The AdTech industry is undergoing rapid changes as it adjusts to the impacts of data deprecation and ever-changing privacy regulations. At the same time, there are fears of a potential economic downturn. How should you handle marketing in a recession? What should your marketing mix look like? In this blog post, we’ll cover how to navigate this uncertainty and three essential ingredients for your marketing mix.
First, we’ll look at the complexity and uncertainty facing marketers.
Turbulence with Twitter
After Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover in October 2022, half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers left the platform and started to seek out alternatives.
The retail media boom
In the next four years, Forrester Research projects that U.S. retail media ad sales will double to reach 85 billion by 2026.1
Most of this growth is catalyzed by CPG and consumer electronic brands that have a scarcity of zero- and first-party data; they need more media closer to the point of purchase, especially as CFOs are scrutinizing budgets.
Consumption continues to fragment
It’s becoming harder than ever to reach the right person, at the right time, predict their intent, and get a 360-degree view of your customer.2
Data deprecation is top of mind
According to Forrester Research, updating their data strategy to address data deprecation is the number one priority for marketers. Addressing data deprecation is also a priority for consumers, who increasingly feel that audience targeting is more intrusive than beneficial.3
Data deprecation affects identity solutions
Third-party data and mobile ad IDs (MAIDs) are the connective tissue for identity solutions. As we see those signals go away, there are fewer linkages to resolve identity and it’s leading to a rise in fragmented, duplicated, and shallow identity.
Recession fears
In addition to everything happening in AdTech, there are also fears of a possible recession. According to Forrester, 40% of Gen Z and 41% of Millennials believe fears of an upcoming recession are greatly exaggerated. On the other hand, only 24% of Gen X and 12% of Baby Boomers agree.4
Navigate uncertainty and marketing in a recession
With the current macroeconomic conditions, data deprecation, and fragmented consumption in mind, what should your strategy look like for marketing in a recession? Forrester recommends three strategies:
- People-led planning
- Test creative
- Optimize for marginal costs
People-led planning
Planning doesn’t have to be fragmented. Map offline and online media exposures to consumer decision journeys. Strategies like lifetime value (LTV) driven audience segmentation to correlate awareness at top of the funnel layered with demand generation exposures harvested later in the funnel. To do this, it’s crucial to work with providers that give you visibility into the audience buyer’s journey to awareness, intent, consideration, and purchase, all the way through to loyalty.5
Test creative
Make your creative work harder for you. Apply the same rigor with your creative that you applied to segmentation. Utilize multivariate testing to identify creative that is winning or losing. When you understand how each variable performs, you can scale the variables with creative optimization to have a material impact on performance.
Optimize for marginal costs
Optimize for marginal costs of acquisition, not just the average. Adjust for incrementality – what is the cost to acquire one more customer, rather than the average cost of acquisition.
Find the right marketing mix in a recession
With these changes in mind, how can you find the right marketing mix in a recession? We can show you the way.
You can create the right marketing mix with three key ingredients:
- Audiences
- Identity
- Activation
Let’s explore each ingredient to start you down the path toward marketing campaign success.
Audiences: Know your customer
The first ingredient to add to your marketing mix in a recession is your audience. Knowing your customer is key to targeting the right audiences successfully. Data-driven targeting can help you find your best audiences based on demographics, modeled lifestyles, and behaviors to improve marketing campaign performance.
Not sure where to start when it comes to developing your target audience strategy? We can help. We track digital usage of our data used by advertisers and identified the top four digital audiences that advertisers purchased over the last four years.
Four digital audiences to consider
Marketing strategies are only as strong as the data foundation they’re built on. The top four digital audiences that advertisers are purchasing from Experian include:
- Demographics
- Behavioral
- Modeled Lifestyles
- Custom Audiences
Demographics
Examples include age, gender, relationship status, living situation, life experience, and employment.
Behavioral
This audience allows marketers to identify households that are more likely to engage in certain activities or belong to certain groups.
Modeled Lifestyles
Experian’s Mosaic® USA segmentation. This is a household-based consumer lifestyle segmentation system that classifies all U.S. households and neighborhoods into 71 unique types and 19 overarching groups, providing a 360-degree view of consumers’ choices, preferences, and habits.
Custom Audiences
This is an audience blended from multiple sources or derived from first-party look-alike modeling.
Changes in digital audience strategies
Over the last four years, Modeled Lifestyles and Custom Audience purchases represented the smallest share of digital activation, while Behavioral and Demographic segments were more popular with advertisers.
