Advertising without cookies: What you need to know 

Last updated July 24, 2024

On July 22, 2024, Google announced it would no longer deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome. Instead, the company plans to invest more in Privacy Sandbox and develop a solution that facilitates a more informed browsing experience for everyone.

While the cookiepocalypse has been avoided for now, that doesn’t mean brands should continue business as usual. At a time when data-driven personalization is crucial, brands should look to adopt an integrated strategy that relies on first-party data.

The great news is that first-party data is more reliable, meaningful, and ethical than third-party data and is often more cost-effective. This guide will help you understand how to create a winning cookieless ad strategy.

As concerns about online data privacy and security grow, consumers are becoming more aware of their digital footprint and are actively seeking ways to protect it. People want to control how brands use their personal information; Google’s latest announcement is simply the next logical step in addressing these concerns.

Ensuring advertisers can only use the data they’ve willingly consented to share puts consumers in the driver’s seat. Brands that rely heavily on third-party cookies must make major shifts in their strategy, particularly for targeting Google ads. Using customer-provided first-party data is the way forward. 

Right now, third-party cookies provide a window into people’s behavior across the open web. Without them, brands will have a tougher time delivering personalized ads and tracking conversions. Customer authentication, like Google sign-in, might be a solution in some situations. But it’s unlikely to be a universal fix.

To successfully advertise without cookies, brands must address the following challenges:

• Challenge 1: Workflows. Marketing strategies must accommodate customers who can be individually identified through authentication—and those who cannot. 
• Challenge 2: Budgeting. Brands must invest in first-party data, which may mean adding new tools to their tech stack.
• Challenge 3: Reporting. Brands must reevaluate which metrics to measure and how they’re calculated, including customer acquisition cost (CAC) and return on ad spend (ROAS).
• Challenge 4: Conversion tracking. Enhanced attribution modeling will become more critical without third-party cookies as a data source. Brands will rely more heavily on customer engagement platforms, like Customer.io, to attribute conversions.

Cookieless marketing invites brands to lean into the key drivers of long-term, profitable customer relationships: trust and choice. By aligning with efforts to increase online privacy and investing in marketing strategies that leverage first-party data, brands can realize significant gains in every part of the customer lifecycle.

With first-party data, you no longer need to rely on ad networks and third-party audiences to find your target audience. Instead, you can create more personalized and relevant advertising by using the data you’ve collected from your customers.

First-party data is superior to third-party data in almost every way:

• It’s the most reliable data because it results from real people interacting with your products and services.
• Because you choose what to collect, you get data that’s actually meaningful to your brand.
• You own your data with no ongoing fees (although you do have to invest in and maintain a system for collecting, analyzing, and using first-party data).
• Customers must consent to how you use their data, so there are no privacy concerns.

You can create a nuanced understanding of your ideal customers’ needs by delving into first-party data like website analytics, app usage, purchase histories, email engagement, and other customer behaviors. Then, you can use that data to build lookalike audiences within ad networks and serve up highly relevant, targeted ads without cookie data from a third-party source.

Consider adding a customer data platform (CDP) to your tech stack to get the most out of your first-party data. 

With a CDP, you can collect first-party data from all customer touchpoints with your brand, including your website, apps, social media, and customer support. This data can then be organized and used to craft personalized ads that resonate.

Imagine a healthcare app called GlucoGuide that is dedicated to diabetes management and has a wealth of first-party data from user interactions. By analyzing health log data and customer preferences, GlucoGuide knows that meal planning, progress tracking, and professional support are three features customers love about their app. Most importantly, they can see that customers leverage each feature differently, depending on their unique health goals.

GlucoGuide can then customize its ads with this valuable information to appeal to lookalike audiences. For example, they might create an ad that reads:

There’s an opportunity now for brands to change how they track conversions. The great news is that best practices for conversion tracking using first-party data already exist. And in some cases, they’re more accurate and meaningful than traditional practices.

Customer.io incorporates hyper-personalized tracking via first-party data, providing multiple tools at no extra cost:

• Ad audience sync within Journeys uses your segments to create ad audiences on Facebook and Google. Targeted ads automatically stay current because audiences are updated every 60 minutes as people move in and out of segments. You can use it for retargeting as well.
• You can use the Facebook Conversions API and Google Ad Conversions within Data Pipelines to measure, report on, and optimize conversion tracking without compromising privacy. 
• You can use webhooks in Journeys and Data Pipelines to pass data to or return data from virtually any public API for conversion tracking.

Remember to experiment when considering targeting Facebook and Google ads without cookies. You can use what you know about your customers to target ads in many ways, like:

• Using contextual targeting, in which you place ads where your customers already spend time, like buying ad space on a popular blog that you know your customers frequent
• Using dynamic creative optimization, which creates custom ads on the fly with lookalike audiences or using first-party data
• Shifting from a wide-net approach to precision targeting, where first-party data is far more effective than third-party

It’s time for brands to recalibrate their success measurement methods. Currently, cookie-based attribution is common for nearly every KPI.

Instead, brands can develop new ways of tracking performance, such as:

• Cohort-based measurement. A type of analysis that groups users with similar characteristics or experiences within a defined period. This approach helps understand the behaviors and performance of specific segments over time rather than viewing all users as a homogeneous group. 
• Incremental lift studies. This is done by comparing the behavior of a group exposed to an ad campaign against a control group that hasn’t. This approach helps measure the true impact of your ads by isolating and measuring only people they influenced.
• Correlative attribution for brand awareness. By looking at the relationship between changes in ad spend and brand awareness (or other top-of-funnel metrics), you’ll be better prepared to measure how your advertising efforts impact your overall brand health.

Custom acquisition cost (CAC) and retention costs are unlikely to change, and as you transition away from third-party audiences, you should actually see an improved return on ad spend (ROAS).

Advertising without cookies doesn’t have to spell disaster for your strategy. In fact, cookieless marketing can lead to a better customer experience and even more relevant, targeted ads for prospects eager to engage with your brand.

Looking for a few advertising strategies that don't rely on cookies? Download our guide now!

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