July 2024 update: As of July 22, 2024, Google announced it will no longer deprecate third-party cookies. Instead, Google promised to introduce a new feature that lets people make an informed choice that applies across all web browsing. In light of this, we recommend continuing to prioritize the capture of first-party data. Focusing on direct interactions with your customers allows for more reliable and compliant data collection, ensuring your marketing strategies remain effective regardless of industry changes.
The reign of third-party cookies is finally coming to an end in 2025. With just a year left, it's not too soon for small businesses to begin preparing as the change will have far-reaching consequences for consumer privacy, change how small businesses collect and use consumer data for programmatic advertising, and probably lead to more—and worse—ads online.
In case you’ve checked out at points over the last decade since we all started talking about the death of third-party cookies, we’ll catch you up on what’s happening, why it matters for your small business, and what you need to do to make the most of what comes next.
What are third-party cookies, exactly?
Third-party cookies get a bad rap, but a cookie is not inherently dangerous. Cookies are simply small text files that websites place on your computer to help remember important things about you. Cookies have played a fundamental role in creating user-friendly experiences on the internet for decades.
When a website remembers and auto-fills your username, that’s a cookie. When a website remembers your preferences, that’s a cookie. When a website remembers what products you’ve viewed in the past and suggests them again to you, that’s a cookie.
When the website you’re visiting uses cookies to authenticate or track your behavior, those are known as first-party cookies. These are seen as benign and, in some cases, essential to the experience on a site. (You’ve probably accepted “Essential cookies only” before in a banner popup.)
Third-party cookies, on the other hand, are placed on your computer through ads, allowing websites you’ve never visited to track your browsing history and behavior. Yes, these cookies helped marketers deliver ads that were more relevant for each consumer (though, most consumers find targeted ads creepy). But, as we’ll discuss next, consumer privacy advocates and government regulators felt they played too fast and loose with consumer’s data.
Source: The Marketoonist
How we got here and where the cookie saga goes next
Now, the Wild West days of consumer data practices are ending. Privacy concerns are pushing the industry away from third-party consumer data and towards first and zero-party data.
The slow demise of third-party cookies began in 2016 when the European Union passed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as a way to give EU citizens more control over how their data is collected and used. In response, browsers began to phase out third-party cookies. Apple’s Safari browser, for example, began blocking all third-party cookies in early 2020.
The one holdout was Google’s Chrome browser. And since Chrome is the most popular browser in the world with nearly ⅔ of the market, no one could pronounce death of 3rd party cookies until they got on board. Google has delayed their deprecation plans for years, in large part because they are trying to create an alternative that satisfies the needs of advertisers as much as the privacy needs of consumers.
Though the ad tech industry has been preparing for years for what’s next, the persistence of third-party cookies means that programmatic advertising has continued to work for small businesses. But now small businesses need to transition to a marketing strategy that relies on zero and first-party data.
It’s time to get personal to personalize ads
Marketing may be undergoing big changes this year, but you’ll still be able to use customer data to inform your advertising strategy—even without third-party data.
To get reliable (and privacy regulation-compliant) data, you need to get closer to your customers. Instead of relying on ad tech partners to tell you about your customers’ demographics and behavior, you’ll need to focus on getting consumers to your site, keeping them engaged, and getting them to share information about themselves voluntarily with you.
There are two types of data you’ll want to collect and use in a cookieless world.
1.) First-party data
When consumers interact with your company—whether it's on the phone, on your site, or on social media—there is a host of behavioral data you can collect. With this data, you can develop a variety of customer segments for retargeting campaigns.
If you’re collecting first-party data, you may need to get consent from consumers and provide transparency into what’s being collected to comply with data privacy regulations.
2.) Zero-party data
When consumers voluntarily tell you information about themselves through user profiles, calls, surveys, and forms, this is known as zero-party data. There’s no guesswork with this data, which is great for marketers looking to personalize campaigns.
You probably have more zero-party data than you know—especially when it comes to phone conversations with customers. Without tools like Conversation Intelligence® helping transcribe and analyze calls, you’re probably missing out on a lot of valuable zero-party data. You may also want to create new customer experiences encouraging or incentivizing consumers to share more personal information, such as having them fill out forms online or take surveys.