When the U.S. rolled out the COVID-19 vaccine, consumers became more active. People were shopping in stores, returning to the gym, and taking trips that they had postponed during the height of the pandemic. Marketers turned to higher compositions of Demographic and Modeled Lifestyles to reach these audiences between April and December of 2021.
Sustained growth in Demographic audience activation could suggest a move back to tried and true audience strategies as signals continue to decline and amid evolving regulation. With economic uncertainty, marketers return to what they know. Traditional targeting methods like Demographics and Modeled Lifestyles are the baseline of many marketing strategies and we predict that we will continue to see marketers activating against these data sets.
Download our 2023 digital audience trends and predictions report to discover our full insights on how digital activation has changed and where we’re headed.
Identity: Understand the customer journey
Identity resolution is the next ingredient that you should add to your marketing mix in a recession. It should be a foundational element of every marketer’s strategy.
What is identity resolution? In the simplest terms, identity resolution is the process of matching different devices, IDs, and touchpoints back to a single person. Identity resolution expands marketers’ addressability and reach of their target audience and helps inform and measure accurate customer journeys.
Identity resolution challenges
Identity resolution faces two main challenges:
- Making the data actionable. Humans are complex. We have behaviors that change based on our current social groups and life events, we use dozens of internet-connected devices in a single day, and we exhibit distinct behaviors that happen online and in the physical world. This means marketers have mounds of data being collected from different channels based on that dynamic behavior of people, making it feel impossible to organize the data in a way that makes it feel actionable, know how it ties back to real humans, and ensure they’re doing it in a responsible and compliant way.
- Signal loss. Marketers continue to lose important signals that they’ve previously been able to rely on to inform their next move. Signals are being lost as our industry places more privacy regulations and restrictions on what can be tracked and as consumers themselves change behaviors to protect their privacy.
As consumer behaviors continue to change and signals disappear, identity resolution gets exponentially harder.
Expand addressability and reach with identity resolution
Data deprecation adversely affects identity solutions, but identity resolution should be a key ingredient in your marketing mix. Identity resolution ensures that consumers experience more relevant products, offers, and messaging – allowing you to reap the ROI benefits of hitting consumers at the perfect point in their journey.
Finding an identity resolution partner
When selecting an identity resolution partner, you should understand the data and processes that are implemented behind the scenes. It’s important to know:
- What makes up their consumer database?
- How fresh is their data?
- What identifiers can they match?
- How do they protect consumer privacy?
At Experian, we’re rooted in deterministic offline data which creates a stable foundation. We then layer in digital and behavioral touchpoints. We have decades of experience managing consumer data safely. We have insights on 250 million individuals, three billion devices, and one trillion device signals. Our databases evolve as quickly as the human behavior powering them does.
Our approach to identity resolution is open and agnostic. This means we can collect and ingest nearly all available offline and online identifiers. We can do this in all types of environments, including connected TV (CTV), mobile, and cookieless. We have two types of identity resolution:
- Offline
- Digital
This ensures we control how known and anonymous data points are connected for consumer privacy purposes.
Identity resolution in action
Our depth of data gives our clients access to see the whole human and gain the context around singular data points.
Let’s walk through an example of our identity resolution capabilities.
Challenge
Our TV media platform client needed to measure the effectiveness of an ad campaign they were running on behalf of a leading consumer electronics brand. The TV platform wanted to be able to accurately report on which consumers made a purchase after seeing the brand’s TV commercial on their platforms.
Solution
Using our digital identity resolution services, our client could capture online purchases made on the brand’s website and link them back to a consumer profile. In addition to online transactions, our client used our offline resolution services to resolve email addresses of consumers that purchased offline, using warranty registration details.
With online and offline purchase data now resolved back to an individual ID, we also performed identity resolution on viewers in their TV subscriber files that had also been exposed to the TV commercial. This allowed us to identify subscribers that had both seen the ad and purchased a product.
We provided our client with a packaged report that they could white-label and pass along to the brand.
Results
By providing this attribution reporting to the brand, the TV platform could validate the ROI spent on their platform. The brand was extremely satisfied with the results, and they transitioned the one-off TV commercial into an ongoing campaign and purchased quarterly measurement. This led to solid recurring revenue for the TV platform.
Activation: Experiment and measure the impact
The third and final ingredient to finding the right marketing mix in a recession is activation. Experimentation is the best way to determine which channels work best for your business and provide the most ROI.
Demand-side platforms (DSP), video platforms, and sell-side targeting are three important activation channels that you should consider experimenting with.
