When consumers see an iOS update on their phone, they anticipate with excitement the new features they will experiment with. Publishers, on the other hand, worry how the privacy updates will affect their business practices. How will publishers thrive with iOS 17? 

The upgrade was released on September 18 and includes essential updates for marketers, specifically, Apple’s New Link Tracking Protection in messages, mail, and Safari’s private browsing feature. This removes tracking parameters from URLs when users share them in mail, messages, and Safari Private Mode, thus eliminating the option to track consumer behaviors through links. 

While this will be an adjustment,  in the grand scheme of things, all of the news isn’t grim, as updates won’t cut your whole baseline off. For email marketers, the Apple gods rained down some good news for you. Firstly, UTM parameters remain intact in the three cases above, and the impact of the New Link Tracking Protection is relatively tiny. 

Apple’s privacy updates ensure consumers know how a third-party SDK shares their data. Aligning with Apple’s ATT, their new privacy manifests restrict campaign tracking methods on major social brands such as Facebook, Instagram, Google ads, and Twitter. Of course, the restrictions seem vast, but the advertising industry is always up for a challenge, and they are preparing to go with the punches.  We spoke with some industry veterans to see how they are preparing for the update. 

Joey Stern, Ad Systems Manager, TuneIn

We will continue to see privacy strategies that impact the revenue opportunities in our industry thus making honest, good publisher practices more critical than ever. It will be harder for 3rd party companies to track ad campaigns, and this will cause an increased reliance on publishers who can provide a clear understanding of their users.

We’ll see continued growth opportunities on Android, but the iPhone audience isn’t going anywhere. Trust is going to be a key factor. 

How can publishers navigate the changes brought about by iOS 17 to optimize their campaigns and ensure successful advertising outcomes while respecting user privacy?

Precise internal measurement is essential, as is asking the tough questions about user experience vs short-term revenue growth.  

Katie Madding, Chief Product Officer at Adjust

In general, the direction of the mobile app advertising and marketing industry increasingly puts user privacy center stage. The key privacy-related updates rolled out as part of iOS 17 (Privacy Manifests, SDK signatures, API required reasons, etc.) can best be understood and contextualized as a continuation of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework and its dedication to building a privacy-centric ecosystem for app developers and end users on iOS.

With this in mind, the updates, which will be fully enforced in Spring 2024, shouldn’t have a more resounding impact on the industry than privacy changes already have; they’re a continuation. The goal of the updates, primarily, is to help users better understand how third parties use their data. It requires publishers and developers to provide enhanced transparency around their data collection practices and the practices of any third parties they work with (as these third parties may also have access to the data collected). 

How can publishers navigate the changes brought about by iOS 17 to optimize their campaigns and ensure successful advertising outcomes while respecting user privacy?

Adjust enthusiastically encourages publishers and marketers to embrace next-generation measurement technologies for campaign optimization in line with the industry movement away from device-ID-based measurement and toward gaining insights from aggregated data sets. The principles around iOS 17 are identical to all privacy-related industry updates. 

Optimizing consent for more traditional methods of advertising and attribution while investing in measurement technologies that enable analysis from aggregated data sets is the perfect balance to strike. While the latter approach is more holistic and is the direction to move in broadly speaking, any consented, device-level data that marketers obtain can help to inform predictive methodologies that enable aggregated analysis. Consider investing in solutions for media mix modeling or incrementality, for example.

All in all, publishers now need to be more transparent about their practices and more thorough in understanding and reporting on the practices of their third-party partners. These updates have no specific changes to measurement capabilities — just around communication and declaration. 

Uri Lichter, CEO of Intango

The iOS 17 updates emphasize user privacy and data tracking restrictions, which will change the advertising industry. These changes will limit access to user data, making it harder to target ads precisely.

The industry must pivot towards contextual advertising, invest in privacy compliance, and deliver non-intrusive and engaging ad experiences. The iOS 17 updates will challenge how advertisers and publishers measure ad campaign performance. Attribution will become more complex, data accuracy may decrease, and privacy-centric reporting will be crucial to maintaining user trust and brand image.

How can publishers navigate the changes brought about by iOS 17 to optimize their campaigns and ensure successful advertising outcomes while respecting user privacy?

Publishers should embrace contextual advertising, leverage first-party data, implement consent management solutions, diversify revenue streams, and prioritize ad quality and relevance. Adapting to iOS 17 is an opportunity for publishers to differentiate themselves through user-centric and privacy-compliant advertising.

Mateusz Jedrocha, VP, Branding Solutions, Adlook

With the introduction of features like Link Tracking Protection and their fingerprinting approach, Apple is aligning with the ongoing industry trend of limiting user-level tracking across browsers and systems. This shift isn’t isolated to just one company; it indicates a broader movement towards a more privacy-centric digital landscape. At Adlook, we’ve been keenly observing these changes, understanding the evolving dynamics and the collective push for enhanced user control and security.

The post Everything You Need To Know About the iOS 17 Update and Its Lasting Impact on Advertising appeared first on AdMonsters.

In an era where the digital realm permeates every facet of our lives, from online banking to social media interactions, preserving audiences’ digital identities has become paramount. 

In today’s interconnected world, a digital identity encompasses any piece of information existing online that can be linked back to an individual or organization. This can range from the obvious, such as usernames and passwords, to more intricate data, like bank accounts and even consumers’ social media photos. Their digital identity is the digital representation of who they are in the virtual realm.

