Digital advertising's been running on third-party cookies for decades. They’ve powered many a retargeting campaign, fueled personalized experiences, and helped B2B marketers see how prospects moved across the web.
But that’s all changing. More browsers are deprecating third-party cookies, and regulations around data privacy are tightening. And with the growing emphasis on privacy-first experiences, B2B companies are still trying to figure out what comes next.
A 2024 study by Adobe found that 47% of marketers believe ending third-party cookies will negatively impact their business1 – but that doesn’t have to be the case. At Mojenta, we help B2B tech brands stay ahead of shakeups, and that means embracing cookieless marketing now. Here’s what cookieless marketing means for your business, plus strategies for building a marketing engine that doesn't depend on tracking users.
Cookieless marketing refers to strategies that don’t rely on third-party cookies to track, target, or retarget users. Instead, it requires marketers to leverage privacy-compliant approaches: first-party data you collect directly, contextual signals based on page content, and cookieless advertising solutions that respect user privacy while still enabling personalization and performance measurement.
This shift is as much about building a sustainable marketing infrastructure as it is about compliance. As data regulations and user privacy expectations evolve, businesses that embrace cookieless marketing now will have a competitive advantage. They'll have built relationships based on trust, not tracking.
Third-party cookies enabled a specific set of marketing capabilities that are now disappearing or becoming unreliable, including:
The cookieless future will replace these functions with strategies like collecting first-party data on your owned platforms and contextual targeting based on page content. Ultimately, marketers will need to rethink everything from how you segment your audience to how you measure success.
In 2020, Google announced that it would deprecate third-party cookies. Considering Chrome dominates the browser market, this was a major concern for most marketers. Then, in July 2024, Google announced it would not phase out cookies after all, instead letting users choose their tracking preferences. This sounds like good news for advertisers who still want to use cookies.
However, just because cookies aren't being forced away (yet) doesn't mean they're stable. Safari and Firefox already restrict third-party cookies, and privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA keep changing. User expectations around privacy are shifting. And the technical limitations of cookies are becoming more apparent every day.
More importantly, only 32% of programmatic buyers reported using Privacy Sandbox APIs – Google's replacement technology for third-party cookies – in 2025,2 which means the industry is still figuring out what works. Waiting for everyone else to move first puts your strategy behind.
The smarter move is to build first-party data capabilities and privacy-first targeting strategies now. That way, whatever happens with cookies, you're not caught off guard.
One of the biggest fears around cookieless marketing is that personalization will suffer. Without cookies, how do you know who's visiting your site? How do you show the right message to the right person?
Luckily, personalization doesn't actually require third-party cookies. It requires first-party data and a good strategy.
Here's what works:
At Mojenta, we use tools like HubSpot, 6sense, and custom CDPs to help our clients personalize at scale and boost conversion rates while still respecting user privacy.
A customer data platform (CDP) is software that unifies customer data from multiple sources and makes it actionable for marketing, sales, and service teams. A cookieless CDP does this without relying on third-party cookies.
These platforms work differently from traditional analytics. They collect first-party data from your CRM, website, product, and email platform using server-side tracking instead of browser cookies, which means the data lives on your servers, not in users' browsers.
Cookieless CDPs use hashed email identifiers or login-based identification instead of anonymous cookies. They also integrate with ad platforms via APIs, so you can upload audience segments directly to LinkedIn, Google Ads, or Meta without relying on cookie matching.
This matters for B2B businesses with long, multi-touch sales cycles. You need to understand the full customer journey across website visits, email engagement, webinar attendance, and sales conversations. A cookieless CDP connects all these data points to give you that view.
Attribution can be tricky when it comes to cookieless marketing. Without third-party cookies to trace a user's journey across the web, how do you know which marketing effort led to a sale?
Luckily, there are several effective cookieless attribution strategies. For example, you can use:
The most effective approach for most B2B companies is combining all of these. At Mojenta, we often recommend building attribution strategies directly into your B2B tech stack – so you’re not dependent on cookies or black-box analytics.
With traditional digital tracking off the table, B2B marketers are exploring new ad channels and tactics that don’t require cookies.
Leading cookieless advertising channels include LinkedIn Ads, which leverages first-party data and firmographic targeting, and Google’s Privacy Sandbox, which offers cohort-based targeting alternatives like Topics API. Contextual ad networks can also match ads to page content instead of user behavior, while email and newsletter sponsorships let you reach targeted, opted-in audiences.
The goal here is to shift from identity-based to intent-based targeting – and using your owned data as the foundation.
Without the ability to follow individual users, audience targeting must evolve. That doesn’t mean less precision. It just means different precision.
Some best practices here include:
If you’re relying on cookie-based segments to build your B2B funnel, now’s the time to shift. Audience targeting without cookies is not only possible; it’s becoming a competitive advantage for savvy marketers.
Retargeting without cookies sounds like a contradiction. How do you remind someone about your product if you can't follow them across the web? But new methods are emerging that allow B2B marketers to reconnect with engaged prospects without violating privacy standards.
Take first-party email retargeting, for example. If someone visits your pricing page, they're likely interested. Use a web form or email capture to get their contact info, then send them relevant follow-up emails. This is more effective than anonymous retargeting anyway because it's explicit.
Contextual retargeting is also very effective, since it lets you show ads based on the content users are consuming, not their history. If someone is reading an article about "how to choose a CRM," they're signaling intent. Show them CRM-related ads in that context. Using cookieless CDPs and customer data platforms can be helpful here, since they let you create audience segments based on first-party behavior and upload them to ad platforms directly.
By combining these approaches, you can recreate much of the value of traditional retargeting – without the baggage.
A cookieless future doesn’t mean a powerless future. Here’s how to future-proof your B2B marketing strategy:
Build gated content, webinar strategies, and sign-up flows that let you collect email addresses and company information. This sets the foundation, which you can then enrich with firmographics or intent data.
There are a ton of conflicting messages out there about collecting consent, so it can be hard to get your cookie consent pop-ups right. No surprise then that 67% of consent implementations have technical errors.3 Avoid this by using a consent management platform (CMP) to track what users have opted into and respect those choices.
[67% of consent implementations have technical errors.]
We’ve already talked about the attribution models that don't depend on cookies. Put them into action by using UTM tracking consistently in your ad campaigns, implementing marketing mix modeling, and building first-party reporting that connects your database to outcomes.
Invest in LinkedIn, contextual advertising, email, and owned content. These channels are becoming more valuable as cookie-based channels become less reliable.
Start with email-based retargeting and CRM audience matching. Use the results as a jumping-off point to build predictive segments, then track your efforts.
The industry has shifted. You need partners who have already built this capability. Working with an agency like Mojenta gives you access to experts who specialize in B2B and know how to execute cookieless strategies with measurable ROI.
Cookieless marketing is an opportunity to build stronger, more transparent relationships with your audience. The strategies we’ve outlined here aren’t just theoretical – they’re what we’re implementing every day for B2B tech clients that want to future-proof their marketing engine.
At Mojenta, we help B2B tech companies build marketing strategies that work in a privacy-first environment. We’ll deliver digital ad campaigns optimized for first-party data collection and privacy-safe personalization, so you can capture demand without the cookies.
Ready to get started? Book a meeting today.
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