Source: AdExchanger
Last Friday, Facebook sent out an email to advertisers and publishers announcing that on October 24 it will start offering a first-party cookie option for the Facebook tracking pixel, which will enable advertisers to target their ads and measure them without relying on third-party cookies.
The news could have quite an impact on Facebook advertising, given the treatment that some browsers give the third-party cookies, most notably Apple’s Safari.
Advertisers and publishers can log into Events Manager, Facebook’s data management system, to update their settings in preparation for the update already.
“This change is in line with updates made by other online platforms, as use of first-party cookies for ads and site analytics is becoming the preferred approach by some browsers,” Facebook wrote in its message.
Apple has been particularly aggressive in its attacks on third-party cookies in Safari, starting with Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) last year, a mechanism that blocks cookies if they don’t have a first-party connection to the user.
In June at its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple made a move to kill digital fingerprinting in iOS 12 and its latest Mac OS, making a direct dig at Facebook.
ITP is a particular headache for Facebook, which relies on third-party cookies to match website events from Safari users, to measure conversions, to optimize performance and to build segments for things like Dynamic Ads or website Custom Audiences.
Advertisers and publishers aren’t required to enable first-party cookies within the Facebook pixel, but, if they don’t, the information Facebook is able to share back on campaign measurement will be curtailed.
Although the way Facebook’s ad products work won’t change, in cases where there aren’t first-party cookies feeding Facebook’s pixel, reporting will inevitably be less granular for conversions and activity coming from Safari.
