How to Master a New Product Launch in a Cookieless World

Launching a new product is no small feat, and the cookieless future isn’t making it any easier. With increasing user control, consent requirements, and the depreciation of third-party data, marketers must rethink how they build awareness and credibility. But it’s not all bad news. Brands that get ahead of these changes can discover smarter, more sustainable ways to grow.

Here’s how to launch effectively in a cookieless world, without compromising on performance. 

1. The Halo Effect: Don’t start from scratch, build on existing credibility

In a world with fewer signals, trust is everything. Australian consumers in particular value it highly—2023 Roy Morgan studies highlight that they’re far more likely to buy from Australian-made businesses or try new products from brands they already trust. This was true for fast-moving consumer goods as well as higher consideration products like insurance, education and beyond.

1.1 Leverage What You Own — Start With First-Party Data

For brands with an existing database, your best performance asset is your existing customers. Use what you know about them to reduce friction:

• Upsell: Could this product complement or upgrade something they already own from your brand?
  
• Re-engage lapsed customers: Does this new product address some concerns of past/lapsed customers and could entice them to return to your brand?

Then, activate your insights through targeted remarketing across paid media, email, and owned channels.

2.1 Plan An Integrated Launch

According to Shopify, fewer than 10% of product launches succeed when relying on just paid or organic in isolation. An integrated approach is necessary.

Work cross-functionally across paid, organic, and PR to create a unified launch moment. At ADMATIC, we work closely with client stakeholders across all their channels and functions to ensure alignment, which is especially important when each team works in different systems or agencies. 

The most successful product launches have a consistent message and strategy across owned and paid channels. 

2.2 Your Product Launch Should Factor In Contingencies

Another often overlooked mistake in a launch is going in without a creative contingency plan. A/B tests are no longer a nice-to-have—they’re critical, in a post-cookie landscape.

• Build a creative refresh roadmap before launch, ensuring to have ad variants up your sleeve for optimisation and testing.
  
• Test distinct value props (functional vs emotional), formats (carousel vs video), and CTAs to scale learnings faster.
  
• Work with your agency to set refresh thresholds and define what success looks like before going live.

Over time, creative becomes your most scalable lever for performance, so plan for iterations over the cause of the campaign.

3. Milkshake Theory: Market the job, not just the product

Clay Christensen’s “Milkshake Theory” (aka “Jobs to Be Done Theory”) is more relevant than ever. Instead of asking “What do people want in a product?” ask: “What job are they hiring this product to do?”

The core idea is that many product launches fail because brands misdiagnose the real reason someone chooses their product. In Christensen’s research, 80% of milkshake sales at a fast-food chain happened early in the morning, not because people loved milkshakes, but because they needed something easy, filling, and portable for their commute. Once the brand positioned its messaging around that specific “job,” sales increased.

This principle applies across the board, from fast-moving consumer goods to higher-consideration categories like finance, education, and insurance. As Christensen famously stated: 

“The fact that you’re 18 to 35 years old with a college degree does not cause you to buy a product. It may be correlated with the decision, but it doesn’t cause it.”

Tip 👉 When launching a new product, don’t just lead with features or demographics, lead with the problem you solve. Your creative and campaign strategy should tap into the real-life job your product is being hired to do.

4. Measure What Matters: Beyond Last-Click

In a cookieless world, performance measurement must evolve.

Short-term ROI tells part of the story—but if that’s your only lens, you risk missing product insights, long-term growth potential, and your brand’s equity gains.

Instead, layer your measurement strategy:

• Brand uplift studies to measure changes in awareness and perception.
  
• Incrementality testing to isolate the true impact of paid media.
  
• Blended metrics like percentage of new users to site, engagement rate, and time on page to understand audience appetite vs. site journey.

On a tighter budget? Start small:

• Look at brand search growth
  
• Use auction insights in Google to understand competitors.
  
• Track halo effects from PR or influencer coverage
  

Don’t just ask “Did they convert?”, ask “What changed after this launch?”

Final Thought: Smarter Launches Start With Trust, Not Trackers

Product launches in a cookieless world require a rethink, but they unlock better marketing: grounded in trust, creative intelligence, and long-term value.

The brands that will win are the ones that:

• Embrace collaboration
  
• Plan for adaptability
  
• Build from what they already own