Privacy & Identity: Why It Matters

Why it matters — There are various opportunities for publishers to jump at in 2023. We might be in for a reset come Q1, but leveraging data is the best way to achieve revenue goals in 2023.

Why it matters — For advertisers looking to stay on top of the trends, we’ll outline some top areas to focus on in the coming year — from AI to privacy and everything in between.

Why it matters — AI-powered data clean rooms are putting advertisers in control of their first-party data for more accurate audience reach. With the continued deprecation of third-party cookies, advertisers need new ways to reach Safari and Firefox users in a privacy-compliant manner. Simultaneously, they need to improve their outcomes. AI-powered data clean rooms are a technology that advertisers can use to improve their targeting and prospecting. Data clean rooms powered by artificial intelligence (AI) are a new way to solve for data modeling needs to improve advertiser business objectives. This article explains how this technology works and how advertisers can take advantage.

Why it matters — The industry is abuzz with dialogue around addressability in a world without third-party cookies. The end of third-party cookies is merely the tip of the iceberg. This means simply replacing the third-party cookie with alternative cross-domain solutions is not the ultimate solution in the long term. Instead, advertisers need to delve deeper into the power of first-party data. Why? So they can work with their supply partners now, to experiment with and implement the changes necessary to prepare for a future without third-party cookies. And for the most part, advertisers still aren’t prepared: According to research conducted by TripleLift in partnership with AdAge, there’s distinct overconfidence among marketers that signals an industry-wide lack of preparedness. 84% of marketers were aware that change was coming. But 71% didn't feel the death of third-party cookies would significantly impact their digital ad purchasing behavior. The result? An action gap can be seen in the 69% that have yet to implement solutions.

Why it matters — While Google has pushed back third-party cookie deprecation another year, finding viable solutions to address the industry’s needs in a post-third-party cookie world remains critical. But while some attention to cross-domain ID solutions may be warranted, it’s crucial to remember that the third-party cookie itself is a cross-domain identifier—and ultimately, it was this cross-domain characteristic that put third-party cookies in regulators’ crosshairs in the first place. Thus, the industry must continue experimenting with other solutions using opportunities such as the third-party cookieless environments that already exist in browsers like Safari and Firefox. In many ways, HEM and fingerprinting look like the logical heirs-apparent to the throne previously occupied by the third-party cookie: After all, they are both cookie-free solutions that can potentially enable marketers to keep doing many of the things that worked for them when the third-party cookie was king. But despite their apparent benefits, HEM and fingerprinting are problematic in ways that cast grave doubts on either ID solution’s ability to dominate a cookieless world.

Why it matters — As third-party cookies are deprecated, advertisers need to explore alternative ways to purchase high-quality ad space. Contextual advertising is evolving with new opportunities for ad buyers to achieve an improved ROI. This isn’t the old-school contextual advertising where ads are simply matched to relevant content. In this new approach, buyers can use user behavior and engagement metrics to improve relevance. For ad buyers to blend this new approach with future media plans, they must understand the new capabilities and how to evaluate them.