Demand-side platforms
We continue to see increased demand for environments where alternative identifiers are being transacted (like DSPs and video). Social channels are decreasing; this can be attributed to changes in privacy, security, and concerns around brand safety.
Amazon’s DSP is catching up with Google and Meta to become a top ad platform.
Video platforms
Digital video and other video channels like over-the-top (OTT) and CTV will continue to grow. Digital video will capture the most ad spend in 2023 (22.4% in 2023 vs 19.3% in 2022). Because of this, advertisers are placing bigger bets on the combination of addressable and CTV.
Sell-side targeting
Data sharing relationships will become strongest on the sell-side as we move toward consented first-party data. Ad dollars are shifting to channels that use the sell-side approach, like retail media and CTV.
Sell-side targeting enables brands to access large amounts of inventory across publishers and retailers. By getting closer to the ad inventory, advertisers can future-proof their strategies by having more access to better data signals. Direct relationships like these will be necessary as privacy regulations increase and signal loss continues.
We can help you find the right marketing mix in a recession
Now is the time to be opportunistic. Gaining share of voice during a downturn is cost-effective. Proactive marketing builds pent-up demand.
Delivering the right message in the right place at the right time means truly knowing your prospects and customers as individuals. At Experian, we bring you the highest-resolution picture of people, so you and your customers can connect with confidence.
You can turn prospects into customers with the right audience. By understanding your customers better, you can find more like them. Together we can power better results.
Find the right marketing mix
Check out our webinar, “Find the right marketing mix with rising consumer expectations.” Guest speaker, Nikhil Lai, Senior Analyst from Forrester Research, joined Experian experts Erin Haselkorn and Eden Wilbur. Watch the recording to learn:
- New data on the complexity and uncertainty facing marketers
- Consumer trends for 2023
- Recommendations on finding the right channel mix and the right consumers
Get in touch
Sources
- 2022 Retail Media Ad Sales Forecast, US. Forrester Research, Inc. 2022.
- Forrester Analytics Consumer Technographics® Technology, Media, and Telecom Topic Insights 1 Survey. Forrester Research, Inc. 2020.
- CMO Pulse Survey. Forrester Research, Inc. July 2021.
- Forrester’s Consumer Energy And Retail Online Survey. Forrester Research, Inc.
- People-Led Planning Solves Customer Problems to Drive Growth. Forrester Research, Inc. August 2, 2021.
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In the ever-evolving and soon-to-be cookieless advertising world, brands and agencies need help finding and maintaining access to accurate and comprehensive marketing data that enables them to reach the audience segments that matter most. Flashtalking by Mediaocean and Experian have a collaboration in place to do just that. Through this partnership, Experian’s more than 2,400 syndicated audiences are available for activation within the Flashtalking platform and its Social Ads Manager. “There are a lot of audience segments and data disappearing within the advertising industry right now because of the deprecation of third-party cookies, but Experian’s syndicated audiences are built for this new privacy-first world. Through this partnership, Flashtalking's clients gain access to some of the industry's most actionable on-the-shelf and custom audience capabilities for activation and targeting across the publishers and social platforms that matter most. It’s as easy as identifying the segments that matter to your brand and activating them everywhere they exist with a few simple clicks.” – Ben Kartzman, COO, Flashtalking by Mediaocean This partnership unites the power of Flashtalking's best-in-class independent omnichannel advertising platform with Experian’s comprehensive audience intelligence, which spans 126 million households and 250 million consumers. “For the same reason that brands are investing more deeply in first-party data in the wake of third-party cookie deprecation, having access to the right audience segments has never been more important. Mediaocean offers access to the only independent ad server that’s powering truly omnichannel, personalized experiences, and we’re thrilled to be amplifying their ability to do that through Experian’s expansive audience segments.” – Colleen Dawe, Director, Sell-Side Sales, Experian The Flashtalking Social Ads Manager has long-standing relationships and technical integrations with all major platforms, including Facebook, Google Demand Gen, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snap, TikTok, and a forthcoming integration with Reddit. Experian data can be deployed through custom and syndicated segments within these platforms, providing clients with both reach and precision. The power of the Experian – Flashtalking collaboration Benefits to marketing organizations that tap Experian data and audience segments via the Flashtalking platform include the following: A unified customer view: Marketers can use Experian's comprehensive data within Flashtalking to create a unified view of the customer across multiple channels. This helps craft cohesive marketing strategies that deliver consistent messages, enhancing customer experiences and brand perception. Enhanced targeting and personalization: Marketers can access Experian's detailed audience segmentation and insights within Flashtalking to target campaigns effectively. They can personalize messages at scale based on demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data to increase engagement and