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Tags containing: "third party data"

Advertising | Supporter Spotlight

Third-party CTV data isn’t just for advertisers

Connected TV (CTV) is rapidly gaining traction. The digital industry has seen this coming for a while; in fact, after years of growing adoption, CTV has accelerated into the forefront of media consumption as consumers’ preferred streaming device. 

What’s more, ad-supported CTV has captured audiences, with IAS research finding that 91% of CTV users watch some form of ad supported streaming video content. So, as CTV swiftly surpasses linear as the most popular way to view television, advertisers want a piece of the pie — understandably so. As a powerful medium when it comes to connecting with consumers, it remains crucial for advertisers to ensure their ads have the opportunity to be seen and heard, which, unfortunately, can be a shortcoming of first-party CTV metrics.

When it comes to capitalizing on the valuable CTV inventory you have available, cutting-edge measurement matters. Here’s why.

Advertisers want premium inventory — but they also want transparency.

CTV is compelling. Not only does this format offer a dynamic sight, sound, and motion experience for consumers, but it also consists of premium content that allows consumers to choose what to view and when to view it. With all of these benefits, it’s no wonder why advertisers want to get their hands on CTV placements.

However, despite the benefits and popularity of CTV, there’s a roadblock preventing advertisers from buying this inventory: the first-party data that publishers often provide to advertisers simply isn’t enough. 

So why does measurement matter so much in CTV? For publishers, working with third-party verification providers can be the key to maximizing the amount of advertisers who want your premium, valuable inventory. Why is that? Because advertisers want to see where their ad spend is going — and that includes the comprehensive, granular metrics that go along with it. Advertisers are more inclined to purchase inventory if they’re able to determine who saw their ads, how long the consumer viewed the ads, and at what scale the ad was viewed.

Data provides transparency, and transparency is key to enticing advertisers who have money to spend. But it’s not the only advancement that advertisers are looking for in CTV.

How are advertisers using incremental reach?

Advertisers are seeing greater value in the incremental reach CTV can offer. This placement strategy gives marketers the ability to target unique consumers that they simply cannot reach through other screens and mediums. But what does this mean for publishers?

As advertisers sharpen their focus on incremental reach, they want to know exactly who is watching their ads. If an advertiser knows they’ve already reached a certain consumer, they want the ability to choose to target them again on premium, and pricier, CTV inventory. 

On the other hand, if an advertiser knows they can reach a certain consumer or demographic via less expensive placements on traditional TV, they may want to explore that option. Ultimately, marketers are looking for transparency and control to determine what frequency and budget allocation is best for their digital strategies.

And how can advertisers know who exactly they’ve targeted? It’s all in the data. 

With today’s CTV technology, publishers need to provide a delivery system that’s able to feed back into audience management to let the advertiser know who they’ve reached, at what cost, and how many ads they’ve delivered to them.

Publishers — measurement matters for you too.

You may have heard this tagline thrown around the industry: “Data is the new oil.” And it’s true. Data, especially in CTV, tells advertisers exactly where their ad spend is going, and it’s crucial to provide exhaustive, meticulously measured data in order to provide transparency and increase trust among advertisers.

Simply put, publishers need to properly leverage their first-party data for advertisers to confidently invest in premium CTV placements. Publishers who focus on data-driven CTV monetization in partnership with third-party measurement have the greatest opportunity to increase revenue — and actually report on the uplift. 

Advertising | Perspectives | Supporter Spotlight

Publishers hold a strong hand for the future of advertising; now they must play it wisely

Concerns around consumers’ online privacy, particularly how businesses can collect, store, and utilize consumer data, have captured regulators’ attention. The resulting regulations are causing platform-level changes that will force the advertising ecosystem—and the adtech that supports it—to evolve and be more responsible with consumers’ data. The good news is that publishers have long had benefit of their close, trust-based relationship with consumers. If well-managed and wisely leveraged, this gives them a data-advantage in the evolving ecosystem.

Certainly, when platforms such as Google, Apple, and Facebook address their data practices, it impacts the entire ecosystem. The cookie-blocking changes that Apple has made in Safari and the anti-tracking movement across its app ecosystem are already having a significant impact on how advertisers track and target consumers with relevant ads.

In April of this year, Google reengineered the consent pop-up message throughout Europe to make it equally easy for users to “reject all” cookies as it is to “accept all.” As a result, some publishers have seen a 55% opt-out rate. As this opt-out culture among consumers grows across regions, including the U.S., publisher data becomes even more valuable. Eventually, we will see a global shift toward data privacy that prioritizes user consent.

