We’ve been hearing all about Google’s Privacy Sandbox, ever since the tech giant dropped the bomb that third-party cookies in Chrome would one day meet their demise. With its array of cookie-alternative APIs, the tech behemoth aims to redefine online advertising by finding a delicate equilibrium between user privacy and an efficient, thriving advertising ecosystem.

A pivotal aspect of this endeavor is Topics API,  a mechanism designed to enable a contextualized understanding of users’ interests without tracking the user across sites and apps.

At the recent AdExchanger ProgIO, industry experts shed light on Google’s Privacy Sandbox and Topics API, aiming to demystify the ongoing changes in digital advertising. Scott Messer, Principal and Founder of Messer Media, and Alex Cone, Product Manager, Privacy Sandbox, Google, offered a comprehensive understanding of the Privacy Sandbox’s goals, the timeline for cookie deprecation, the functionality of Topics API, and the future of ad auctions.

1. Striking a Balance: The Premise of Privacy Sandbox

Google’s core mission with the Privacy Sandbox is to create a delicate equilibrium between a more private internet and a sustainable advertising ecosystem.

This core principle aims to enhance user privacy by preventing re-identification across websites, reducing data exposure, and empowering users with more control. Simultaneously, it endeavors to sustain the advertising industry, fostering a thriving ecosystem including advertisers, publishers, and ad tech vendors.

Scott Messer succinctly summarized this balance, stating, “We believe two things can be true at the same time: the internet can become more private, and there can still be a sustainable advertising economy.”

2. A Phased Transition: The Timeline of Cookie Deprecation

Understanding the timeline for cookie deprecation is pivotal for stakeholders in the advertising industry to adapt and strategize accordingly. The phased approach begins with a 1% deprecation in the first quarter of 2024, gradually scaling up to a 100% deprecation by the second half of 2024.

This phased deprecation ensures a smoother transition, gradually leading to a complete phase-out of cookies and providing time for advertisers and platforms to adjust their strategies.

Alex Cone clarified the phase-out, explaining the critical stages of this transition, “Timeline is still the second half of 2024 for 100% deprecation.”  The initial 1% deprecation allows for thorough testing and adaptation, marking the beginning of a new era beyond third-party cookies.

3. Protected Audiences API: Securing Data Privacy and Ad Quality

The Protected Audiences API is a fundamental component of the Privacy Sandbox, playing a significant role in safeguarding user data and ensuring ad quality. It provides a secure storage environment for audience data, facilitating interest group-based advertising while preserving data privacy.

“Protected Audiences API is a first-party data activation API,” shared Cone. This allows advertisers to bid on audiences created on various sites within a secure environment, ensuring data does not leak and maintaining high ad quality.

The Privacy Sandbox comprises a rich collection of over 20 distinct APIs, each designed to cater to various advertising and user privacy aspects. Categorized into ‘Measurement and Relevance’ APIs and ‘Other APIs,’ these tools empower advertisers, publishers, and developers to enhance targeting and measurement functionalities while serving a broader spectrum of functions beyond advertising. This API system forms the backbone of the Privacy Sandbox initiative, driving its functionality and adaptability.

4. Frequency Capping and Data Privacy Measures

Frequency capping is integrated into the Privacy Sandbox within a protected audience for pre-bid scenarios. While it functions effectively within a protected audience, it poses a challenge outside this secure environment.

This feature limits the number of times an ad is shown to a user, ensuring a better user experience. By focusing on achieving frequency capping without invasive tracking outside the protected environment, the feature highlights the Privacy Sandbox’s commitment to align with the overarching goal of enhancing user privacy while optimizing advertising strategies.

5. Attribution and Measurement: Cross-Platform Functionality

The Attribution and Measurement API is a comprehensive analytical tool for advertisers and publishers, seamlessly functioning across both Chrome and Android platforms. It caters to various auction scenarios, including protected audience API auctions and non-protected audience auctions, offering valuable insights into ad performance.

The API not only facilitates first-party data activation, but it also allows bidding on audiences generated on a publisher’s site while ensuring a protected environment that prevents data leakage. On the measurement side, the API provides detailed and granular information through the attribution reporting feature. 

In contrast, a summary-level report offers broader dimensions, albeit in an aggregated format. Additionally, the suite includes the versatile Private Aggregation API, enabling various functions such as reach and frequency calculations.

6. Fence Frames API: Fortifying Data Privacy in Advertising

The Fence Frames API is crucial in bolstering data privacy within the advertising sphere. Acting as a secure version of an iframe, it effectively seals off data requests from creatives, thus notably reducing data leakage concerns.

Fence Frames are about sealing off creatives from making requests out, emphasizing their pivotal role in fortifying data privacy. Despite acknowledging its potential to disrupt existing processes, efforts are underway to integrate this API thoughtfully, considering industry requirements and practices.

The post Understanding Google’s Privacy Sandbox and Topics API: 6 Insights From ProgIO appeared first on AdMonsters.

Why is this the case? 

According to Jessica Cortapasso, SVP of People, Digital Remedy, women are “seeking meaningful and sustainable progress toward gender equality and are not afraid to seek new avenues.” Whether they transition to a more inclusive company or branch out to start their own, professional women are fighting for the next generation of women. 

Yet, it is not all doom and gloom. With organizations such as She Runs It, Chief, and Female Quotient, women are afforded opportunities to network and learn from each other. They are working towards closing the wage gap, increasing the number of women in leadership, and creating a healthier work culture.  

Best Piece of Advice 

Lorin E. Bona Head of Analytics & Revenue Optimizations, News & Media Holding Companies, News Partnerships, Google.  “While I did not receive this advice, I would offer this to women in ad tech: focus on your value and be your own best advocate. Success in this industry is driven by curiosity, agility, transferable skills, and a growth mindset. When you focus on your strengths and achievements and speak up for yourself and business needs, you will be better prepared to navigate and attain personal and professional growth.” 

Lashawnda Goffin, CEO, Colossus SSP. “Ad Tech is ever evolving so be prepared to consistently learn. Having a mentor is also critical so you’re not navigating alone.”

Olha Paramonova, VP, Ad Tech, Sigma Software. “Leadership is not related to any domain. A true leader is THE Leader in anything. Starting my career, I had to find my place by myself. My environment, at that time, was short on women leadership. At work, we all had to match the man’s world, being supportive, agreeing, covering for any need, and having a low voice on important things. I did not ever get any advice. However, I had a very good “man” friend who sent me the book as a hint (“What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business: Opening Up the Heavily Guarded Alpha Male Playbook”). The book depressed me very much; I think I was too young to see the real thing. It was an ugly dish served to the table, but still very refreshing. I wish we all had a good friend to send us this book as career advice.”

