Author: Franz Malten Buemann

2020 was a whirlwind year for managers.
For instance, among her own personal experiences learning how to work in a pandemic, my manager also needed to demonstrate empathy for employees who had stresses that interfered with their ability to work at their best.
She adjusted deadlines, re-defined team goals, and created new standards for success that enabled her employees to perform well while also dealing with everything else they had on their plates — including childcare, health concerns, and, well, a global pandemic.  
Amidst the stresses of 2020, you’d be hard pressed to find a manager who didn’t make exceptions for her employees as they settled into this “new normal”.
But now, as we near the end of 2021, most of us have fully adjusted. I’ve ordered an at-home monitor and standing desk; my teammates and I regularly touch-base during our weekly Zoom meetings; and, in some respects, I’m more productive at home than I ever was in the office. (“Meet at the Smoothie Bar?” “Sure! Be there in five.”)
Which leads me to question: Are employees more productive now than they were in 2020? And, if they’re not, how can leaders respond to this potentially long-term shift in productivity levels?
Here, we conducted a survey to determine whether employees have become more or less productive than they were in 2020. We also asked respondents whether their work environment impacts their productivity — plus, how managers can boost their team’s productivity in the current landscape.
Let’s dive in.

Are employees more of less productive in 2021 than they were in 2020?

For starters, roughly 40% of our respondents say they have the same level of productivity in 2021 as they did in 2020.
This makes sense. Most of our workspaces haven’t shifted too drastically since 2020. For instance, we had a whooping 71% of U.S. employees working from home during the peak of the coronavirus in 2020 … but the number of full-time remote employees in the United States is still expected to double in 2021, as reported by Enterprise Technology Research.
This means, now that employees have fully adjusted to their new remote lifestyle, it makes sense that we’ll see similar productivity levels in 2021 that we saw in 2020.
Additionally, one-fourth of our respondents feel even more productive in 2021 than they did one year ago.
To Charlene Strain, HubSpot’s Associate Marketing Manager for Global Co-Marketing Acquisition & Partnerships, this shift to a more productive workplace makes sense.

Strain says, “I believe employees are more productive than they were in 2020, since we have settled into a more cohesive routine in 2021 than we had in 2020.”

She adds, “Whether that’s figuring out a better work-life balance, taking a step back to think about what makes us happy at work, vocalizing wins and concerns, or bringing more of our authentic selves to the workplace — it has all contributed to an improved personal and team morale over the past year.”
In 2020, surveys found employees were more productive when they worked remotely than they’d been in the office … so it’s impressive that some employees’ have built upon that momentum to become even more productive this year than they were last.
However, a combined 24% of employees felt they were either much less productive than they’d been in 2020, or at least slightly less productive.
So … While some employees are feeling better than ever, why are others’ motivation dwindling?
As Karla Cook, Senior Manager of HubSpot’s Blog Program, notes: “There are a lot of valid reasons why employees might be feeling less productive and burnt out right now. We’ve had high expectations for things to simply ‘return to normal’ in 2021, but obviously that hasn’t been the case for many of us.”

Cook adds, “I think we’re all collectively realizing there isn’t a switch we can flip on in our brains to go back to ‘normal work mode’, and that can cause some feelings of inadequate productivity.”

Many of us expected the stresses and challenges outside of work to disappear with the new year. We likely expected to ‘hit the ground running’ in our roles, but as we’ve seen, it hasn’t quite turned out like that — the old way of life, and work, doesn’t seem to be returning anytime soon. 
All of that might result in unrealistic expectations to perform at pre-pandemic levels. As Cook puts it, “There’s pressure to return to a pre-pandemic level of work and way of life, or even go above and beyond that, and I think that’s backfiring in a lot of cases and making a lot of people feel like they aren’t doing enough.”
Perhaps the decrease in productivity also has to do with varying work preferences. For those who say they work more effectively from home — and who have an at-home setup conducive to remote work — it makes sense that they’ve reported increased productivity since the pandemic.
But there are others, like myself, who thrive on office culture. These workers need the energetic buzz of people around them, as well as a separate space outside their apartments to truly dial into their work.
It’s worth noting that some employees might also not have the physical infrastructure to support a fully productive at-home office — perhaps, for instance, you have employees who need to work odd hours because they’re taking care of children at home. Alternatively, maybe some of your employees have no choice but to work in distracting common spaces with other roommates.
Data supports the notion that a work environment has a strong impact on productivity. As shown in the graph below, 25% of workers report feeling more productive in a physical workspace than they do while working from home. This means some of your employees might be more productive than ever in 2021 — while others might still struggle to find their remote rhythm.  