User opt-in is key

Much of the advertising industry debate to date has focused on the upcoming deprecation of third-party cookies, However, the issues around consumers opting out of sharing data for advertising purposes are much broader and require urgent consideration. This is significant for the entire adtech community, advertisers and publishers. When a consumer hits “reject all,” the ad tech that support programmatic advertising—targeting in particular—stops working.

We have already seen with Apple ATT that over half of iOS users opted out of being tracked by apps and marketers when presented with the choice. This, coupled with the opt-out rate publishers are experiencing in Europe, demonstrates that consumers are actively controlling what data they share with companies.

The next era of ad tech is about user opt-in. Meta has recognized this too. The recent Meta breach, which suggests their ad business is likely non-compliant with GDPR and upcoming privacy regulations, shows that walled gardens aren’t immune from the impact of privacy regulation despite being closed ecosystems.

The regulatory requirement is full oversight and understanding of the data within these walls and enforcing users’ preferences. It’s why publisher data, made up of contextual and audience first-party signals, becomes an extremely valuable commodity in advertising. 

The value of publisher data

Advertisers will find the most effective way to reach customers is by working with publishers who have and can continue to collect first-party data, plus contextual insights that are not impacted by consent.

These include behavioral signals, such as time of day, clicks, scrolling, and video engagement, which are gathered when a user browses a web page; and contextual data, through the content being consumed and metadata, such as locations searched, description, topics, and keywords. Publishers can also gather insights from declared data, which is provided directly to a publisher by users and subscribers, data such as the purpose of visiting, industry, or preferences about certain topics or content.

In this ecosystem, publisher first-party data increases in value because it provides advertisers with the opportunity to target consumers based on consented data and contextual insights. Publishers that recognize the value of their data assets and educate advertisers on what’s possible and privacy-compliant can unlock new, sustainable revenue opportunities.

Fortunately, we are already experiencing a move from the open to a more direct relationship between the buy- and sell-side. When publishers and advertisers work closer together and view adtech as an enabler rather than an intermediary, they can responsibly activate audiences.

Moving forward responsibly

The current disruption we see has always been about more than third-party cookies; it’s about the demand for consumer privacy. Going forward, the ability to track and enforce user consent of first-party data at a granular level can’t just be a bolt-on–it must be treated with the highest importance. When publishers and advertisers work together and build direct relationships, they are in control of how audience data is used, be it for insights, activation, or collaboration. Adtech provides the tools to foster collaboration with controls and permissions. When this happens, publishers regain their place in the advertising ecosystem and the industry moves to a more responsible web. 

About the author

Katie Millington is the Head of North America Publisher Sales for Permutive. In her current role, she is responsible for leading Permutive’s North American Publisher Sales Team. Katie has previously held roles at the likes of Vox Media and Mediacom and has a decade of experience in the digital media industry. An agent for change, Katie is driven by innovative technologies that disrupt the status quo, evident in her background as an early proponent of publisher first-party data and programmatic advertising

Advertising | Revenue

The Insider perspective on post-cookie advertising

At Permutive’s July 14 Global summit, The great privacy reset, Jana Meron, SVP, Programmatic & Data Strategy at Insider shared her views on the cookie chaos with Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director at DCN. “The sky is not falling,” according to Meron.

Watch or listen to the full conversation (below) for insight into Insider, Inc.’s data strategy. In particular, they explore the reasons why first-party data performs better than third-party. Their conversation also provides practical advice on how to prepare for digital advertising’s cookieless future.

Advertising | Perspectives | Supporter Spotlight

Publishers: Use your data to close and retain more deals

To convert brands in direct-sold sales conversations, publishers are tasked with proving the quality of their audience and inventory. From prospecting to sales decks to wrap-up reports, we’ve increasingly heard questions about how publishers can use third-party data to support the sales process. The good news is that most organizations already have a lot of valuable data that is leveraged by other teams.

However, just because your organization is collecting data doesn’t always mean that it’s being used successfully. This can be due to lack of alignment on organizational strategies or data living in siloed or complex systems. Often, it’s simply about having a lack of time to understand how to effectively leverage the data. Most ad ops teams are plugged into a variety of data sources that can also provide valuable insights and compelling stories to support the sales process.

Ad sales teams can increase direct sales by using data to zero in on the right buyers and showcase value in pitch decks. They can also use it to effectively package inventory and report on campaign performance in a meaningful way to clients. 