Katie Cladis, VP, Product, Digital Remedy. “It’s evident larger industry norms are slow and hard to change. Therefore, I advise women to hone in on key metrics like the percentage of females on the board or in leadership positions when searching for jobs. In other words, find a company with a history of hiring and elevating women to maximize your potential and the opportunity to thrive in a work environment that supports your career growth. Don’t waste time in places that don’t value diversity and inclusion. Progress is happening, but not enough. We must band together to create the change we wish to see.”

Best Practices: What Broad Steps Should We Take to Ensure Gender Equality?

Alex Theriault, Data & Customer Solutions Expert & GM, Spherical at Lotame.  “There’s a great need for support systems to help women get back on their feet, even for women still in the workforce who wish to elevate their career prospects. While there are established networks and organizations that focus on women’s empowerment in the workforce, many have high membership fees, which, for many women, are unrealistic with today’s strained economy. Not only do women need better support systems and opportunities, but they also need them to be affordable and feasible. Just as companies help pay for college loans for young professionals post-graduation, companies, and organizations can help contribute to membership fees for their female employees.” 

Jessica Cortapasso, SVP of People, Digital Remedy. “Hiring more women in the workforce is not the end goal but the launch point. Companies need to prioritize their growth and retention once they hire women. This involves training managers to support their teams, flexibility to support a healthy work-life balance, company commitment to well-being and DEI, and fostering a mutually-beneficial, purposeful work environment. Workplace preferences and needs are changing rightfully, so listening to and considering employee feedback is critical to improvement. All employees should feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas.” 

Rachael Ferranti, VP of Corporate Marketing, Foundry. For this year’s International Women’s Day, Foundry is supporting the “change the narrative” campaign by CPB London that challenges the unconscious gender bias in the workplace by donating ad space on our owned and operated editorial sites to ads that encourage viewers to consider the gendered words they use for males and females exhibiting the same behavior. Along with elevating women internally and externally and ensuring equal pay, this is the type of provocation of thought that companies need to support to continue breaking down the barriers between men and women in martech, technology, and across the workplace in all industries.

A Seat at the Table: The Future of Women in Leadership 

Gabrielle Turyan, Director of Product Marketing, Digital Remedy. “The shape of leadership is rapidly evolving alongside the martech industry. Thanks to pivotal organizations like SheRunsIt and inter-organizational mentor groups, women like myself have a seat at the table. Being a part of this journey into a leadership role has taught me to advocate for myself and other women to take part in senior roles, speak out, and have a voice. I look forward to watching these incremental changes come to fruition.” 

Michelle Harmon-Madsen, CMO of SponsorUnited. “It is more critical than ever for women to feel supported in the workplace for companies to ensure they maintain female leadership and knowledge. Unfortunately, our industry is losing women disproportionately, and we must safeguard against that. Companies prioritizing a balanced corporate culture are attracting and retaining the best and brightest women and talent – and other companies should follow suit. 

Jennifer D’Alessandro, Head of Ad Sales & Marketing, HappyKids. “Women leaders in the ad tech and CTV space are the quintessential example of tenacity – an unshakable focus and drive in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. We cannot let anyone tell us that we can’t do something or don’t deserve a “seat at the table.” By advocating for ourselves and collaborating with our colleagues through continued learning, and building, we rise above competitiveness and open doors for women throughout the industry. We need to continue the industry’s progress in recognizing strong, intelligent women to better the way for future leaders. Mentoring the younger generation is crucial to continue the path of inclusiveness and bring up strong, intelligent women.”

The Next Generation: Leading By Example

Rachael Ferranti, VP of Corporate Marketing, Foundry. “At Foundry, we both serve marketers and are marketers, so we are intimately familiar with the industry landscape. We prioritize elevating women and female voices across our global organization because we know that is the only way to represent a female-dominated industry. 5 out of 7 of our Marketing Leadership team members are women, and across Foundry, women lead in sales, HR, strategy, development, and operations. Our popular technology events have long promoted women in the IT space on some of the most high-profile stages in the industry, including the CIO 100 and CSO50. Our executives—especially those that came of age during the “old boy’s club” order—examine our makeup continually, with an ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.” 

Megan Saunders, SVP, Global Marketing, Emodo. “Emodo is committed to elevating and empowering women through its first ERG, Elevate, launched in Q1 2022. The ERG kicked off last International Women’s Day and has since had sessions on creating meaningful connections in the workplace, advocating for yourself, preparing for performance reviews, and discussing Roe v. Wade. This year on International Women’s Day, Elevate will host a session on how women and allies can better support each other in the workplace. I’m incredibly proud to be part of a company’s leadership team that respects, promotes, and develops women in the ad tech industry.” 

Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, Chief Revenue Officer, Yahoo. “While professional women still face significant gaps in opportunity and outcomes compared to men, there has been remarkable progress in advancing career opportunities. On the heels of the global pandemic, which the data shows particularly strained women, there has been great importance put on creating an inclusive work environment that empowers more women to join and succeed. In the ad tech space, it’s clear that diversity and inclusion drive innovation and better decision-making, giving companies a competitive advantage.”  

Ana Martinez, Chief Technical Officer, Uberall. There are many tangible steps companies and leaders can take. For example, when reviewing salaries and performances, there needs to be a constant focus on whether there are any disparities between gender, and if so, find out why. Empower women to oversee many of these review processes to help reduce biases when making hiring and promotion decisions. Also, there should be consistent self-examinations within every company and department to ensure that gender-discriminatory practices are discovered and weeded out swiftly.

The post International Women’s Day: Women In Ad Tech Talk About the State of Gender Equality appeared first on AdMonsters.

Lorin E. Bona, head of analytics & revenue optimizations for News & Media Holding Companies at Google, led the discussion. It outlined not only each publisher’s first-party data practices but the strategies they are all taking in working with sales teams, editorial, revenue diversification, and each executive’s predictions regarding the industry’s future going into 2023 and beyond. 

We got to hear from Scott Both, VP of programmatic monetization & operations at Hearst, Jeremy Gan, SVP of revenue operations & data strategy at DailyMail.com, and Pamela Nguyen, director of revenue analytics at Nexstar Digital. 

We learned from this panel that a revenue and data strategy department can only make some things happen by standing on its own two feet. By working with sales teams and editorial departments, publishers are beginning to see the most success. 