From the publisher perspective, with increased scrutiny on privacy regulations, the relationship between the publisher and the consumer is changing. Consumers are becoming more knowledgeable about fraud threats from bad actors and how brands are utilizing their data. For example, Apple released a commercial last year, where a woman walked into an auction where attendees bid on her online consumer data. Even Netflix’s Black Mirror aired an episode titled, “Joan is Awful,” that highlighted streaming services predatory data collection practices. 

With these ideas in the public consciousness, traditional methods of identity verification, once considered reliable, have proven insufficient in safeguarding consumers’ personal information against data breaches. As their digital footprints expand, so does the urgency of addressing the vulnerabilities of outdated identity management systems. As we delve into the Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) concept, we will examine how it offers a transformative solution to the challenges plaguing conventional identity management and can help ease data aggregation in the ad tech supply chain.  

What Is Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI)?

Imagine a digital realm where you, and only you, hold the keys to your identity kingdom. Self-sovereign identity makes this a reality. At its core, SSI is a revolutionary model that grants individuals complete ownership and authority over their digital identities without intermediaries. Unlike traditional centralized identity systems that rely on third-party providers, SSI puts consumers in the driver’s seat, allowing them to determine who can access their personal data and when and how that access is granted or revoked.

SSI technology represents a significant departure from the conventional approach to digital identity. It liberates individuals from dependence on third-party entities to store and manage their personal data. SSI and decentralized identity have become synonymous, highlighting the shift towards a user-centric approach.

The Trust Triangle: Holder, Issuer, and Verifier

At the heart of the Self-Sovereign Identity system lies a dynamic trio: the Holder, the Issuer, and the Verifier. This interaction between these three key participants is often called “the trust triangle.” It is the linchpin of SSI’s functionality. Here’s a brief breakdown of their roles:

Holder: The Holder is the individual who takes the reins of their digital identity. They create their decentralized identifier using a digital wallet app and are responsible for receiving Verifiable Credentials, which are akin to digital certificates proving specific attributes. 

Issuer: The Issuer is a party vested with the authority to issue these Verifiable Credentials. Depending on the context, this could be an organization, institution, or even the government.

Verifier: The Verifier is the entity seeking to verify the authenticity of a credential. This could be a service provider, an employer, or any party requiring certain information.

In this trust triangle, the Holder maintains complete control over their data. Each time a Verifier requests access to specific information, the Holder has the ultimate say in granting or denying that access. The process ensures that your digital identity remains firmly under your jurisdiction, instilling a newfound sense of security and autonomy in the digital realm.

The Three Pillars of Self-Sovereign Identity

At the heart of SSI’s transformative potential are its three foundational pillars:

Blockchain: SSI’s bedrock is blockchain technology, a decentralized and tamper-resistant database that underpins the security and integrity of digital identities. Leveraging the power of blockchain, SSI systems ensure that data remains inviolable and resistant to tampering, thereby providing an unassailable foundation for the protection of digital identities.

Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs): DIDs enable individuals to forge their online identities independently, free from reliance on centralized entities. These unique codes, securely stored on a blockchain, give users unprecedented control over their personal information and data accessibility. With DIDs, the reins of digital identity are firmly in the hands of the individual, ensuring a robust defense against unauthorized access.

Verifiable Credentials (VCs): Verifiable Credentials (VCs) are the digital counterparts of conventional credentials like certificates and licenses. Individuals can present cryptographically secured VCs to verifiers as indisputable proof of their qualifications or identity. This cryptographic assurance ensures credentials’ authenticity, safeguarding against fraudulent claims and misrepresentations.

The SSI Publisher Effect 

Unlike traditional methods that rely on extensive data collection and matching, SSI allows consumers to self-resolve, carrying their information. This shift streamlines the process and ensures more accurate data, resulting in better ad performance. Advertisers can now target their audience with pinpoint accuracy, leading to increased ad effectiveness. 

From a publisher’s perspective, the advantages of SSI are clear. First and foremost, it offers the opportunity to eliminate the middleman and reduce the burden of ad tax-related expenses. This means revenue can flow back directly to publishers, enhancing their profitability. Additionally, the increased accuracy of user data results in more targeted ads, leading to happier partners who are more inclined to invest further in advertising campaigns.

Looking beyond the immediate benefits, SSI also significantly impacts traditional data collection practices and targeting methods in the ad tech industry. SSI eliminates the need for entities to collect and store vast amounts of user data, addressing concerns related to privacy regulations and legal issues. As the regulatory environment becomes more complex, SSI simplifies the landscape and reduces the risk associated with data collection.

In conclusion, adopting Self-Sovereign Identity is poised to revolutionize the digital advertising industry. It enhances efficiency and promotes accuracy, transparency, and compliance with evolving privacy regulations. If publishers embrace this technology, they stand to benefit from increased revenue and more satisfied advertising partners.

The post What is Self-Sovereign Identity, and How Can it Revolutionize Data Collection and Targeting? appeared first on AdMonsters.

Currently, MFA sites account for at least one in five online impressions, consuming 15% of global programmatic ad spend and generating 26% more carbon waste than legitimate publisher sites.

Major brands are paying for advertising on these low-quality sites, almost certainly without their knowledge. The number of these sites is likely to increase as AI-generated content continues to be more commonplace and as the industry phases out the use of third-party cookies. This is because MFA sites rely in part on outdated contextual targeting tactics to bring in clicks. 