conversion rates across all channels. Optimized cross-channel strategies: With Flashtalking's cross-channel capabilities, marketers can integrate Experian's insights to understand how different segments interact with various channels. This enables the design of optimized cross-channel strategies that cater to the preferences and behaviors of different audiences. Data-driven decision-making: This partnership combines Experian's in-depth consumer insights with Flashtalking's analytics and reporting tools to help marketers make informed decisions. This data-driven approach can improve campaign performance, optimize media spend, and reveal untapped market opportunities. Local market activation: Marketers can also use Experian's geographic and location-based data within Flashtalking to tailor campaigns to local markets. This localized approach can enhance relevance and response rates, providing a competitive edge in regional marketing efforts. Improved media efficiency: This collaboration also enables organizations to harness the power of Experian's data within Flashtalking to improve media planning and buying. They can identify the most effective channels and timeframes for reaching specific audiences, leading to more efficient and cost-effective media investments. Why choose Experian in Flashtalking For over 50 years, we have been a trusted single-source provider of data management solutions. Our expertise in offline and digital identity has enabled us to curate data from over 200 direct and active sources, offering a comprehensive view of consumers with granularity, accuracy and scale. Using this data, we can craft our syndicated audiences to cover many verticals and specialty categories. For example, a Flashtalking client in the automotive industry can supercharge its campaign efforts. Experian has found that automotive advertisers build segmentation using four major data categories: Automotive Demographics Lifestyles and Interests Retail Shoppers: Purchase-Based Directly within the Flashtalking platform, multiple syndicated audiences from Experian in each major data category specific to automotive are available that brands and agencies can activate on-the-shelf to reach consumers with targeted messaging and retargeting. Experian and Flashtalking are future-proofing advertising Together, Flashtalking and Experian will ensure advertisers can continue to deliver personalized, relevant, and impactful messages and experiences to consumers despite ongoing shifts within the data-driven marketing landscape, including the deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome. This partnership offers greater access to audience segments built on privacy-safe insights with expansive reach, scale, and flexibility. Connect with us to learn more about how you can access Experian’s syndicated audiences through Flashtalking by Mediaocean. Contact us today About Flashtalking by Mediaocean Flashtalking unleashes the power of creative to make media work better. As the leading independent platform for personalization and intelligence across all marketing channels, our Creative Ad Tech bridges the gap between creative and media. We provide AI and automation to connect the silos between teams and deliver more efficient production, versioning, and distribution of creative. Our solutions operate at scale across CTV, Video, Display, Social, Native, Audio, DOOH, and Retail Media channels. As part of Mediaocean, Flashtalking is tied into the industry’s core ad infrastructure for omnichannel planning, buying, and billing. Visit flashtalking.com to learn more. Latest posts
Shoptalk 2024, the premier event for retail and e-commerce professionals, brought together industry leaders to discuss the latest trends and innovations shaping the future of retail. As the retail landscape continues to evolve, here are four key takeaways from Shoptalk 2024: 1. The continuing rise of retail media networks The evolution of retail media is propelling us into a new era of advertising and first-party data monetization. Retailers are using their valuable first-party data to offer targeted advertising opportunities on both their owned and operated channels — from sponsored content to personalized ads — and through offsite programmatic ads. However, the full potential of retail media networks (RMNs) is hindered by challenges in understanding and targeting shoppers beyond retail data, reaching customers across channels and validating measurement. To unlock the true value of RMNs, and turn these challenges into opportunities, companies should focus on four areas: Gain insights: Learn more about your customers and the customers your marketing partners care about. Create audiences: Use enriched data to build addressable audience segments for advertisers to target. Maximize reach: Expand your addressability and monetize your data on and off platform. Demonstrate success: Validate marketing impact by connecting ad exposures to outcomes. “It was evident at Shoptalk 2024 that the rise of retail media is unstoppable. The conversations, collaborations, and insights shared at the event cemented the position of retail media networks as the driving force behind the future of commerce.”Alison Hofelich, Sr. Account Executive, Big Box Retail & Grocery 2. Content-led commerce Content is becoming increasingly pivotal in driving commerce, with retailers investing in shoppable video to stimulate conversations and foster customer engagement. While video may not always lead to immediate transactions, it can start dialogues, offering retailers a platform to enhance customer loyalty and influence future sales. Retailers talked about their focus on connecting with Gen Z on a deeper level. PacSun highlighted initiatives like the launch of a gender-fluid line and continuous engagement with young consumers via social media for feedback. Additionally, PacSun talked about embracing "conscious capitalism" by co-creating with influencers and customers, recognizing the growing consumer preference for brands that make a positive impact. By collaborating with influencers and using user-generated content, retailers can create authentic experiences that resonate with their customers. 