Attendees left the room with resourceful recommendations for strengthening their digital advertising strategies.

First-party Data Strategy, Testing & Iteration 

In an ad tech world full of dying cookies, publishers now more than ever realize the power of their first-party data. The concept of the death of cookies is now a rebirth as it presents a slew of opportunities for publishers to strategize the best ways to use the data they’ve accumulated. 

At DailyMail.com, they look at data in general as a two-prong process. The first process for them is finding addressability for non-addressable inventory. Then secondly, they gather that PII data and provide it as an option for their buyers in a privacy-centric way. 

Hearst programmatic monetization and operations teams think about data as business intelligence and consumer information. The business intelligence they have built helps inform editorial and helps rev ops understand what users are shopping for when they are reading product reviews on specific sites. 

“This whole aspect fuels the next decision a company will make,” said Both from Hearst. “There’s ongoing innovation there. You have a separate category of consumer information and how that links with our advertising systems. What are your users reading? That indicates where you have a strong position to build a data product.”

Hearst and Nexstar Digital pointed out that they have a large team that focuses on data products and solutions and that they’re constantly building new first-party audience products.

Educate Your Sales Team On Your First-party Data

Nexstar Digital owns over 120 news stations and their accompanying websites, and they work with predominantly local and regional advertisers. Within these sectors, budgets are tighter than usual, and the challenge here lies in finding advertisers willing to adopt and experiment more when working with some of Nexstar Digital’s first-party data products. 

“Education is key. It is important that you make sure your sales teams know how to address advertisers’ underlying anxiety about your current sales strategies,” explained Nguyen from Nexstar Digital. “Make sure sales understands that when looking to stretch your dollar a little bit further, you can utilize first-party data products to expand into environments that are no longer “addressable” when it comes to third-party data products.”

Along with the internal education aspect, DailyMail.com added that as revenue and ad ops executives, we also need to break down pre-existing walls that can separate publishers from revenue diversification opportunities. It’s time we help sales understand all capabilities we can offer to buyers that can help differentiate us from other publishers. We also need to help them feel confident in going to market because we can segment up our inventory to provide the necessary targeting, addressability, and audiences they want. 

Lastly, in strengthening the relationship between you and your sales team, Hearst Magazines suggests creating a feedback loop where you take in feedback from your sales team on which request they’re getting from their clients in the market. What is coming out of the agencies and advertisers that they work with? What are the needs or asks? Ask these questions and follow up by sending that information back to your data/product teams. From there, you can build something to help service those deals. 

Creating Revenue-Driving Page Experiences With Editorial 

The relationship between ad tech and editorial can either be nonexistent, shaky, or minimal, but it’s time that ad tech and revenue teams collaborate more with editorial departments. The relationship should be a two-way street. While writers may not necessarily be trying to optimize for the best outcomes when writing an article, they can optimize for less bad outcomes.

“When I was starting, there was a tough line between church and state when it comes to commercial and editorial,” Gan, from DailyMail.com, explained. “While the line still exists, in many ways, we are having a lot more conversations with editors. This is an evolution beyond the old-school advertising model. We are moving to a more diversified revenue stream for media companies. So really working closely with editorial and producing page types and environments that help them reach their goals. Then the wall is no longer church and state, but we can now provide them with commercial analytics to show what articles are performing best.”

For a long time, there was a lack of scoring and measurement in a way that publishing groups needed, but thanks to Google core web vitals, there’s now a score, a framework, and a rubric for determining whether or not a page experience is good or not. At Hearst Magazines, Both sees the assignment of a score as instrumental in managing the balance between advertising and editorial tasks. 

Generally, a publisher should ask what a good experience for the user’s needs is and how it can be measured accurately, not by simply evaluating the opinion of the internal group. However, it is great to create polls and surveys to get their opinions when it comes to consumers and users who view your web pages often, but a scoring system is critical. 

Revenue Diversification Recommendations

Each of the three publishers on this panel provided excellent recommendations for revenue diversification:

• Introduce content strategies that are a good fit for your consumers and audiences who frequently consume content on your website. Through this, you can find ways to have it be complementary to your advertising business
• Look into affiliate marketing; commerce is huge 
• Don’t be afraid of exploring new categories, for instance, sports betting
• Double down on your resources on ID fronts and retain addressability
• Diversify your sales strategies
• Find natural synergies between linear and digital, and leverage those synergies in ownership over video content to expand into Livestream, OTT, and CTV (if you haven’t already) by nature. This will diversify your revenue.

2023 and Beyond

There’d be no advertising business if consumers were not visiting your website, and for this reason, your relationship with your consumers is primary. It’s essential to start with your consumers and ensure that your relationship with them guides decisions on short versus long-term revenue.

Next, strengthen your partner relationships. With the recession coming, focus on the relationships with your partners and make joint decisions. As publishers, we must also figure out the data front with the buy side. With all these federal regulations coming in, how do we work together with the buy side to figure out our next moves? 

Lastly, focus and listen to your editorial teams to ensure that what you’re doing benefits their goals. Unify your efforts and realize that everybody has a stake in those same main KPIs and metrics. The goal is to keep flipping content. There is so much in alignment between what drives traffic, what drives those eyeballs, and what we can earn.

The post Hearst, DailyMail.Com, & Nexstar Digital Layout Their Digital Advertising Keys to Success appeared first on AdMonsters.

However, managing ad operations can not only be time-consuming and costly, but it can also be a very complicated process, particularly for those who are not well versed in the nuances of the ad ops world, especially with navigating the ins and outs of Google Ad Manager. 

The solution? Turning to a Google Certified Publishing Partner like OAO — a full-service, digital ad operations agency that focuses on publisher-side ad operations — for guidance and access to exclusive services. 

As one of the largest and most popular ad servers and programmatic platforms in the industry, Google Ad Manager 360 is the preferred choice for most publishers to grow their business, from increasing ad revenue to creating a comprehensive ad strategy that allows them to focus on what they do best and leave the rest to the experts.

Google Certified Publishing Partners such as OAO can provide high-quality ad ops services, products, and support at multiple levels, tailored to each company’s size and individual needs, all geared toward increasing that publisher’s revenue and streamlining their operations, using the most innovative solutions Google has to offer. 

Working Well with Google’s AM360 

Google’s AM360 is a multi-faceted ad server that helps publishers generate revenue by assisting in managing the assets and delivery of sold campaigns while also tracking and reporting on the results. The AM360 platform runs the gamut, allowing publishers to advertise across display, mobile app, video, gaming, newsletter, CTV, and programmatic channels with ease. 