If you do manage a team that feels they’re less productive now than they were in 2020, you’re in luck.
Here, I spoke with seven HubSpot Managers to learn why employees might be struggling to work in this current landscape, as well as tips for boosting productivity for 2022 and beyond.
How Managers Can Respond to Changing Productivity Levels
1. Find daily or weekly activities your team can do together.
On the Blog team, we host weekly ice breakers during our team stand-up every Monday.
There might be a similar activity you can conduct with your own team to promote relationship-building and give your employees a chance to have some fun.
As Strain told me, “To boost team productivity, especially remotely, I’d suggest having a daily and/or weekly ‘question of the day’ where each team member gets to ask a silly, fun, or more serious question via Slack or email. This helps the group get to know each other and take a break from the work day.”
Alternatively, consider creating a team playlist for your team when working remotely. Music can be a great promoter of productivity, and it adds an element of camaraderie if you’re able to get your whole team involved.

“Having a weekly playlist in terms of theme, artist, genre, or decade — which everyone contributes to or comments on while working — is a great way to boost team morale,” Strain told me.
She adds, “Alternatively, weekly team activities like two truths and a lie, maps of where we’ve traveled, etc. are also great opportunities for promoting productivity.”
This might seem counterintuitive — Like,Wait, you want me to encourage my team to play games as a way of boosting productivity? But, in reality, building a strong team culture is a critical component for increasing productivity, as it helps your employees feel more engaged at work and increases team morale. 
As Strain puts it, “The more we get to know each other outside of work, the better team productivity is since we see each other as fully-fledged people with hobbies, worries, successes, and insecurities rather than just a name or face on the screen.”
2. Paint a clear vision for your team’s future.
Clint Fontanella, a Marketing Manager on HubSpot’s Blog team, argues that employees are more productive in 2021 than they were in 2020 based on HubSpot’s industry benchmark data.
As he points out, “Since early 2021, ad spend continues to increase, conversations have skyrocketed, web traffic remains high, and sales email and call volume continues to climb. To me, this means that sales teams are trying to play catch-up from last year and are aggressively reaching out to contacts via email, phone, and live chat to do so.”
“Marketing teams,” He adds, “are also working hard to meet the sales team’s demand by increasing their ad spend and capitalizing on rising web traffic to acquire new contacts. If we compare contact growth from 2020 to 2021, it’s significantly higher than last year.”
So — amidst all that newfound demand, how do you spark optimal productivity? Fontanella says it comes down to painting a clear vision for your team’s future.
He told me, “We’ve talked a lot about uncertainty this past year, but industries are slowly becoming more stable. Employees had to adapt to a new working world, and now that they’ve adjusted, you need to paint an attainable future for them to work towards rather than ambiguity and uncertainty.”
Fontanella encourages managers to “set a team goal, explain how you’ll achieve it, and keep employees updated as you reach new milestones along the way.”

3. Foster both trust and boundaries.
It can be difficult, but a fully remote team requires an additional level of trust to operate effectively.
If you’re leading a team in an office space, it’s easy enough to check-in on colleagues, monitor who’s working (and when), and have daily in-person interactions to understand what each team member is working on.
A lot of this disappears with remote work – and that’s okay. Knowing when and where your employees work doesn’t translate to knowing how well they work. As HubSpot’s Culture Code states, “Results matter more than the hours we work, [and] results matter more than where we produce them.”
To lead a productive remote team, then, trust and clear expectations are key.

As Team Manager of Content Conversion Carly Williams says, “For me, keeping my remote team productive boils down to two things: trust and boundaries.”

“A lack of trust often leads to micromanagement, which can be really demotivating for employees. To avoid this, I stay out of the way by setting clear expectations and creating accountability.”
“As for boundaries,” Williams adds, “I’m conscious of the fact that working hours becomes blurred in a remote environment. To avoid overworking and burnout, I lead by example and avoid sending late night emails or Slack messages. I also encourage my team to take a minimum of one mental health day a month (outside of regular vacation time) to step out of their work routines and recharge.”
If you can create trust and autonomy amongst your team, you’ll likely see the outcomes you want. To do this, ensure your expectations are clear, and set healthy boundaries for your team by setting them for yourself.
Additionally, consider creating team-accessible dashboards or a shared Google Doc so team members can report on their progress without requiring constant check-ins.
4. Focus less on productivity — and more on individual well-being.
While it can be tempting to pretend nothing has changed, ignoring the reality of our current lives is detrimental to your ability to effectively lead your team.
As Meg Prater, HubSpot’s Senior Manager of Content, told me — “While the pandemic, at times, has seemed less bleak or more hopeful in 2021, the landscape has changed rapidly. Employees who are struggling to keep unvaccinated children safe while sending them back to school, experiencing mental burnout at 18+ months living in this new but unbalanced normal, and evaluating everyday decisions for risk, are tired.”
Prater adds, “For a lot of us, not feeling like we’re giving 100% at our jobs for sustained periods of time is demoralizing. Asking people, amongst all of that, to perform at a pre-pandemic level is exhausting.”
Fortunately, you shouldn’t have to. Adjusting to this new normal requires empathy and learning how to manage human-to-human.
Rather than constantly focusing on output, consider how you might alter your approach to develop trust within your team and show employees you care about their well-being.

