Third-party cookies are dead in Chrome since 2025. iOS continues to tighten ATT. Pixel-based tracking is mostly fiction in 2026. The local businesses who adapted are running on first-party data and a different definition of attribution.
What still works
- First-party data: your own CRM, opt-in email and SMS list, loyalty program enrolments.
- Server-side tracking: Conversions API, Enhanced Conversions, properly hashed identifiers.
- In-store attribution: unique SMS code per campaign, redemption tied back to source.
- Aggregated footfall: privacy-safe, anonymised mobile data via providers like Footfallcam, Adsquare.
- Incremental testing: split your geography, run the campaign in half, measure the lift. The only true causal metric.
What to stop pretending to track
- Cross-device journeys (without cookies, you're guessing).
- View-through conversions: historically inflated, now mostly fictional.
- Last-click attribution: gives credit to the last touch, ignores the brand campaign that did the heavy lifting.
- Anonymous web visitors' behaviour: mostly noise without consent.
The privacy upside
The death of pixel tracking is, paradoxically, good for local. Local always lived more on real-world signals than on creepy attribution chains. The end of cookies forces every business to invest in first-party relationships: which is what local has always been about anyway.
0%
of cross-device tracking that's reliable in 2026 without consent
+38%
avg. uplift in measurable ROI when switching to incremental testing
92%
of EU consumers prefer first-party-data brands per 2025 Eurobarometer