This platform is indeed one of the oldest in our industry, and according to Advertiser Perceptions’ SSP report for the second half of 2021, Google is the most used and preferred supply-side platform among publishers surveyed. In fact, 73% of those surveyed said they use Google Ad Manager.

Not only is AM360 one of the best publisher ad servers available, but it is also a prerequisite to gaining access to Google Ad Exchange (AdX), which is designed to programmatically connect advertisers with high-quality publisher inventory.

Most publishers do not meet the requirements to access AM360 and AdX on their own and must select a partner company to work with in order to gain access. As an authorized Google Certified Publishing Partner (GCPP), OAO is approved to do just that. 

AdX functions as a platform where buyers and sellers transact using real-time bidding. Publishers and advertisers prefer working with AdX because it is held to the highest industry standards for inventory and network ad quality. AdX is also the industry leader in uniting many different Demand Side Platforms (DSP) into its exchange, which fosters increased demand and higher CPMs for inventory.

Finding Success Through Partnering with OAO & Google

Choosing the right partner is a critical component for ensuring long-term success in the digital space. First and foremost, partnering with a GCPP such as OAO gives a publisher access to a vast amount of ad ops knowledge, skills, expertise, guidance, security, and capacity. These partners have been carefully vetted by Google, have passed Google’s product certification exams, and have proven track records for helping their publishing partners thrive. 

Beyond that, in these uncertain times having an ad ops partner in place helps publishers navigate and tackle anything that comes their way. For instance, decreased team size or high turnover. For more detail on why this is important, this recent article about “The Great Resignation” from OAO further explains this concept.

Fully based in the United States and now in its 20th year of business, OAO offers its publishing partners a wealth of experience and expertise. As a GCPP, OAO has been authorized to resell both AM360 and its predecessor, DART, since 2006. Since the GCPP program was conceived in 2015, OAO has continued to meet the high standards Google has set in place, cementing its legacy of being one of Google’s premier trusted partners.

While OAO is able to provide its customers with the traditional suite of ad ops products and services, such as campaign trafficking and management, platform implementations, monetization services, and AM360 support, it has also broadened its horizons to include custom solutions that leverage AM360’s API endpoints to seamlessly integrate with the ad server. These custom solutions are part of OAO’s AM360+ offering. 

“We’re constantly building and innovating at OAO, a company founded by ad ops veterans and composed of ad ops professionals who are always delivering on what ad ops does best: Finding ways to solve problems, grow business, and, as our industry is always expanding and becoming more complex, work smarter not harder. We built our AM360+ product suite to help publishers get the most out of both AM360 and their ad operations teams,” said Craig Leshen, President of OAO.

How OAO’s AM360+ Boosts Profit

The AM360+ program offered by OAO includes OAO Email Ad Connector (EAC), OAO Alpha Video (AV), and iAdOps. These three custom solutions are key to driving engagement and simplifying processes, ultimately leading to increased revenue. 

OAO Email Ad Connector serves as a fundamental connection point allowing advertisers to get in front of target customers via email newsletters – a touchpoint that, according to Statista, 86% of U.S. advertisers spending at least $10k on digital advertising annually agree is a vital connection between a brand and consumers. In addition, 88% of these advertisers believe newsletters will increase in importance with the absence of third-party targetable data. 

EAC integrates seamlessly into the AM360 network and enables publishers to continue serving sponsorship, rotational, SOV, network, and house ads targeted to newsletters via AM360. OAO has added the ability to target first party audience data segments and enable both direct and programmatic monetization of unsold inventory through partnerships with select demand sources, all without the need or cost of managing an additional ad server.

To help drive incremental revenue, OAO Alpha Video integrates easily with AM360 and does not require publishers to incorporate additional platforms, to manage demand source relationships, or deal with intensive integrations. This custom add-on allows publishers to monetize unfulfilled video inventory, working with almost any type of video demand source, by simply trafficking a single creative tag in the AM360 ad server.

Finally, iAdOps is an efficiency tool that helps publishers navigate the most essential AM360 and third-party campaign data quickly and with a user-friendly interface. The primary goal of this tool is to foster efficiency by reducing the number of steps required to access, display, observe, and share key campaign and performance data, across different teams and stakeholders. 

The iAdOps platform enables publishers to easily monitor the health of their campaigns, track metrics, monitor discrepancies, identify unfilled impressions, check the performance of AdX and Open Bidding demand partners, and even access custom reports that OAO can develop on their behalf. 

Working with Google and OAO, a trusted Google Certified Publishing Partner, can truly help your business ascend to the next level. It is also important to remember that not all ad ops providers are created equal. Google’s GCPP stamp of approval is only granted to select ad operations providers who have been carefully vetted by Google and have a proven track record of helping publishers succeed.

Learn more about OAO and read its “Ad Serving Solutions” white paper here.

The post Joining Forces with a Google Partner Simplifies Processes & Increases Publisher Success appeared first on AdMonsters.

FLoC’s origin trials raised a lot of concerns, and if what we’ve seen in the wild from USA Today’s 90-day test of Topics API is any indication, then that solution may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

Since I don’t own a crystal ball, I’m not one to throw out predictions willy-nilly. But it was evident wasn’t it? Google was going to delay plans to eliminate third-party tracking cookies in Chrome. Their Privacy Sandbox head is saying it will take until the latter half of 2024 for an alternative to replace cookies, but we’ve been hearing rumblings from buyers that it could very well drag out until 2025.

If nothing else it gives more testing time to get things right (and hopefully comply with all privacy regulations across the globe), and for publishers who have yet to figure out their future-proofing strategies, this news should come as a sigh of relief. Maybe it’s a sign not to place all your bets on one horse.

Here eight ad tech execs share what this latest twist in the tale of the cookie’s eventual death means for Google and  the ad tech ecosystem, as well as what we can expect to happen next.

Eric Hochberger, CEO and Co-Founder, Mediavine

The new timeline will provide additional opportunities for the programmatic industry to continue testing, collaborating and forging essential partnerships aimed at keeping the independent publisher profitable and the web free and open. For two years now, we’ve watched content creators use the Google deadline as an impetus to develop crucial first-party relationships with their readers through tools like Mediavine’s Grow, live today and in use by thousands of publishers. This gives them even more time to hone those relationships and make them meaningful.