As Prater puts it, “For managers, I think the weight of checking in with employees throughout 2020 and 2021, attempting to keep morale at a new normal level, and managing results can be really difficult and draining.”
She adds, “I’d recommend focusing less on productivity, and focusing more on individual professional well-being. Meeting your team members where they are, giving them the individualized and evolving support they need, and making sure they’re able to take time to recharge and care for themselves or their families, is the best, most responsible thing I can do for my employees and my company this year.”
To demonstrate your investment in your employees’ professional well-being, ensure you’re creating space for your direct reports to vocalize how they’re feeling about their workload, or just how they’re feeling in general.
Understanding their challenges can help you ensure you’re providing them with the support they need to do their jobs at optimal levels.
5. Bring your team together to share challenges and offer solutions. 
Matt Eonta, HubSpot’s Senior Manager of Project Management, believes the early pandemic days “actually energized a lot of folks who were looking for a stable, known quantity to spend time on and pour themselves into. People often seek that in times of uncertainty.”
He adds, “Coupled with a lot of collaborative, interactive, and culture-focused programming, work — and the desire to be productive and successful at it — drove a lot of people in 2020, even if their home environments and obligations weren’t always conducive to that.”
During such a tumultuous and stressful time, checking work emails or diving into a project with colleagues likely fueled a sense of control that people weren’t getting from the outside world. 
In 2021, however, we see that some employees’ energy levels compared to 2020 are fading — fast. As Eonta puts it, “Into 2021, it seems some folks are finding that unsustainable. This isn’t the two week or two month work-from-home mandate some expected. We’re on month 18, and sustaining that energy is difficult.”
Fortunately, there are solutions to re-igniting some of the energy managers saw from their direct reports in 2020. 
For his team, Eonta describes his commitment to investing in collaboration, storytelling, and shared experiences. “At an individual level, nearly everyone gets energy from solving problems and helping others.”

“When our team comes together and shares more of what they’re working on, the problems they face, and solutions they’re investing in — it really fosters some energetic, exciting, and uplifting conversations among the larger group.”

Eonta adds, “It also sets a bar for the team and builds connections we may not have known were there, especially given our inability to collocate.”
It’s important to note: Sustaining a work-at-all-costs mentality isn’t healthy, or even possible. So if your employees are simply re-calibrating back into their pre-pandemic selves when it comes to productivity, that might not be such a bad thing. 
6. Set clear expectations. 
Being a strong leader has always depended on setting and managing your employees expectations — and Karla Cook believes that has never been more true. 
She told me, “It’s always important as a manager to set very clear expectations around individual and team performance with your employees, but in times where a lot is uncertain, it becomes even more critical.”
“As a manager,” Cook adds, “you should be providing a lot of stability and structure around work, and checking in with your team regularly to make sure they understand what is needed from them, how they’re doing, and how their contributions plug into the bigger-team picture.”
To create structure around expectations, perhaps you let your employees know in weekly 1:1s how they’re performing in their roles, or highlight team performance against goals in a monthly email.
Alternatively, perhaps you discuss expectations — and how your employees are performing against those expectations — in regular performance reviews. 
Whatever the case, to ensure optimal productivity, you want to be clear and specific when outlining the expectations you have for your team, and how it impacts the business at-large.
7. Acknowledge that productivity looks different for every individual.
I have a colleague who works non-stop from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. She sits at her desk as she eats her lunch, and keeps her phone in her purse to avoid distractions. Then, at abruptly 4 p.m. every day, she leaves to attend a workout class, grab dinner, and head home.
On the other end, I have another colleague who logs on around 10 a.m. and works until 6 p.m., but he takes regular breaks for lunch, afternoon workouts, or brief morning walks. 
Both of these colleagues are exceptionally productive and hardworking — but the ways in which they achieve productivity look vastly different. 
As HubSpot’s Marketing Blog Manager Lestraundra Alfred told me, “The past two years have been challenging for many people, and what we considered ‘productive’ pre-2020 just isn’t relevant. I’ve learned ‘productivity’ is relative to the employee.”