Finding the perfect buyers

Prioritizing the right buyers is one of the largest challenges for sales teams everywhere. Leaning on existing relationships or brand recognition can work up to a point. However, informing your prospecting with additional data sets allows you to quickly identify the right prospects to approach and shed light on new market segments. One example of this can be found in a publisher’s programmatic data. With normalized advertiser data, sales teams can identify the biggest spenders on open exchanges for more detailed buyer analysis.

Once those potential buyers are identified, it’s important to understand compatibility to ensure you can tell a story that aligns with a brand’s goals. This typically comes in the form of media quality data from verification vendors that measure metrics such as viewability thresholds, fraud rates, and brand suitability. Based on specific brand goals, content alignment and risk tolerance, publishers can further narrow their list to only include prospects that match up with what their inventory has to offer.

Highlighting inventory and audience value

As a premium publisher, it’s not enough to simply tell buyers that you know your audience. Advertisers only pursue direct deals if they’re confident that the inventory purchased is reaching their ideal audience. First-party data can be helpful here. It allows you to discuss content engagement, demographics, traffic and other metrics that showcase site performance and your user personas.

However, this story becomes even more powerful when combined with third-party measurement and contextual data such as overall viewability, engagement metrics, invalid traffic rates, and more. All of these use established industry standards such as those supported by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

The biggest challenge here is understanding how to line up these data sets. They you can decipher which metrics are going to resonate most with buyers who want an objective truth. More specifically, which metrics gives them the confidence that delivered impressions will reach these users consistently. When used in conjunction with data-driven prospecting, data used during this stage of the sales cycle can provide an opportunity to easily show clients how you can meet their needs.

Advertisers also want to understand where their creatives will go and how they might perform.  Creating compelling, tailored packages using all of the available first- and third-party data can level up your pitch. It also helps ensure that expectations are clear going into each campaign.

Telling the performance story

Now that you have the client, how do you retain and expand the relationship? Traditionally, campaign wrap-up decks include run dates, traffic drivers, top-performers and other KPIs. This is a great place to leverage data from different sources to drive home how quality, engagement, and context help brands meet their goals.

Third-party data enables you to confidently highlight benefits such as:

  • You serve zero fraudulent impressions
  • Your campaigns met the client’s viewability thresholds
  • Campaigns were served alongside content that positively supports the brand’s image
  • Make goods won’t be necessary due to successful targeting

Whether campaigns meet buyer expectations or not, third-party data sets can serve as a retention tool and allow you to speak the same language as your customer. Your team will be able to outline what worked and what didn’t, while including data-driven recommendations for the next campaign. This strategy will give buyers more confidence in your ability to course correct and maximize their return on ad spend.

TLDR: It’s important to infuse your sales strategy with data

Gone are the days where the only sources of buyer friction came from viewability discrepancies and buffering requirements. Yes, those still remain. However, buyers increasingly value inventory that is brand suitable, fraud-free, and in-geo. This makes inventory scrutiny and sales conversations more complex. But the right data can cut right through that to increase conversions and drive business.

Advertising | Perspectives | Supporter Spotlight

Why third-party cookies should be dead to you (regardless of what Chrome does)

On June 24, Chrome shook the industry once again by announcing it will delay the deprecation of the third-party cookie, which was expected to be in 2022. When the news broke, many industry players gave a sigh of relief. The two-year time frame to migrate to a cookie-less infrastructure was quite tight for many. And not all companies were prepared to buy and sell data and inventory without the good old third-party cookie.

Transitioning a multi-billion-dollar industry to a new framework is not a trivial matter. This is keenly felt in a highly interconnected ecosystem like digital advertising. However, it’s a crucial step that we all must take. The cookie-based infrastructure has been called into question by data privacy regulations, such as GDPR. It is also inefficient.

The many limits of third-party cookies

Third-party cookies are domain-specific and can only be read by the server that created them. Technology platforms need to synchronize IDs with each other to create a common reference and share user-level information. This process, also known as cookie matching, takes place on advertiser and publisher websites. Significantly, this creates several issues:

  • Value loss: the pool of identifiable users is reduced by 10-20% each time platforms match IDs with each other, creating lost opportunities for publishers to monetize their assets and for advertisers to reach their audiences.
  • Privacy compliance: cookie matching represents an exchange of personal data. This is difficult to align with the requirements of data protection regulations such as GDPR and CCPA in terms of control and transparency.
  • Data leakage: because of cookie matching, user data can be accessed by companies that lack a business relationships with advertisers and publishers. This puts their data at risk.