What are MFA Sites? 

There is no standard definition of what makes an MFA site at this time, but there are several key identifiers. MFA websites will be full of “filler content,” such as AI-generated nonsense, clickbait, unnecessary slideshows, and interlinked websites. This content provides a negative user experience and is unlikely to result in anything more than a negative brand impression of advertisers that appear on such sites.  

A major reason these sites are increasing in popularity is that they deliver the near impossible: lots of eyeballs at dirt-cheap prices. While they masquerade as legitimate sites, those eyeballs don’t translate to quantifiable business outcomes for buyers. It feels as if they should be labeled as fraudulent, but unfortunately, most of these sites do not meet current industry standards for invalid traffic (IVT). 

MFA sites also have higher carbon emissions than their legitimate site counterparts — approximately 26% more. This is because they are generating a substantially higher number of requests per impression to SSPs and resellers than other sites, which increases waste.  

How do MFA Sites Negatively Impact Publishers? 

MFA publishers are able to game the system to acquire the clicks they need to continue generating advertising revenue. The sites may be full of scammy content, but they aren’t considered fraudulent as of now because they operate within the existing rules set in place to ensure media quality. 

Low-quality media has been in existence since digital media was created, but the MFA problem is increasing the volume of low-quality media exponentially. Unfortunately for publishers, in the supply chain, MFA site content appears to be brand safe and is cheap, making it difficult for buyers to avoid.

There are solutions currently in place to seek out higher quality media, such as buying via private marketplaces (PMPs), but it is tricky to avoid this content entirely. The result? MFA publishers are taking a large share of the advertising revenue pie away from legitimate sites with trusted users. 

Why Should Advertisers Steer Clear of MFA Websites?

The biggest problems for advertisers whose content appears on an MFA site are the quality of the clicks they receive and the negative effect on their brand reputation — both of which can hurt an advertiser’s bottom line. 

Click quality is undermined by MFAs because they pack many different advertisements onto one page, which can lead to a buyer’s ad getting lost in the shuffle. MFA sites sometimes also place ads in positions where they aren’t visible, but can generate accidental clicks. In this case, a brand’s click rate will increase but the consumer is unlikely to actually spend time on their site. 

Brand reputation can also take a hit when consumers see an ad on a website that feels like a scam site. MFA content is often unnecessarily sensational, leaning into tabloid-style stories that many advertisers would rather not be associated with. 

How Can We Put a Stop to MFA Sites? 

Advertisers can avoid MFA sites by purchasing ads via PMPs, using supply path optimization (SPO) strategies, and up-to-date contextual and quality controls. It is also crucial for the entire advertising ecosystem that advertisers fund legitimate publishers rather than MFA sites.

SPO strategies help eliminate intermediaries so buyers have a closer connection to the publisher. This can help them see which investments are going to lead to tangible results. They can take this one step further by keeping their contextual and quality controls updated since MFAs rely on outdated systems to dupe advertisers into buying low-quality content. 

Advertisers can set up exclusion lists to prevent bids from reaching sites that are known MFAs. They should also actively seek out high-quality content sites, even if the cost of advertising is more expensive. 

Ad tech partners can help reduce traffic to MFAs by blocking these sites from premium programmatic deals. Unfortunately, the existence of MFAs is so pervasive that some in the industry worry that eliminating MFAs will do nothing more than send inventory to competitors. Ad tech partners must put pressure on MFAs to improve their user experience or remove this inventory completely. 

Ideally, the industry can come together to set standards that keep MFA sites at bay or these sites will continue to steal ad dollars from reputable publishers and damage buyers’ brand reputations.

The post What Are Made for Advertising (MFA) Sites and Why Are They a Scourge on Ad Tech and Sustainability? appeared first on AdMonsters.

Attention metrics are gaining traction, but one fundamental aspect that continues to hold significant value for advertisers is viewability. While advertisers recognize the importance of capturing users’ attention, ensuring their ads are viewable remains a top priority.

Viewability refers to the measurement of whether users see an ad. In the past, publishers could generate revenue solely by placing ads on their websites, irrespective of whether those ads received any views. However, the landscape has transformed dramatically, and advertisers now emphasize viewable impressions. Publishers need to comprehend how the costs of impressions are measured to monetize their digital ad inventory effectively.

To be considered viewable, an ad must meet specific criteria. According to industry standards, an ad is viewable if at least 50% of its pixels are visible on the user’s screen for at least one second. 

But how do you measure viewability correctly? 

vCPM: The Cost of a Thousand Viewable Impressions

Calculating the value of viewable impressions is where vCPM (viewable cost per mille) comes into play. vCPM represents the cost of a thousand viewable impressions, indicating the number of people who see the ads on a web page. It provides advertisers with a clear understanding of the value they are getting from their advertising investments.

While CPM measures the cost per thousand impressions, regardless of their viewability, vCPM focuses solely on viewable impressions. By leveraging vCPM, advertisers can make informed decisions and allocate their budgets more effectively, optimizing their ROI.

To bid on vCPM, advertisers must be aware of the ad’s visibility percentage and the count of viewable impressions, as these factors determine the resulting vCPM. The total vCPM is determined after deducting any portion of the ad that remains outside the screen, rendering it invisible to viewers.

Attention Vs. Viewability

As the industry ushers in the cookieless era, publishers and advertisers also preach the importance of attention metrics. While creating viewability for your ad is essential, some argue it’s losing relevance because it “simply represents a measure of an opportunity for an ad to be seen – not whether a viewer actually saw an ad.” 