3. Data privacy and trust With data playing a central role in retail strategies, ensuring data privacy, and building trust with consumers are imperative. Retailers must prioritize transparency and security to safeguard customer information and nurture long-term relationships. While the focus may currently be on capturing Gen Z market share, businesses need to anticipate shifts in consumer demographics and adapt their strategies accordingly. Using customer data in a privacy-compliant way enables retailers to implement effective personalization strategies that drive long-term engagement and loyalty. “Retail media networks were at the center of Shoptalk 2024. In addition to retail media networks, the seamless integration of data to enhance customer personalization and the rising importance of targeting Gen Z were recurring themes."Kai Rood, Account Executive, Retail Apparel 4. The time to embrace AI is now Technology continues to drive innovation in retail, with advancements in AI reshaping the shopping experience. From virtual try-ons to personalized product recommendations, retailers are using AI to engage consumers and enhance product discovery. Testing and learning are essential for AI implementation, as companies navigate the risks and rewards of technological innovation. Navigate the future of retail with Experian Shoptalk 2024 provided invaluable insights into the future of retail, highlighting the importance of retail media networks, content-led commerce, data privacy, and tech innovation. By embracing these trends and innovations, retailers can position themselves for success in an ever-evolving marketplace. At Experian, our solutions are tailored to empower businesses in navigating this dynamic landscape. Through our Consumer Sync solutions, we bridge the gap between online and in-store touchpoints, ensuring a unified strategy for reaching audiences across channels and evaluating campaign performance. Our Consumer View solutions enable you to tap into 5,000 demographic and behavioral attributes to fill in any gaps on your customer. Go beyond category buyers by combining your first-party data and Experian's top ranked data to build custom audiences that lead to higher ROI for your advertisers. Connect with a member of our team today to get started. Latest posts
The marketing world has been preparing for years for the end of third-party cookies, and the news has shifted again. In 2025, Google paused its plan to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome, opting instead to introduce new privacy controls that let users manage how their data is shared. Even with this change, one truth remains: privacy-first; identity-driven marketing is no longer optional. For marketers, it’s about moving beyond reliance on cookies toward durable strategies built on trust, consent, and connected data. What is cookie deprecation? Cookie deprecation refers to browsers ending support for third-party cookies, which have long allowed advertisers to track user activity across multiple websites. These cookies were the foundation of behavioral targeting and attribution. By contrast, first-party cookies, created by a brand’s own website, will continue to function. They store essential information like logins or preferences and are central to modern data collection strategies. The change aims to improve privacy and transparency, giving users more control over their information. For marketers, it represents a shift from broad tracking to consented, identity-based engagement. Experian’s view: While third-party cookies may linger longer than expected, identity should remain the cornerstone of every marketing strategy. Why is cookie deprecation reshaping the industry? The shift toward privacy-first marketing didn’t begin with Google, but Chrome’s decision to limit third-party cookies has amplified the impact. Safari and Firefox removed third-party tracking years ago, but Chrome’s dominance, with roughly 65 percent of the global browser market, makes its shift a defining moment for advertisers. Apple App Tracking Transparency (ATT): Requires user permission before app tracking. Global Privacy Control (GPC): Lets users signal how their data can be shared. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): Enforce consent and transparency in data use. Google Tracking Protection: Now limits cross-site tracking for 1 percent of Chrome users, about 30 million people, before a full rollout. The platform response Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative and new user privacy control interface aim to balance personalization with user protection. These updates mark a shift toward data transparency rather than full deprecation. Experian supports this evolution by helping marketers adapt through privacy-led identity, data collaboration, and measurement solutions that meet compliance standards while maintaining addressability and performance across channels. How will cookie deprecation affect marketers? Marketers will notice several shifts: Less cross-site visibility: Without third-party cookies, connecting behavior across websites becomes difficult, making it harder to attribute conversions. Greater dependence on first-party data: Data collected directly from consumers (emails, preferences, purchase history) will be crucial for targeting and measurement. Increased adoption of alternative IDs: Solutions like Experian’s alternative IDs help maintain addressability and measurement in a cookieless