What if you could cut your budget in half and double your impact? A smarter approach to data might not get you that far in a year, but it will get you a lot further than you expect.
It’s what you need to shake off the sense that the walls are closing in right now because of smaller budgets and tighter privacy restrictions. Even though businesses feel optimistic about the future, only 34% of marketers expect bigger budgets next year. And we’re all familiar with the looming loss of cookies.
So, how can you set yourself up for a year worth celebrating?
2025 will be the year of doing more with less — marketers will need to find smarter ways to use data ethically, find genuinely actionable insights and focus on strategies that drive real results to stay ahead.
But it’s not just about chasing regulations and becoming more impactful — 2025 will be an opportunity to make more confident decisions while building back consumer trust.
To get there, you need to trust the numbers and use them to take action. This year, make your resolutions about turning data into a reliable strategic and tactical decision-making tool.
1. Ditch cookies to collect more first-party data
Marketers are still too dependent on cookies even though they’re diminishing. Seventy-five percent of marketers across eight countries say they heavily relied on third-party cookies to target and measure their marketing efforts in 2024. This dependency isn’t just outdated; it’s a liability.
Collecting first-party data in 2025 is going to take priority.
Third-party data is diminishing due to privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA and pressure from consumers who don’t want to be tracked. A quarter of marketing professionals worldwide think first-party data is the most viable alternative. Focusing on first-party data is a solution, but there’s more to it than just fixing a problem. It’s also a transformative alternative that’s inherently consent-driven, more accurate and actionable. When well executed, it can help marketers better understand their audience and boost customer trust.
This year, resolve to build systems that prioritize first-party data collection like:
- Encouraging site visitors to log into an account
- Offering loyalty programs or rewards in exchange for data
- Asking consumers to complete surveys by gamifying interactions
- Providing access to faster checkout processes or exclusive content in exchange for data
First-party data is the first step toward a level of data maturity that improves consumer interactions. For example, when someone abandons a cart, you could use first-party data to email and re-engage them.
Instead of gripping the cookie jar for dear life, let go a little and see the opportunity here to create stronger customer relationships and target customers more meaningfully. Fewer cookies won’t be so bad after all.
2. Encourage customers to share zero-party data willingly
Trust matters more than ever in 2025, and zero-party data is about as trustworthy as it gets. It’s similar to first-party data, which can be collected with consent when someone browses your site or buys something. Zero-party data takes consent further by asking customers to share their preferences willingly. It turns out that 58% of people feel more comfortable with brands that collect this kind of data.
Customers trust companies that use data they give them directly.
To collect zero-party data, make it easy and rewarding for customers to tell you what they like. For example, instead of tracking which products they click in an interactive game, ask them directly with a fun quiz or a loyalty program prompt.
Offer consumers something they value, like tailored product bundles, real-time recommendations or exclusive opportunities. Clearly explain how you will use their data and what they will receive in return. Make sure they see a tangible benefit from sharing their information.
3. Adopt MMM as your main measurement method
Relying on a single attribution model, especially one built on deterministic third-party data, isn’t enough to determine whether marketing moved the needle in 2025. CMOs told Gartner they invest more than a quarter of their overall budget into paid media, and that when properly applied, marketing mix modeling (MMM) improves the return of those significant investments.
Imagine a marketing agency running an e-commerce campaign for a client. Multi-touch attribution might identify a specific digital ad driving conversions. If that were their only measurement method, that would be the whole story. Using MMM, they instead uncover the ad’s success is tied to external market conditions. Incrementality testing, comparing experiment and control groups, further reveals that the ad didn’t significantly move the needle — it was market headwinds driving results.
This method of MMM supported by MTA and incrementality testing is called triangulation, and it’s the best way to proceed now that third-party data is diminishing and making the already imperfect MTA even less effective.
4. Automate actionable insights by becoming data mature
Many marketers mistakenly equate data maturity with having lots of data. However, even organizations with vast amounts of data often operate with fragmented, reactive data practices, missing big opportunities. A study by Boston Consulting Group on data-driven marketing maturity found that high-maturity brands are 3.4x more responsive to market changes and experience 1.9x more profitability growth than low-maturity brands. Becoming more data mature isn’t, however, a piece of cake. From 2021 to 2024, the average marketing maturity level dropped by 8%.