She adds, “Everyone has a different style and workflow that changes depending on what they’re working on, the social climate, and personal matters they may be going through.”
So … what’s the solution here?
Alfred says, “Learning to support my team’s productivity levels based on where they’re at and how they work —  not my definition of productivity — has helped build trust and accountability.”
Ultimately, as a manager, it’s vital you trust your employees enough to give them the autonomy to choose where, when, and how they’re most productive. 
Additionally, it’s critical you take the time to assess whether your team’s productivity levels compared to 2020 are actually a real concern here.
Perhaps, as Eonta pointed out, your team threw themselves into work in unsustainable ways in 2020 to avoid the harsh realities of a pandemic — and are simply re-calibrating back to a workflow that is more conducive to long-term professional and personal success. 
Alternatively, maybe the pandemic put work-life balance into perspective for your employees. 
Whatever the case, it’s vital you take the time as a leader to discover the root cause of your employees productivity levels if you feel they’re performing below expectations, but keep in mind they’re people, too — and 2021, just like 2020, was anything but normal.
If you focus on building trust and psychological safety with your team, you’ll be able to figure out long-term solutions to performance and productivity together. 

Have you heard the expression that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to make you an expert?
That’s approximately 417 days if you were practicing 24 hours a day. Since that’s impossible, calculating about 3-4 hours a day of deliberate practice, it would take around 8-10 years to be considered an expert at something.

Yet, perceived expertise is different. Much of the time we consider people at our company experts in a certain field, even if they haven’t been in that field for 10 years yet.
That’s because they have expert power.
In this post, we’ll discuss what expert power is and how you can develop it as a leader.

Examples of Expert Power
If you work in a corporate setting, those who are at the director level or above often have expert power since they’ve risen to their position presumably because of their extensive knowledge and experience. Many times those who have expert power are in positions of leadership, however, this doesn’t always have to be the case.
Expert power is situational and anyone can have it in different areas. As a millennial, growing up with technology, I’m often perceived as an expert in social media. After talking to me and hearing me discuss my love of reality TV, I’m usually given expert power in pop culture as well.
On the other hand, if I was talking to my uncle, who is in a high leadership position in finance, I would have no expert power in that scenario. Expert power can switch dynamics depending on the subject matter.
When you have expert power at work, you’ll stand out in your career, rise the ranks to leadership, and display confidence in your area of expertise because of your high skill level.
With expert power, you’ll be trusted with high-pressure decisions and you’ll feel more confident in your ability to make those decisions because of your expertise. Now, let’s discuss the benefits of having expert power.
Benefits of Expert Power
1. Streamlined business decisions.
With expert power comes the ability to make more informed, streamlined decisions for your company. The longer you do something, and the more you focus on your education in that area, the better decisions you’ll make, and the more confident you’ll be in those decisions.
For example, when I was first getting started in writing, my process wasn’t refined or streamlined. It took me much longer to complete writing tasks. Now that I’ve been a writer for over 10 years, I can write much quicker, and make better decisions in my writing. I know when I’m researching what to include and what not to include. That confidence and ability come with time, continuously working with my mentors and managers on my skills, and getting consistent feedback.
When you have expert power in a certain area, your decisions are more streamlined, quicker, confident, and efficient.
2. Opportunity for career advancement.
One of the main benefits of expert power in the workplace is the ability to advance your career (hopefully at an accelerated pace). When you’re getting started in your career, a great thing to do is spend a lot of time learning and developing your expertise.
Once it becomes clear that you’re focused on a certain area and developing certain skills, you’ll have perceived expert power and be able to advance your career. Personally, I’ve been able to achieve promotions and advance my career because of my expert power in writing.
3. Developed leadership skills.
Besides gaining confidence and being able to further your career, you’ll also be developing your leadership skills, which will be a huge benefit to your career. While I might not have expert power in something like engineering, I’m confident in my ability to lead a team of writers, because I’ve worked on enough teams and been doing this for a certain amount of time.
However, it’s important to note that just because you’re an expert in a certain field doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily be a good leader. That’s why it’s important to continue developing expert power and leadership skills. Let’s dive into how to do that below.