Attention metrics grew in prominence because of the lessening popularity of identifiers and the increased difficulty of gaining consumer attention because of the oversaturation of ads online. Brands measure attention metrics through viewability, creative size, interaction, ad position, time of day, publisher or program, audibility, page clutter, device frequency, and eye tracking. Viewability metrics are still vital to understanding attention metrics, so brands need robust measurement tools for viewability. 

The Publisher Benefit

Enhancing viewability and vCPM is a crucial objective for publishers aiming to maximize ad revenue. Several strategies can help improve viewability metrics: 

• Ad Placement Optimization: Placing ads in strategic positions on a web page, such as above the fold or within the user’s natural line of sight, increases the likelihood of viewability.
• Responsive Design: Implementing responsive website design ensures that ads adapt to various screen sizes and resolutions, allowing for a seamless user experience across devices.
• Ad Formats and Sizes: Choosing ad formats and sizes that align with the website’s layout and content enhances visibility and engagement, driving higher viewability rates.
• Page Load Speed: Optimizing page load times reduces user abandonment and increases the chances of ads being viewed before users navigate away from the site.
• Ad Fraud Prevention: Implementing robust ad fraud detection and prevention measures safeguards viewability by eliminating fraudulent or non-human traffic that artificially inflates impressions.

By implementing these strategies, publishers can elevate their viewability metrics, positively impacting vCPM and attracting higher-quality advertisers to prioritize viewable impressions.

Understanding the concept of viewability, measuring it through vCPM, and implementing strategies to enhance viewability benefit publishers in terms of increased ad revenue and ensure advertisers receive the value they seek from their digital advertising investments. As the industry continues to evolve, keeping a keen eye on viewability will be instrumental in driving success for both publishers and advertisers in the digital advertising ecosystem.

The post What is vCPM and How Does It Relate to Viewability? appeared first on AdMonsters.

Of the six states, one stands out: Oregon. On June 22, 2023, the Oregon state legislature passed Oregon Consumer Privacy Act (OCPA) (SB 619). It is the eleventh state in the US to do so and the sixth this year. The Oregon Consumer Privacy Act (OCPA) is notable because it’s the strongest bill passed to date.

With the exception of California, all other US privacy regulations are modeled on the Washington Privacy Act, which was drafted by the Washington State Senate Ways & Means Committee. This bill is limited to companies (data controllers to be exact) that “control or process personal data of 100,000 consumers or more; or derive over 50 percent of gross revenue from the sale of personal data; and processes or controls personal data of twenty-five thousand consumers or more.” For many people, the WPA lacks teeth.

Unique to OCPA

OCPA differs from most other State privacy laws in a few ways. First, it requires opt-in consent for Oregonians aged 13 to 15. 

If signed by the Governor, the law would protect sensitive data that goes above and beyond other privacy laws. First, it requires all data controllers to obtain consent before collecting sensitive data. And it expands the definition of sensitive data to cover such things as national origin, status as transgender or nonbinary, and whether or not the consumer has been the victim of crime. 

Additionally, it would broaden the definition of biometric data to include any data used to identify a resident, not just data collected or used for identification. In other words, scraping social media platforms for consumer photos will be illegal in Oregon if this bill passes.

Civil Penalties on Employees for Violations

The Act gives data controls new incentives to respect the consumer’s privacy, including holding employees personally accountable for any violations. It specifically states,”If a court finds that a director, member, officer, employee or agent of a controller violated sections 1 to 10 of this 2023 Act through an act or omission, the court may find that the controller committed the violation or the court may find that both the controller and the director, member, officer, employee or agent committed the violation and may impose separate civil penalties on each.”

“What I consider the most significant part of the Act is the potential for officers, directors, and employees to be personally liable for violations.  I have not seen a provision like this in any other privacy law,” said Wayne Matus, Co-Founder, General Counsel & EVP at SafeGuard Privacy, a privacy compliance platform.

Data Minimization a New Wrinkle for ID Matching?

OCPA’s data minimization requirements could be challenging for some marketers. For example, those who want to use customer emails to match their IDs to reach them on their CTV devices. The law says that businesses may not process personal data for purposes that are not reasonably necessary unless they obtain consumer consent.

At issue: OCPA explicitly defines personal data to include derived data and device data that can link one or more consumers in a household. In other words, the law recognizes that personal data goes beyond direct or explicit information and includes data derived from other sources or devices that can be connected to individuals or their households. 

While the law doesn’t mention universal ID matching specifically, it requires all companies to obtain opt-in consent from consumers before collecting or selling their personal information, including data that could potentially link their mobile device to a household CTV.

“The data minimization is huge.  It is one of the biggest issues the trade groups have against the draft federal privacy law.  It has the potential to minimize not only data but the value of data. And it hurts creating a profile,” said Matus.

Finally, the bill establishes minimal transparency requirements. For example, if requested, businesses must provide consumers with a list of third parties with whom they’ve shared their personal data. And that’s not all, they must also explain the categories of companies that those third parties fall into so that the consumer can understand the types of entities involved and how they process their data.

The post Oregon Sets the Bar: Landmark Consumer Data Privacy Bill Becomes the Strongest in the Nation appeared first on AdMonsters.

But publishers are not without controls to keep the bottom at bay — flooring, the process of setting a minimum price for ad inventory, empowers publishers to keep inventory pricing competitive with other channels (e.g., direct sales).

