Contextual Commerce Is The CPG Ad Solution for a Cookieless Future
Advertisers are still debating which solutions will be most effective in a cookieless world. Some are discussing the merits of cookie alternatives, like IP addresses or universal IDs. In the grocery industry, many brands are turning their focus to first-party data and partnerships with retail media networks.
The problem with these proposed alternatives is that they still rely on consumer data. Using a different consumer tracking method doesn’t appropriately address why Google is removing third-party cookies in the first place: consumers do not want to be tracked at all. In a research study by Invisibly, 70% said they do not agree with companies tracking their data for marketing purposes. After Apple rolled out the App Tracking Transparency policy, Flurry discovered that US users choose to opt out of tracking 96% of the time.
Advertisers looking to meet the moment with a truly long-term solution need to take consumer preferences into serious consideration. This means turning toward contextual commerce. Contextual commerce is an essential part of every advertiser’s toolkit in a cookieless world because it does not require any consumer data. Instead, it connects keyword-based targeting with action-driven mindsets, making highly-relevant content shoppable.
Digital recipes are the perfect contextual commerce strategy for food and beverage brands because 89% of shoppers use digital recipes to prepare for their grocery trips. For example, a butter brand leveraging Chicory’s contextual commerce solutions will appear within recipes that call for butter. The in-recipe advertisements reach shoppers who are primed to buy, like the millennial parent looking to make a sweet treat for their children, or the bachelor looking to impress a date with dinner at home. When clicked, the advertisements send that butter brand directly to their grocery carts.
Contextual recipe advertisements like this are highly effective, as they extend further down the funnel than programmatic solutions by meeting shoppers when they are in a planning mindset. And when it comes to advertising, mindset matters. Shoppable recipes receive 11.8x more engagement than the average shoppable display ad.
Not only is contextual commerce highly effective, but it’s also easily scalable. Contextual commerce can be implemented in any high-intent moment using shoppability. Chicory’s solutions, for reference, extend across 5,200 food sites and recipe blogs. This diverse inventory benefits brands that have a large pool of prospects that would otherwise require an arsenal of targeting criteria.
Finally, contextual commerce fills in the gaps that programmatic and on-site solutions leave behind. While those strategies tend to focus on retaining existing shoppers, contextual commerce solutions help with acquisition and driving incremental sales through off-site channels. Advertisers that don’t include contextual commerce in their strategy will miss out on a large audience of new and lapsed shoppers, and thousands of potential add-to-carts for their respective grocery retailers.
The effectiveness, scale and reliability of contextual commerce make it a must-have in a cookieless world. It’s one of the only advertising solutions that truly caters to consumer privacy preferences. Moreover, it adds value to the online browsing experience instead of detracting from it. Rather than devoting your brand’s advertising resources to display ads that merely drive clicks, consider focusing on creating high-intent contextual commerce opportunities instead.