Tal Chalozin, Co-Founder and CTO at Innovid

While there’s a big focus on the impact of cookies it’s clear that the big solution is a cross devices privacy safe identification solution which is hard and far from being solved. With the latest moves by media giants such as Netflix and Disney, it’s clear that streaming is where the puck is going when it comes to ad-supported content. Cookies will only impact browser-based content but are not a solution for the connected TV or any of the app world. I believe the push by Google is not only to allow the industry and Google themselves to find alternatives but to focus on the big challenge of solving cross-device and specifically CTV as a massive time spent device.

Field Garthwaite, CEO and Co-Founder, IRIS.TV

In streaming and CTV where there are no cookies, other approaches like clean rooms and video-level data are already being used to plan and target campaigns successfully. What’s missing in Connected TV, the fastest growing channel in advertising, is the ability to verify and measure outcomes with these new privacy-first signals. Regardless of the timing of Google phasing out cookies, privacy-by-design is becoming critical for all media buying. 

Shiv Gupta, Managing Partner, U of Digital

Google’s need to fend off antitrust has clearly become more pressing for them than their need to appease privacy advocates and their desire to emulate Apple’s privacy-centric ethos. That is what is driving this. This continuing purgatory will help those that have kicked the can down the road and hurt those that have been testing and experimenting with cookie alternatives. Smart ad tech companies should continue to focus on flexibility and interoperability as it pertains to identity.

Eric Vreeland, VP, Marketing, People Data Labs

Google continues to delay the deprecation of cookies because, despite several rounds of warnings, the digital marketing industry still depends on the data they provide to target and personalize campaigns. But a cookieless future is inevitable, and this latest delay gives marketers another chance to consider what that future will look like. Fortunately, data-as-a-service vendors can provide an alternative today. Marketing tools powered by alternative data sources will allow businesses to continue reaching new customers and creating personalized messages and experiences without relying on cookies that track and surveil online behavior.

Jake Moskowitz, Head of the Emodo Institute & VP of Data Strategy, Emodo

This is just kicking the can down the road. Google alone increased its market cap by almost $100B today alone, and Facebook almost $25B. To give a sense for scale, eMarketer says there will be a grand total of $221B of digital marketing spend overall in the U.S. in 2023. When you consider the market cap increases of every other ad tech stock, this seems like an overreaction if all we’re doing is kicking the can down the road for one more year. If anything, it proves how massive an issue this is, whether third-party cookies on Chrome exist or not. Overall, firms should make sure they have tools in their toolbox that allow them to achieve scale and performance, no matter what Google does.

James Prudhomme, CRO, Optable

Although Chrome remains to be the last browser to still allow third-party cookies by default, over the past two years we’ve seen publishers taking audience segmentation into their own hands. Today, whether cookies are available or not, the use of data clean rooms already allows for precision and performance in a privacy-safe manner. 

Chris Harihar, Partner & Head of AdTech, Crenshaw Communications

This is also a major PR challenge for Google, who’s damned if they do and damned if they don’t. With every delay or decision made, Google simply feeds into monopoly concerns from regulators who already believe they have too much control of the market. Kicking the can down the road is likely the best decision they have for that reason. Candidly, regulators should spend more time scrutinizing Apple, who is making unilateral decisions about the direction of the ad ecosystem with their changes to mobile IDs on iOS.

The post 8 Ad Tech Execs Weigh In On Google Pushing Back the Third-Party Cookie Cutoff appeared first on AdMonsters.

Instead, they recently confirmed the completion of the May 2022 core algorithm update, which concluded officially on June 9. Pubs, have you recently seen a decrease in website tracking from late May to mid-June? If so, Google may be to blame for this.

Google makes hundreds of algorithm updates each year, some minor, some major, and the core updates take place every few months. According to Zib Digital, a leading digital marketing agency in New Zealand, these updates do not target any specific issues. Still, they may establish significant changes in how a website performs and its organic results.

Many factors can contribute to a website’s ranking, and the relationship between ads on the site and the speed of that site impacts website rankings and revenue. Back in 2020, Google mentioned the significance of making sure that there is a significant amount of content “above-the-fold.” If your ads are not placed correctly on your site, it can contribute to substantial SEO ramifications, like penalties and dramatic ranking declines.

As you may know, Google’s core web vitals consist of three components, Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FIP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). The speed that web pages load on your site also impacts your rankings because those heavy page loads can be due to your ad scripts.

The last time Google rolled out a broad core update was in November 2021, but some would argue that Google’s June/July 2021 update was more impactful for websites. If you recall, the June/July update was so massive that Google broke it into two. One took place in June and the latter in July, but how will this update from May 2022 affect publishers and their websites?

A Little Volatility Never Hurt Nobody

In life, everything has its ups and downs, peaks and valleys, and emotional rollercoasters, however put, things will not always be unicorns and rainbows. And while it may be easy for pubs to view their lower website rankings as if Google were coming for them, they should consider it more of a readjustment than anything. Zib Digital reassures publishers that they aren’t being personally attacked by Google, instead reevaluated against other web content published since its last update.

Both are equally as influential when comparing the May 2022 update to the November 2021 update. In May, all the numbers peaked over 9.0, and within Real Estate, we see the May update was way more impactful than November. Overall, both updates appear to have a similar impact on rank volatility, but once we dive deeper, we see things change.

Regarding the average level of volatility overall, November had a higher impact on rankings than what we saw in May. It certainly altered the baseline level of volatility:

Even though volatility highs were similar during both updates, there was more leg work during the November 2021 core update. There were already instances of volatility before the start of May’s update, so it isn’t quite as impactful as the one in November.

In terms of devices, desktop and mobile numbers during May’s update were similar, and both devices also saw identical peak volatility numbers:

When it comes to pre-update levels, the increase in volatility in comparison to pre-update levels was slightly different across devices, with mobile being just a little more volatile before the update:

Shifts were not as dramatic in verticals across devices. The most impacted verticals were the same across devices. On desktop, Real Estate, Hobbies & Leisure, Travel, and Pets & Animals saw the most significant increase in rank volatility. On mobile, Health took Travels place within the top 5 most impacted verticals.

Real Estate was the only vertical in both instances to see a volatility shift of over 5 points across both devices. There were increases of 5.4 on desktop and 5.3 on mobile, but no fluctuations show this update targeted certain niches.

How Can Pubs See Through Google’s Update?

Any update will lead to shifts, and while they can be unsettling, there is no need to ring the alarm. To avoid fluctuations, pubs must keep a tunnel vision to push out high-quality, groundbreaking content. That is the only thing that will set pubs apart. Some aspects were thriving during the May 2022 update: video, content specialization, and search intent marketing.