Flooring is a simple concept: a publisher sets the minimum CPM they are willing to accept for an ad placement, and an advertiser must pay this amount or higher to display the ad. Publishers using Google Ad Manager (GAM) set their CPM floors for the open exchange using Unified Pricing Rules (UPRs), ensuring that any bids accepted from their programmatic demand partners meet their minimum pricing requirements.

This is where the simplicity ends and the anxiety begins. Set your floors too low, and you miss out on revenue from advertisers who are willing to pay more. Set them too high, and you miss out on fill.

Continuously establishing the right CPM floors to earn the highest revenue for your ad inventory without sacrificing fill rate is simply impossible to do manually. But it is possible to automate through dynamic flooring.

A Floor-Shifting Odyssey

The holy grail of yield management is that sweet spot that maximizes both CPMs and fill rate — but this sweet spot is a constant-moving target. CPM variations occur based on content, traffic source, seasonal spending trends, macroeconomic factors, user data, tech variables like device type, browser, operating system, and every combination of these CPM “ingredients.”

Some publishers dedicate hours, full days, and even team members to analyzing CPM data and updating UPRs. They spend a lot of time and effort on a process that results in low and untraceable success. Other publishers prefer to “set and forget” their UPRs. They may not be sacrificing time and mental sweat equity to maximize yield, but they are leaving money on the table by not passing optimal floors.

Even if you could manually set floors effectively, GAM limits the number of UPRs you can create. To achieve optimal CPMs, you’d want to pass custom floors at a granular level. Each page on your site earns differently, so you want a unique floor for every URL and all the other CPM variables.

Dynamic Flooring to the Rescue

Dynamic flooring is a way to intelligently and proactively adjust your floors based on real-time data from every pageview. With each impression, a dynamic flooring solution learns and improves its ability to create the right floor at the right time. It will automatically generate a real-time floor based on a smart prediction of the value of the current pageview.

Several variations of dynamic flooring have appeared over the years, and they are not all created equal. Many publishers have even grown wary of the term dynamic flooring as providers have not optimized revenue but instead, shuffled it among partners. This favors one or more demand partners to others’ detriment and fails to drive incremental revenue.

Ultimately, dynamic flooring is not about getting your UPRs right. The way to achieve the ideal flooring system is to control the win rate of your SSPs. Doing this will create pricing pressure on your whole revenue stack.

An ideal flooring system should:

• Set an infinite number of granular floors based on page content, user data, traffic source, technical specs, and other variables;
• Continually adjust floors based on the latest data (this might mean that floors are adjusted every few minutes);
• Pass the optimal CPM floor for every ad placement on every pageview; and
• Automate your flooring optimization.

When you implement smart publishing tech that accesses the latest, granular data from every pageview, it’s like having 50,000+ UPRs simultaneously working for you and automatically updating in real-time.

Finding the Right Solution

Dynamic flooring solutions are springing up faster than identity partners. Look under the hood, before you sign the vendor with the lowest price and biggest promises, Ask them these questions:

• How does your technology create optimal floors for every pageview?
• How recent is the data you’re using to set floors?
• How can you prove that your solution makes me more money and isn’t just shuffling my revenue?

If they can’t show their work, work with someone who can!

Dynamic flooring is one of the best tools to earn more from the open exchange, which is especially important when strange economic circumstances stymie the flow of direct-sold campaigns. However, picking the right solution requires more than a price-tag check—be sure you’re prepared to tell the difference between revenue shuffling and true dynamic flooring.

The post What Is Dynamic Flooring? appeared first on AdMonsters.

Data privacy regulations like Europe’s GDPR, California’s CCPA, and now the amended CPRA disrupted businesses as they grappled with the challenge of ensuring compliance. 

To better help the industry comply with the notice and choice obligations required under said new laws, IAB Tech Lab collaborates with industry stakeholders and local trade bodies to support the development of frameworks like IAB Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) and the IAB’s US Privacy Framework. 

However, building distinct technology solutions for every jurisdiction was not sustainable. In September 2022, the IAB Tech Lab first launched the Global Privacy Platform (GPP) and recently closed public comment for the next version of the API.

Understanding the Global Privacy Platform (GPP)

As an industry, we must ensure that we provide the appropriate transparency and choice as required by law. More importantly, we need to consistently communicate user consent and choice preferences, ensuring that all parties can comprehend them properly.

 By doing so, we can handle users’ data in a manner that aligns with their preferences. GPP aims to solve the challenge of creating a common language for everyone in the ecosystem. This solution was developed over several years involving stakeholders from across the ecosystem, including publishers, advertisers, and ad tech vendors.

The key components of the GPP that should be understood are the privacy string and the available string transport mechanisms. These mechanisms include a field in the Regs object in openRTB, parameters and macros for URL-based services, and a standard API. It is the API portion of the GPP that the IAB Tech Lab is updating, but more on that later.

The GPP string can carry privacy signals for any supported jurisdiction. It currently supports privacy signals for Europe’s GDPR, Canada, and five states in the US that have privacy laws (California, Virginia, Utah, Colorado, and Connecticut). Notably, the GPP is extensible and goes beyond just supporting jurisdiction and also allows support for other industry signals, such as the Global Privacy Control (GPC).