1. Deliberate practice.
Becoming an expert in your field doesn’t mean that you can just show up and achieve expertise through osmosis. You have to be deliberately practicing and studying. This means that the first step to developing expert power is to practice, practice, practice. Whether it’s a tactical skill like construction or a conceptual skill like business strategy, you need to immerse yourself in the world. This means you might have to work an entry-level job to gain real-world experience in your industry.
2. Work with mentors and leaders.
The best way to continue developing your expert power is to work with mentors and leaders from who you can learn. Having a mentor means soaking up their knowledge, asking them for tips and advice, discussing what’s going well in your career and what isn’t going well, and then just listening. Expertise comes from experience and you can benefit from listening to the stories of other people’s experiences. Additionally, you’ll gain leadership skills by studying how your mentors lead others.
3. Volunteer your expertise.
Whatever level of expertise you have, don’t be afraid to share it. If you work in a corporate setting and are a developing business leader, share your experiences and what you’ve learned when your team is discussing strategy. Don’t be afraid to enter those conversations. Not only will people begin to realize that you’re an expert in a certain area, but you’ll also learn a lot from other people’s feedback.
4. Never stop being a student in your industry.
To be an expert in something you also have to be a student in that industry. If you stop being a student, then your expertise will expire. You should read books, stay up to date with the news and trends in your field, and volunteer for projects at your workplace so you can soak up knowledge. That’s how you’ll truly develop expert power and maintain it.
5. Keep your credibility.
You’ll only have expert power if you have credibility in your field. Maintaining your ethics and reliability is of vast importance because expert power only comes to those who can be trusted to make strategic business decisions on an ongoing basis. If your expertise is haphazard you won’t have perceived power from those around you.
6. Work in a fast-paced environment.
A great way to develop expert power is to work in a fast-paced environment and learn to make strategic, decisive choices quickly. This means keeping yourself cool, calm, and collected in the face of a critical situation. With this experience, you’ll develop excellent expert power and leadership skills.
7. Lead with HEART.
At HubSpot, our culture is defined by having HEART — Humble, Empathetic, Adaptable, Remarkable, Transparent. We have a culture of amazing, growth-minded people whose values include using good judgment and solving for the customer. These traits will help you develop expert power because you’ll be remarkable in your industry, but also humble enough to adapt and listen to those who have expert power in areas that you don’t.
8. Be solution-oriented.
Something I’m always trying to develop as an aspiring business leader is to be solution-oriented. When you come to your manager with a problem, have a few solutions ready as well. This will help you develop your expert power because you’ll get immediate feedback from your manager on your solutions. They’ll be able to tell you from their experience if those solutions will work, and then you’ll level up your expertise with every problem you face.
Expert power is something that is hugely important for aspiring business leaders because it’s this power that gives you the ability to lead with confidence and humility. With those two things, you’ll be successful in whatever industry you choose.

Have you noticed that in recent years brands have started asking you for your email address before you’ve even ordered anything? Sometimes they’ll even incentivize consumers with a sign-up discount or loyalty program. Companies don’t just want to take your email address and call it a day — they want this information so they can…
The post How to Create a Company Email Newsletter in 10 Simple Steps appeared first on Benchmark Email.

What is Social Media Marketing in B2B?

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What are major problems in customer acquisition that the companies have started focusing on customer retention?
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What do marketers and Sesame Street monsters have in common? They LOVE cookies.
For years, brands have been using them to track website visitors, improve the user experience, and collect data that helps us target ads to the right audiences. We also use them to learn about what our visitors are checking out online when they aren’t on our websites.
But the way we use cookies and Google ad-tracking tools could change dramatically with Google’s efforts to phase phase out the third-party cookie on Chrome browsers by 2022.
The third-party phase-out was initially announced in February 2020, but Google accelerated buzz around it this month when they announced that they won’t be building “alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products.”
“We realize this means other providers may offer a level of user identity for ad tracking across the web that we will not — like PII graphs based on people’s email addresses,” a Google post wrote.
“We don’t believe these solutions will meet rising consumer expectations for privacy, nor will they stand up to rapidly evolving regulatory restrictions, and therefore aren’t a sustainable long term investment. Instead, our web products will be powered by privacy-preserving APIs which prevent individual tracking while still delivering results for advertisers and publishers,” says Google.

How Marketers and Advertisers are Reacting to Google’s Phase-Out
While numerous advertising agencies criticized Google’s pivot, companies like GetApp have begun to research potential marketing impact. In a recent survey. GetApp, which provided HubSpot with exclusive data, discovered that: 

41% of marketers believe their biggest challenge will be their inability to track the right data.
44% of marketers predict a need to increase their spending by 5% to 25% in order to reach the same goals as 2021.
23% of marketing experts plan on investing in email marketing software due to Google’s new policy.

