Third-party cookies and real estate marketing: what agents should do

Google announced in 2024 that it would phase out third-party cookies in Chrome, then reversed course in April 2025 and said it would keep them. It also retired its replacement proposals, including the Topics API, in October 2025. For real estate agents, the practical lesson has not changed: do not build your marketing on tracking you do not control. Build your own database.

This post was originally written when the phase-out looked certain. It has been updated to reflect what actually happened and what it means for agencies.

What third-party cookies are, in plain language

A cookie is a small file a website stores in your browser. A third-party cookie is set by a company other than the site you are visiting, such as an advertising platform. Those cookies let advertisers recognise a person across different websites.

That is how retargeting works. Someone visits your website, then sees your ad on another site or social platform. It has been a standard tactic for many years, and agents use it to follow up people who looked at a listing or a seller guide.

What Google actually did

• 2024: Google planned to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome and replace them with Privacy Sandbox technologies, including a system called Topics. Topics would have let a browser share a handful of broad interest categories based on recent browsing history.
• April 2025: Google announced it would keep third-party cookies in Chrome.
• October 2025: Google retired the remaining Privacy Sandbox APIs, including Topics.

So the dramatic shift many marketers prepared for did not arrive in Chrome. Topics, which we explained in an earlier version of this post, is no longer something to plan around.

Why this still matters

It would be a mistake to relax. Tracking is still getting harder from several directions.

• Safari and Firefox already restrict third-party cookies, so a share of your audience is not trackable that way.
• People can block cookies, use privacy tools or decline consent on cookie banners.
• Platforms and regulators continue to tighten rules on data and consent.

The result is that retargeting audiences are smaller and attribution is less complete than it once was. A strategy that depends entirely on following people around the internet is fragile, whichever way Chrome goes.

The better strategy: own your audience

Your database of people who have asked to hear from you is not affected by browser changes. It is one of the most valuable assets your agency has. Three practices build it.

1. Use direct response marketing

Direct response marketing asks for an immediate action. That could be a landing page for a seller guide, a market update download or an appraisal request form. The goal is to capture contact details so the lead goes into your own database.

Done well, this gives you a lead list that is yours, rather than an audience you rent from a platform. Do not confuse this with direct marketing, which keeps clients informed through channels like email, SMS or letters. Both are useful, and they work together. Direct response captures the lead, then direct marketing nurtures it.

2. Make your website the hub

Send traffic to your own website from ads, organic social posts, email and print. QR codes on letterbox drops are a simple way to do this. On your site you control the content, the forms and the data. Make sure every link and QR code goes to a specific page with a clear next step, not just your home page.

3. Gain consent and communicate directly

When someone gives you their details, make sure they agree to hear from you, and record it. In Australia the Spam Act requires consent for commercial email and SMS, a clear sender and an unsubscribe option. Our post on SMS campaigns explains the rules.

Measure with first-party data

First-party data is information you collect directly from your own audience on your own properties. It is more reliable than data collected across other people's sites.

• Set up analytics properly on your website. See Google Analytics for real estate for what to track.
• Use UTM parameters on links so you know which campaign sent each visitor. Our UTM tracking explainer shows how.
• Record the source of every lead in your CRM, including phone and walk-in enquiries.
• Ask new leads how they heard about you. It is old-fashioned and still reveals things dashboards miss.

Ad platforms also offer ways to send conversion data from your own website directly to them, which can help when browser tracking is incomplete. Ask whoever runs your ads whether this is set up.

What to do this month

You do not need a large budget to make this shift. Most of it is housekeeping: knowing where leads come from, giving people a reason to hand over their details and keeping in touch afterwards.

1. List where your leads come from today and how each is tracked.
2. Create one direct response offer, such as a seller guide, and a landing page for it.
3. Add a clear consent statement to every form.
4. Check that analytics and UTMs are working.
5. Plan a regular email or SMS touch for the contacts you capture.

Our post on value-based marketing shows what to offer, and how to nurture leads once you have them.

Where Lead Fleet can help

If your ads currently run mostly to retargeting audiences, it is worth checking how many people they actually reach, and what would happen to your pipeline if that number halved.

If you are not sure how much of your marketing depends on tracking you do not control, we can help you map it and build a plan that centres on your own database. You can book a conversation with the team.