Data trends in digital marketing for 2026

In this article, we are going to consider:

• trends in digital marketing for 2026, including but not limited to first-party tracking, offline data collection, and building trust with website visitors;
• the main challenges you may face while collecting data;
• how to overcome issues with data collection using Stape’s solutions. 

Over the past few years, first-party data tracking has become more popular and easier to use. For example, last year, Google released its first-party mode, which allows you to deploy Google tags using your infrastructure. This trend in data will continue in the following years.

Using first-party data tracking instead of third-party tracking scripts has numerous advantages, such as higher accuracy, easier compliance with data regulations, and improved ROI.

With the new tools, adding first-party data to the analytics pipeline is becoming easier. Further in the article, we consider in detail the tools to implement first-party data tracking.

Due to the rise of restrictions and the use of first-party data, tracking and processing offline data is becoming more important. Tracking offline conversions will significantly enrich the data and provide deeper insights into business performance.

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) helps you store online and offline data on your customers' interactions in one place. You can use a CDP in two ways: buy a pre-built tool, which is expensive, or build your own CDP with the help of server-side GTM.

Below, you can see how CDP works:

Rising server and storage prices align with growing enterprise demand. In the rapidly evolving world of digital transformation, data centers support everything from cloud computing to emerging AI and machine learning (ML) applications.

The high demand for servers leads to higher prices and changes in the pricing structure. This trend is expected to persist with the ongoing rise of AI and ML.

The past year was defined by high-profile antitrust trials:

• In 2024, Google faced an antitrust trial over its alleged unlawful monopoly in online display advertising and related technologies.
• Google has also faced problems over its practice of purchasing default search engine status across various browsers. 
• Meta was accused of monopolistic mergers, such as with Instagram and WhatsApp.

While concerns about big tech monopolies continue to grow, how do smaller businesses build trust with their clients? In 2024, we could notice a trend that will continue in the following years: more clients pay attention to the data websites collect about them, so business owners need more control over the data.

Last year, Google introduced Consent Mode V2, which enables websites better to communicate users' cookie consent preferences to Google tags. Microsoft also released a similar tool: Microsoft Clarity Consent Mode. All these tools aim to build trust in the digital world between business owners and their clients. 

Using AI and machine learning is one of the trends in data analytics. You could have noticed that numerous platforms come up with tools that use these technologies. This trend will continue in the next years. If trained correctly, AI/ML can provide insights into the campaign's performance as well as help optimize them and predict users' behavior. But still it requires a large scope of historical data and a precise approach that integrates both offline and online data.

One of the biggest challenges business owners encounter is the constant improvement of tracking prevention methods. For example, ad blockers are becoming more advanced and can block almost all variations of gtm.js loading.

Chrome has now migrated to Manifest v3, which has caused much hate because it limits ad blockers’ functionality and slows down their updates. People have started migrating to different browsers.

Also, well-known browser restrictions include ITP, which limits the lifetime of cookies, and the new Incognito mode for Safari, which doesn't allow storing website visitors' history, cookies, or form data.

Another challenge that marketing and data tracking specialists face is data privacy regulations. To be compliant in the digital world and still get the data on users' interactions with the website becomes harder. Besides GDPR, which sets data regulation standards, businesses should consider the new Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) for financial institutes, the PDPL Personal Data Protection Law in Saudi Arabia, Microsoft Clarity Consent Mode, and much more.

Server-side tracking simplifies data regulation compliance and allows for greater control over the data. In the section below, we consider the possible tools to use when switching to server-side tracking.

Server GTM container is the most versatile solution as it supports multiple vendors. How does it work? After the gtag.js and gtm.js loading path with the help of Custom GTM and GA4 Loader, the codes are loaded from your domain, and you can send event data requests (e.g., PageView).

Server GTM is a great server-side tracking solution for tech-savvy teams who need advanced features and complete control of data streams.

If you haven’t set up a server GTM container yet, but it sounds like an appropriate solution, check our configuration guide.

Meta CAPI Gateway allows you to create first-party data tracking for Meta, which is a great solution if your business primarily runs Meta Ads. It works the following way:

1. 1.
   Firstly, the web pixel code (fbevents.js) loads.
2. 2.
   Load of configuration from Meta (fully automated, and no changes to current code are needed).
3. 3.
   Event data requests are sent (one to the Stape CAPI Gateway server and one to Meta directly).

Snapchat CAPI Gateway is similar to Meta CAPIG but works only for the Snapchat platform. The solution works the following way:

1. 1.
   The web pixel's code is loaded (on the screen, it is scevent.min.js).
2. 2.
   The configuration from Snap /config/dog is loading (it is fully automatic; no changes to the current code are needed).
3. 3.
   The event data requests are sent (one to the Stape CAPI Gateway server and one to Snap directly).

Snapchat CAPI Gateway is designed for advertisers running ads on its platforms, as the solution creates first-party data tracking only for this platform.

❗Please note: if you are running ads on TikTok, using TikTok Events API Gateway may be useful, it works similarly to Meta and Snapchat CAPIGs. Check our guide on TikTok server-side tracking for more details.

Signals Gateway helps to send first-party data from any source (Pixels, SDKs, webhooks) to any destination (Meta CAPI, BigQuery, or custom destination).  Unlike single-vendor solutions like Google Tag Gateway, which only route Google tags through your domain, Signals Gateway gives you multi-platform routing across all your tracking channels. 

So, it works the following way:

1. 1.
   It loads the Signals Gateway pixel code (events.js on the screen below)
2. 2.
   Sends event data requests to the Signals Gateway server, where the request is assigned to the needed destination.

First-party mode is the feature developed by Google that allows deploying Google tags using your own infrastructure. It works the following way:

1. 1.
   gtm.js is loading from a first-party context (you need to modify the code on the site for this).
2. 2.
   Event data requests are sent (some are going through your domain, and some are going directly to Google).

Google’s first-party mode is a good solution for those who use GA4 and Google Ads only.

The right decision depends on different conditions, such as the list of platforms you need to build the first-party data tracking, your budget, tech skills, etc. For your convenience, check the comparison table of all the solutions:

Getting accurate data is challenging with all the data privacy regulations and the evolution of tracking prevention but it is still possible if using server-side tracking. First-party data tracking is constantly developing and provides solutions that suit different purposes.