5 days ago, Google rolled out a significant change to its ranking algorithm.

The May 2022 Core Update is a blessing for some and a bane for others.

I dug into the data from @SEMrush and @sistrix to understand what happened.

— Malte Landwehr (@MalteLandwehr) May 30, 2022

With the data found in the thread above, one can presume some interesting conclusions about SEO after the core update in three areas that could inspire profound content ideas for your company. Video is a booming component; at this point, many websites know to incorporate video into their written content as there is a big chance to scale your website traffic, lead volumes, and revenue. 

Might I also highlight the significance of contextual targeting with the demise of third-party cookies? Contextual targeting is back like it never left and is proving itself as a great alternative. Along with pumping out high-quality content, contextual targeting is key to helping pubs build better sites to attract users to content that will serve them contextually relevant ads. However, one must rank well for the specific keywords or topics that will bring in the right audiences.

The post No Worries, Shifty Metrics After Google’s Core Algorithm Update Won’t Last Forever appeared first on AdMonsters.

Thanks to social media, we are all living vicariously through Twitter to see all that is going on, and boy is it is quite the fiasco depending on which world you delve into.

Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is the most extensive professional gathering for the creative marketing community. There were many exciting and impactful discoveries if you’re in ad tech land like us. From the talks surrounding Google and Netflix to the yachts, which were back this year like they never left, the festival is undoubtedly one for the books. Especially with many people fresh off of quarantine times.

For those of you who are still back at the office, unable to be there physically, and too swamped in work to tap into social to visualize the happenings, we put together a list of some of the most important news relevant to what publishers do. Here are ten highlights from Cannes related to the advertising world.

1. The Yachts Are Back — Amazon and Tik Tok pop out for the first time

The 2022 Cannes Yacht LUMAscape is out. What recession? pic.twitter.com/hxFSJTQQMx

— Terence Kawaja (@tkawaja) June 20, 2022

The yachts are yachting, and this year, some new kids are on the block trying to get in where they fit in along the Cannes coast. It’s no surprise that Amazon, given who they are, came with their big go-hard or go-home full-throttle energy. They didn’t pull up in a Yacht; Amazon has the entire Vieux Port de Cannes! They are also hosting a Twitch apartment space outside of the port area.

Tik Tok and Roku are new to the coast and trying to make their mark at the big fest. TikTok has a cabana across from the Palais, and Roku has a cabana near the Pointe Croisette. Of course, veterans of the festival Meta, Google, Pinterest, and Spotify were all there in their usual beachside spots. However, Amazon docking a fort is huge.

2. Addressability and Identity Were Big Themes

“Proving the value of addressability is there. What’s missing is addressability’s value prop vs other video” – Kevin Arrix, @DISHMedia at the #GoAddressable panel at @FreeWheel beach at @Cannes_Lions with @ComcastAd @Make_it_MM @Make_it_MM @TeleUniPRTeam #CannesLions2022 pic.twitter.com/HQq4XC3fVJ

— Spectrum Reach (@SpectrumReach) June 22, 2022

When it comes to solving ad ops problems, addressability and identity are at the top of publishers’ list. Like a Rubik’s cube, pubs have been twisting and turning to find color matches for addressability and identity. At Cannes, pubs were encouraged to shift gears from thinking about cookie deprecation as a bad thing and instead just find new strategies for solving for addressability.

“For publishers to thrive in a cookieless world, it’s vital that they seek a solution that places people and their privacy at its centre,” said Travis Clinger, SVP, Addressability and Ecosystem at LiveRamp. “We’re likely to see publishers and marketers forming closer partnerships as they start to work together on strategies that have addressability at their heart.”

3. Gary Vee Says Reach and Impressions Are a Lie

The advertising industry has been lying to itself on internet consumption…@garyvee gives his thoughts on internet reach… (language warning )

Get exclusive digital access to #CannesLions2022 with a digital membership. https://t.co/1HYBSRqbL5 pic.twitter.com/HkQESeD3re

— LIONS | The Home of Creativity (@Cannes_Lions) June 21, 2022

Welp, Gary had no problem letting us know how he feels, and he’s got a point. We knew there were shady things happening in the industry. (More like Meta misrepresenting ad reach for years than that Gannett flub a couple months back.)  A 20-year-old problem will most likely be challenging to alter.

On the flip side, engagement may be the real key to solving this problem. With the end of cookies, pubs need to consider that maybe attention metrics aren’t such a crazy idea afterall.

4. Netflix Chatted With Google About Their Ad Business

Netflix is ‘talking to all’ potential ad partners, Ted Sarandos tells Cannes https://t.co/Q4VGCaW4JQ pic.twitter.com/U6pRuLacy4

— Agency Loft (@Agency_Loft) June 23, 2022

As the tweet says, Netflix has met with a few potential partners like Roku and Comcast, but Google is the biggest contender right now. Google makes most of its money from ads, and we all know they have the pipes so, of course, they have what it takes to steer Netflix in the right direction. Much of ad tech land was anxiously awaiting Co-CEO of Netflix Ted Sarando’s big panel discussion on Thursday, June 23, in Cannes. Ironically his appearance was scheduled before news broke of Netflix’s devastating Q1 numbers. Still, we are sure Soarando’s will probably update everyone in Cannes about how business is really going and maybe even who they’ve chosen as an ad partner. 

5. IBM’s Big Anti-Bias in Ad Tech Announcement

Today at the @Cannes_Lions International Festival of Creativity 2022, IBM and other industry leaders committed to improving fairness in marketing campaigns. Learn more and check out IBM’s Open Source Toolkit to help mitigate biases in advertising: https://t.co/fyt9twIbas pic.twitter.com/MH2puuy3T4

— IBM News (@IBMNews) June 20, 2022

IBM announced their latest commitment to mitigating ad tech bias, and Delta Air Lines, WPP, Mindshare, 4A’s, IAB, and the Ad Council are standing beside them in solidarity. Last year IBM launched a research initiative to explore whether or not biases exist in ad tech, and the research confirmed that biases are more than prevalent. The study also discovered that as much as algorithms are at the center of ad tech bias, AI tools can be used to look at segmentation results to rule out biases.

6. 1st Party IDs Outperform 3PC in Programmatic Ad Campaigns

#adtech Twitter, how are y’all feeling about this news?

Data shows first-party IDs outperform third-party cookies in programmatic ad campaign @adform @Cannes_Lions @PwC https://t.co/sjHuTr3Sjx @lauriesullivan

— lynnedjohnson.eth (@lynneluvah) June 23, 2022

Adform used its ID Fusion technology to conduct research they released in Cannes showing that first-party IDs delivered more scale on programmatic campaigns. But ad tech Twitter is asking, “But, how Sway?”

