First-Party Data: How You Can Succeed in a Cookieless World – Salesforce

Get hands-on with agentic marketing and build what’s next. Only at ConnectionsThird-party cookies are going away. Here’s why first-party data is your best friend in this fast-evolving era.The era of third-party data is just about over – long live first-party data. Legislation, regulation, and an increasingly data-conscious audience have put an end to third-party cookies as a viable primary data source, pushing marketers to look for more sustainable ways to learn about their customers. First-party data — information volunteered by customers — is now a crucial source for the modern marketer.Living in a first-party data world means actionable data comes from strong customer relationships. Trust has always been an important tool in this, as customers need to trust that you’re going to keep their data secure. But given the ongoing transformation in advertising, building trust is now more crucial than ever before. Without trust, even the most strategic marketing efforts can falter.But first, let’s define first-party data and how it plays a role in today’s marketing landscape.Learn how you can act on insights with AI and unify your data into a single profile to deliver the best customer experience.First-party data is the information you collect directly from customers on your company’s channels. This can be through purchase data, behavior on your website, interactions with customer service agents, and more. It includes both basic information like their names, IPs, and email addresses, as well as more granular data like their purchase history, demographics, website activity, app data, and so-forth. The big difference from the old third-party cookie system is it’s all coming from their direct interactions with your content. There’s no more following people to other websites and logging things they do elsewhere. While this can mean less total data, it also means you’re getting more relevant data. How they behave with your content is always going to matter more than how they behave with anyone else’s.   In this cookieless era, here are four things marketers must keep in mind moving forward.(Back to top)Adapting to focus on first-party data is more than simply flipping a switch. Let’s break down a hypothetical example, showing you how to capture, organize, and put your first-party data into action through every stage of the funnel.Our hypothetical company is TechBat, and they specialize in cloud-based project management solutions. TechBat aims to use its first-party data to launch a comprehensive campaign promoting its new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered project management tool designed for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).So how do they get started? Alternately, what does it look like for a more B2C company? This video breaks down how a hypothetical sports retailer, Northern Trail Outfitters, can use their first-party data for campaign planning, audience building, and audience activation: (Back to top)It’s important to keep in mind that tailored strategies will always win out over general ones. In the context of a cookieless future, these tailored approaches mean finding new ways to accomplish or replace allegedly “essential” advertising practices that are no longer going to be viable, at least not in the form we knew them.Here a few examples of important advertising tools that are going to work differently, or not at all, in a world without third-party cookies: Without third-party data, you won’t be able to retarget to customers based on what they’ve done elsewhere, or how they browse. No more aggregating everything they do without their knowledge. Now marketers need to work exclusively with what customers give us (when we put it like that, we probably should have gotten rid of third-party cookies ages ago, huh?). Once used to track visitor behavior across multiple domains or subdomains, cross domain tracking was almost entirely reliant on third-party cookies — so now it’s dead.This can still exist, but it’s going to require a lot more trust. Customers have to choose to share their information with you now, you can’t just harvest it naturally from their journey or follow their digital footprint across touchpoints.So how would a company like TechBat build their strategy without relying on those tools? (Back to top)Knowing we need to rely on first-party data is one thing, but making sure it’s handled properly is another. There are a few basic steps you should follow to make sure you’re getting the data you need while still respecting your audience’s preferences and boundaries. That’s the privacy and responsibility side of the coin taken care of, but how about the optimization side? Let’s take a look at a few different use cases for your first-party data. You can use digital engagement behavior, demographic data, and more, to optimize ad spend, drive pipeline and inform personalized advertising campaigns. Start by creating a high-value target audience based on unified behavior signals, purchase data, demographic insights, and other factors. Get “propensity-to-buy” scores for more granular segmentation, then activate segments across advertising channels.You can use personalized advertisements and online experiences that build awareness and deliver knowledge-building content with “request information” calls-to-actions. Finally, you can analyze segment/activation performance across ad platforms to track return on investment and adjust your ad strategy going forward. With great first-party data, you can create high-value segments based on previous visits or purchases, demographics, historical marketing engagement, and engagement scores.You can increase reach, as needed, using lookalike segments to find potential customers most similar to your target audience, or identify existing customers who use one service that correlates highly with those who use another. You can also activate segments to ad partners like Google, Meta, or Amazon directly from Data Cloud to reach customers with personalized ads. With Salesforce, you can combine Data Cloud and Marketing Cloud Personalization to personalize the website experience for subsequent visits. Another big plus to using first-party data instead of third-party cookies? You can find more customers that look like your best customers, without increasing budget, by using advanced campaign planning, AI-powered audience-building, and advertising activation. Within Salesforce Data Cloud, you can measure the effectiveness of historical and current advertising campaigns using Segment Intelligence to understand best performing audiences and inform future activations. You’ll get affinity, demographics, and in-market trend data back from ad partners like Google and Amazon. This will help you improve return on ad spend (ROAS) and inform future campaign planning. Then you can use AI-powered segment creation to build a high-value audience to promote to. Use lookalike modeling to identify similar customers to expand campaign reach, and activate new audiences to ad platforms of choice to reach them with personalized ads. Then you can collect segment-level insights directly from ad partners to understand customer affinities and demographics you can use to further your personalization — giving future campaigns a head start.Those are three high-value general use cases, but what does it look like specifically when a company like TechBat uses their first-party data to build a campaign? (Back to top)All that first-party data also benefits your generative AI options. Generative content built off first-party data is, essentially, content the customer already told you they want. That doesn’t just mean marketing data, either. Generative AI can build off data from across your entire business, including sales, service, or account data. Using generative AI lets you deliver that “have it your way” level of personalization at scale, giving every customer a version of your campaign that’s just right for them.In TechBat’s case, this could pop up in a few places: This new frontier is an exciting time for marketers, but there’s more to it than just switching from third-party cookies to first-party data, even if that’s the backbone. By carefully considering and selecting the right tools, building a cogent strategy, using generative AI to scale that strategy, and dealing honestly and intelligently with their audience, you can use that data to not only improve your marketing, but build better customer relationships. Personalized content built from data they choose to share not only speaks to their interests and needs, it also shows respect for their privacy and, at the risk of sentimentality, “care.”Adapting the methodology we showed for TechBat and Northern Trail Outfitters to suit your business is a good start to staying competitive in a first-party data world. But it’s equally important to make sure you have a solid data foundation for AI transformation beyond a single campaign. Put it all together, and you’re set up for success now, tomorrow, and deeper into the future. Learn how Data Cloud helps you deliver experiences that build lasting relationships with customers.(Back to top) I lead a team of product managers on Data Cloud and work closely with our strategic technology partners. I joined Salesforce in 2013. Get the latest articles in your inbox. Yes, I would like to receive the Salesforce 360 Highlights newsletter as well as marketing emails regarding Salesforce products, services, and events. I can unsubscribe at any time. By registering, you confirm that you agree to the processing of your personal data by Salesforce as described in the Privacy Statement. New to Salesforce? About Salesforce Popular Links AmericasEurope, Middle East, and AfricaAsia Pacific © Copyright 2026 Salesforce, Inc. 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