In November 2019, ID5 commissioned a study to assess the scale of the problem. The study, conducted on 68 top news and magazine websites in Europe, found that 58% of vendors that were registered with the IAB TCF had never been seen to take a GDPR consent parameter in their pixel.

Some vendors that were not being sent the consent string were sharing a completely fabricated consent string. The study also found that some of the companies triggered to monetize publisher-branded segments on their sites had no relationship or contract with publishers.

Therefore, we must transition to a cookie-less infrastructure to operate more efficiently and protect consumers’ data. And yes, that’s regardless of what Chrome decides to do with cookies.

Two of the major browsers have already deprecated cookies

The cookie matching process is far from being efficient or privacy-compliant but it still enables user identification which allows the deployment of campaign strategies such as targeting, retargeting, frequency capping and measurement. However, let’s not forget that cookies are already not available on 30+% of the traffic since they have already been blocked by Safari and Firefox. So those valuable campaign strategies cannot be applied in those browsers. That’s the main reason why cookie-less traffic is massively under-monetized. A study by Google estimated that the ability to identify users accounts for 50 to 60% of publishers’ ad revenue. Another study conducted by Bidswitch shows that eCPMs are 50% lower on Safari and Firefox.

Furthermore, Publishers’ first-party data loses its value in cookie-less browsers. First-party data belongs to the domain that has collected it. To activate it and power retargeting or prospecting campaigns, media owners need to find a way to share it with their monetization partners. This has been historically done with third-party cookies. In browsers where cookies are blocked, first-party data sharing represents a challenge.

By adopting solutions that enable privacy-compliant identification without relying on third-party cookies, publishers can benefit from all the capabilities that cookies offer without any of the hassles associated with them.

Use the extra time wisely

Publishers have multiple alternatives available to them. So, they have no reason to continue relying on cookies, which puts their users’ data at risk and causes them to miss out on revenue opportunities.

Many smart publishers have already integrated with future-looking solutions. These enable the individualization of consumers in browsers where cookies are blocked. This enables them to get incremental value from their Safari and Firefox traffic and to lay the foundation for the future when all traffic will be cookie-less. This also allows them to offer their customers a better and more privacy-compliant experience on their website.

If you haven’t started this process already, Chrome’s delay is certainly good news for you. However, you shouldn’t wait. The time to act is now.

There are different approaches and solutions that enable user identification in cookie-less browsers. However, it takes time to evaluate, integrate and measure which of them bring the best results and offer the best level of service. Use this extra time wisely do not delay the process further. Start integrating and testing next-generation identity solutions and encourage your monetization partners and clients to do the same. Migrating to a new infrastructure requires a collective, industry-wide effort. And publishers are positioned best to lead the way.

Advertising | Perspectives | Revenue

The year of publisher-driven identity

Many publishers have not realized the full promise of programmatic advertising. And that is largely thanks to the use, and misuse, of third-party cookies. By providing user information access to everybody who would listen, and by enabling less scrupulous players to harness this information outside of the publisher sites, third-party cookies have devalued premium publisher inventory. These practices have enabled brands to harvest and reuse data. They have also put user’s personal privacy at risk.

Programmatic advertising could have driven vastly increased yields for publishers. Initially, many publishers benefited from opening up to global competition so that they reached more brands and marketers than they could contact directly. Programmatic advertising offered the ability to monetize each user individually to its true value. The publisher was able to access the increasing amount of programmatic demand funneled through the agency trading desks, and with much more transparency and control than working with ad networks.

Algorithms could be set to optimize for further revenue growth. This freed up the sales team to focus on more strategic buyers, higher margin activities like creative solutions. It also increased the importance of technical operations. Its growing efficiencies and economies of scale could be delivered by this automation.

Sadly, many publishers have yet to fully experience these benefits. Instead, many have suffered from a race to the bottom in terms of prices, from information imbalance with buyers and ads that have had a negative impact on their users’ experience.

Third-party problems

The single biggest factor responsible for these missed opportunities is third-party cookies. Therefore, it will come as a relief to many publishers that third-party cookies are being deprecated from browsers. Both Safari and Firefox are already blocking them by default. And Chrome plans to deprecate them from its market-leading browser “within two years” of January 2020.

Publishers should view this as an opportunity to redefine the user identification infrastructure that powers the digital advertising ecosystem. The year of publisher-driven identity has arrived.

However, it would be a mistake to wait for third-party cookies to crumble without working on an alternative. We still need advertising to be workable, and for all parties, but in a more balanced way.