Getting closer to your customers is ultimately a better experience for both sides. But the loss of third-party cookies will still be frustrating for many marketers at small businesses. Without third-party data greasing the gears of your remarketing and retargeting campaigns, you may be wondering how to maximize your ad budget.
You’re not alone in your uncertainty. Many in the ad tech industry are warning that, despite the slow rollout, they aren’t prepared to ramp up on Google’s solution, known as The Privacy Sandbox. The Privacy Sandbox will allow Chrome users to manage what ad topics they’re interested in seeing while giving advertisers a way to target consumer segments without the use of tracking cookies. The Chrome browser essentially acts as the middleman between advertisers and consumers.
Without third-party cookies, industry experts believe that “audiences will become less accurate, making audience-based targeting and smart bidding strategies even less transparent as the walls of Google’s walled garden [The Privacy Sandbox] rise.”
Small business marketing in a post-cookie world
If you give yourself enough time to prepare, your marketing doesn’t have to skip a beat once Google pulls the plug on third-party cookies. With a few tweaks to how you collect and use data, your topline marketing goals and strategies can remain the same.
To fill in the data gap left behind by third-party cookies, you’ll need to collect more (and better) first and zero-party data. The reality is you have more of this data than you know what to do with it, but the prioritization of third-party cookies means many marketers haven’t developed the tactics to maximize its use.
Here are the four things you should do to change that for your business.
1.) Improve first-party data collection
Getting consumers to your site, app, or product more often will mean you can collect more information about them (as long as you get consent). Create compelling campaigns to help drive consumers to your properties and then give them compelling content that keeps them around.
However, many small businesses struggle to understand how consumers find their business. With Call Tracking and Form Tracking, you can know exactly what keywords and campaigns are working. While Call Tracking shows which ad or keyword made someone call, Form Tracking reveals which made them click “submit” on a form. This will not only help you understand your leads and customers better, but it will also help you optimize your ad spend.
2.) Prioritize zero-party data collection strategies
Cut out the guesswork and middlemen with a zero-party data strategy. You won’t have to look far, in all likelihood. By using Call Tracking and Form Tracking together, you can see which of your campaigns and tactics are leading to calls and form submissions. With this data alone, you can optimize your marketing spending to prioritize the channels that are working best.
If you dig one layer deeper into the conversations you’re having with leads, you can make up for the third-party audience data you’re going to lose. With Conversation Intelligence, you can automatically capture the keywords, trends, and sentiments behind every call. It’s a low-lift way to understand the audience and motivations behind your actual customer base.
Zero-party data is incredibly valuable, so it’s okay to give consumers something in return. What offers, content, or topics get people to volunteer information about themselves? You might want to explore using polls on social media or send out surveys in exchange for discounts. Zero-party data strategies should bring you closer to your customers and allow you to create a better, personalized experience for them (without the ick-factor from third-party cookies).
3.) Maximize insights from customer conversations
If your small business uses chatbots or talks to prospects and customers on the phone, there is a treasure trove of insights in those interactions that can help inform your marketing. Historically, many small businesses have overlooked these data sources, however, because it was expensive and time-consuming to extract insights.
That’s all changed thanks to tools like Conversation Intelligence, which taps into the power and efficiency of artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically transcribe, summarize, and analyze your customer calls. This allows you to easily identify trends and keywords that can help you create better marketing campaigns, without spending hours listening to calls every week.
4.) Shift your marketing budget to match the new reality
If your remarketing campaigns start to suffer in a post-cookie world, you may need to shift your budget away from those channels and the tools you once relied on. Instead, you can spend your marketing budget on technology that improves your first and zero-party data-gathering capabilities and reallocate your ad budget to channels that help you collect zero-party data such as contact information.
Keep a close eye on your campaign performance this year so you can make changes early and avoid wasted spend as much as possible.
Don’t wait until third-party cookies disappear to improve your marketing strategy in 2025. Get ahead of the change and see how CallRail can give you the data you need to fuel your marketing campaigns for years to come.
