First things first, cookies is a term that refers to a small piece of information sent by a website and stored in the user’s browser, so that the website can consult the browser’s previous activity and read some variables.
What is a cookie and how it works for marketing?
Web cookies can have different functions and uses, but in general it can be said that they are used so that the server of a web page can identify a user’s computer and remember important data, basically who you are and what you have done previously on the web.
One of the most important functions is marketing, because thanks to cookies, a company can obtain information about tastes and preferences of its target customer. This is how one of the benefits of cookies works, as they can remember the user’s behavior on a web page or platform.
For example, imagine that you have added several products to the shopping cart of an online store, but you have left the page without completing the purchase. Well, thanks to cookies, the online store will be able to remember the items you had in the cart and you will not have to add them again, magic!
Cookie and marketing
Now, specifically why is this so relevant to digital marketing? Cookies are used for various types of targeted digital marketing, since they store user data and behavioral information and allow you to improve your targeted advertising services based on a number of variables including:
- Age.
- Gender.
- Location.
- Interests.
- Behavior on the web page.
- Behavior in search engines.
- Behavior in social networks.
Surely you know that banner that is haunting you having visited a clothing website or that product you’ve been wanting to know more about. You’ve visited the website once and now, here it is appearing on Instagram, on YouTube, on your Facebook profile and so on and so forth. This is remarketing, one of the main strategies of performance marketing and acquisition through conversion.
And it allows advertising campaigns to be targeted through cookies and depending on the level of interaction you had with the ad and then with the target page, it assigns you as a user a level within the digital path and the company shows you personalized ads.
Benefits of cookies for customers
• Users or clients can easily enable or disable the cookies if they find them on any site.
• Cookies work transparently irrespective of the user being aware of the information which is being stored.
• With Cookies users may could see ads in wich they apparently are interested
Cons of cookies for customers
• Cookies are always stored in the text format files and it can raise the security risks such as cookie stealing, sensitive data exposure etc.
• Privacy: Whenever the user uses the browser to surf the internet, all the cookies enabled sites will be able to track all the user activities.
• All the browsers have a feature to disable the cookies but, if users disable the cookies, then most of the websites won’t work properly.
As a company, what should I consider in terms of privacy regulations?
It is important to comply with each of the technical requirements involved in storing user information through cookies or any digital data that helps digital marketing purposes, it is important that all websites start with a compliance path and know how to manage the privacy of their users.
Rodrigo Irarrazaval, CEO of Illow,
Illow is a startup that offers a platform that helps sites comply with the highest standards of GDPR, LGPD and CCPA. It manages privacy programs, avoids bad reputation and high fines.
For example, The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation 2016/679) is a regulation by which the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission intend to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the European Union (EU). GDPR directly impacts the storage, processing, access, transfer, and disclosure of an individual’s data records and affects any organization worldwide that processes personal data of EU individuals.
Illow, part of Newtopia VC’s portfolio, is a startup that provides a SaaS to comply with privacy regulations in Latin America and allows companies’ websites to comply with data protection regulations with a single privacy banner that integrates four solutions: a cookie banner, a cookie policy, a privacy policy and a system that guarantees users access to their rights.