Solution-oriented

Brands require user identification capabilities to engage with their audience online in a controlled manner to measure the performance of their marketing investment. Because of this, having no identification would be worse than using an imperfect identification system. In fact, there is a significant risk that it would drive brands’ investment to the places where they can identify users without third-party cookies. (Yes, that means the walled gardens with their logged-in authenticated audiences which have volunteered a wealth of personal data.) Many savvy publishers understand this and have already invested in identity solutions that work for them as well as clients.

Publishers are the “first party” that their readers, viewers and listeners engage with. Their audiences trust them to provide valuable content and reliable service. Thus, publishers are in the best position to inform users of the value exchange between content and advertising, gain their trust, and collect their consent to enter into a personal relationship. In the privacy-first world we now inhabit, they are in the driving seat.

Publishers are also in the driver’s seat from a technical standpoint. Now that Apple and Google have decided to end autonomous access to devices by third parties – via the removal of cookies and MAIDs – identification will be enabled by publishers. It will be websites that decide when and with whom to share user IDs. It will be media owners who will allow brands to identify users, access data, manage frequency capping, and measure campaign performance. And they will reserve this privilege for the brands who truly value their audiences and will refuse it for all the “free-riders” who have exploited them over the past decade.

Identity matters

When working with identity solution providers, it is important that publishers keep these objectives in mind. They must ask themselves the following questions: Can I control the user IDs I am sharing with brands? Is my audience data protected by these solutions? Do I have guarantees that the privacy choices my users make will be respected? Only a clear, positive answer to these questions will ensure that publishers’ leading role in the future of identity management is guaranteed, and that they come out as the clear winners of the current infrastructure transformation.

The core benefits of programmatic advertising remain clear. Price discovery, increased competition, granular audience segmentation, and automation will continue to provide value to publishers who can harness them. But with increased control over when, how and by whom their audiences are accessed and used, these benefits will truly translate into incremental revenue for publishers. The pendulum is about to swing back towards publishers. And this serves the greater good for the open internet, digital advertising, and consumers.

Advertising | Perspectives

Advertising’s great unknown: Why audience intent matters more than identity

Today’s publishers are leading the way when it comes to reimagining advertising in a world without third-party cookies. They started thinking about a future based on first-party data long before Google announced that it would discontinue support for third-party cookies.

But now, publishers have an opportunity to reshape the industry for the better by focusing on relevant audiences and intent rather than identity. 

Advertisers don’t need to know the identity of an individual that they are targeting; they just need to know that they are reaching a relevant group of people for their brand. And individuals will be able to retain their right to privacy.

Aiming for the right target

How has identity become such a hot topic??

Publishers have been hit by an onslaught of restrictions about the way they use data, with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA, and browser changes from Apple’s Safari and Mozilla Firefox barring third-party cookies by default.

After these browser changes, publishers were no longer able to target their audiences with third-party data in Safari and Firefox. Publisher CPMs are lower in Safari compared with Chrome because these users are not able to be tied to a record or matched to a third-party identity. This has negatively impacted publishers’ advertising revenue. 

With Chrome still in play, many advertisers have simply shifted spending and seen reasonable returns. Although as much as 40% of traffic falls on browsers where tracking cookies are blocked, they are currently able to monetize and measure their campaigns on Chrome. However, that will soon change. Before the end of 2021, advertisers will have no option but to find a new way of targeting users.

Attention has turned to the thorny issue of identification. Without third-party cookies marketers will struggle with audience targeting, frequency capping and attribution. They require new ways to measure their campaigns that are not blocked by browsers or inhibited by privacy standards.

Key considerations

As advertisers, publishers and ad tech providers start to reimagine the entire ecosystem, there are three key things to consider:

Are identity solutions privacy compliant? 

Ad tech vendors are developing solutions to replace cross-site tracking with third-party cookies. Many of these solutions are still based on third-party cookies or probabilistic matching. This approach is a band-aid solution, not the answer. The IAB’s solution through DigiTrust had to shut down because of its very reliance on third-party cookies. For authenticated solutions where an email (or similar ID) can be leveraged to match users, there is the issue of scale.  

Before considering investing in an identity solution, publishers should ask:

  • Does  incorporate techniques that could be fingerprinting? Is the user being probabilistically matched to target them in a new environment without their knowledge?
  • Has consent been accepted in all areas where user data is being leveraged? Are you able to provide data on a user or delete it easily if the user requests access?
  • Will this solution work without third-party cookies?
Are you prioritizing user trust?

On publisher sites, users typically fall into three distinct segments: authenticated, recognized (via a 3p cookie) and anonymous. To ensure scale for targeting, publishers need to address each.

