What the phasing-out of third-party cookies means for B2B
As third-party cookies cease to be a viable way of tracking online behaviour, reverse IP lookup will be an increasingly valuable tool for B2B brands, enabling them to see which businesses are engaging with their website and nurture leads accordingly.
Upcoming changes to the EU ePrivacy regulations mean the way we use third-party cookies is likely to change. With only a year to go until Google starts phasing-out third-party cookies, B2B marketers need to assess how to restructure their digital marketing efforts to yield the best results.
The move away from third-party cookies is said to help ensure ads are relevant and minimise the data shared with websites – but the specifics are still a little up in the air. As the 2022 deadline fast approaches, there are still a lot of unanswered questions.
While many will agree that the shift away from third-party cookies was inevitable, others will be very aware of the implications the change will have for the digital advertising landscape.
So, what exactly does the phase-out of third-party cookies mean for B2B companies? And, what can you do to ensure you’re prepared for the change as soon as possible?
First-party vs third-party cookies: What’s the difference?
Let’s take it back to basics. First-party cookies are created by your company’s site to help track user behavior and create a better user experience for visitors. This includes remembering usernames, passwords and your language preferences. Even in 2022, first-party cookies will be considered vital, and aren’t going anywhere.
It’s third-party cookies we’ll all be saying goodbye to. These are set by websites to help track user behavior for advertising purposes. We’ll use Facebook’s ‘like’ button as our example here.
When a user clicks this button on your website, a cookie will be stored on the visitor’s computer that can later be accessed by Facebook to identify the visitor and see which websites they’ve visited.
In turn, this information will help Facebook inform retargeting campaigns and allows the platform to deliver customised ads to the user. Similarly, advertisers use third-party cookies to build unique behavior profiles, targeting users with relevant ads based on their web activity.
The phasing-out of third-party cookies means profiles created by these cookies will include less accurate information about users. This is what has the B2B sales and marketing industry concerned. By limiting the information available, many will be spending more to access an audience that, by all accounts, may be less relevant than their current targeting setup.
How can you adapt to the change?
You may be familiar with IP tracking: the technology that enables you to track your website visitor behavior. Reverse IP tracking technology, or website visitor identification software, goes one step further by querying the domain name system (DNS) associated with that IP, and revealing who owns it.
This enables businesses to conduct reverse IP lookups and gain access to the top-level domain data that IP produces. Users receive the name of the business hosting that IP, and the additional details of those who registered the IP such as phone number and address. Once the business name is discovered, the hard work is done. This process is totally legal – the databases providing information carry public data.
So, how can this data be used to evolve our strategies and improve success?
Account-based marketing
With website visitor identification, keeping track of specific businesses and ‘dream’ clients is easy. You’re able to identify when they access your website and what content has caught their attention – granting you the opportunity to tailor future communications to include services you know are of interest to them.
This attention to detail and deep understanding of the account’s business needs allows your organisation to shine through, proving your commitment to the account and providing a perfectly tailored brand experience. That’s a level of information that third-party cookies could never provide.
Advanced lead nurture
Did you know nurtured leads spend an average of 47% more on your product? When sales-ready prospects are passed to your sales team, they’re already equipped with an awareness of their issues and know how you can solve them. Lead nurture is vital, and reverse IP lookup solutions can offer an effective helping hand.
Consider lead scoring. Assign a number to each lead based upon their behavior. As the lead continues to interact with your brand, their score increases. When they reach an appropriate number (of your choosing), they are ready for your sales team. It’s up to you how you build these scores. Outline a clear lead scoring plan to be used across your business, then review it every three months to ensuring the scores match the right level of interest and quality of leads.
Better ROI
Who doesn’t want a better return on their investment? When it comes to marketing, ROI is paramount to target planning and strategy execution. Thankfully, reverse IP lookup offers an advantage that many other tools struggle to overcome: multitouch attribution.
Though it’s impossible to determine exactly how many channels and interactions a lead has encountered before enquiring, cross-referencing the domains visiting your website with data sets for marketing campaigns is a fantastic place to start. Doing so ensures your team understands exactly what visitors have seen, what may have lead them to your website and, if converted into clients, where to attribute the revenue for ROI.
While it may seem a lengthy process, it’s important to understand what efforts boost brand engagement and lead nurture, even if they don’t directly convert. Doing this ensures you don’t cut costs on vital parts of your multi-channel strategy because they don’t produce a direct return.
Improved content creation
Website visitor identification software can reduce the time spent analysing and categorising data into relevant industries and segments. Instead, you’ll be provided with invaluable insight into what content is being best received – streamlining your content strategy moving forward and helping you to convert leads in the future.
Additionally, if your content is being welcomed by an audience you weren’t aware of, you’ll want to ensure your site meets their business needs. Finally, if your target audience isn’t finding your content, you’ll know that your content strategy needs to change.
Monitoring the industries visiting your site over time enables your team to understand content trends and needs. Seasonal content can be powerful, especially when responding to events your target industry finds important or game changing. If your content strategy needs a boost, reverse IP lookup can help identify what you’re missing.
Increased lead generation
The majority of marketing professionals are working towards the same goal: increasing the number of quality leads making their way through the sales pipeline. One of the key benefits of powerful website visitor identification software is just that: advanced lead generation.
Lead Forensics’ ground-breaking software expertly uses reverse IP lookups to identify the businesses visiting your website and combines this information with our privately owned database of business contacts, the largest of its kind in the world, then provides contact details for the visiting businesses. With Lead Forensics, you can discover:
- The names and addresses of businesses visiting your website, in real-time
- Contact details for key decision-makers, including email addresses
- A breakdown of every website journey, including pages visited, duration and referral
With this incredible insight, your team have all they need to instantly follow up these hot leads, maximising the engagement shown by their website visit. This fuels your sales pipeline with high-quality leads, ready for your sales team to convert into clients.
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