Tag: Cookies

How to Do Paid Social Without Cookies

how to do paid social without cookies

Google made a big splash when they announced the end of third-party cookies in Chrome, and Apple has announced a similar change. 

It’s a huge shift for social media marketers, so what can you expect cookieless paid social to look like?

Google’s answer to the end of third-party cookies is the Privacy Sandbox, which will anonymize data to help increase privacy and limit spam and fraud.

Social media sites, like Facebook and Instagram, however, are using a slightly different approach. Understanding what these changes mean and how to navigate the future of paid ads without cookies is crucial to long-term social media success.

Here is what you need to know about what this change means and how to prepare for it. (Spoiler: it might not be as big of a deal as you think.)

What Does the End of Third-Party Cookies Mean for Paid Social?

Third-party cookies are small pieces of code marketers use to access data about how users interact on websites, social media platforms, and more. They are placed by a third party and can track actions across multiple websites. 

They allow you to target, for example, users who have purchased a specific item or read a news article about a specific topic on another site and then come to Facebook.

Third-party cookies are used heavily in social media marketing. That has a lot of social media marketers concerned about what this change means. However, marketers have been ignoring some drawbacks to third-party cookies. Understanding the drawbacks is crucial to understanding the impact of this change.

First, third-party cookies weren’t always accurate. For example, if someone uses their phone at work and then their laptop at home to perform a search, cookies couldn’t always track those as the same individual.

Also, if you search for one thing and your roommate searches for another (on the same IP address), cookies can’t always differentiate the two.

Another major concern is privacy. Do sites have the right to track an individual across multiple websites? Where does that data get stored? How long is the data stored? Do people have the right to ask advertisers to delete their data?

The EU and other organizations have pushed back with regulations designed to improve online privacy, such as GDPR.

Despite their flaws, cookies are an integral part of targeting paid social ads.

What does the end of third-party cookies mean for paid social ads?

First, it’s important to note that Google has pushed back the date for ending third-party cookies, which means you have plenty of time to prepare. 

Second, there are already more effective ways to target paid social ads. The shift may make paid ad ROI drop (as marketers learn new strategies), but I don’t expect it to be a long-term issue.

You will need to adjust your paid social strategy to be successful. Luckily, the changes likely aren’t a huge shift from your current strategy.

I’ll cover six ways to prepare your paid social strategy for the end of third-party cookies.

6 Ways to Prepare Your Paid Social Strategy for a Cookieless Future

A cookieless future is coming—but you have tons of time to start testing new strategies for your paid social ads. The sky isn’t falling; you’ll just need to make adjustments to how you gather data and target users.

Here are six strategies to get you started:

Go All-In on First-Party Data

Third-party data is data another organization gathers and then shares with you. It may be incomplete, inconsistent, and downright wrong. That is why several platforms are ending the use of third-party cookies.

First-party data, however, is information you collect yourself about your prospects, customers, and social media followers. This data is not going away. In fact, it’s becoming more important than ever.

I strongly recommend you start gathering first-party data about your audience now so you can test new strategies and see what works.

How do you gather first-party data? Here are a few ways: 

  • Build your email list. 
  • Use lead generation ads like Facebook’s lead generation ads. 
  • Create a Facebook group so you can interact with users directly. 
  • Encourage direct messages on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. (Instagram Stories are a great way to do this.) 
  • Use social media to poll your audience.

Let’s look at how to use first-party data for paid social ads. For example, you can build an email list, then upload those contacts to Facebook and target those users.

First-party data is more accurate—and you have full control over the data. That makes it far more valuable than third-party data.

Leverage UTM Parameters

UTM parameters are small bits of code added to the end of a URL. They often look like this:

Paid Social Without Cookies - Leverage UTM Parameters

Looks complicated, right? This UTM parameter tells me that the reader got to this page by clicking on a link in a Facebook comment I left on one of my posts. Understanding where my traffic comes from is crucial to targeting paid ads and understanding how users move through my funnel. 

These aren’t new, but if you aren’t using UTMs, now is the time to start.

UTMs make tracking where visitors come from easier because they stick around, even if users share it somewhere else.

For example, if someone reads a post on Facebook, then shares it on Twitter and texts it to a friend, that little bit of code will stick around. This means you have a much better idea of where people came from and how they’ve interacted with your brand on social media.

You can generate UTM parameters with one of Google’s URL builders or a URL shortener like Bitly. 

Use Facebook’s Conversions API

Facebook’s Conversions API allows customers to send data about actions they take directly to Facebook, without relying on browser pixel events. In layman’s terms, this means it’s first-party data, which we’ve already discovered is more accurate.

