How brands can reach addressable audiences beyond walled gardens
No more delays
Previously, Google pushed back its deprecation timeline to give the web community more time to develop a set of open standards that fundamentally enhance privacy on the web, and give people more transparency and greater control over how their data is used.
In the years since, Google has collaborated with the ecosystem on its Privacy Sandbox initiative. In addition to continuing Privacy Sandbox work, the planned simulated cookie deprecation and 1% cookie deprecation in Q1 2024 will provide additional milestones for the ecosystem to prepare for this change.
The message to brands and platforms is clear; there is a fixed deadline to make the shift to cookieless alternatives. At the same time, consumers and regulatory bodies are demanding more transparency and protections around data collection and privacy, as evidenced by legislation such as GDPR and CCPA. This changing landscape has pushed the industry to develop alternative proposals and solutions, allowing advertisers to continue aiming their ads at receptive audiences.
How should publishers prepare?
While there is no silver bullet to the deprecation of third-party cookies, publishers must look at a range of solutions to maintain addressability across their inventory in all environments.
At LiveRamp, we see authenticated audiences as the gold standard for addressability across all environments. This is what’s helped the walled gardens to capture more than 60% of digital ad budgets in recent years. Applying authenticated audiences on the open web offers publishers the chance to finally strike back and regain their share of revenue, especially since seven in 10 marketers are planning to increase their spending outside walled gardens in the next 12 months.
An authentication is simply any time a user provides personally identifiable information (PII) to a publisher. This could be in the form of an email address, phone number, or even a social media log-in. Typically this information is provided as part of a sign-up or registration process for a newsletter or account.
One of the greatest strengths of focusing on authentications is that they offer a solution across all channels, all browsers and all devices. Many other solutions solve for their ecosystem only.
Publishers therefore need to think about the value they can create with users in exchange for them to provide an authenticated signal. There are a range of ways to achieve this. Common examples include email subscriptions and newsletters, content walls, social media plugins or other logged-in environments. Often, publishers don’t realise that they’re already sitting on a wealth of this authenticated audience data today.
Moving forward today
Cookies were effective because everyone in the industry used them. As a result, cookies became, in essence, the currency by which digital advertising was bought and sold, at least in the world of display advertising. The demise of the third-party cookie is ultimately a good thing for our industry - it’s forcing us to develop new solutions and will drive better activation and measurement outcomes.
While it’s inevitable that some will continue to bide their time until the last possible moment of third-party cookie deprecation, the rest of the ecosystem is already taking the steps to make addressable inventory available across Safari, Firefox, Edge, and Chrome.
For publishers looking to finally level the playing field with the walled gardens, the tools are there. Chrome’s confirmation of its scheduled deprecation of cookies will force a fresh start for any last holdouts; this fresh start represents the true beginning of a new era of engagement for individuals, publishers, and marketers.