Exploring GPP API v1.1

Delving into the specifics of the update, it’s important to understand what remains unchanged. The GPP string, a core component of the protocol, will stay as is. There are also no updates to how the GPP string is passed in openRTB and using the defined macros and parameters. Let’s dig into the changes in the GPP API.

The primary changes to the API were born from industry feedback that it needed to better support callers of the API who operate within an iframe on a web page. Version 1.1 of the API includes callback support for all commands. This allows vendors who work within an iframe to use all the available commands that the API supports rather than just a subset.

In addition to adding callback support, version 1.1 of the API includes updates to status codes. While this may sound insignificant, on the surface, it is vital for callers of the API. There are additional explanations for several of the existing status codes. Still, the most important of the updates is the addition of a new event called signalStatus with potential values of “ready” or “not ready.” This new event adds a lot of clarity to when a GPP string, the representation of the user’s consent and choice preferences, is ready to be used. This will reduce the potential for confusion or misrepresentation.

 To reduce the number of calls needed to extract the appropriate information, version 1.1 of the API includes several optimizations to the objects returned by the API. These optimizations also help with reducing the complexity of vendor scripts.

Details are available here for those looking to dive deeper into the specifics of the updates included in version 1.1.

Implications of the Update on GPP Implementers

All stakeholders, including publishers, advertisers, and consent management platforms (CMPs), along with any vendors utilizing the API for GPP string retrieval, are urged to support the new version of the API which was finalized earlier this month. The enhancements are designed to better infer the privacy signals and enrich interactions with the API. For those vendors that aren’t interacting with the API and instead rely on fetching GPP strings via openRTB or URL macros, there’s no need for any changes. You are unaffected by this update.

As privacy regulation continues to evolve, so will the Global Privacy Platform. The GPP is ready to adapt and evolve to meet the needs of a global privacy landscape that shows no signs of standing still.

The post What Is the Global Privacy Platform (GPP) API v1.1? appeared first on AdMonsters.

Transparency in the programmatic supply chain is one such challenge prevailing in the industry. With so many parties involved in the supply chain, it has become even more difficult to keep track of ad spend and quality. That is why the industry needs Supply Path Optimization (SPO). 

Supply Chain Optimization is a process of increasing transparency and efficiency in the programmatic supply chain by cutting down the number of intermediaries that are not adding significant value. 

Why Is Transparency Needed?

Transparency in the supply chain involves a lot more than just making information available to all parties. It involves creating an environment of trust where all stakeholders feel confident that they are receiving fair and honest information.

This includes details about ad placements, ad inventory, and pricing. Ensuring transparency is important because it promotes better communication and helps build strong working relationships between publishers and advertisers.

Benefits of SPO

It is often perceived that SPO only benefits advertisers, but that is simply not true. Both the supply side and demand side can greatly benefit by optimizing supply path efficiencies:

• • Increased Transparency: SPO provides better visibility and insights about the ecosystem — the intermediaries involved, exact ad spend on impressions, etc. It enables advertisers to tackle the issue of bid duplication and enables publishers as well as advertisers to identify and eliminate unnecessary or fraudulent players. 
• • Brand Safety for Advertisers: With SPO, advertisers feel more confident about their brand image and safety. They can eliminate the SSPs who do not follow their brand safety guidelines. 
• • Increased Revenue Opportunities: Streamlining SPO can ensure that publishers receive the highest bids possible for their ad inventory ultimately increasing ad revenue.
• • Reduced ad fraud: SPO can help publishers reduce ad fraud by ensuring that their ads are only displayed on legitimate websites.
• • Increased Efficiency: SPO can help publishers and advertisers improve the efficiency of their programmatic advertising inventory and ad campaigns by reducing latency and improving transparency.

How does SPO work?

To make sure that SPO works in the most optimum way, advertisers need to come up with certain strategies to apply. One of the ways advertisers could reclaim control and optimize the path is by limiting the number of SSPs and ad exchanges they work with and work with a select number of partners. They would also need to focus on cutting off resellers from the market and opt for bids that offer them the best chance of winning. It is always important to make sure that every bid must bring a unique value attached to it in an auction-themed environment.

Implementation

One of the best ways to implement SPO is to make sure that multiple routes are being avoided to buy or sell inventory. The lesser the paths, the less the chances of duplication.

According to recent studies more than 60% of buyers currently think that SPO has reduced the chances of fraud while the buying power has also been enhanced for at least 30% of the buyers in the landscape, along with this roughly 20% of them have seen a more transparent Fee structure due to the same.

SPO Implementation steps include:

• Assessment:

Developing a thorough grasp of your programmatic supply chain is the first step in deploying SPO. This includes the process of figuring out all the intermediaries who are buying and selling your ad inventory. 

• Evaluating and consolidating intermediaries: 

Once all the intermediaries have been identified, evaluate the ones which are unnecessary or ‘bad actors’, the ones adding costs and latency to the page load time.

Based on the evaluation, consolidate the significant ones and eliminate the ones not adding value to the supply chain. 

• Monitoring the results: 

SPO is an ongoing process and it needs to be measured regularly. This will help in analyzing the efforts if the goals are being achieved or not. Based on the analysis, those efforts can be streamlined and optimized. 

This can be a complex process at times and can be achieved by having the right resources in place. Also, working with an SSP or DSP partner can be considered to simplify the process. 

What Are the Best Practices for Buyers and Sellers to Facilitate Supply Path Optimization

There are several best practices for buyers and sellers to facilitate supply path optimization. These include the use of ads.txt, sellers.json, a lesser number of SSPs, and adherence to industry standards including brand safety and relevance. 