Authenticated users are logged in or have a common identifier; recognized users are based on third-party cookies or device IDs; anonymous users are not associated with an ID but their behavior or contextual data can be viewed by publishers. 

Across the majority of publishers, the number of authenticated users will be limited. They are typically loyal readers that trust the brand enough to form a relationship. On average, less than 10% of a site’s traffic will be authenticated and even with driving efforts it’s unlikely that number will rise above 25% for all but a few.

Publishers should be thoughtful around how and who they share this user data with in order to retain that trust. 

There are some great solutions for authenticated audiences however it is important to recognize that when you factor in match rates to advertisers data is going that scale will be limited.

Considering the type of identifier that a vendor is asking the publisher to release is important to evaluate. Once an identifier leaves the publisher’s environment, whether in hashed form or not, it is susceptible to many different types of nefarious activity, including fingerprinting which is aggressively being blocked by browsers.

The most pertinent considerations for publishers are:  

  • Is an identifier being shared in the bidstream that can expose user identity without their knowledge? Are you protecting your most valuable and unique audience by sharing an identifier that can be probabilistically matched? 
  • What is the long term impact of sharing identifying information on your revenue and business? Who benefits from the data?
  • What percentage of your audience can be reached through this tactic? What is the plan for non-authenticated traffic? Is there unique first-party data that can be used for campaigns instead of third-party data?
How will you target anonymous users and scale your audiences with first-party data? 

When Chrome starts blocking third-party cookies, the only companies that will be able to collect and process data on these “anonymous” users will be those with direct relationships, such as brands or publishers. In order to view data on these users, companies must have both a legal relationship (i.e. ability to collect consent) and a technical relationship (own the inventory). 

Publishers will essentially become their own walled gardens and will hold the keys to audience data for advertising because they gain legal consent directly from users on their site and serve ads on the same domain. They will be the gatekeeper of that audience data on behavior or context for these anonymous users and should ensure that this unique data retains value. Publishers must focus on collecting first-party information on both anonymous and authenticated users, including browsing behavior and contextual data.

For example, Entrepreneur Media, a large business-focused publication, was missing out on valuable revenue opportunities because it was unable to target users in real time on Safari and Firefox with third-party cookies. 

Working with Permutive, Entrepreneur Media was able to segment and target users across Safari and Firefox without third-party cookies and immediately benefited from a 7.6x increase in targetable inventory. Entrepreneur’s ability to provide advertisers with rich first-party audience offerings allowed the publisher to drive an impressive 11x (1094%) ROI within just two months.

Publishers should look at their existing data and understand:

  • Are they collecting first-party data on anonymous users?
  • What can they do to prepare for the time when Google blocks third-party cookies?
  • What should they be offering advertisers today to start the transition away from third-party data targeting?
  • Are their sellers able to communicate the value of their own data? What steps can be taken to make teams more operationally ready to be successful in leveraging data?

Trust and transparency will help build the bottom line

There has been little transparency around the fidelity of third-party data. And, frankly, the industry has done too little to change – until now. Publishers have an opportunity to ensure that their data is the cornerstone of a new currency. But we must have honest, collaborative conversations about the framework needed.

There are paths in place with the IAB data labels and consistent taxonomy. But for it to be successful, publishers need to build a long-term strategy.

An advertising industry, built with privacy in mind, can deliver what users expect. True targeting and personalization connects with an audience in the moments that matter, and you don’t need a name (or an email address) for a marketing campaign to be successful.

Advertising | Industry-Research

How publishers can reset to serve a cookie-less digital marketplace

To date, marketers and ad tech companies have heavily relied on third-party cookies – those created by domains other than the one the user is visiting. Third-party cookies are used for cross-site tracking, retargeting, and ad serving. Whereas first-party cookies, which are created by the site the user is visiting, allow publisher sites to collect data, remember logins, and help to create a better user experience. A new International News Media Association’s (INMA) report, “The Third Party Cookie Trigger,” covers fundamentals, complexities, and new possibilities as the industry moves beyond third-party cookies.

Clearly, data is an important currency in the digital ecosystem. However, in January 2020, Google announced that it will phase out support for third-party cookies in Chrome by the end of 2022. The next two years provide the time to reset the digital advertising marketplace. We’ll need to reshape data collection and exchange strategies, redefine advertiser opportunities and enhance the users digital experience. Importantly, publishers have an opportunity to showcase how first-party content consumption data provides a better signal for relevance in the advertising ecosystem.