According to Seer Interactive, this allows marketers to access a wider range of data, is less vulnerable to issues like connectivity problems, and offers far more security.

Paid Social Without Cookies - Use Conversions API

Since Facebook and Instagram are connected, this data can be tracked on both platforms. I expect other social platforms to offer similar tools. In fact, Twitter already does. 

Use Demographic-Based Targeting

Most social media platforms already have robust ways to target based on factors like age, location, gender, and other demographic information. This won’t change because most platforms ask users for this information—which means it’s first-party data.

That means you can still target users on sites like Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok based on demographic information.

Facebook ads, for example, offer a wide range of demographic targeting: 

Paid Social Without Cookies - Use Demographic-based Targeting

The way Facebook gathers this data might change, but your access to the data likely won’t. You can easily target users based on demographics or use lookalike audiences to find an even wider base to target. 

Leverage Interest-Based Targeting

You don’t need to know every step users take to target them successfully with paid social ads.

For example, if you sell women’s clothing, knowing that someone is a woman between the ages of 25 and 35 (from demographics, which we discussed already) interested in fashion (because they follow three fashion bloggers on Instagram) tells you they’re likely to be interested in your brand.

Facebook already allows you to target users based on interests. Most of this data is gathered by actions users take on Facebook, which means you’ll still be able to target based on interests.

I keep mentioning Facebook because it’s the biggest social media platform out there, but other social platforms like Instagram and TikTok offer similar features. 

The end of third-party cookies sounds like a huge deal. However, much of the data you already use for paid social ads isn’t third-party data or can easily be replaced with first-party data.

There’s one more way you should be adjusting your paid social strategy for the end of third-party cookies.

Use Detailed Location-Based Targeting

You likely know you can target users based on their general location. For example, you can target users within a 25-mile radius of your donut shop in Boston.

That’s as far as most marketers get, but platforms like Facebook offer multiple other options, including: 

  • People living or recently in this location (default option): People list your city on their Facebook profile and anyone in that location based on mobile tracking.
  • People who live in this location: People whose current city from their Facebook profile is in that location. Facebook double checks this by paying attention to their IP address and friends’ locations.
  • Recently in this location: People who were in the selected area recently, as determined by their mobile device. (This includes people living or traveling to the location.)
  • Traveling in this location: People who are more than 125 miles from their home location and in your selected area, as determined by mobile device location.

What does this mean for you? If you’re targeting by location but not digging into the different options, you need to take the time to get more granular with your location targeting.

Paid Social Without Cookies Conclusion Frequently Asked Questions 

How do I use retargeting ads on social media without cookies?

Use a dedicated landing page for an ad campaign, then retarget users (using first-party data) who visited that landing page with your retargeting ads. Note that other solutions may become available as marketers learn more about how marketing will work in a post-cookie era. 

What is the difference between first, second, and third-party data?


First-party data is data you collect yourself; second-party data is data you get from another organization you know, such as another website with a similar audience. Third-party data is aggregated across platforms from various sources. 

Here’s a visual that explains the differences: 

What will replace third-party cookies for social media?

The most obvious replacement is first-party data. Gathering data yourself (or Facebook gathering data about how users interact on their site) is likely the most effective way to replace third-party data. Targeting based on location, demographics, and interests will also become more crucial.  

Is Facebook Pixel a third-party cookie?

It’s actually both, according to Facebook. While the third-party capability is going away, there are still tons of data you can collect with Facebook Pixel. 

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Paid Social Without Cookies Conclusion

The end of third-party cookies might sound like a huge deal, especially for paid social ads. The good news is there are several options for adjusting your social strategy. 

You can gather first-party data, then use that to target your ads. You can better track how users move through your funnel using UTMs. Targeting by location, demographics, or interests will still allow you to target users in your target audience.

Finally, consider using the conversion API options for platforms like Twitter and Facebook. 

Are you ready for the end of third-party cookies? What steps are you taking to protect your paid ad ROI?

How to Market Without Cookies

For several years, many digital marketing teams relied on cookies for marketing. 

However, everything is about to change. 

Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari already block third-party cookies, and recently, Google revealed it would no longer support cookies on ad networks and its Chrome browser.

What does this mean for marketing teams, and what can you do to ensure your business keeps running smoothly when you are marketing without cookies? Let’s find out. 

Why Are Third-Party Cookies Going Away & Why Does it Matter?

Whenever you use the internet, especially on browsers like Chrome, your actions are tracked through cookies. 

These cookies can help marketing teams understand user behaviors and ad performance, but they may feel like an intrusion of privacy for many users. 