Ads.txt and sellers.json are text files that are placed on a publisher’s website, which allows buyers to verify the identity of the seller and ensure that they are buying ad inventory from authorized sources. Reducing the number of SSPs can help optimize the supply path by reducing the complexity of the supply chain, which can lead to better efficiency and transparency.

Uses of AI for SPO

The use of AI for SPO is becoming increasingly common in the ad tech industry. AI algorithms can help automate the process of analyzing data, identifying inefficiencies, and optimizing the supply path. This can help buyers and sellers make better decisions, reduce costs, and improve efficiency.

With the growing changes in the current landscape, it is expected that AI tools will also be able to help in the execution of policies to optimize the supply path and can also aid inventory management issues.

Measurement and Enhancement of SPO Efforts

Measurement and enhancement of SPO efforts are essential for ensuring that the supply chain remains transparent and efficient. Regular monitoring and analysis of data can help identify areas for improvement and enable stakeholders to make data-driven decisions. 

By enhancing SPO efforts, buyers and sellers can optimize their supply chain, reduce costs, and improve their ROI.

Recent Industry Developments

Recent industry developments, such as the implementation of the OpenRTB 2.6 draft, Ads.txt 1.1, and Transparency Center, have further advanced the cause of supply chain transparency and optimization. 

The OpenRTB 2.6 draft includes new features that make it easier to detect and prevent fraud. Ads.txt 1.1 includes a new field that allows publishers to specify their direct relationships with advertisers, making it easier for buyers to identify authorized sellers. The Transparency Center provides a centralized location for buyers to view information about ad inventory and verify the identity of sellers.

Next Steps for Buyers and Sellers

Supply chain transparency and optimization are essential for the ad tech industry to thrive. Buyers and sellers must work together to create a transparent and efficient supply chain that benefits all stakeholders. By following best practices, utilizing AI, and embracing recent industry developments, the ad tech industry can continue to evolve and drive growth in the digital advertising space.

The post What Is Supply Path Transparency & Optimization? appeared first on AdMonsters.

In ad tech, artificial intelligence is used for predictive modeling and real-time campaign optimization. DSPs use the technology to determine winning bids, and the sell-side uses AI to organize and tag inventory.

However, these days, there’s a new kid on the block that has the streets watching. Generative AI took the ad tech world by storm, but is the new IT girl a fad that will fade away in a few years, or does it have the staying power to impact the future of the advertising ecosystem? Experts have mixed opinions. 

For example, DMEXCO conducted a study surveying 500 industry professionals, and nearly three-quarters of them stated they found generative AI useless for their business. 

“Around one in ten of those surveyed in marketing, communication, and media may already be testing AI in terms of content production and search engine optimization, but most communicators are still cautious or even skeptical about actually using AI in their companies,” a DMEXCO representative said. 

On the other hand, publishers and tech platforms are adopting generative AI tools such as ChatGPT into their systems. Microsoft, Meta, and Snapchat have integrated generative AI technology into their business on a large scale. Publishers like Insider and Bloomberg are using or testing generative AI in their newsrooms. 

What Is Generative AI? 

 Generative AI does as its name suggests; it generates content. The content ranges from images, videos, text, audio, and other mediums. This subtype of artificial intelligence could disrupt every aspect of the advertising industry, from brainstorming to copyrighting to targeting ads. 

ChatGPT is the most popular form of generative AI. The technology takes text-based input and generates text-based outputs. Users can ask questions such as “What is the largest monument in the world?” or “How can I start understanding the programmatic supply chain?” The tech even allows the user to be creative. For example, for a recent AdMonsters event, we asked ChatGPT to write a song about ad tech in the style of a Beyonce song. Here are the results: 

I’m in the ad tech game, ain’t no shame

I’m the queen of targeting; it’s my claim to fame

I got the data; I got the insight

I know your interests; I know what you like

Chorus:

I’m in the ad tech game, making waves

Driving engagement, like it’s Beyoncé’s stage

I’m always innovating, never slowing down

I’m the queen of ad tech, wearing my crown

While the song won’t be winning any Grammys, the results show that the technology is intuitive enough to pick up some of Beyonce’s signature cadences while also sprinkling in knowledge about ad tech. 

Critics have also accused the tech of stealing jobs. With its ability to generate content, some have tested its skills. Actor Ryan Reynolds recently created an ad for his company, MintMobile, where the script was entirely written by ChatGPT. 

Despite some industry skepticism, publishers and agencies are integrating the tech. Microsoft is one of generative AI’s most prominent investors. They invested $1 billion into OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT. ChatGPT is now incorporated into the Bing search engine, Office apps — Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook — and its Azure Cloud Service. Even ad tech vendor Admiral integrated ChatGPT into its Visitor Relationship Management platform to automate visitor engagement and generate publisher revenue. 

What Are the Concerns With Generative AI? 

The list of benefits for the tech is long, but industry experts have also raised concerns. 

The most pressing issue is the spread of misinformation. OpenAI even posted a disclaimer on its website. It reads: “All the information on this website is published in good faith and for general information purposes only. ChatGpt Connect does not guarantee this information’s completeness, reliability, and accuracy.” 

The tech is only as good as the information it receives. If the data aggregated into the tech is false, so will the output. Some businesses have already banned posting answers generated by ChatGPT. Stack Overflow, a platform used to generate questions, prohibits users from posting answers created by ChatGPT because of the model’s low accuracy rate. Often these answers have the appearance of truth, so it is hard to falsify them. 

