Google Cookie Deprecation Reversal: What It Means for Marketers in 2025?

After four years and repeated delays, Google has thrown a curveball—pausing its long-awaited third-party cookie phaseout in Chrome. Instead of pulling the plug, the tech giant now plans to introduce a new privacy control experience, letting users make informed choices about their browsing data. While details remain vague, one thing is clear: the industry’s race toward privacy-friendly solutions isn’t over.

With the 2025 deadline now up in the air, should advertisers hit pause or keep pushing forward with privacy-first strategies? Let’s dive in.

Google’s cookie deprecation is its long-standing plan to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome, aiming to enhance user privacy and reshape digital advertising. The plan has taken several unexpected turns since Google’s initial announcement in 2020, including technical challenges, regulatory scrutiny, and industry concerns over viable alternatives. 

Google has now pivoted its approach. On July 22, 2024, it officially announced that it will not phase out third-party cookies on Chrome as originally planned.

Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time. Anthony Chavez, VP Privacy Sandbox

Google Chrome holds over 67% of the global browser market, meaning the deprecation of third-party cookies would impact a majority of users and advertisers. Therefore, the plan faced resistance from the ad tech industry, which relies heavily on cookie-based tracking and came under scrutiny from privacy regulators, including the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). 

CMA thinks Privacy Sandbox is anti-competitive

The CMA and the ICO shared concerns that the Privacy Sandbox could further strengthen Google’s dominance, giving it an unfair advantage that may harm advertisers, competing ad platforms, publishers, and users. The ICO also identified potential vulnerabilities in Privacy Sandbox that could compromise user privacy.

IAB isn’t sold on it 

The IAB Tech Lab conducted a six-month analysis of Privacy Sandbox and raised significant concerns, arguing that the Privacy Sandbox could hinder the industry’s ability to deliver effective advertising and place smaller media companies at a disadvantage. In short, does the Privacy Sandbox work? According to the Tech Lab: No.

The Privacy Sandbox initiative, while aimed at bolstering user privacy, introduces significant hurdles for the digital ad economy. IAB Tech Lab

Concerns from the ad industry 

A study by Epsilon found that 70% advertisers believe the deprecation will hinder digital advertising progress. Publishers were concerned that reduced targeting will lower ad premiums and revenue, with research indicating an 18% drop in ad impression prices without user tracking. 

Changing out the cookie is like ripping out the roadways in a major city. It will simply take more time to develop a real alternative that maintains a free and open internet, while also serving consumer privacy.
Michael Connolly, CEO Sonobi

Early reports say Sandbox isn’t ready

Ad-tech company Criteo reported that publishers could lose an average of 60% of their revenue from Google Chrome if third-party cookies were deprecated and they had to rely on Privacy Sandbox. Supply-side platform Index Exchange reported that found that CPM or cost-per-thousand-impressions fell 33% when advertisers used Privacy Sandbox.

Privacy Sandbox stays. Google tested Privacy Sandbox to evaluate the performance of the APIs and the findings reveal that:

• Without Privacy Sandbox, removing third-party cookies led to a 34% drop in programmatic revenue for Google Ad Manager publishers and 21% for AdSense publishers.
• With Privacy Sandbox, revenue losses were lower: 20% for Ad Manager and 18% for AdSense publishers.

In light of these findings, Google will continue to improve its APIs, expecting better performance as more companies adopt Sandbox. 

Even though Google has hit pause, the industry still needs to prepare for a world without third-party cookies. The focus is on finding better, privacy-friendly solutions that work for both users and advertisers. The good news? More time to experiment with new technologies, no deadline looming.

First-party and zero-party data

No guessing games here — first-party (and zero-party) data gives you the real deal, straight from the source. First-party data refers to the data you collect directly from your audience or customers through interactions on your own website, apps, and platforms (e.g., purchase history, sign-ups, and site visits). Zero-party data is information that a customer intentionally shares with a brand, like preferences, feedback, or survey responses.

Action plan

• Data collection: Leverage direct customer interactions like loyalty programs, email subscriptions, and surveys to collect first-party and zero-party data. Use forms and preference centres to allow users to share preferences, enhancing the collection of zero-party data.
• Data management: Implement robust CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems to effectively manage and make use of first-party data. 
• Personalisation: Use this data to create more personalized and relevant marketing experiences.
• Consent first approach: Ensure compliance with data privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA) by giving users control over their data and obtaining explicit consent.

