Businesses have relied on cookies for years as a way to understand who their customers are and what interests they have. Changes to browsers, consumer awareness, and privacy regulations have helped a lot here.
The End of Cookies
Third-party cookies traditionally allow advertisers to track things across different websites. This could be a way to build profiles, measure performance from campaigns, or even understand consumers better. Privacy concerns have changed how this is done. Safari and Firefox have brought in restrictions on cross-site tracking.
Advertising platforms have also made third-party data less dependable. Apps now have to ask users for permission before tracking their activity. The move towards opting in isn’t about finding new ways to track users, as it also changes how businesses collect valuable data.
If someone browses multiple running websites, they may be classed as a runner, but in reality, they may have no intention of purchasing running equipment. Asking people to opt in gives a clear sign of intent.
Customers who create accounts or use their membership number when shopping are also offered discounts, and in exchange, the retailer understands better purchasing patterns. Coffee chains have taken this approach through their mobile apps, as they track intent more easily and give insight into ordering habits.
The benefits for small businesses are astronomical, as rather than relying on an advertising profile created on the internet, they can develop relationships with customers who are directly interacting with their services. Offers can be created to target specific demographics, and only those who are interested will opt in to them, allowing businesses to shape their campaigns while ensuring that energy and money are not being spent where they’re not required.
Does AI Have a Role to Play?
AI can be used to analyse first-party information that customers have openly shared. It can also help businesses understand trends before they become dominant. Using predictive modelling, businesses can monitor campaign performance faster and more efficiently. As AI advances, marketing is moving from broad customer segmentation toward increasingly dynamic, data-driven personalisation.
Generative AI can combine customer, behavioural, and contextual data to tailor website experiences, emails, product recommendations, and promotional offers to different customer groups.
A Solid Alternative
Opt-in marketing works because it gives customers the chance to make the first move. Instead of a business gathering information about browsing habits, the individual gives permission. Entering an email address to get a 10% discount from a retail store, asking someone to create an account before allowing them to read articles on a news site, or receiving offers when ordering food online are all good ways to gather information while offering something valuable in return.
Online businesses and platforms that rely on promotions and welcome offers to attract new customers, such as casino and iGaming sites, usually use an opt-in method. For example, if providing free tickets for online bingo games, users are required to sign up for an account to receive these promotions.
The same happens with news sites, and not every registration has to involve a paid subscription either. Publishers often create news alerts, save articles, or offer exclusive access to certain content if registration is carried out. This transforms an anonymous visitor into someone who can be understood and gives the platform a direct way to bring them back when they leave, as their data can be used to target more demographics.
What Does the Future Look Like?
Moving forward, businesses have to find new ways to collect data. Consent management platforms record and manage user expectations, and server-side tracking moves data collection away from browsers. This gives companies more control over the information they collect. Contextual targeting takes a different approach by displaying advertising content based on the page being visited, as opposed to using previously collected data.
Consent should be built into tracking from the get-go where possible, rather than being an additional obstacle. Measurement strategies need to change. Instead of depending on individual identifiers, marketers need to combine event data with modelled attribution. Server-side collection can strengthen approaches like this, as it gives businesses more control over the information used for analytics and advertising.
As a final step, teams also need to understand how privacy affects daily marketing decisions. Training staff on first-party data, consent, and targeting helps to put trust and transparency at the forefront of every part of a company’s operation. This creates a more sustainable foundation, and it helps businesses to navigate the decline of cookies.
As the latest statistics show, 94% of people stay loyal to companies that operate with complete transparency, and 73% of people pay higher prices for services and products from transparent businesses; it’s evident that businesses need to move now or risk falling behind.
To compound things even more, 79% of people say that protecting customer data is the most important factor when it comes to trust. If businesses can implement the right steps now, this will make it easier to get ahead of the competition while prioritising what customers value the most.
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