Disappearing cookies is no surprise

The holy grail of digital advertising is its ability to serve the right ad to the right user at the right time. However, the current path to that grail is questionable. Today’s digital advertising ecosystem is complex and messy. According to the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA), tracking advertiser spend to the publisher is nearly impossible. In fact, publishers receive only 51% of digital advertising spend with up to one-third of the total spend unattributed.

Further, data collection of consumers on the web has a myriad of issues. These range from consumer consent to data tags firing off signals that lead to latency problems. And now with GDPR and CCPA in place, new governance on data collection is in play. So, it was only a matter of time before third-party cookie were phased out.

Moving beyond cookies

Media companies are already investing in technology platforms, modernizing their publishing infrastructure, building a data foundation, and setting new standards for publisher and advertiser transactions. In fact, publishers are taking steps to build scalable audience segments based on their data for advertisers. They are developing ways to leverage their first-party relationship with their users to evolve the advertising ecosystem.

The INMA report also identifies five potential alternative vehicles, some already in the works, to third-party cookies:

  1. Open Web alternative solution: An alternative such as Web browser APIs, driven by Google, Apple, Firefox, and media companies.
  2. In-app advertising: A shift of marketing spend from the Web to in-app advertising (90% of time spent on mobile is spent in apps).
  3. First-party data: An acceleration of first-party data (scalable) by publishers with a connection to advertisers.
  4. Paywalls and logins: Paywalls and logins and first-party cookies offered as a digital currency to use among publishers, brands, and companies. 
  5. Universal IDs: Development of universal user IDs (needs to work across all parties and comply with GDPR and CCPA).

The end of third-party cookies affords publishers with an opportunity to re-think the value of advertising served on their site. It also allows them to distance themselves from an over-reliance on ad tech. It’s important for publishers to take the lead in reshaping data collection and exchange strategies in the digital advertising ecosystem to better reflect the value of the first-party relationship.  

Advertising | Perspectives | Revenue

Why zero-party data is publishers’ secret weapon in a post-cookie world

The clock is ticking on third-party data.

The death of third-party cookies — courtesy of Google, Apple, GDPR and CCPA — also means the accelerated fade of third-party data. And from ad tech companies to marketers and media companies, the shift has left many wondering how they’ll proceed. Many fear the effect the changes could have on their business.

At Piano, though, we see opportunity where others see threat. And we think the shift away from third-party data is an opportunity to thrive. It puts new emphasis on first-party data. It also enables those companies to draw on something even more powerful: zero-party data.

Every day, users provide media companies with the type of explicit, accurate, data other businesses covet. Consumers willingly volunteer this data as they register or subscribe in order to unlock more content or build a deeper relationship with their site of choice. And it’s exactly this type of information that, if used right, can push those companies ahead in this new data landscape. 

The problem with third-party data 

To understand their audience and find new users, companies in and outside of media have long been relying on third-party data. This type of data, sold by data aggregators, is available in huge (if shrinking) volumes and can potentially shed light on many different consumer types. However, there are three primary problems with it:

  • The rising consumer concern around online privacy. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of tracking and privacy. And that’s driven government privacy and consent regulations like GDPR, as well as the changes in browser cookie policies. This has reduced the reliability of third-party data. 
  • It can be out of date and unreliable. This is why consumers are often targeted for a product they’ve already purchased or decided against, only to have ads “follow” them around the internet for weeks. If you’re building a strategy around data that’s two months (or even two weeks) old, it’s likely already outdated. And the trend towards limiting third-party cookies only means third-party data will become even less reliable in the future.
  • Sourcing is often hazy. How third-party data is collected, aggregated and then sold is generally a black box. User consent isn’t always known or verifiable. As the industry moves to tighten rules around data transparency, the value and utility of third-party data will continue to decline.

Unlike third-party cookies, third-party data probably won’t necessarily vanish completely — though it will certainly diminish in value. Even so, there are better alternatives available, especially to media companies.

If third-party data is finished, what now?

Some important questions still remain unanswered in this post third-party cookie world. However, what’s not unclear is that the more reliable the data, the higher the value for publishers’ marketing partners and the more they’re willing to pay for targeted ads. And for that, third-party data falls short next to the other options:

Zero-party data is intentionally shared with a business by its customers. This could range from customer relationship management (CRM) data, such as the email address or gender filled out in a registration form, to preferences selected during website customization. As data explicitly shared as part of a value exchange or to improve the customer experience, it’s the most valuable data a company can collect. Critically, it belongs to the customer, not the business. It can’t be used without consent and must be carefully protected. However, it is highly accurate, reliable, and transparent in sourcing.

