Cookieless advertising is the new future. Post depreciation, it’s all about privacy-first advertising or ethical advertising. Although Google has yet again faltered on its plans to go cookieless, publishers shouldn’t take it as a pass. In 2025, hitting breaks on cookieless data strategies is akin to moving years back in advertising.
Privacy-first advertising, or as AdTech calls it, is setting to be the new normal. User-privacy laws like CCPA and GDPR are giving more control to users over how their data is being collected. These laws mandate user consent, and scrutiny around user data will only increase.
The majority of the advertisers have already started exploring cookieless advertising. And to maintain relationships with them, publishers need to rise to the occasion. In short, do not give up on your cookieless data strategies.
The Rise of Privacy-Conscious Behaviour Among Users
Users are aware of their rights. They know how their data is being used to show them ads, and they are here to take control back. According to a 2023 report by The Drum, 30% of the market (Safari and Firefox users) is no longer measurable or targetable. The report further elaborates on how 70% of users limit cookies. Meanwhile, around 40% of users use VPN.
As you can see, these cookie-blocking measures come at their own cost, not to mention the time and effort it takes. Even then, users are going to such lengths to secure their online data.
Let me share my example here as an internet user. While researching for this article, I stumbled upon a blog. The website had its usual cookie consent popup for a personalized experience. Noticing the settings icon, I promptly clicked on it and removed my legitimate interest from all the provided options before rejecting it.
If I am putting my time and effort into opting out, I know I am not alone as the same report further states that 18% of users are doing the same on a daily basis.
A second result of the study is that the number of customers taking steps to limit personal targeting is still expanding. Almost 29% say they spend more time browsing privately than a year ago. In the last three years, 60% of people have become more aware of how advertising can collect and utilize their personal information.
Perhaps predictably, younger people are more inclined to limit their tracking than the general population, implying that the tendency will only increase in the coming years.
Let me share another statistic with you. The same report states that more than 52% of participants expressed that they would be more likely to be inclined toward a brand if it could demonstrate that it never collected or utilized personal information for advertising.
Seeing the trend, it’s more than evident that advertisers would move towards cookieless advertising. And if they are gearing up for the future, you will have to, too.
The Publisher Dilemma: Between Personalization and Privacy
I understand the change the supposed cookie depreciation brings. Personalized ads generate more revenue compared to generic ads. Here’s the real dilemma: users want relevance, not surveillance.
While third-party cookies may be fading, personalization isn’t going anywhere. Rather, it’s being reframed. Hyper personalization may take a hit, but solutions like clean rooms are stepping in to enable audience-level personalization in a privacy-compliant manner.
That’s why you need to be prepared and keep on going. As a publisher, you are already sitting on a goldmine: first-party data. All publishers have access to it, but only a few are acting on it.
Despite the race against time, many publishers are still out of the loop.According to a Teads study, only a third (32%) of global publishers are ready for a cookieless future. 53% are overwhelmed by the number of cookieless options available, while only 28% are confident in their comprehension of the new landscape.
On top of these concerns are the financial implications that the supposed depreciation of third-party cookies will bring. To continue, approximately 45% of publishers anticipate a significant drop in ad revenue and a 120% increase in concern year on year.
Despite the challenges, some publishers see a glimmer of hope in this transition towards cookieless advertising, with 44% of publishers seeing this change as a chance to capitalize on their first-party data and improve the quality of their material. Furthermore, 37% of respondents value the privacy benefits and are confident in identifying new choices.
Let’s understand this in detail. The world’s leading publishers or tier-1 publishers are leading the change. 38% have dedicated resources to test solutions, 22% have accelerated plans post-Google’s phaseout, and 74% now leverage first-party data to engage directly with advertisers. The numbers prove their proactiveness in monetizing their digital assets.