The results reveal that utilizing the ID Fusion solution on an ad campaign contributed to a 669% increase in the addressable audience, and a 161% increase in click-through rates, resulting in higher viewability and superior eCPM.

First-party IDs had higher ad viewability at 80% compared to 75% for third-party cookie traffic. While IDs are being seen as one of many solutions to the end of third-party cookies, we have to be careful to test and test again. As one Twitter user responded, when it comes to testing ID solutions, there are good results out there in the wild but there are also caveats-on-caveats.

7. 40 Activist Climed Cannes’ Palais Des Festivals

BREAKING: @greenpeacefr activists have scaled the venue of the @Cannes_Lions to call on a fossil ads and sponsorship ban https://t.co/mAZbS2D9DT #BanFossilAds

— Greenpeace PressDesk (@greenpeacepress) June 23, 2022

The activists never come to play. This instance reminds me of the two women who protested the recent abortion speculations by removing their clothes during a Joel Olsteen church service. When they come, they always make a large statement. This time Greenpeace France activists pulled up in a fire truck in hopes of symbolizing the burning fossil fuels that contribute to the intense amount of global heating that we see today. They requested that ad firms cut ties with the fossil fuel industry altogether, as parts of Europe have been flaming hot this week.

Greenpeace activists are pushing a European Citizen’s Initiative (ECI) petition that calls for an end to fossil fuel ads and their sponsorship in the EU. The way the EU has been looking out for its civilians lately by protecting their privacy and going after big tech, these activists just may end up getting what they are fighting for.

8. Gen Z’s Significance to Future Brands

.@Shutterstock are doing very interesting things with 3D imagery “you have to talk to the new generations in their language, they are social media driven”…”they don’t look at the brand, they look at the story” Jamie Elden, CRO, Shutterstock #CannesLions2022 pic.twitter.com/X1zhynKxgx

— What’s New in Publishing (@wnip) June 20, 2022

We knew that the kids were the future after discovering all the new things they were doing with social media during the heart of the Pandemic. Shutterstock isn’t the only platform targeting Gen Zers; Tik Tok is their platform of choice without even trying.

“If you want to reach Gen Z consumers, it’s got to be part of your portfolio,” says Chris Brandt, chief marketing officer of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. The chain says it has doubled its spending on TikTok each of the past three years. TikTok could very well become the next big platform, given the way Meta’s ad revenue has been falling off lately. Plus, there’s lessons upon lessons here for publishers looking to court this market.

9. 5 Tech Giants Receive More Than Half of Global Ad Spend

.@Cannes_Lions sobering fact #1: Globally, advertisers will spend almost $800 billion on advertising in 2022. Five companies will receive over 400 bn of those ad dollars > Google, Meta, Amazon, Bytedance, and Alibaba. @GroupMWorldwide @AdContrarian #BigTechDominates #CannesLIONS pic.twitter.com/CUODBKANlT

— What’s New in Publishing (@wnip) June 20, 2022

These five tech conglomerates are always apart of the conversation, and yes many pubs and advertisers went to Cannes knowing this fact and will also leave Cannes with the thought of it in the back of their heads. According to Group M’s prediction, 2022 is already over for any pub hoping to knock any of these five out of their top spots, especially with open internet supply becoming more concentrated.

10. There Were Many Calls for More Diversity

Issa Rae Challenges Advertising Industry To Follow Her Mandate For More Diverse Sets: Cannes Lions 2022 https://t.co/uJwvAzmI4n

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) June 22, 2022

Some clear insights from @alinecsantos and @Unilever with the Unstereotype Alliance @un_stereotype resulted in a big shift in mindset for Unilever brands.

97% of all advertising is now considered unstereotypical, up from 50% in 2016. #CannesLions2022 pic.twitter.com/Y0X7UCwDQG

— LIONS | The Home of Creativity (@Cannes_Lions) June 21, 2022

At @Cannes_Lions this week?​
.
Nicky Buss, Global Planning Director, WT, will be joining a panel alongside P&G & Canal+ to discuss, ‘Purpose in the industry: Sustainability, Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion in Media and Advertising’.
.#CannesLions2022 #WTCannes pic.twitter.com/Gs4qs0pJse

— Wunderman Thompson (@WunThompson) June 23, 2022

If we’ve said it once, we’ll say it again, diversity is good for business.

The post ICYMI: 10 Advertising & Ad Tech Highlights From Cannes appeared first on AdMonsters.

The Senate-led bill is spearheaded by Sen. Mike Lee ( R- Utah) and co-sponsored by Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). The Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act will have many stipulations that will subliminally contribute to the breakdown of Google’s extremely prosperous ad tech model.

Of course, this is seemingly all about money, and the bill considers revenue to be the number of dollars a demand-side platform DSP or a sell-side platform SSP transacts or the total of the clearing prices bought and sold through a digital ad exchange.

What Are Some Terms of The US Senate Digital Advertising Act?

The bill includes regulations that will continue to trigger an already erupting volcano. The lava represents all the publishers and advertisers who constantly scramble to keep up with these rules and regulations.

Some of the terms and conditions of the Digital Advertising Act are as follows:

• No business with over $20 billion in digital ad revenue can own a digital ad exchange if that business already owns a DSP or an SSP or if it also monetizes off of digital ad space.
• No business can hold both a DSP and an SSP.
• Any company that makes over $5 billion in revenue must act in its customers’ best interest and be ready to take on new transparency requirements.
• The bill requires ad tech companies to anonymize consumer info and states that pubs and advertisers may only use the data if they need to verify the company’s legal compliance.
• Any ad tech company covered by the law must inform customers of “the source and nature of any compensation paid or received in connection with transactions.”

How Will the Digital Advertising Act, Affect Google & Pubs?

Since the Big G has regularly faced scrutiny over how it conducts its online ad auctions, we’ve seen them putting more measures in place to provide a level of transparency. For instance, as they apply more automation to ad campaigns they’ve promised to provide advertisers with insights about conversation and campaigns.

But even a blind man can see that this new US Senate bill is a blatant jab at Google’s ad tech business as it owns the largest demand-side platform, sell-side platform, and exchange used in programmatic auctions. Google is one of the largest publishers to grace the Internet, projected to acquire 28% of US digital ad revenue in 2022, according to emarketer.

