he end of third-party cookies has been a long time coming.
Safari and Firefox blocked third-party cookies in 2017 and 2019, respectively. In January 2020, Google promised to follow suit by deprecating third-party cookies on Chrome within two years and replacing them with the Privacy Sandbox.
But the wait goes on.
On Tuesday, April 23, 2024, Google announced it would delay the deprecation of third-party cookies on Chrome until 2025 — the third time the search giant has pushed back its original deadline.
The reason?
Ongoing regulatory challenges from the UK’s Competition and Marketing Authority (CMA) and a belief that advertisers aren’t yet ready for a world without cookies. In a blog post, the company said:
“We recognize that there are ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators, and developers, and will continue to engage closely with the entire ecosystem. It’s also critical that the CMA has sufficient time to review all evidence including results from industry tests, which the CMA has asked market participants to provide by the end of June. Given both of these significant considerations, we will not complete third-party cookie deprecation during the second half of Q4.”
That doesn’t mean we marketers should stop taking action. Although Google has delayed its timeline—and may do so again in 2025—cookieless marketing feels inevitable at this point, and you need to be ready when it becomes a reality.
That means assessing what a cookieless future means for your marketing team and taking steps to prepare for it today.
Below, I cover everything you need to know about marketing without cookies.
Key Takeaways
- Cookies are small text files that collect information about users browsing the web. There are two kinds: first-party cookies (which are stored by the website you visit and used to provide a better user experience) and third-party cookies (which are created and stored by other websites and are used for online advertising purposes).
- Google has once again delayed the deprecation of cookies on Chrome. It will now happen in 2025 at the earliest, assuming Google can address the CMA’s concerns.
- Other browsers, like Firefox and Safari, have already eliminated third-party cookies.
- Marketers need to adopt cookieless attribution techniques, such as device fingerprinting and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) server-side tracking, ahead of the transition to reduce marketing campaign disruptions.
- Cookieless attribution doesn’t mean the end of data-backed marketing. With first-party data collection and techniques like device fingerprinting, you can still use data in your marketing campaigns.
Cookies Explained
Before we dive into cookieless attribution and cookieless tracking, let’s take it back to the basics.
Cookies are small text files that collect information about users as they browse the web. You may have noticed websites asking for your permission around cookies, like this pop-up banner below:
There are two kinds of cookies: first-party cookies and third-party cookies.
First-party cookies are collected by the website you visit. The website uses them to increase functionality, understand user behavior, and improve the user experience. First-party cookies are used to remember your settings, for example, and collect web analytics data.
Third-party cookies are created by other domains using a script or tag in the website’s code. Websites use these cookies for online advertising purposes, such as cross-site tracking, re-targeting, and attribution.
It’s important to note that browsers are only deprecating third-party cookies. Even when Google finally deprecates cookies in 2025 or beyond, websites will still be able to collect user data using first-party cookies.
What Is Cookieless Attribution?
Next, let’s define what cookieless attribution actually is.
Attribution in digital marketing is used to determine which touchpoints contributed to a customer’s purchase. Marketers use it to determine the “path” to conversion.
Attribution is often broken down into channels. These can include social media, organic search, paid search, emails, etc.
In the past, third-party cookies made it very easy to attribute conversions to marketing channels. By installing a snippet of code on your website from Google or Facebook, you could easily track how customers moved around the web and work out which channels they used to find your brand.
Now that cookies are going away, that’s no longer possible. You need to use cookieless attribution instead.
Cookieless attribution is a method of anonymously collecting data—such as web traffic sources, conversions, and other marketing metrics—using techniques like server-side tracking and device fingerprinting.
Cookieless attribution accomplishes several things.
First, it protects user anonymity and privacy. This is a major consumer concern, with 86 percent of Americans more concerned about privacy and data security than the state of the economy.
Second, it allows marketers to continue determining their best marketing channels. And third, it enables marketers to create marketing personas based on data, though in different ways than before.
Why Are Third-Party Cookies Going Away, and Why Does It Matter?
In a word, privacy.
Consumers have become increasingly aware of Big Tech’s ability to track them around the web, building up detailed profiles that companies like Facebook and Google can use to target them with highly personalized ads.
To say people are concerned is an understatement. Research by the International Association of Privacy Professionals finds 68 percent of consumers are either somewhat or very concerned about online privacy.
In 2024, 75 percent of consumers believe privacy is a human right, and the same amount want control over how their data is collected and used.
Blocking third-party cookies that facilitate this level of tracking is one of the easiest ways to improve online privacy.
It’s why Firefox, Safari, and Brave have already blocked third-party cookies and why Google will replace cookies with the Privacy Sandbox — an initiative that will give websites access to user data while respecting their privacy.