a substantial majority of all marketing cookies scanned on the large ad-funded websites were provided by third parties, e.g. media advertisers and not the websites themselves.

92.6% of all scanned domains placed at least one third-party marketing cookie before the user had given consentEbiquity and Cookiebot CMP concluded that almost all websites scanned in the joint analysis were non-compliant with global data privacy laws, like the EU’s GDPR, which requires explicit end-user consent to be obtained before any personal data is allowed to be processed.

32.3% of all third-party marketing cookies were placed prior to user consentEbiquity and Cookiebot CMP detected that a third of all the cookies most often used by media advertisers to create successful online marketing campaigns were activated without the consent of the end-users, creating risks of high fines for non-compliance and eroding consumer trust.

70.1% of all 3PMCs transfer data to non-EU territoriesEbiquity and Cookiebot CMP also found that two thirds of all third-party marketing cookies in use on some of the largest ad-funded domains transfer personal data from end-users out of the EU, e.g. to the US. This is only legal if the end-user has given their explicit consent to do so but, since a third of all third-party marketing cookies were used without such consent, advertisers face risks.

Download the full 3PMC report at Ebiquity

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How was the Ebiquity and Cookiebot CMP analysis carried out?

Cookiebot CMP is a plug-and-play consent management platform built around an unrivaled scanning technology that can detect all cookies and similar tracking technologies of any website, regardless of shape and size.

The Cookiebot CMP scanning technology simulates real-life users visiting a website – scrolling, browsing and clicking, and activating all cookies and trackers embedded on the domain e.g. by the use of advertising platforms, analytics services and social media plugins.

In fact, Cookiebot CMP finds 63% more cookies and trackers than any competitor CMP on the market.

In this joint analysis, the powerful Cookiebot CMP scanning technology was able to scan and analyze 796 out of 1,000 domains provided by Ebiquity based on programmatic ad investments of the top 100 global advertisers.

All scans were performed by Cookiebot CMP from an IP address in the EU. A total number of 185,600 cookies were scanned.

About Ebiquity and Cookiebot CMP

Ebiquity is a world leader in media investment analysis, providing independent, fact-based advice that enables brand owners to perfect media investment decisions and improve business outcomes. More than 70 of the world’s top 100 advertisers choose Ebiquity as their trusted independent media advisor.