Finding the pot of gold at the end of the identity rainbow
At the beginning of March, Google confirmed they will not build, or use, user-level identifiers to track individuals as they browse the web
What does this mean?
1. Brands and publishers will not be able to use IDs in Google Ads or DV 360 and will have to adopt cohort targeting if they want / or are forced to use these programmatic solutions. As a matter of consequence, some industry experts are predicting a boost in competition in the Adserver / SSP / DSP markets in parallel to co-existing in a Privacy Sandbox Google centric world and other programmatic tools with Independent IDs networks.
2. Multiple IDs, including independent IDs will continue to co-exist and technology companies will build new ways to enable publishers and advertisers to get the most from their digital advertising campaigns
3. Publishers will be able to pass first-party data into Google’s tech in order to target logged-in users individually but all other targeting will be based on Google’s cohorts
4. The use of hashed email targeting will rise and we will see more big players - especially telcos, broadcasters, large apps, and e-commerce brands - building their own private gardens
This is an opportunity not a threat
Yes, advertisers and publishers will need to evaluate how independent ID solution(s) and measurement will work in the future and if they will generate return on investment on an individual basis. The main thing to keep in mind is that this change is coming and the digital advertising ecosystem needs to push forward rather than fight back. Google’s announcement should be taken as encouragement to make more use of first-party data which gives advertisers more retargeting opportunities through both walled and private gardens as well as run look-a-like modelling strategies. Publishers can look forward to more effective contextual targeting solutions that use sophisticated machine learning combined with measurement based on robust first-party data thus providing maximum transparency.
Independent, collaborative approaches, such as data alliances, will remain a strong option. We already know that this approach offers a high-performance alternative to the walled gardens and helps publishers and advertisers improve the efficiency of their ad spend. This is an opportunity to make further advances and enrich private gardens and data alliances with robust, trusted data to scale campaigns in independent environments.
Final thoughts
At mediarithmics, we’re not here to be the judge of what Google is, or is not doing, our mission is to provide brands, agencies and publishers with the tech solutions that meet their needs tomorrow and the day after.
We feel that two worlds of Individual IDs & Privacy Sandbox will co-exist — with this view echoed by other industry experts. Therefore, mediarithmics will provide native connections to all strong Individual IDs networks whilst being able to build and push Privacy Sandbox cohorts externally. By proposing a number of independent ID solutions to our clients, we believe we can maximise the synchronisation match rates whilst limiting the dependence.
In a way, the opposition between Individual IDs network & Privacy Sandbox is not the #1 topic … as it is a debate that is limited today mainly to the open web. From what we have seen from the FLEDGE specification, video & audio in-stream is not covered. So for Audio, video, mobile Apps & Addressable TV, the potential solutions will be predominately based on hashed email and systems of walled & private gardens.
So, in addition to working with independent ID solutions & Privacy Sandbox, the most secure & future-proof solution is to increase your 1st party data and leverage it elsewhere. From Data collection to ML activation, mediarithmics tool enables its clients to improve their collection and activation capabilities.
If you would like to hear more, we are holding a webinar session on identity on the 31st March alongside Criteo, Canton and Havas. Please register here: https://hubs.ly/H0JdWYZ0