Plus, a big third-party cookies update, your $1,000 bonus, and more  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ Raptive News APRIL 23, 2025 By Emily Rose VP, Creator Marketing & Education Hi Raptive, Anyone who’s a parent already knows, but spring break with a 4-year-old is no joke. I spent a few days last week visiting local farms to pick tulips and see baby animals (don’t get me started on the little lambs 🥹), trying out what felt like every playground within a 5-mile radius of our home, and completely losing track of what day it was. If your schedule got away from you too, you’re not alone. Think of this week’s newsletter as a reset packed with the latest happenings and reminders so you’re back in the loop without missing a beat. First up, there’s big news about third-party cookies—and no, it’s not another delay in the phaseout. And we’ve got a Pinterest update for you, coming on the heels of sharing our new Pinterest FAQ guide last week. Also in this week’s newsletter: a replay of our recent SEO webinar about keywords, a roundup of industry news, and a friendly reminder about our referral program. Finally, join us in celebrating a creator who’s seen incredible growth—always our favorite story to share. Do you have a win to celebrate? Just hit reply and let us know. We’d love to feature you next! What’s new Google says third-party cookies are here to stay Google announced yesterday it will continue to use third-party cookies until further notice, meaning ad tech companies can still use cookies to target users. “We’ve made the decision to maintain our current approach to offering users third-party cookie choice in Chrome, and will not be rolling out a new standalone prompt for third-party cookies,” Anthony Chavez, VP, Privacy Sandbox at Google, shared in an April 22 blog post. “Users can continue to choose the best option for themselves in Chrome’s Privacy and Security Settings.” The news comes more than five years after Google announced it was eliminating third-party cookies (and then postponed its phaseout again and again in the years that followed). Google cited industry feedback and technical hurdles as the reason for the reverse course. “We were already feeling confident that all of our post-cookie tech improvements would make a third-party cookie deprecation no big deal,” says Paul Bannister, our Chief Strategy Officer. “With this update, everything we’ve built will just keep driving great RPMs for creators without more speed bumps.” More than 60% of traffic to Raptive sites is already cookieless, so this reprieve means the transition to 100% cookieless traffic will be slower. What this means for you: The cookieless future is on indefinite hold. You likely won’t see any immediate changes to your ad revenue. However, due to regulators and legislators still pushing on privacy, advertisers will likely (and slowly) move toward post-cookie technology, too. In the meantime, our recommendations remain the same: Diversify your traffic and monetization strategies to give yourself more control, stability, and flexibility during digital landscape shifts or policy changes. Invest in long-term strategies for first-party data and identity, like building your email list, to strengthen connections to your audience no matter what happens next. Earn your $1,000 referral bonus this spring Right now is a great time to help more creators grow—and earn a $1,000 bonus for each one who joins Raptive through your referral code! How it works Share your referral code (RAPTIVE-2883E611CB) with creators who’d make a great fit for Raptive They’ll enter your unique code when they apply, and we’ll let you know once it’s accepted You’ll earn a $1,000 bonus once they successfully install ads within 90 days of applying Want to make sharing even easier? Use this link, and your code will automatically fill in on their application. If you ever lose your referral code, you can always find it in the Account Settings of your Raptive dashboard. Need help? Check out our FAQ page or reply to this email! Google will be sending you a survey next week As part of Raptive’s partnership with Google, Google sends a survey to all of our creators to hear more about your experience working with us as your ad management partner. This should hit your inbox on Monday, April 28. The survey is completely optional, but gives us great insights into how we can keep serving your business even better! Top resource What to know about Pinterest’s ‘Visit Site’ button changes Pinterest isn’t the platform it was, even a year ago. From the rapid increase in AI-generated accounts (and the AI-generated websites they link to) to the traffic decrease many creators are experiencing, it can feel impossible to maintain a consistent strategy. Most recently, Pinterest significantly changed how it links to websites from Pins. In some cases, it’s hiding the link, making outbound clicks very unlikely. But there’s an opportunity to prevent this from happening to your content. Check out our new guide in the Resource Center, which explains what you need to know about Pinterest’s “Visit Site” button changes. While it can be a challenging platform, Pinterest is still a meaningful referral source for many, so we’ll keep passing along the latest tips and recommendations to help you build a smart, traffic-driving strategy. How the latest Pinterest update impacts you → Quick tip Don’t miss the most valuable takeaways from our SEO webinar “We covered so many actionable SEO insights in last week’s ‘Getting the most out of your keywords’ webinar. If you do one thing (other than watch the recording!), focus on existing content that hasn’t been updated in more than 12 months and still ranks in positions 4–10. That’s where your biggest performance upside lives. And with the Quick Filters of Your Keywords in the dashboard, it’s easier than ever to find.” Philip Elias VP, Network SEO Creator spotlight Case study: How Valerie’s Kitchen turned up the heat on success Valerie Brunmeier of Valerie’s Kitchen knows how to make life easier for busy home cooks through her well-tested recipes—and she brings that same dedication to growing her site’s traffic and revenue. Valerie switched to Raptive in 2018 and has been on a hot streak since then. Her 2025 earnings are up 40%, RPM is up 22%, and overall sessions are up 14% compared to the same period last year. +40% earnings +22% RPM +14% sessions Read this new creator case study on the Blog to see how smart A/B testing and SEO tools like Topic helped her boost her earnings and traffic year after year. Get inspired by Valerie’s strategy → What we’re reading The latest articles our team is sharing over Slack Google Chrome will now continue to use third-party cookies (Digiday) The Open Web is Under Attack (Next in Media podcast) Money, Chrome, and ChatGPT: The high stakes of Google’s monopoly trial (The Verge) AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 34.5% (Ahrefs) State of Creator Commerce Report 2025 (Kajabi) Was this email helpful? This email was sent to email.clausen@gmail.com. You've received this email because you work with Raptive, and we're excited to help you continue to grow. To ensure our emails arrive in your inbox, please add hello@email.raptive.com to your contacts or safe sender list. If you wish to no longer receive these emails, you can update your preferences. 1411 Broadway, 27th Floor New York, NY, 10018, US © 2025 Raptive. All rights reserved. Unsubscribe | View online