In addition, generative AI could open new questions about data privacy. Some technologists are worried about how AI will disrupt targeted advertising once companies can upload their data to a model’s neural network. From the consumer’s perspective, how will they feel about artificial intelligence having access to personal data? 

There are efforts to regulate the tech. In March, The White House and the European Commission had their first official meeting to discuss the development of AI tech and how they can regulate it. The European Union created the Artificial Intelligence Act in 2021 for that very purpose; the emergence of generative AI upended those regulations. 

“There are potentially real benefits from large language models and applying those to various social problems, specifically writing more secure code to make sense of a lot of the data and insights out there,” a senior administration official from the White House said. “We want our economy to get those benefits, but there’s also real worry about it. The same vulnerability analysis one might do for cybersecurity; one might also do to find vulnerabilities to hack.”

Generative AI and the Advertising Ecosystem

We’ve already heard claims about how generative AI will vastly change the advertising ecosystem, but how? 

Customer Targeting: According to AI experts, generative AI can help brands target customers more directly and effectively. AI has the potential to sift through large data sets and find hidden patterns. Machine learning can highlight which customers are most likely to make a purchase based on their demographics and past purchase history.

Personalization: There are also claims that generative AI can help produce marketing assets and web content that is more personalized to the consumer. If brands aggregate the users’ data into the tech, it can help determine if an ad or web content aligns with a consumer’s interest. 

Testing: The tech can also help you measure the performance of a marketing campaign. You can give generative AI access to your company’s ad performance data, and it will generate answers for what you can do next. Experts warn that human intervention is necessary for this part of the process. 

The post What Is Generative AI and How Is It Changing the Advertising Ecosystem? appeared first on AdMonsters.

The days of online behavior being viewed and tracked for targeted advertising are over as consumers exercise their privacy rights and opt out of sharing their data with third parties. 

Cookie-blocking browsers, regulators, and tech are giving users the tools, awareness, and choice to protect their data by opting out of data sharing, creating a hidden web, and leaving just 30% of the open web addressable. 

Targeting must be sustainable, based on direct and not third-party relationships, and reach 100% of users while respecting their data choices —publishers’ privacy-forward cohorts. 

Publisher cohorts are consumers that are grouped based on a shared characteristic within a publisher’s environment. They are built from first-party publisher data and don’t rely on ad-tracking or third-party cookies. But advertisers need scale and standardization. This is where standard cohorts come into play. 

Scale and Standardization

Standard cohorts are interest-based publisher cohorts that can be generated automatically based on publishers’ first-party data. They are created using Natural Language Processing and the IAB 1.1 Audience Taxonomy, leveraging consistent and standardized behavior inputs. This solves for inconsistencies such as publisher A defining a food-lover as someone who visits pages on restaurant reviews and chef profiles twice in  60 days while publisher B defines a food-lover as someone who views one piece of recipe content over 90 days.

Much like privacy-safe publisher-defined cohorts, standard cohorts enable publishers to trade their rich audiences responsibly, without identifiers, which protects consumers. Third-party intermediaries are taken out of the equation to ensure publishers gain value from the one-to-one connection they have with their audience and the rich data and insights. 

In a recent interview with AdMonsters, Scott Messer, Principal and Founder of Messer Media, lamented the challenges of buyers seeking to activate unified audience definitions across multiple publishers and “publishers having unique inventory and wanting to label things uniquely.” He added that with standard cohorts “publishers are providing standardized ingredients, which allows advertisers to know exactly what they’re buying.”  

New Means of Monetization 

With standard cohorts, advertisers can buy at scale and collaborate with multiple publishers, which has many benefits for both.

For publishers, it unlocks a new means of monetization via private deals with advertisers. It helps publishers make all-important connections and seize growing buy-side demand using their audience data. This data truly represents and addresses 100% of audiences and will be the new currency of responsible audience activation. Standard cohorts also help publishers unlock demand across SSP partners and their respective advertisers, who seek privacy-safe and publisher-permissioned audiences. 

With these cohorts, advertisers gain a sustainable alternative to third-party data; audience reach in cookie-blocked environments, and clarity and transparency around audience composition and definition. It gives advertisers the confidence and transparency of a clear taxonomy qualified similarly across publishers, i.e., standardization. 

Advertisers that are working in this way are seeing results. A global beverage CPG brand, for example, course-corrected over-indexing in Chrome to reach double the previously hidden audience in Safari, helping solve their addressability problems. The campaign delivered 2.1x the number of impressions served in Safari vs. Chrome, resulting in a 21% lower CPC compared to the benchmark and a 123% higher CTR compared to the benchmark. 

Protecting Data and Value 

Standard cohorts give publishers and advertisers a sustainable alternative to the dwindling third-party data open marketplace and protect them as data and audience owners. Publishers and advertisers bring value with their direct relationship with the consumers. 

For publishers, standard cohorts go a step further and protect their valuable assets – with data being siloed per publisher and never exposed to advertisers or third parties, preventing the decoupling of data from inventory.

Given the advertising industry’s privacy climate, standard cohorts greatly benefit the consumer, protecting their data with a privacy-preserving approach to targeting, just like publisher cohorts. With the added scalability standard cohorts provide, advertisers and publishers have a sustainable way of targeting relevant audiences in this new era of digital advertising.

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