Imagine a marketer at an e-commerce company struggling with high cart abandonment rates. They’re using piecemeal reports and cannot pinpoint why customers drop off. In a data-mature organization, the story is different. Automated data reports quickly reveal mobile carts are timing out on consumers when they load, and the team acts fast to roll out a solution.
This transformation doesn’t happen overnight — it’s a deliberate journey. Start by establishing a single source of truth, automating reporting and improving data literacy across teams. The payoff is the ability to make truly data-driven decisions proactively instead of reacting to problems as they arise.
5. Use AI to personalize experiences across channels
Consumers want personalization, but delivering it consistently across channels is an overwhelming challenge that only AI can solve. Ninety percent of marketers already use it for faster decision-making to meet personalization requirements and comply with privacy constraints.
AI could help you close sales while consumers are shopping in real time.
Say a shopper abandons a cart before buying hiking gear. AI doesn’t just send a reminder email — it analyzes past purchases, writes email messaging highlighting complementary products (such as water bottles) and pushes an Instagram ad featuring a discount. AI unified the customer experience across email and Instagram in a way that would resonate with today’s privacy-conscious consumers.
To start, centralize your data in one platform, train AI on customer behaviors and use it to craft dynamic creatives. Refine strategies with A/B testing and feedback loops to ensure every interaction feels personal.
6. Make every email interaction more dynamic
Emails shouldn’t just feel personal. They should adapt to each consumer’s real-time behavior, location and preferences. Seventy-two percent of consumers only engage with tailored marketing messages, which are much easier to create at scale with dynamic content.
You can meet the demand for personalization with dynamic emails.
Say a customer is browsing a vacation site and adds a beachside resort to their wishlist without booking. A timely follow-up email offers a limited-time discount on that exact resort and suggests complementary packages. The dynamic content includes live-updating headers or geolocation-based promotions to nudge the customer toward action. In short, it’s irresistible.
Start making your emails more dynamic by using preference centers or surveys to collect data transparently. Start with behavior-triggered automation for actions like cart abandonment or product views, then A/B test subject lines, dynamic elements and triggers to improve as you go.
7. Personalize e-commerce interactions for more conversions
Complexity is one of the biggest barriers to conversions. In fact, 17% of shoppers abandon their carts because the checkout process is too complicated. Simplifying the journey means personalizing interactions and finding ways to reduce decision fatigue.
Shoppers abandon carts because checkout processes are too complex.
Take a home decor retailer, for example. They make dynamic recommendations based on browsing history, showing minimalist furniture to a customer who recently purchased modern lighting. A grocery delivery service pre-fills payment methods and shipping addresses and offers delivery slots based on the customer’s usual schedule. These small touches make the decision to buy less complex.
To simplify the journey, use AI tools to analyze browsing patterns, click-throughs and time spent on product pages to uncover customer preferences. Consider technology that automates dynamic recommendations, integrates stored customer data into pre-fill forms and includes localized payment methods or shipping options to reduce friction.
8. Bring order to chaos with a centralized data hub
Fragmented data holds your business back. Without a unified view of cross-channel marketing efforts, you’re piecing together insights from your website, social media, email campaigns and other channels without a complete picture. A customer browsing your site might seem like someone entirely different on social media, so you serve them mixed messages. It’s guesswork disguised as strategy.
A solution like Funnel consolidates performance marketing data in one place. Funnel’s measurement approach delivers cross-validated, unbiased insights that empower smarter decisions about where to allocate resources, how to improve experiences and what drives ROI — all without the complexity of managing a customer data platform (CDP).
Scenario planning even lets you test “what-if” strategies before applying them in the real world. Automated data collection and reporting eliminate wasted time, and integrations with other data sources let you access insights in real time. Funnel focuses specifically on marketing performance to bring clarity to campaigns and ROI rather than orchestrating the entire customer journey. A central data hub isn’t just a tool — it’s the foundation for sticking to your data resolutions.
Advance how you use your data next year
Data strategies often fail because companies treat them as static objectives rather than dynamic, ongoing commitments. 2025 isn’t about perfecting a system that you set and forget. It’s about evolving how you think about and use your data. Each resolution you’ve read here is part of a larger shift to treat data as an advantage.
Funnel provides the structure to meet your resolutions and adapt them as you grow. Resolve to set the foundation for lasting, measurable success in 2025.