Google confirmed earlier this year that third-party cookies will be retired in Chrome by 2023. Safari and Firefox already block them. iOS 14 weakened mobile tracking. GDPR required consent.

The direction is clear: the digital tracking landscape as we have known it is unwinding.

For businesses that rely on retargeting, conversion tracking and audience building based on third-party data, this is not something to wait on. It is something to prepare for now.

What are third-party cookies, and what are we losing?

A third-party cookie is not set by the website you are visiting, but by an external party, typically an ad network like Google, Facebook or a data broker. It allows the advertiser to track you across websites and show you ads based on what you have done elsewhere.

This is the technology behind "I looked at shoes on a retailer's site and now shoe ads follow me everywhere." It is what makes retargeting possible. And it is what makes it possible to build lookalike audiences from visitors to your website.

Without third-party cookies, much of this disappears.

What is first-party data and why is it the future?

First-party data is information you collect directly from your own customers and visitors, with their consent.

Examples:

  • Email addresses from newsletter sign-ups
  • Customer data from your CRM
  • Purchase history from your online shop
  • Behavioural data from your own website (via Google Analytics)
  • Responses from surveys and forms

This is data you own, you control and you are not dependent on third parties to use. It is more valuable than ever.

Practical steps for SMBs

Build your email list actively We wrote about this recently. A solid email list is the simplest and most resilient alternative to third-party tracking.

Invest in a CRM A CRM system that captures customer information, purchase history and interaction patterns gives you a profile of your customers without relying on external tracking.

Improve first-party analytics Set up Google Analytics 4 (GA4): the new version built for a cookie-less future. Universal Analytics (the old version) is being retired in 2023.

Server-side tracking For businesses with advanced advertising needs: server-side tracking via Google Tag Manager or Facebook's Conversions API provides more reliable data than browser tracking in a cookie-less world.

Contextual advertising Showing ads based on the content of the page a user is on (not based on who the user is) is an old method gaining new relevance. It requires no cookies, respects privacy and it works.

The bigger picture

Cookies are not the real problem: they are a symptom of a marketing practice that became too dependent on invisible tracking of users who did not know they were being tracked.

GDPR, iOS 14 and the cookie retirement are all parts of the same movement: greater user control over personal data. That is a positive development, even if the transition is challenging for marketers.

Businesses that use this period to build genuine relationships with customers (through email, content, direct communication) will be better positioned than those dependent on buying access to audiences through third parties.

Want to assess how your marketing should adapt for a cookie-less future? Get in touch.