By blocking these cookies, users can increase their privacy and security. Browsers like Firefox, Safari, and Brave have already started doing this. Google will also begin phasing out third-party cookies from its browsers to strengthen user privacy and promote itself as a secure search engine. 

This represents a considerable change for marketers who heavily relied on cookies for their ad campaigns. 

When creating paid ad campaigns on browsers and social media platforms, you need customer details to customize the copy. Marketing without cookies means you’d have to rely on first-party data (more on that below) rather than third-party cookies. 

Now Google is launching “The Privacy Sandbox” as a response to the cookieless future. Here data will be stored anonymously to form a middle ground where companies can obtain customer data without intrusive cookie tracking. 

Beyond this, there are various ways to market without cookies. Below, we’ll discuss some of the most effective strategies and offer tips for marketing without relying on the use of third-party cookies. 

4 Tips to Prepare for Cookieless Marketing

Your marketing campaigns don’t have to suffer because you don’t have access to third-party cookies. 

Using the strategies and tips below, you can learn to leverage tools like first-party data to increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts without depending on cookies. 

Turn on Google Analytics 4

An upgraded version of Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4 supports both app and website-based tracking. It helps if you use both formats (app and website), as most businesses do today. 

Whether you already run GA for an existing website or you want to create a different account for a new site, turning on Google Analytics 4 is simple. Here’s a detailed guide to help you get started. 

Start Gathering First-Party Data

Third-party cookies are blocked, but marketing teams can continue to collect first-party data. This means you can still use data from email sign-up forms or newsletters, surveys, and other direct methods. 

The biggest benefit of working with first-party data is you own the data. You don’t have to worry about buying it from someone else or losing the right to use it. 

The second benefit is first-party data tends to be more accurate than third-party cookies because you know your customers and have the tools to figure out exactly where the data came from. 

Another massive benefit is your competitors don’t have the same data. When you buy third-party data, there may be another company, most likely your competitor, that buys the same information.

Sounds exciting? Here are some ways to collect first-party data to help you get started:

  • online surveys
  • sign-up forms
  • newsletters
  • community polls
  • SMS answers
  • mobile notification responses 
  • direct mail (offline post), etc.

These are some of the tools marketers typically use to gather first-party data from both new visitors and seasoned users. You may not want to start using all of them at once as it could overwhelm your customers. 

Instead, try one or two approaches first. See how your audience responds to it. Are they receptive to your methods, or do they need a different approach? Experiment with different techniques to see what best suits your business model. 

Invest More in Market Research

Market research goes hand-in-hand with collecting first-party data. When marketing without cookies, you need to know who your audience is. 

Understanding their needs and pain points will help you tailor your campaigns to suit their needs without having to rely on external cookies data. 

If you’re new to this, here are some ways to get started with market research:

  • Launch a targeted survey.
  • Collect questions and feedback from your current users.
  • Work with analytics to understand what’s working and what isn’t.
  • Hold focus groups with incentives for participants. 
  • Observe how customers interact without interfering with their actions. 
  • Post simple polls in community forms to get a broad view of audience interests. 
  • Leverage the power of social media to understand what your target market wants. 

No matter which method you choose, the bottom line is this: Start investing more in market research. Get to know your customers and target market with surveys, buyer personas, and most importantly, constantly testing your findings with A/B testing. 

Focus on Personalization

What would you prefer? An email that addresses you by your name, or one that starts with a “hello there!?” 

Research says people prefer the first option. Studies show 90 percent of users find personalization appealing and 80 percent of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands provide personalized experiences.

If you want to take your marketing efforts to the next level, it’s best to focus on personalization. 

Now that you’re already working with first-party data, this will be easier. 

Start with using the customer’s name. There are dozens of tools in the market, including ones that work with newsletters to automatically personalize your campaigns. 

Then address customer pain points. Get really specific about what bothers them and position yourself as a solution for those problems. This will help customers connect with your brand better. 

Here’s an eye-opening graphic about pain points to keep in mind when working on personalization. 

Customer pain points are important for personalization when marketing without cookies.

Rethinking PPC: 4 Tips for PPC Marketing Without Cookies

If you’ve ever run online advertising campaigns, you know the best way to get effective results is to target your ads to specific audiences. How can you do that when marketing without cookies? Here’s how. 

Use AI-Based Bidding

By analyzing search data, AI-driven bidding determines which keywords and trends generate the most conversions. Then it optimizes your bids in real-time, maximizes efficiency for your ad spend, and improves the return on your investment. 

Here’s an example from Google.