Contextual advertising

Gone are the days of random ads—now it’s all about timing and relevance. Contextual advertising involves targeting ads based on the content that a user is currently viewing, rather than relying on cookies to track their behaviour across websites. This approach ensures that the ad is relevant to the content at hand, enhancing user experience and reducing privacy concerns.

Action plan

• Adapting to context: Use content themes and keywords to drive ad placements. For instance, if a user is reading an article on fitness, show ads for sports equipment, gyms, or healthy eating.
• AI-driven contextual targeting: Use AI and machine learning tools to better understand content and context. AI can analyse text, images, and even video content to identify themes and match ads more effectively.
• Privacy-friendly solutions: Ensure that all contextual targeting strategies respect user privacy and do not require the collection of personal data. Contextual advertising can still work effectively without third-party cookies.

Data clean rooms

With privacy regulations tightening, advertisers need a way to harness data without compromising user privacy. Data clean rooms provide a secure environment where multiple parties can collaborate on aggregated, anonymized data—without exposing raw user information. This enables precise audience insights while ensuring compliance with privacy laws.

Action plan

• Pick your provider: Choose your use case and clean room provider (e.g., Google Ads Data Hub, InfoSum) based on your data-sharing needs and partners.
• Set up security: Set up governance and technical infrastructure, including access controls, data policies, and encryption protocols.
• Start small, then scale: Launch a pilot with one partner, measure results, and scale based on learnings.

Identity resolution

Identity resolution ties up all the loose ends for you. It is the process of connecting data from different sources (like email addresses, device IDs, and interactions on various platforms) to create a unified customer profile, without relying on cookies.

Action plan

• Customer Data Platforms (CDPs): Invest in a CDP to aggregate first-party data from various touchpoints to build a single, comprehensive customer profile.
• Cross-device tracking: Use deterministic methods (email addresses, phone numbers) for tracking customers across different devices. For example, tracking the same customer who logs in from both a smartphone and a desktop without relying on cookies.

Google Topics

Google Topics helps ads stay relevant without getting too intrusive. It is a new privacy-focused approach (part of Google’s Privacy Sandbox) to enable advertisers to target users based on topics of interest rather than individual web browsing behaviour. It groups interests into categories and assigns users specific topics based on their online activity. 

Action plan

• Keep testing: Start testing and integrating Google Topics into your advertising campaigns. 
• Optimising for user intent: Focus on creating content that appeals to the specific topics that Google is categorising, ensuring you can meet user intent effectively. For instance, if a user is categorised under “sports,” ensure your ads are relevant to this area.

Server-side tagging

As browsers crack down on client-side tracking, server-side tagging steps up as a smarter, privacy-friendly solution. Unlike traditional client-side tagging, where data is collected and processed in the user’s browser, server-side tagging shifts this process to a secure server controlled by the business. While it doesn’t replace third-party cookies, it allows businesses to collect and process first-party data more securely.

Action plan

• Implement the right server solution: Select a scalable server-side tagging platform (e.g., Google Tag Manager Server-Side, AWS, Google Cloud Platform) and move client-side tags (e.g., Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel) to the server, ensuring secure data processing and privacy compliance.
• Test and optimize server-side setup: Verify data accuracy across devices, improve conversion tracking, and monitor for performance issues, ensuring accurate data collection and reduced browser-related data loss.
• Track ROI: Evaluate improvements in conversion tracking accuracy and overall performance compared to client-side tagging.

As the push for privacy-first marketing is stronger than ever, cookie consent is critical. Instead of relying on forced tracking, the focus should be on earning user trust through transparency and value-driven data collection. Marketers should:

• Implement clear, user-friendly consent banners without dark patterns.
• Integrate with Google’s Consent Mode and IAB Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) for privacy-friendly ad measurement.
• Respect users’ privacy settings such as DNT (Do Not Track) and GPC (Global Privacy Control) by automatically honouring opt-out signals.

With CookieYes, you can do all this and more, ensuring future-proof consent management and seamless compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA.

While Google’s policy reversal maintains the status quo, marketers know that embracing privacy-focused strategies isn’t just a trend, it’s the future. Early adopters of cookieless solutions are already seeing promising results, reporting not only improved campaign performance but also newfound independence from third-party data. By harnessing the power of first-party data and exploring alternative tracking methods, marketers can respect user privacy and still pack a punch!