For years, Google’s cookie phase-out has been the “will they or won’t they” story of digital advertising. Between announcements, delays, and reversals, this timeline has become less of a plan and more of a running joke.

But here’s the truth: at the end of the day, the timeline really doesn’t matter at all. Advertisers who still rely on cookies are building strategies on sand. 

The smarter approach has always been to move away from cookies entirely. That’s exactly what BRIDGE has done from day one, because reaching real people was never something we wanted to leave up to third-party cookies.

The Never-Ending Cookie Timeline

Let’s take a quick look back at Google’s moving target:

• January 2020: Google announces plans to phase out third-party cookies for all users by 2022.

• 2022: Timeline delayed to 2023 for Privacy Sandbox development.

• 2023: Timeline pushed again to late 2024.

• January 2024: Google begins disabling cookies for 1% of Chrome users (roughly 30 million people).

• July 22, 2024: Google officially abandons cookie deprecation plans altogether.

• Present: Third-party cookies still work on Chrome while other browsers, like Safari, and Firefox, continue to block them.

For anyone who built their advertising strategies on Google’s promises, this rollercoaster has been costly and confusing.

Why This Timeline Actually Doesn’t Matter

Even if Chrome keeps them alive, third-party cookies remain a weak link. Privacy concerns are only growing: 65% of people in 2025 say they’re worried about how cookies track them online. At the same time, fewer than 1 in 5 marketers feel prepared for a cookieless future, despite years of warnings and shifting timelines.

The bigger issue? Cookies never told you who the real person was in the first place. They follow browsers, not people. That means wasted impressions, fuzzy reporting, and no way to directly connect your campaign to actual results.

When you target real, verified people instead, everything changes. You know exactly who saw your ad, who engaged, and who bought. That’s what makes direct attribution possible, and why the cookie debate is just a distraction.

Luckily, the ad world does seem to be moving on. In 2024, more than half of U.S. marketers increased their investment in first-party data solutions, proving that the shift is happening with or without Google.

BRIDGE’s Cookie-Free Approach

From the beginning, BRIDGE chose not to play the cookie game. While the rest of the industry waited on Google’s next move, we built our foundation on people-based, first-party data.

That means every campaign we run is tied to real, verified people, not opaque browser IDs. It also means we bring results you can actually measure, from online engagement to offline sales, through strategies that are transparent, privacy-compliant, and resilient to every policy change and browser update.

Where others scramble with each delay, our clients move forward with confidence, because their campaigns were never dependent on cookies in the first place.

Next Steps

If your advertising strategy still leans on cookies, now is the time to move away. Don’t wait for Google’s next reversal, because there will almost always be another one.

Start by evaluating where your campaigns depend on cookie data. Then replace that reliance with first-party, people-based strategies that will actually last. That can be as simple as taking the data you already own, like customer emails, purchase history, or loyalty interactions, and turning it into actionable insights that power real targeting.

The brands that stop chasing timelines and start building sustainable approaches today will be the ones who stay ahead tomorrow. The advertisers who delay will be the ones left behind.

Ready to make the shift? Contact us and we’ll show you how BRIDGE helps you reach real people with confidence.