Contents
This article soberly classifies Tracking 2025 : What has actually changed? Where were the biggest pain points in practice? And what do marketing teams and agencies need to do by 2026 in order to continue to measure, optimize and argue reliably?
If you are responsible for data, performance or budget responsibility in your organization, this reality check provides the framework to bring your setup up to date in 2026.
Why 2025 was the tracking year of truth
For a long time, the narrative was clear: “Third-party cookies are dying, everything is becoming anonymous, tracking will soon be dead.” 2025 has shown that the reality is more complex:
- Third-party cookies have not disappeared, but they are under greater pressure.
- Consent Mode v2 has gone from being a “Google recommendation” to a de facto mandatory standard.
- The Privacy Sandbox is no longer a dream of the future, but a test and project subject in many companies.
- At the same time, zero-click SERPs and AI responses are changing user behavior – and thus the measurability of SEO and content success.
Tracking 2025 therefore does not mean “everything is over”, but rather: Those who cling to old habits lose data, transparency and argumentation. Those who modernize their setup, on the other hand, can get more out of less raw data.
Trend Radar Tracking 2025 – what has really moved
Consent Mode v2 as a ticket to Google’s measurement world
Since 2024/2025, Google has been noticeably enforcing Consent Mode v2 . For marketing teams, this meant:
- Without correctly implemented consent mode, conversions in Google Ads and GA4 were sometimes significantly reduced or no longer measured at all.
- Modelled conversions and data gaps appeared in reports without everyone involved (marketing, IT, legal) understanding why.
- CMP solutions (Consent Management Platforms) have gone from being a “data protection issue” to a business-critical building block .
Anyone who did not adapt their tracking to Consent Mode v2 in time in 2025 felt this directly in campaign management, reporting and budget discussions.
Third-party cookies between survival and loss of control
At the same time, the big demolition of third-party cookies has failed to materialize. Especially in Chrome, they will remain – as of 2025 – in principle, but:
- Users can restrict tracking in the browser more easily.
- Regulations and public debate increase the pressure on individual profile building.
- Safari, Firefox and other browsers remain much more restrictive and block third-party cookies by default.
Result: fragmented reality. In some target groups, classic cookie-based setups still seem reasonably stable, in other segments they are practically ineffective.
Privacy Sandbox: from announcement to testing
With the Privacy Sandbox , Google is trying to create a new balance: measurability and targeting, yes – but with less personal data and more on-device logic.
For marketing teams, 2025 was above all a test year:
- First implementations of the Topics API and Attribution Reporting API,
- first experiences with new limitations and data signals,
- parallel setups to compare old and new worlds.
The Privacy Sandbox is not yet a fully mature standard. But any tracking concept that is thought of in 2026+ will no longer be able to avoid it.
Zero-Click, AI-SERPs & New Measurement Tasks
In addition, more answers are delivered directly in the SERP or in AI-based answer boxes. Users no longer have to click to get information.
For Tracking 2025 , this means:
- Classic KPI logic (“more clicks = more success”) is less effective.
- Visibility, brand searches, direct effects on conversions must be considered in context.
- SERP features and AI snippets are becoming indirect but important success factors.
Reality check 1: Consent Mode v2 – if you haven’t switched, you’ll lose data
What Google has actually enforced
Google has taken 2025 seriously: Without Consent Mode v2 in conjunction with a permissible legal basis, data collection will be restricted. This was expressed in, among other things:
- Sharply decreasing or skyrocketing conversion numbers
- Missing or incompletely modeled conversions
- Alerts in GA4 and Google Ads
The core message: Tracking without properly managed consent is no longer a viable model.
Typical mistakes in marketing setups
In many organizations, a similar pattern emerged in 2025:
- CMP and consent mode have been implemented, but not meaningfully coordinated.
- Technical parameters (e.g. ad_user_data, ad_personalization) were not set correctly.
- Consent signals were sent, but not for all relevant domains/properties.
- Marketing teams relied on “It’s working” until they saw the data breaks in the reports.
Best practice for consent mode at the end of 2025
A modern, resilient setup includes:
- Certified CMP solution
- legally secure dialogue,
- differentiated consent (analytics, marketing, convenience),
- clean documentation of the decisions.
- Advanced Consent Mode v2
- Events are reported in aggregated, anonymized form even without consent,
- modeled conversions are targeted instead of dismissing them as “mistakes”.
- Joint governance of marketing, IT & legal
- clear responsibilities as to who makes changes,
- regular tests (tagging, consent signals, data quality).
Tracking 2025 means here: Consent is not an add-on, but an integral part of the measurement strategy.
Reality Check 2: Third-Party Cookies, Privacy Sandbox & First-Party Strategies
Cookies are not dead – but unsuitable as a sole plan
The sober balance in 2025:
- Yes, third-party cookies (still) work in Chrome.
- No, they are no longer the reliable basis for long-term planning.
Reasons:
- Browser landscape is fragmented.
- Users and regulators are more suspicious.
- Platforms are shifting towards privacy-by-design.
Those who still rely exclusively on third-party cookies in 2025 are planning on shaky foundations.
