For a few years, the end of third-party cookies was the topic in digital marketing. It was announced, dates were set, they were pushed back several times, and in the end Chrome backtracked and kept them.
Anyone who treated this as a false alarm and did nothing faced no immediate consequences. But anyone who used the moment to change how they worked came out ahead regardless — because the problem behind the announcement is still fully there.
The distinction that matters
Your own site's cookies — the ones that hold the basket, the session for someone signed into their account, the chosen language — were never at issue. Those are staying, and will keep staying.
What was at issue were third-party cookies: files placed by a domain different from the one the person is visiting, usually through an advert or an embedded button. These are what allowed the same person to be tracked from site to site and a profile of their interests to be built.
It's that practice, not cookies as a technology, that's coming to an end.
Why the U-turn doesn't change the direction
Chrome kept them, but that's only one route. Safari and Firefox have blocked them by default for years — and on mobile, in Portugal, that already accounts for a sizeable share of visitors.
On the other side is the law. GDPR and cookie regulations didn't stop existing because of one browser's commercial decision: explicit consent is still required before advertising tracking is switched on, and users must be able to refuse as easily as they accept. A cookie banner where "accept all" is a big button and "reject" is a link hidden in small print doesn't comply.
Add the two together: even with Chrome keeping cookies, the share of visitors who can be tracked across sites only keeps falling.
Where this shows up
In three places, in this order.
Remarketing. Chasing with adverts people who visited a page and didn't buy works worse and worse, and the audiences built this way keep shrinking.
Attribution. It gets harder to tell which advert led to which sale, especially when days pass between the two. Platform reports shift from measuring to estimating — and keep presenting those estimates with the same confidence as before.
Comparisons with the past. A drop in the numbers can be a real drop, or it can just be reduced ability to measure. Without care, you make the wrong call based on a chart.
What to do, which is useful either way
- Collect your own data, with an honest exchange. An email address given in return for something worthwhile — a guide, a discount, a stock alert — is yours, doesn't depend on any browser, and doesn't disappear with a policy change.
- Treat your contact list as an asset. It's the one channel nobody can take away from you. It's worth keeping it clean and properly obtained.
- Look at context again. Advertising next to content about the subject, rather than chasing people around, makes sense again — and it never had any legal problems in the first place.
- Measure differently. Asking "how did you hear about us" on the form is basic, and today it's surprisingly competitive with what the platforms report.
And your site's cookie banner
Take the chance to look at it properly. If it's set up to make refusing difficult, it's not only non-compliant — it's irritating visitors, and more and more people spot the trick.
An honest banner loses a bit of analytics data and gains freedom from problems. It's the same logic as everything else: digital marketing built on what people give you willingly is more work at the start and far more stable afterwards.
Do you know where your clients come from?
Tell us how you measure results today and what you collect from site visitors. We'll help set up measurement that doesn't depend on third parties.