Below, I’ll note a brief history of how the third-party cookie phase-out, and Google’s pivots for tracking security, came to be. Then I’ll highlight a few things marketers should keep in mind as we get closer to 2022.
A Brief History of the Third-Party Cookie Phase-Out
While you might be seeing this news for the first time, we’ve been following it since 2020 and just recently updated this post to reflect Google’s most recent statements.
In February of last year, a Google blog post announced the phaseout ang gave initial reasoning for the pivot. Like the statement noted in the intro, Google similarly explained that this move was being done to protect users asking for more privacy.
“Users are demanding greater privacy–including transparency, choice, and control over how their data is used–and it’s clear the web ecosystem needs to evolve to meet these increasing demands,” the post wrote.
Although Firefox and Safari had already phased out the third-party cookie, Google’s post said that its changes will happen over the course of two years as the tech company works with advertisers to ensure that this pivot doesn’t destroy the online advertising business.
“Some browsers have reacted to these concerns by blocking third-party cookies, but we believe this has unintended consequences that can negatively impact both users and the web ecosystem,” the blog post notes. “By undermining the business model of many ad-supported websites, blunt approaches to cookies encourage the use of opaque techniques such as fingerprinting (an invasive workaround to replace cookies), which can actually reduce user privacy and control. We believe that we as a community can, and must, do better.”
Although Chrome isn’t the first browser to phase out the third-party cookie, it’s the biggest. In late 2019, Google Chrome made up more than 56% of the web browser market. Chrome also accounts for more than half of all global web traffic.

Source: Statista
Meanwhile, Safari and Firefox, which have blocked third-party cookies since 2013, come in a distant second and third place, respectively.
Because Chrome, Safari, and Firefox will all no longer support this type of data tracking by 2022, publications like Digiday are calling Google’s phase-out the “death of the third-party cookie.”
What happens next?
As with any major shift involving privacy, data, and advertising, business experts and publications have been frantically buzzing about how the phase out and Google’s rejection of ad-tracking will change the way we do business online.
But, do we really need to panic?
The truth is, Google Chrome’s privacy efforts could heavily impact some areas of the marketing and advertising space, while other tactics will still stay pretty much the same.
However, if you’re an advertiser or a marketer who’s thrived on third-party data or individual data for pinpointed online audience targeting strategies, you might be worried about how you’ll navigate this pivot.
Although some big changes might be underway, new alternatives are also emerging. To help you prepare for a world without third-party cookies, here are four things you should keep in mind about the latest cookie phase-out.
5 Things to Know About Google’s Cookie Phase-Out and Privacy Pivots
1. Google isn’t banning all cookies.
If you’re thinking that all your cookie-fueled marketing strategies will soon be rendered obsolete, take a breath.
So far, Google says it’s only planning to phase out the third-party cookie on its browsers. However, first-party cookies that track basic data about your own website’s visitors are still safe.
In fact, in Google’s 2021 announcement, the tech giant called first-party relationships “vital.” So, ultimately, any first-party data you gain from your website’s visitors on all browsers will still remain in-tact.
Still not sure about the difference between first-party and third-party cookies? Here’s a quick breakdown.
First-Party Cookies
A first-party cookie is a code that gets generated and stored on your website visitor’s computer by default when they visit your site. This cookie is often used for user experience as it is responsible for remembering passwords, basic data about the visitor, and other preferences.
With a first-party cookie, you can learn about what a user did while visiting your website, see how often they visit it, and gain other basic analytics that can help you develop or automate an effective marketing strategy around them. However, you can’t see data related to your visitor’s behavior on other websites that aren’t affiliated with your domain.
Ever wonder how Amazon always remembers your login information, the language you speak, the items in your cart, and other key things that make your user experience so smooth? This is because Amazon uses first-party cookies to remember these basic details.
On the other hand, if you’re a marketer running a website on a CMS, you’ll have access to analytics dashboards that track first-party cookie data. For example, you’ll usually be able to see basic analytics, such as the number of web sessions on a page, the number of pages people click on during a visit, basic browser types, geographical demographics, or even referring websites where visitors clicked a link to your site’s URL. However, this data doesn’t inform you of everything your visitors do online.
Third-Party Cookies
Third-party cookies are tracking codes that are placed on a web visitor’s computer after being generated by another website other than your own. When a web visitor visits your site and others, the third-party cookie tracks this information and sends it to the third-party who created the cookie — which might be an advertiser.
If you’re an advertiser, third-party cookie data allows you to learn about your web visitor’s overall online behaviors, such as websites they frequently visit, purchases, and interests that they’ve shown on various websites. With this detailed data, you can build robust visitor profiles. With all of this data, you can then create a retargeting list that can be used to send ads to your past visitors or people with similar web profiles.
Want to visualize how third-party cookie data might work? Say you research a particular smart TV on Amazon. Then, you go to another site later in the day and see an ad Amazon advertisement for the same exact product. If you aren’t on an Amazon-owned site, it’s very possible that this advertisement was triggered by third-party cookie data.
While first-party cookies are accepted automatically, visitors must be informed that they are accepting a third-party cookie due to the amount of data that companies can retain from them.
The bottom line? If you’re just aiming to track your website’s visitors’ behaviors, preferences, and basic demographics only while they’re on your website, you probably won’t be deeply impacted by this change.
However, if you’re a marketer that relies on robust data for online advertising, pop-up ads, or a pinpointed audience-targeting strategy, you’ll need to continue to follow the news around this phase-out, and consider alternative first-party strategies, as the phase-out nears.
2. Many marketers saw the cookie phase-out coming.
While the “death of the third-party cookie” might seem shocking, it certainly wasn’t a surprise.
Recently, governments around the world have been investigating and cracking down on data privacy issues. For example, in an October 2019 shakeup, Europe’s highest court ruled that users in the EU must actively consent to all analytics cookies when they log on to a website. If not, the website can’t drop analytics or web tracking cookies on the user’s browser. 
The GDPR ruling means that websites can no longer rely on implicit opt-in (meaning, a website displays a cookie banner but the user continues to browser. Websites must not capture opt-in consent before any analytics or web tracking cookies are placed on a browser.

