Blogging News & Insights for February 2024

My Thoughts on a Future without Third Party Cookies, Google's Deal with Reddit, and More!

Mar 01, 2024

Hey everyone!

I’ve received a lot of questions about the impact that the deprecation of third party cookies by Google will have on blogger earnings.

ICYMI, third-party cookies are on their way out.

Multiple browsers have been blocking them for years, and in January 2024, Google Chrome restricted third-party cookies for 1% of its users. The browser’s support of third-party cookies will stop by the end of 2024 for all users as part of their larger Privacy Sandbox strategy. Google Consent Mode was launched in September 2020 and enables your website to run all Google-services based on end-user consent.

Why does this matter for bloggers?

Many bloggers rely on display ads for blogging income. Third-party cookies have been a staple in digital advertising, enabling advertisers to track users' browsing habits across the web to serve more targeted, and thus more effective, ads. The removal of third party cookies can potentially threaten how we make money.

What Impact will the deprecation of third party cookies have on my blog earnings/RPMs?

This is impossible to say with any degree of certainty because:

We don’t know if advertisers will adjust their spending (and if so, by how much)
Third party data loss could potentially be offset for those who have started collecting first party data (using products like Mediavine grow)
The traffic composition of each blog varies in terms of browser (Firefox, Edge, Safari, etc. have already eliminated third party cookies, so the RPMs for these users will not change)

Two good videos covering these potential impacts is from Mediavine’s CEO Eric Hochberger: