TLDR
- First-party cookies are created by the website you’re visiting, supporting user preferences, session management, and e-commerce functions.
- Third-party cookies are set by external websites and are primarily used for tracking and targeted advertising across multiple sites.
- Significant browser changes are phasing out third-party cookies shifting focus to more privacy-compliant tracking solutions.
- Effective cookie management involves obtaining user consent, using server-side tracking, and ensuring compliance with privacy laws.
Have you noticed how your online experience has become more tailored to your preferences?
This personalization is mainly due to cookies small data files that websites use to remember your actions and settings. However, as privacy concerns grow, the landscape of cookie usage is changing.
Recent developments indicate a shift towards prioritizing user privacy. For instance, major browsers are implementing stricter policies regarding cookie usage. Google, for example, has decided to retain third-party cookies in its Chrome browser, allowing users to manage their settings through existing privacy tools. This decision reflects a broader trend of striking a balance between user privacy and the needs of digital businesses.
What are Cookies?
Cookies are text files placed in the visitor’s browser by websites to recall the user’s choices and actions. They enable websites to provide a more seamless, personalized experience, keeping people logged in, storing settings, and tracking interaction history, among other things. Without cookies, simple site features such as shopping carts or a user login would reload with each page refresh.
In digital marketing, cookies help analyze the campaign, retarget customers, and aid in optimizing conversion paths based on user behavior. They are also critical in analytics platforms, where we need cookies to track user journeys at the device level or session level.
Next, let’s take a closer look at what first-party and third-party cookies are and how they work.
What Are First-Party Cookies?
First-party cookies are created and stored by the website a user is actively visiting. They support essential website functions, such as login continuity, saved preferences, and cart retention in e-commerce platforms. Because they originate from the primary domain, first-party cookies are generally seen as less invasive and more user-focused.
Here are the main functionalities that first-party cookies support:
- Session Maintenance
- Keep users logged in across multiple pages and visits.
- Allow seamless navigation without forcing repeated logins or identity confirmations.
- Preference Storage
- Save preferences such as language, theme, and regional settings to personalize the user experience.
- Ensure users see relevant content or pricing based on past activity or stated preferences.
- E-Commerce Enablement
- Retain cart items as users browse through different pages.
- Help streamline checkout processes by remembering shipping or billing information (if consented).
Adoption Trends and Management Strategies
Marketers are increasingly turning to first-party cookies to build scalable, privacy-compliant digital strategies. In the past year alone, 44% of B2C marketing executives have adopted a first-party data strategy, reflecting this strategic pivot. Effective cookie management involves not only storing data but also utilizing it ethically to personalize, optimize, and measure user experiences.
Here are the components of effective first-party cookie management:
- Consent-Based Collection
- Use clear prompts and cookie banners to get user approval.
- Let users customize what they allow, such as analytics and personalization, in a transparent manner.
- Data Activation
- Feed first-party data into CDPs or analytics tools to create real-time user segments.
- Use these insights to personalize offers, optimize the user experience (UX), or automate retargeting flows.
- Lifecycle Management
- Regularly audit cookie lifespans and data retention rules.
- Ensure that cookie expiration, deletion, or updates occur under evolving regulatory or business needs.
And, moving forward, it’s time to understand their importance.
Why First-Party Cookies Matter?
First-party cookies are more than just tools to make browsing easier. They also help businesses understand you better. By tracking your behavior on their site, they can show you things that are more relevant to you.
Here’s why first-party cookies and data are important:
1 They Respect Your Privacy
Because first-party cookies come from the site you’re visiting, they’re easier for businesses to handle in a way that follows privacy laws like GDPR. You know what data is being used, and it’s mostly from what you choose to share.
2 You Get More Relevant Information
Unlike third-party cookies, which track you across several websites, first-party data is based on your actions on just one site. This means businesses know more about what you’re doing with their content, and they can focus on showing you things that actually matter to you.
3 Better Relationships With Brands
Businesses that focus on first-party cookies are better at understanding what you like and need. This means they can give you a better experience based on what you’ve shared with them, whether that’s through your browsing history, purchases, or preferences.
4 They Help Businesses Stay in Touch With You
As third-party cookies are phased out, businesses that focus on first-party data don’t lose track of you. They use what you’ve shared with them to continue offering products or services you’re interested in while also respecting your privacy. You’ll see fewer random ads and more of what matters to you.
With these cookies, businesses don’t need to track you across the web. Instead, they can focus on what’s happening on their site and build a more direct relationship with you based on what you want.
Also read: Understanding the Importance of Meta Tags and Tags for SEO on your Website
With this in mind, let’s shift our focus to the more complex third-party cookies and explore their differences.
What Are Third-Party Cookies?
Third-party cookies are those that are stored on the browser of a user by domains that are not visited. Advertisers, analytics companies, and social media platforms primarily use them to track behavior across multiple websites. This cross-site tracking facilitates targeted advertising and attribution models; however, it is accompanied by increasing concerns about privacy issues and regulatory interests.
Here’s how third-party cookies typically operate:
- Cross-Site Tracking
- When a user visits a site, embedded scripts (such as ads and social buttons) place third-party cookies from external domains.
- These cookies track user activity across multiple websites to build behavioral profiles and ad-targeting logic.
- Ad Personalization and Retargeting
- Data collected helps advertisers serve personalized ads based on a user’s broader browsing history, not just one site.
- This technique fuels the retargeting campaigns that follow users with repeated ad impressions.
- Audience Attribution
- Marketers use third-party cookies to track how users behave across websites, determine which ads are most effective, and identify the paths that lead to a purchase.
- These cookies help attribute campaign success across disparate touchpoints and channels.
Heavy Reliance Despite Declining Trust
Despite rising user backlash and regulatory pressure, marketers continue to rely heavily on third-party cookies to drive campaign efficiency. According to recent data, 32% of in-house marketers and 31% of agency marketers reported being 100% reliant on third-party cookies. This heavy dependency underscores the urgency to transition toward more sustainable and privacy-compliant solutions.
Here’s what the current landscape reveals:
- Widespread Industry Dependence
- Many brands still depend on third-party cookies to power core advertising and remarketing strategies.
- Less than 5% of marketers, specifically 3% in-house and 2% agency-side, said they’d avoid third-party cookies even if they were still available.
- Misalignment with User Preferences
- 75% of the top 100 U.S. websites share personal data with third-party ad partners, even when users opt-out.
Source: Share of leading websites in the United States ignoring users’ data privacy preferences
- 70% of those sites still drop ad cookies despite opt-outs, indicating a stark disconnect between consent and practice.
- Reputation and Compliance Risk
Examples of Third-Party Services That Leave Cookies
Several third-party services leave cookies on your browser. These services track your activity across the web, and the information collected can be used for things like showing you targeted ads or analyzing your behavior. Here are a few common examples:
1 Ad-Retargeting Services
These cookies track your activity across different websites. For example, if you look at a product on an online store, you might later see ads for it on other sites. This is done through a tiny image (1×1 pixel) that collects data and assigns a cookie to follow you.
2 Social Buttons
Social media plugins like “like” and “share” buttons place cookies on your browser. These cookies track your behavior across websites, allowing social platforms to show you ads based on your activity, even when you’re not logged in.
3 Live-Chat Popups
Live-chat services store cookies to remember your name and previous conversations. If you return to the site, the chat tool can greet you by name and continue the conversation where it left off.
While first-party cookies track users within a single site, third-party cookies track users across multiple sites for advertising and analytics purposes. With these changes in mind, it’s crucial to understand the differences between first-party and third-party cookies. Let’s take a closer look at how they compare.
Differences Between First-Party and Third-Party Cookies
Understanding the differences between first-party and third-party cookies is fundamental for effective cookie management and compliance with privacy regulations. Below is a comparison highlighting the key distinctions:
| Aspect | First-Party Cookies | Third-Party Cookies |
|---|---|---|
| Set By | The website the user is visiting | Domains other than the one the user is visiting |
| Purpose | Essential website functions, user preferences, session management | Advertising, tracking across multiple sites |
| Privacy Concerns | Generally lower; tied to the visited site | Higher; involves cross-site tracking |
| Access | Only the website that set them can access the data | Multiple domains can access the same data |
| Regulation Impact | Less restrictive under current regulations | Facing increasing restrictions and blocks |
| User Control | Users have more control over first-party cookies | Users have less control; it is harder to manage |
With a better understanding of how both types of cookies work, let’s now look at how major browsers handle cookies today and the broader implications for marketers.
How Browsers Handle Cookies Today?
Browsers have become active gatekeepers in managing cookie behavior, especially as privacy expectations and regulations continue to evolve. While first-party cookies remain mostly supported, third-party cookies are under increasing restriction or being eliminated entirely. Here’s how different browsers are currently handling both types.
First-Party Cookies
First-party cookies are considered functional and privacy-aligned, so most browsers continue to allow them by default. These cookies are created directly by the site a user is visiting and are used to remember settings, login states, and preferences, contributing to a smoother on-site experience. Since they don’t follow the user across other websites, they’re typically seen as lower-risk in terms of privacy.
Whether you’re browsing an e-commerce site or a news platform, first-party cookies help personalize content without involving third-party networks. However, their scope is intentionally limited: they only work within the website that sets them. That means they cannot be used for ad tracking across domains.
Third-Party Cookies
Third-party cookies, created by domains other than the one a user is on, are facing major restrictions. These cookies are primarily used for advertising and analytics purposes, tracking user behavior across multiple websites to fuel personalized ad delivery and retargeting.
Today’s browsers have taken strong steps to restrict or block third-party cookies:
- Google Chrome: Chrome has started phasing out third-party cookies as part of its Privacy Sandbox initiative. This move aims to shift ad targeting methods away from invasive tracking.
- Mozilla Firefox: Firefox blocks third-party cookies by default through its Enhanced Tracking Protection feature, reducing cross-site tracking capabilities.
- Safari: Safari uses Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) to limit cookie lifespan and block third-party tracking methods, focusing on preserving user privacy.
These changes mean that marketers can no longer rely on traditional third-party tracking for insights or ad delivery and must instead invest in sustainable, privacy-compliant alternatives.
Blurring Lines: Embedded Tools and Cross-Site Behavior
Some technologies, like embedded social login tools or comment plugins, introduce complexity. While technically setting cookies from their domains, these tools often operate across multiple websites, mimicking third-party behavior even when they use first-party methods.
This grey area has led browsers to reevaluate how cookies function in embedded or cross-site contexts. The result: stricter partitioning, shorter lifespans, and more control mechanisms for users to manage what data is collected and by whom.
Also Read: Understanding Cookie Size Limits in Modern Browsers.”
As third-party cookies face growing restrictions, businesses are exploring alternative methods to track and personalize user experiences while respecting privacy. Next, we’ll break down how to set up and manage first-party cookies effectively on your site.
How to Set Up and Manage First-Party Cookies?
Setting up and managing first-party cookies requires more than just dropping a tag on your website. It involves a structured strategy that prioritizes consent, identity resolution, and accurate tracking while maintaining compliance.
Here’s a step-by-step framework to deploy and manage first-party cookies using Ingest Labs’ platform suite:
1 Define Your Data Goals
Before implementing any technology, start by identifying what user actions and attributes are most valuable to your business. Clear goals help you avoid unnecessary data collection and ensure every cookie supports a defined marketing or analytics objective. A focused approach also strengthens privacy compliance and increases efficiency across your teams.
Here are a few questions to help define your goals:
- What specific user behaviors do you want to track on-site or in-app?
- Are you focused on conversion optimization, personalization, or long-term engagement?
- What data granularity is necessary for your segmentation or reporting use cases?
2 Implement Server-Side Tracking
Client-side cookies are becoming less dependable as browsers tighten restrictions and users block trackers. Ingest IQ provides server-side tracking, ensuring consistent and real-time data collection, regardless of browser limitations. This method is more secure, improves site speed, and delivers greater accuracy in tracking critical user interactions.
With Ingest IQ, you can:
- Deploy tags across web and mobile applications without relying on developers.
- Monitor and audit tag performance to prevent data loss or broken scripts.
- Stream events directly to CDPs, analytics dashboards, or cloud storage in real time.
Ingest IQ’s server-side tracking is implemented via a centralized tag management system that supports both web and mobile applications, utilizing a smart SDK for integration, and offering robust monitoring, real-time data streaming, and privacy-first compliance features.
3 Ensure Consent Management
User consent is now a legal requirement, not just a best practice, under laws such as GDPR and CCPA, among others. Event IQ helps you design and manage a dynamic consent framework that’s both user-friendly and audit-ready. It enables your business to gain trust while reducing the risk of compliance violations or enforcement actions.
Event IQ can help you stay compliant by:
- Deploying location-aware consent banners that adapt based on the user’s region.
- Tracking and storing consent changes automatically across touchpoints.
- Syncing with backend systems so data usage reflects real-time user permissions.
4 Unify Data with Identity Resolution
Fragmented sessions and multi-device usage often result in broken attribution and incomplete user profiles. Ingest ID solves this by assigning a persistent, first-party identifier to every visitor, enabling seamless data stitching. This improves personalization, attribution, and lifecycle marketing effectiveness across all your platforms.