If your website only catered to local or domestic users outside of the affected countries, you might not have been impacted. However, international websites took a major reporting hit as numbers from Google Analytics — which relies on cookies — started to appear inaccurately low.
For international brands that relied on Google Analytics, this was a scary reminder that data-driven brands are vulnerable to software-related issues. It also showed us how governance and privacy regulations could dramatically impact our strategies.
Earlier, in August, Google announced it was developing a “Privacy Sandbox.” Although Google didn’t have a product created when they announced the move, a blog post explained that the tool that could allow marketers to continue to publish and circulate ads to the right audiences without having the same amount of user data.
“We’ve started sharing our preliminary ideas for a Privacy Sandbox — a secure environment for personalization that also protects user privacy,” wrote Justin Schuh, Director of Chrome Engineering, in the Google blog post. “Some ideas include new approaches to ensure that ads continue to be relevant for users, but user data shared with websites and advertisers would be minimized by anonymously aggregating user information, and keeping much more user information on-device only. Our goal is to create a set of standards that is more consistent with users’ expectations of privacy.”
In a January 2020 interview with Digiday, Amit Kotecha, a marketing director at data management platform provider Permutive, explained the key features of the proposed Sandbox:
“The most significant item in the Privacy Sandbox is Google’s proposal to move all user data into the [Chrome] browser where it will be stored and processed,” said Kotecha. “This means that data stays on the user’s device and is privacy compliant. This is now table stakes and the gold standard for privacy.”
Between the Privacy Sandbox and GDPR rulings that impacted data tracking, it’s become apparent to marketers that the third-party cookie was at risk of governance or other tech company changeups that could render it obsolete. This was so apparent that advertising software firms and publishers were already contemplating alternative solutions before the official news of Google’s cookie phase-out broke.
At this point, data management firms, like Permutive, are looking at creating alternative tools for advertisers that more heavily leverage first-party cookies and lump visitor profiles into more anonymous “segments” similar to what Google’s Privacy Sandbox is predicted to do.
3. Marketers aren’t just concerned about data.
While the elimination of third-party cookies on Chrome will be inconvenient to some, marketers are also concerned about Google’s reasoning behind the phase-out.
Without Chrome-based third-party cookie data, you’ll still be able to leverage and target Google Ads, which will be powered by Google Chrome’s first-party cookies and the Privacy Sandbox tools. However, some ad software and platforms that require third-party data will take a huge hit without support from Chrome.
“This move, while good for consumer privacy (in theory) is likely going to hurt most of the third-party ad platforms that utilize these cookies to generate revenue,” says Matthew Howells-Barby, HubSpot’s Director of Acquisition.
“The big question behind all of this for me is what’s motivating Google to phase third-party cookies out? Is it to improve privacy for the end-user or is it to gain a further grip on the ad market by forcing the adoption of Chrome’s own first-party cookie, which would likely result in many of those dollars being previously spent on third-party platforms to move in Google’s bottom line.”
Howells-Barby isn’t the only marketer to voice these concerns. In fact, in a joint statement, the Association of National Advertising and the American Association of Advertising Agencies called the tech giant out for disrupting healthy competition in the advertising space.
“Google’s decision to block third-party cookies in Chrome could have major competitive impacts for digital businesses, consumer services, and technological innovation,” the statement said. “It would threaten to substantially disrupt much of the infrastructure of today’s Internet without providing any viable alternative, and it may choke off the economic oxygen from advertising that startups and emerging companies need to survive.”
Later in the statement, the two advertising groups urged Google to push back the third-party cookie “moratorium” until effective and meaningful opportunities were made available to advertisers.
4. Google won’t stop tracking people entirely.