Privacy Sandbox from a Marketing Perspective
The Privacy Sandbox brings new possibilities, but also new limits:
- instead of individual profiles, more topic/cohort logic (Topics API),
- instead of classic third-party cookies, new methods for attribution,
- more Dependence on browser and platform implementation.
For marketers, it is crucial:
- carry out tests at an early stage,
- Adjust reporting (comparison old vs. new),
- don’t rely on “will work somehow”.
First-party data & server-side tracking as a stable basis
The most important lesson from Tracking 2025:
If you want to stay in control, you need a strong first-party data strategy and a server-side tracking architecture.
Core:
- First-party data:
- Clean survey (forms, logins, newsletters, CRM),
- clear consents and usage scenarios,
- Segmentation according to added value instead of mass.
- Server-Side-Tracking:
- Data run through your own servers or tagging servers,
- targeted disclosure of only the data that is technically and legally necessary,
- better performance (page speed, fewer client-side scripts),
- increased stability against browser restrictions.
Server-side tracking does not replace consent, but it makes the implementation of data protection and data minimization much more robust.
Reality Check 3: KPIs, Attribution & Reporting in 2025
Why classic KPIs have blind spots
With less raw data and more modeling, the “usual” KPIs in 2025 are only of limited significance:
- Conversion figures are sometimes based heavily on models, not on individual events.
- Platforms such as Google Ads, Meta & Co. optimize on the basis of their own black-box logic.
- Channel attribution becomes more difficult the more touchpoints and systems are involved.
Those who continue to rely on last-click models or simplified uplift considerations underestimate or overestimate channel-specific effects.
Working with Uncertainty: New Reporting Practice
Modern reporting in the sense of Tracking 2025 takes into account:
- Confidence ranges instead of apparent accuracy
– e.g. “We assume with a high probability a ROAS range X–Y”. - Mix of platform and first-party data
– Platform reports (Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn) are mirrored with your own server-side and CRM data. - Incrementality Testing & Experiments
– Targeted breaks or budget shifts to measure real contribution effects of channels.
This creates an image that looks less “perfect” but is much more resilient.
To-dos for 2026: What marketing teams need to do now
To-do 1: Stabilize the tracking base (mandatory)
Before you start thinking about new channels, AI features, or new attribution models, 2026 should be clear:
- Consent & Legal
- CMP implemented, legally checked and technically correctly connected,
- Consent Mode v2 (at least in Basic, better in Advanced mode) activated,
- Regular testing of consent flows (mobile, desktop, different browsers).
- Event Setup
- Clearly defined business events (leads, sales, registrations, important micro-conversions),
- neatly named events in GA4 & Co.,
- consistent use across all properties and domains.
- Data Flow Documentation
- Overview of which tools obtain which data,
- comprehensible legal bases,
- technical documentation for IT and data protection.
To-do 2: Expand Server-Side-Tracking & First-Party Setup
For many organizations, 2026 is the ideal year to not only pilot server-side tracking, but to make it the standard:
- Strategic decision
- Own setup (e.g. server-side Google Tag Manager) vs. specialized providers,
- Evaluation of costs, know-how, scalability.
- Pilot phase
- Start with a property (e.g. main domain or main market),
- parallel client-side tracking for validation.
- Rollout
- Successive migration of further domains and conversion paths,
- Adaptation of reporting structures (e.g. own dashboards).
At the same time, first-party data sources should be systematically built up – including clean consent and CRM processes.
To-do 3: Rethinking KPIs & Reporting
To ensure that tracking in 2025 is not remembered as a data shock, but as a starting point for better control, adapted KPI logics are needed in 2026:
- Introduction of business KPIs as key figures (e.g. contribution margin, CLV, profitability per channel).
- Supplementation of the classic online KPIs with qualitative and indirect signals (brand searches, direct accesses, engagement).
- Transparent communication in the company that data is modeled – and how uncertainty is taken into account in decisions.
To-do 4: Securing the interface to AI and regulation
Parallel to Consent & Cookies, regulation around artificial intelligence (e.g. EU AI Act) is increasingly taking hold. In 2026, marketing teams should:
- establish an internal AI policy (which tools for what, with which data),
- Define processes to make AI-based targeting and content creation documentable,
- Tracking and data strategy dovetail with these governance rules.
This creates an integrated approach in which measurability, data protection and the use of AI are thought together.
Conclusion: Tracking 2025 was not an end – but a new start
The reality check shows that Tracking 2025 does not end the measurability of marketing, but the illusion of perfect, simple data.
- Consent Mode v2 makes data protection compliance a basic technical requirement.
- Third-party cookies play a decreasing, but not yet zero-valued role.
- The Privacy Sandbox opens up new paths, but requires tests, know-how and a willingness to adapt.
- Server-side tracking and first-party data are the central answer to this development.
Those who take these points seriously and work specifically on to-dos in 2026 will gain more than they lose: more stable data, better arguments and a future-proof measurement strategy beyond short-term hacks and fragile workarounds.
In the end, it’s not about seeing every single event, but about being able to make the right decisions. A modern tracking setup provides the basis for exactly this – even in a world after Tracking 2025.