AI-driven bidding example by Google for marketing without cookies.

The Smart Bidding feature of Google AI-based bidding provides bid strategies based on conversions. As a result, you can make targeted bid decisions for every auction in which your ads are entered. 

What does it mean? Simply speaking, it means you can get more reliable results without resorting to guesswork.

Such automated bid decisions are based on data that includes information about the device, the current location, the time of day, remarketing list, enabled languages, operating system, and other relevant details.

Still confused about AI-based bidding? Don’t worry. Here’s a Google guide to help you get started. 

Reconsider KPIs

Key performance indicators (KPIs) measure progress towards achieving ad campaign goals, so the success of your PPC marketing campaign often depends on what you’re actually measuring. 

Here’s where it gets interesting. When marketing without cookies, you may have to reconsider these KPIs to better align with your business goals. For instance, you may want to pay more attention to conversion numbers (how many users convert vs. how many users bounce from your homepage). 

Cost per acquisition is another important KPI you need to consider to ensure your ad campaigns are profitable in the long run. 

Here’s a thorough representation of evolving KPIs to help you plan your cookieless marketing strategies more effectively. 

Representation of evolving KPIs for online and offline markets for marketing without cookies.

Fully understanding and leveraging these KPIs can help you make better marketing decisions, especially when you’re navigating this new territory of a cookieless marketing future. 

Use Contextual-Based Advertising

Now that third-party cookies are out of the picture, you may be wondering: How can I know which ads to place where if I don’t have data about consumer behavior? 

That’s where contextual advertising comes in. In context-based advertising, ads are placed on web pages according to the website’s content. For example, a tech blog may display ads about computer accessories, while a vegan-living website may display ads about vegan food products. 

Look at the NYT Books section, for another example. 

Amazon Prime Video ad copy talks about being a bookworm.

The Amazon Prime Video ad copy literally talks about being a “bookworm.” This is contextual advertising as users who read the NYT Books section are obviously readers in some capacity. 

One more: Look at WSJ’s Life and Work section. It has a classic lifestyle content ad, considering users visiting this section have already shown an interest in lifestyle content. 

Lifestyle content ad on WSJ’s Life and Work section.

Target Based on Location and Time

Say you want something more personal than contextual advertising. Then consider targeting users based on their current location and time of the day. 

This can be as simple as “geotargeting,” where you change the ad copy to suit users from different regions. You see this in most search results. 

For example, if you look up “coffee shops” from New York, you’ll see ads and search results for coffee shops in NY, even if the same brand has a franchise elsewhere. 

The most interesting part? It doesn’t even have to be a huge brand. As long as the business has some web presence and works with geotargeted ads, it’ll show up for location-based searches. 

Marketing without cookies includes geotargeting like showing coffee shops in NY for NY-based users.

Time-based marketing is similar, with the only difference being you’re now using time data to personalize your copy. Imagine getting an email greeting you with a Good Morning when it’s actually morning in your region. Feels good, doesn’t it? 

This approach can also be useful to determine when ads will appear for users.

Say you want to market coffee products. It’s better to show these ads in the morning when users are considering buying coffee, rather than at night when they are more likely to avoid it.  

Frequently Asked Questions About Marketing in a Cookieless Future

Here are some frequently asked questions about marketing without cookies.

Why is Google getting rid of third-party cookies?

Google’s plan to phase out third-party cookies comes as part of a comprehensive strategy to create a privacy sandbox so users can be tracked (for marketing purposes) while maintaining their privacy. 

How will the end of third-party cookies impact marketing?

Most marketing teams were used to using third-party cookies for launching marketing campaigns. Losing access to those would mean you have to rethink your strategy, find better ways to collect information (first-party data), and personalize ad campaigns without relying on cookies.

What is the Google Privacy Sandbox?

Google has launched the Privacy Sandbox initiative to develop web standards that allow websites to access user information without compromising privacy. In essence, it facilitates online advertising without relying on third-party cookies.

What does cookieless marketing mean?

Cookies are bits of data that contain identifiers for consumers (personal and usage information), so cookieless marketing relies less on them in comparison to other marketing approaches. This involves using first-party data and personalization to increase the effectiveness of ad campaigns. 

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Cookieless Marketing Conclusion 

Marketing without cookies may seem like a daunting task at first. However, it doesn’t have to be so hard. 

Using the strategies and tips outlined above, you can improve your ad campaigns without relying on third-party cookies to find marketing success.  

The best part is these methods give you more control and accuracy compared to cookie-based marketing, which has you sharing data with your competitors. 

Which strategy will you try for marketing without cookies?