Digital advertising needs to be rebuilt and reinvigorated. Consumers want better privacy protection, engaging content, and an overall foundation built on trust and transparency to ensure loyalty. To achieve this, data management platforms (DMPs) and supply-side platforms (SSPs) are joining forces.

As we enter the privacy-centric era of digital advertising, third-party cookies will be replaced by first-party data, which is even more powerful and effective because the signals originate directly from a publisher’s page, works on every browser, and doesn’t require third-party syncs.

In the privacy-centric era, first-party data will be the new currency for digital advertising.

Overcoming the third-party data challenge

The deprecation of third-party cookies and the need for better audience consent for cross-domain and cross-app targeting demands that publishers and advertisers put privacy at the center of everything. Publishers, like consumers, want control of their data.

By replacing third-party cookies with first-party data solutions, the combination of a DMP and an SSP will deliver that control, keep privacy at the center of business, and help to unlock the full potential of their inventory — including deeper audience insights. This deeper view will not only benefit publishers, but it will make it easier for advertisers and their DSPs to target and reach their audiences more accurately across mobile, web, and connected TV.

DMPs and SSPs are more powerful together

When leading DMPs and SSPs combine their valuable media and data capabilities, it makes for a powerful combination that will raise the fortunes of publishers and advertisers alike.

In March, TripleLift announced that it acquired our company, 1plusX. This supply-side platform bought a first-party data management platform to activate first-party data to help its publisher partners better monetize their inventory once third-party cookies are phased out. This is the first acquisition in the company’s history, which speaks to the importance placed on privacy and identity, and the confidence SSPs have in partnering with DMPs built for the privacy era. Combining a scaled SSP and a savvy DMP is a pathway forward for thousands of publishers and ad buyers. This acquisition has created that pathway.

TripleLift is not the only SSP that is planning for our industry’s privacy-centric future. Earlier this year, Magnite announced that it acquired Carbon, a platform that enables publishers to measure, manage and monetize audiences. Other partnerships aim to bridge the gap between consumer identity and the privacy-first web. As a result, publishers and advertisers will get more accurate data for campaign targeting without the need for third-party cookies or mobile ad IDs. Buyers and sellers would then in theory be able to transact based on consumer insights without data leakage or scale reduction.

Mergers and acquisitions will lead the way in MarTech

Companies everywhere are looking to accelerate their ability to fill the gap that the depreciation of third-party cookies will create. Bringing together the power of media and data, as happens when DMPs and SSPs join forces, is just one way that M&A will lead the way. As time marches on and we approach the end of third-party cookies as we know it, we will see mergers and acquisitions among independent MarTech and AdTech companies accelerate. And it will be the mergers and acquisitions that prioritize privacy and first-party data that will win the day. Because in a world without third-party cookies, if your data strategy isn’t a first-party one, then what data strategy do you really have?