While Google will not invest in tech that tracks people at an individual level, it will still be investing in alternatives. Along with Google’s Privacy Sandbox development, the company has already seen successful advertising results from FloC, a technology that tracks groups of people rather than individuals.
“Our latest tests of FLoC show one way to effectively take third-party cookies out of the advertising equation and instead hide individuals within large crowds of people with common interests,” Google’s recent announcement explained.
“Chrome intends to make FLoC-based cohorts available for public testing through origin trials with its next release this month, and we expect to begin testing FLoC-based cohorts with advertisers in Google Ads in Q2. Chrome also will offer the first iteration of new user controls in April and will expand on these controls in future releases, as more proposals reach the origin trial stage, and they receive more feedback from end users and the industry,” the post added.
5. This move still opens the door for innovation in advertising
While things look grim for one type of cookie, this might not be a bad thing for skilled and adaptable brands.
Although this move does cause concern, Google and other browsers have still taken a stand for user privacy. As privacy laws continue to arise, this might be a great opportunity to look at other less-vulnerable advertising alternatives just incase another governance renders one of your marketing tactics or processes as obsolete.
Why? As a marketer with an innovative mindset, you should always be asking yourself questions like, “Are we too reliant on this technology?” or “What happens if and when our strategy gets regulated?” Innovative marketers will be able to come up with more clever alternatives and ads that identify with the masses — aside from just hyper-targeted content or annoying pop-ups.
Another area that could be innovated is the way we leverage and use data. As noted above, data management platforms are now looking to create alternative tools that help advertisers track data in a way that makes the most out of the third-party cookie. While these options might be different from your third-party cookie solutions or require some new strategizing, they would still allow you to target and learn about relevant audiences without getting intrusive.
How to Prepare for Google’s Third-Party Phase-Out
Don’t panic. At this point, marketers, advertisers, and data engineers alike are actively looking for solutions to determine what will happen next. And, because the third-party cookie was already weakened by Safari and Firefox ad blocking, it likely wasn’t the strongest advertising tool anymore anyway.
Right now, the best thing to do as a marketer is to continue to stay up-to-date with news related to third-party cookies and other data privacy moves that could impact your business.
If your advertising strategies rely on third-party data, start considering alternatives now. As you continue to follow the news related to the phase-out, you should also vet any software or solutions that can help you better transition away from this type of cookie.
For example, although marketers are wary of Google’s move, the tech giant’s Privacy Sandbox and could still serve as valuable alternatives for ad targeting. You could also consider strategies or software that can better help you leverage first-party data.
Additionally, you could also revitalize older strategies, like contextual advertising. While third-party data allowed you to place ads directly in front of people who matched certain user profiles, contextual advertising allows you to circulate PPC ads on websites that rank for similar keywords as your ad. This way, if you’re selling sports apparel, your PPC ad could show up on sports-oriented websites.
Lastly, to make your brand as safe as possible from future governance or monopoly-related policies, brainstorm even more basic strategies that you can still use to reach your audiences even without cookies, hyper-targeted ads, or mass amounts of data. This will allow you to be less vulnerable to technology, even when you can benefit from the latest tracking software.
Disclaimer: This blog post is not legal advice for your company to use in complying with EU data privacy laws like the GDPR. Instead, it provides background information to help you better understand the GDPR. This legal information is not the same as legal advice, where an attorney applies the law to your specific circumstances, so we insist that you consult an attorney if you’d like advice on your interpretation of this information or its accuracy.
In a nutshell, you may not rely on this as legal advice, or as a recommendation of any particular legal understanding.
Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in February 2020 but was updated to reflect current announcements from Google in September 2021.