This is the second time the US has attempted to police Google’s ad tech doings; in December 2020, a cluster of attorneys led by Texas’ Ken Paxton brought an anti-trust objection against Google in the southern district of New York. The suit compares Google’s grasp on the digital advertising exchanges to the New York Stock Exchange.

Experts revealed that even if the government twisted Google’s arm, making them sell their ad tech business, the company would still be able to thrive off its marketing power in digital advertising since it has already dominated the search and browser world and found a way to combat cookie depreciation.

“In short, this is the wrong bill, at the wrong time, aimed at the wrong target,” said a Google spokesperson, who cited the real problem as being low-quality data brokers.

In terms of smaller pubs, Google has tried to portray this idea of smaller pubs needing them, but industry experts know this to be BS.

read the law, it doesn’t break any tools. quite the opposite, it puts best interest and execution obligations in place for arguably dominant adtech firms to only serve their advertising or publisher customers (good for civil society). G is introducing noise here in the red. /4 pic.twitter.com/2VeA8izLfh

— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) May 20, 2022

What Does the Transparency Layer Entail?

So it looks like Google has been on thin ice for years now. It was only a matter of time before something like the Digital Advertising act came into fruition.

The transparency aspect would demand DSPs or SSPs to share detailed bid-level data with advertisers and pubs. So that includes Google too.

I know most pubs will be jumping for joy now that there will be a new transparency layer in place. Pubs have voiced their concerns for ages because Google does not give them access to log-level data, thus stunting their ability to audit their digital ad businesses. Google claims that they refrained from sharing the data because it would violate user privacy, but U.S. lawmakers see it differently.

The post What Is the Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act? appeared first on AdMonsters.

Google calls Topics an evolution of their previous proposal for interest-based targeting which was called FLoC. 

What Are Topics?

Under the proposal, as someone browses the internet, Chrome will keep a record of the categories of websites they visit e.g. News. Each website can have up to three categories.

Each week Chrome decides the five categories the user is most interested in and then adds a sixth at random to boost user privacy. Chrome will store these six interests for three weeks. For the purposes of initial testing, there are 350 interest groups in total.

In terms of using this information to power advertising, when a user visits a publisher’s website the companies that the publisher uses to monetize the page can access the browser’s interest groups via an API. Chrome will return up to three topics, with one chosen at random from each of the previous three weeks. Advertisers can then decide if they want to show an advert to someone with these interests and bid accordingly.

Topics will replace FLoC, which was a proposal also designed to replace third-party cookies in interest-based advertising. Unlike Topics, FLoC did not have predefined interest groups, instead, Chrome created Cohorts of browsers with similar browsing habits using Federated Learning. During the origin trial, there were more than thirty thousand groups and Ad Tech firms were expected to calculate what they thought a Cohort was most interested in. 

Reactions To The Proposal

Because of this granularity, FLoC was potentially poor from a user privacy perspective. This was because the sheer number of Cohorts when combined with other information meant in theory it could be used to track users on an individual basis.

Topics has fewer larger groups that do not reveal any sensitive information to resolve both these challenges, so from this perspective, the feedback has been positive, except amongst those who take a hardline view that any tracking is unacceptable. 

But some in the industry see this “broadness” of the interest groups as a downside and have questioned whether they will be too broad to be useful.

Google said they want feedback from the industry and do not want to own the final list.

Others think the current number is probably about right for these reasons:

1. Topics has more than twice the number of Interest Groups as Google uses in its own advertising platforms and these are already widely used by advertisers large and small.
2. If Google were to expand this to the IAB Classification it would impact most publishers’ ability to sell their audiences, and in particular, would have a negative impact on niche publishers who can command a premium because advertisers are willing to pay a premium to reach the valuable audiences that visit their content. 
3. There is already provision in other Privacy Sandbox proposals for ad tech businesses to create more granular segmentation. FLEDGE as I’ve commented here previously has applications that could stretch beyond remarketing.

Topics will begin testing H1 2022, with many anticipating an origin trial (first test) towards the end of Q1. It will evolve over time and for those interested in getting more closely involved and shaping what happens feedback can be posed and questions raised here. 

For publishers seeking more direct participation in the tests themselves, now is probably as good a moment as any to reach out to your ad tech partners and ask how to get involved.

The first transition period for these initiatives is scheduled to begin at the end of this year.

The post What Is Google Topics API? appeared first on AdMonsters.

Part one focused on the future of advertising for marketers and publishers and part two looks at identity solution adoption and testing among marketers and publishers. Two hundred digital media and marketing execs were surveyed in September following Google’s announcement to delay cookie deprecation until 2023.

There’s so much uncertainty and concern is high on all levels. Key reports findings include: Forty-eight percent of publishers predict having to downsize their workforce driven by the third-party cookie deprecation and the expected drop in revenue that it will bring. Sixty percent of pubs expect at least a 10-25% drop, while 31% are less optimistic, thinking revenues will drop 26-50%.

As well, both buyers and sellers were clear that they want multiple ID solutions as alternatives to the third-party cookie. Thirty-three percent of marketers said they would use three ID solutions or that they were “open to using any number.” Similarly, 33% of publishers said they were “open to using any number,” followed by two (28%).

Test Identity Solutions Now

“A cookieless future is closer on the horizon and whether or not the industry ‘feels prepared,’ the end result is inevitable,” said Andy Monfried, Founder & CEO of Lotame. “Digital advertising is changing, and identity solutions will be part of that new future. Addressability and connectivity are at greatest threat in the post-cookie world. Testing identity solutions now can not only soften the blow of a cookieless landscape but future proof a business’s ability to connect with consumers in meaningful and respectful ways.”

Marketers are all onboard to lean into identity solutions, but for varying reasons. “While marketers say their primary reason for adopting new identity solutions is to support audience targeting (52%), for publishers, the central reason is data privacy (59%).” Overall, marketers are feeling more pressure to start testing identity solutions now than pubs. Three in four marketers said that they were likely to test new or further identity partners in the near future.

In addition, Google’s cookie deprecation delay has publishers concerned about the motives behind it. Forty-seven percent were “glad because we needed more time to prepare,” 42% said “I was expecting them to delay” but 40% also said, “I’m suspicious of the reasoning behind it.”

The same goes for Apple. Its privacy stance has publishers questioning how they will be able to produce email revenue. Forty-one percent of all respondents said they were “concerned for the impact on email hash identifiers,” while the same number said they were “concerned for our ability to monetize our email channel.”

The post Cookie Cutoff Could Mean Publisher Layoffs appeared first on AdMonsters.