Mid-scale or mid-tier publishers are mirroring the tier-1 ones. 74% engage directly with advertisers using first-party data, just like their Tier-1 counterparts. 36% have dedicated resources for cookieless tech, 25% have accelerated plans, and 32% show a strong understanding of the shifting digital landscape.
However, lower-tier publishers are still catching up with the rapidly evolving AdTech landscape. As part of the market’s long tail, they rely heavily on industry-led solutions like Seller Defined Audiences (SDA) and have limited direct advertiser engagement. Only 22% demonstrate a strong understanding of the cookieless shift, while just 17% are actively testing alternatives or accelerating their plans.
Cookieless Solutions: Turning Adversary into Advantage
As we say, necessity is the mother of invention. Publishers are doing what they have been doing with each shake-up: adapt. They are experimenting with new cookieless solutions to bridge the revenue gap left by declining third-party data. Some of these solutions are:
Identity Graphs
Identity graphs are emerging as the new foundation of a cookieless future for publishers. These are databases that link various identifiers like hashed emails, mobile ad IDs, IP addresses, or Zip codes into a single user. It creates a unified view of a user’s interaction across platforms and devices, helping advertisers drive and measure campaigns.
According to Digiday and Optable’s 2025 State of Audience Data Monetization research, 78% of publishers have already implemented or are in the process of developing their identity graph. Only 7% state that they have no plans to implement one.
The numbers speak for themselves. Publishers are recognizing the need for refined tools to identify users and unify the collected data across platforms and devices to survive this cookieless wave. What’s at stake is their survival.
Big publishers are already leading the way. NBC Universal’s NBC Unified and Verizon Media’s (now Yahoo) ConnectID are the prime examples. Both provide unified, privacy-compliant user data to advertisers to help scale their campaigns without utilizing third-party data.
Adding to that, companies like Netflix and Amazon also utilize identity graphs to track browsing behavior across devices to recommend the most relevant shows or products (RichPanel).
Moreover, companies like Optable, Lotame, and even The Trade Desk have started offering ID graph solutions to publishers for data tracking and compilation in a privacy-driven environment.
Clean Rooms
Reading the room (pun intended), publishers have also started investing in clean rooms as a way to cut through the cookie noise. These are privacy-focused environments that facilitate user data exchange between publishers and advertisers or data analysis collaborations without sharing user-level data directly.
As advertisers’ reliance grows on first-party data, clean rooms in junction with ID graphs can prove to be a viable solution. Again, publishers are already seeing the results.
Major players like Disney, NBCUniversal, Google, and Amazon have launched their clean rooms, while retailers like Kroger and Walgreens are bringing similar capabilities to the retail media space.
For instance, Indeed’s campaign on Hulu using Disney’s clean room resulted in a 41% lift in job seeker traffic and a 33% lift in employer visits. Similarly, Channel 4 and Nectar360 leveraged InfoSum’s clean room to deliver up to 122% sales uplift for participating CPG brands like Pepsi (MarketingBrew).
Roku’s Data Cloud Collaboration Suite is another clean room-based solution enabling advertisers to analyze combined datasets and gain insights in a secure environment.
Another example: To further measure campaign performance, Booking.com collaborated with Snap and used Snowflake Data Clean Rooms. This partnership raised confidence in their outcomes from less than 20% to an astonishing 99%.
What Does the Future Hold for Publishers?
The future of AdTech is moving towards a non-cookie identity era wherein what matters most will be publishers’ approach towards monetizing the first-party data. The future will be built on relationships, not rented data. Publishers who invest in collecting, structuring, and activating their first-party data will become indispensable partners to the advertisers.
Moreover, as we move from inventory selling to strategic ad partnerships, ID graphs, and clean rooms won’t be just buzzwords anymore.
Brands now actively seek partnerships with publishers who can provide them with privacy-compliant actionable audience segments, measurement transparency, and campaign agility.
Not just inventory but how actionable your data is will determine your eCPMs. Publishers with an interoperable tech stack will have an edge in adapting to future regulations with ease.