world. Renewed focus on contextual advertising: Relevance now depends on where an ad appears rather than who sees it. New compliance expectations: Marketers must prove transparency and respect for consent under tightening global privacy laws. What challenges should marketers expect with cookie deprecation? Marketers face both operational and strategic hurdles as third-party cookies lose value. Addressability and targeting gaps Without universal identifiers, reaching audiences across channels becomes fragmented. Advertisers must unify data from CRM systems, mobile apps, and offline touchpoints to maintain reach. Measurement and attribution complexity As cookies disappear, so do last-click and view-through models. Solutions must rely on first-party data and probabilistic modeling to evaluate performance. Privacy and consent management Data collection now requires clear opt-ins, user control interfaces, and secure consent management systems that align with IAB standards. Resource and skill constraints Testing new identity and data solutions can be costly. Smaller teams may struggle to integrate clean rooms, universal IDs, or new reporting APIs. Experian’s role: Experian supports marketers through this transition with privacy-compliant data infrastructure, identity graphs, and measurement tools that work across every major platform. How can marketers adapt to a cookieless future? Cookies may still exist, but durable identity strategies are the future of digital marketing. Here’s how to prepare: Use first-party data: Collect information directly from your customers through loyalty programs, preference centers, and interactive content. Invest in analytics that translate this data into insight. Establish a trusted identity foundation: Experian’s Digital Graph connects more than 4.2 billion digital identifiers, linking households and devices in privacy-compliant ways. That means marketers can expand their addressable reach and understand audiences without relying on cookies. Experian’s data-collaboration solutions let you combine your first-party data with partner insights securely, unlocking deeper audience understanding. Explore alternative targeting technologies: Contextual methods powered by Experian’s data accuracy ranked #1 by Truthset, help you maintain personalization while respecting privacy. See how Experian’s identity resolution and data collaboration solutions can help you adapt in a cookieless world. What are the best practices for post-cookie marketing? Be transparent: Make consent simple and clear, and show how data adds value. Experian helps brands maintain transparency through privacy-first data solutions built on consented consumer information. Prioritize data quality: High-quality, verified data builds confidence and improves ROI. Experian’s accurate and validated data assets ensure marketers reach real people with relevant messages. Choose the right partners: Work with technology providers like Experian that support privacy regulations and enable interoperability across platforms. Keep the customer experience central: Relevance and respect earn long-term loyalty, values embedded in Experian’s approach to responsible marketing. What does the future look like for advertising without cookies? The end of cookies isn’t the end of personalization. It’s a chance to design advertising that earns consumer trust. Marketers who connect data responsibly and measure real outcomes will outperform those chasing outdated identifiers. Experian already helps global brands build this future through: Consumer Sync identity solution: Enables consistent, privacy-safe engagement across channels. Consumer View data solution: Delivers compliant, data-driven insights to inform data-driven marketing decisions. Digital and Offline Identity Graph: Provides scalable connectivity across digital and offline environments for a unified customer view. Learn how Experian can help you thrive after cookie deprecation Cookie deprecation changes how digital marketing works, but it doesn’t erase the value of data. With Experian’s identity, connectivity, and trust-based solutions, you can continue reaching audiences effectively and measure what matters. Explore how Experian can help you connect confidently in a cookieless world FAQs What is cookie deprecation? Cookie deprecation refers to browsers ending support for third-party cookies, which track users across sites. This shift promotes greater privacy and transparency while encouraging marketers to use first-party and identity-based data for targeting and measurement. Why is Google Chrome phasing out third-party cookies, and what’s changed recently? As of September 2025, Google paused its plan to fully deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome. The company will introduce new user privacy controls that allow individuals to choose how their data is shared, while continuing to test privacy-preserving APIs through its Privacy Sandbox. Which browsers are affected by third-party cookie deprecation? Safari and Firefox already block third-party cookies, and other browsers have adopted similar restrictions. While Chrome’s deprecation is paused, its large user base, more than 60 percent of global traffic, means its future policies will continue to influence how marketers plan and measure campaigns. How should marketers adapt to third-party cookie deprecation? Even with Google’s pause, marketers should keep building privacy-first strategies. Focus on:- Strengthening first-party data through loyalty programs and preference centers.- Using Experian’s Digital Graph to connect audiences across devices and environments.- Activating with Consumer Sync® for consistent, privacy-safe engagement.- Collaborating securely through Experian’s data collaboration solutions, which allow brands to share insights responsibly. Latest posts