Ingest ID enables identity resolution through:
- Persistent user identifiers that work across sessions, apps, and browsers.
Unified customer views by integrating with CRMs, marketing automation tools, and CDPs. - More intelligent targeting using enriched profiles that update in real time.
5 Monitor and Optimize with Real-Time Analytics
Once cookies are deployed, it’s essential to track how users interact with your site or application continually. Ingest IQ provides real-time analytics that help you identify performance bottlenecks, optimize user experiences, and enhance conversions. It turns raw behavioral data into actionable insights for growth-focused marketing teams.
With Ingest IQ analytics, you can:
- Monitor conversion funnels and user paths with complete transparency.
- Identify drop-offs or high-exit points to adjust the user experience (UX) or messaging.
- Attribute campaign performance using clean, first-party data for reporting accuracy.
Now that we’ve outlined the basics of first-party cookie management, let’s explore some alternatives to third-party cookies that can help you maintain effective tracking.
Alternatives to Third-Party Cookies
As third-party cookies face increasing restrictions, marketers are exploring alternative methods to track and engage users while respecting privacy. Here are some viable alternatives:
First-Party Cookie Management
- Focusing on first-party cookies allows you to collect and utilize user data directly from your website.
- This approach ensures compliance with privacy regulations and builds trust with your audience. Effective first-party cookie management involves using your data to personalize user experiences and drive conversions.
Server-Side Tracking
- Server-side tracking moves data processing from the user’s browser to your server, enhancing data accuracy and security.
- This method reduces reliance on third-party scripts and improves website performance. Ingest Labs provides server-side tracking solutions that seamlessly integrate with your marketing platforms, ensuring reliable data collection while maintaining user privacy.
Contextual Advertising
- Contextual advertising targets users based on the content they are currently viewing rather than their browsing history. This method is less invasive and aligns with user privacy preferences.
- By delivering relevant ads in the right context, you can achieve high engagement rates without relying on third-party cookies.
Unified ID Solutions
- Unified ID solutions provide a single identifier for users across various platforms, allowing for consistent tracking without the need for third-party cookies.
- These identifiers are often based on first-party data, enhancing privacy and data security.
- Ingest ID provides a reliable method for maintaining user tracking and personalization in a privacy-compliant manner.
Identity Resolution Platforms
- Identity resolution platforms aggregate data from various sources to create a comprehensive view of the user.
- This approach leverages first-party data and machine learning to match user identities across various touchpoints, enabling effective personalization and targeting without relying on third-party cookies.
By adopting these alternatives, you can continue to engage and understand your audience effectively while adhering to privacy regulations.
Conclusion
Understanding the differences between these types of cookies, their implications for user privacy, and the browser behaviors that govern them empowers you to make informed decisions about your tracking strategies.
With the phasing out of third-party cookies, embracing first-party cookie management and exploring alternative tracking methods, such as server-side tracking, contextual advertising, and unified ID solutions, becomes increasingly important. These approaches not only respect user privacy but also ensure that your marketing efforts remain effective and data-driven.
Ingest Labs is here to support you in this transition, offering comprehensive solutions for managing first-party cookies and server-side tracking. Our tools and expertise enable you to optimize your campaigns, enhance user experiences, and drive sustained marketing success without compromising on privacy.
Don’t let the complexities of cookie management hold you back.
Contact us today to discover how Ingest Labs can help you implement effective first-party cookie strategies and explore alternative tracking solutions tailored to your business needs.
FAQ
1 How do you check if a cookie is first-party or third-party?
You can check the source of the cookie. If it is set by the website you are visiting, it’s a first-party cookie. If it’s set by a different domain (such as an ad network or analytics service), it’s a third-party cookie.
2 What is the difference between first-party cookies and third-party cookies?
First-party cookies are created by the site you’re visiting and used for things like login states and preferences. Third-party cookies are set by other websites, typically for tracking and advertising across different sites.
3 How to enable first and third-party cookies?
You can enable cookies in your browser’s privacy or settings menu. For first-party cookies, they are generally enabled by default. For third-party cookies, you may need to adjust your settings to allow them manually.
4 Are third-party cookies still used in marketing?
Yes, many advertisers still rely on third-party cookies for tracking user behavior across different websites. However, due to privacy concerns, some browsers and regulations are limiting their use.