First-party data is often thought to encompass zero-party data. However, it also includes behavioral data collected by observing customers as they browse your website or app, or visit your store. This type of data is implicit, rather than explicit, but is still considered premium for many reasons. It’s collected by you so is more likely to be accurate. And any insights drawn from your own audience are likely to truly reflect their preferences and behaviors. This means that campaigns and strategies are more likely to succeed. Crucially, there are fewer concerns over data misuse and GDPR non-compliance as you control the conditions in which data is collected and stored.

Second-party data is when first-party data passes through a second set of hands. In other words, second-party data is someone else’s first-party data. It occurs in like-minded publisher alliances, when suppliers exchange data with their retailers for mutual benefit. It also happens when agencies strike exclusive deals with major publishers to empower programmatic buying. Gaining explicit consent to use and share second-party data isn’t always an easy feat, but can be handled reliably with the right technology setup.

Media companies are in a unique position to take advantage of these data sources . This is particularly true for first-party data and the gold standard of all user data: zero-party data. 

Maximizing your zero-party data 

In the media landscape, companies can use zero-party data to both benefit their advertising partners and personalize the experience they offer users themselves. All while finally aligning the interests of their subscription and advertising teams — something many media companies have been striving to do for years. 

Zero-party data is already available through registration and subscription sign-ups. But the savviest companies will maximize their store using many of the same techniques subscription companies have already implemented to optimize their business. That starts with quality content that puts users at the center of the audience experience. It continues in the form of exclusive content, personalized recommendations and customized offers that engage the user and personalize the experience. Only when a true value exchange is in place will users be incentivized to provide their data to improve their experience even further.

A data management platform, or DMP, can then help companies use that data to understand and segment their users. Lookalikes will also allow them to extrapolate the data to cover their entire audience. In doing so, they’ll be able to target ads to relevant users and engage more effectively with their chosen demographic. 

Take Piano customer Mediahuis, for example. One of the largest publishers in Europe, they built a substantial base of 4.4 million registered users. They then used the zero- and first-party data collected to create a significant, audience-based advertising business across Belgium and the Netherlands. Audience campaigns grew to 27% of total ad revenue, with clickthrough rates 26% higher than non-targeted campaigns.

That’s the power of zero- and first-party data. Combining your advertising and subscription businesses through a focus on known users leads to a stronger and profitable monetization model, drawing from multiple revenue streams.

And that, as far as we’re concerned, is hardly something to be afraid of.

About the author

Michael Silberman, SVP Strategy, leads Piano’s Strategic Services team. He helps clients develop reader revenue strategies and drive success and revenue on the Piano platform. He joined Piano in 2018 after 10 years building the digital media business at New York magazine, and earlier, as one of the top editors launching and growing MSNBC.com in the early days of the consumer Internet. Visit piano.io to find out more about Piano Zero, an end-to-end solution that  empowers zero- and first-party data.

Advertising | Perspectives | Revenue

Say goodbye to the cookie and hello to contextual

Understanding consumers’ wants and needs is critical for advertising success. These days, having technology that enables these insights is not just nice to have – it is a must have. However, with January’s release of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which favors consumer privacy rights and increases limitations on advertising targeting parameters, the ability to predict and target those “wants and needs” based on personal information is becoming increasingly difficult.

As a result, advertisers will undoubtedly need to adjust their strategy to accommodate new and emerging regulations. In January, for example, Google announced its plan to phase out support for third-party cookies in Chrome within the next two years. Rather than attempting to reach their target audience based on data collected from cookies, advertisers will need to delve deeper to define consumer preferences and behaviors. Pivoting media buying strategies toward contextual alignment and partnering closer with content creators will be paramount to reach consumers in the new data privacy regulated world.

At Integral Ad Science (IAS), we conduct an annual survey with agencies, advertisers, ad tech vendors, and publishers to get a sense of the common themes and challenges facing industry leaders in the upcoming year. In our 2020 Industry Pulse Report, data privacy legislation was understandably a point of concern for all parties. In fact, 82% of respondents listed contextual targeting as a key industry trend in the upcoming year.

Publishers have the advantage

This is where publishers are able to regain control. With new standards like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and CCPA already imposed (and Chrome’s looming 2022 deadline) a decreased ability to rely on cookies will undoubtedly take center stage globally. When it comes to reaching desired audiences, the industry shift toward an increased reliance on contextual and semantic capabilities will put publishers back on top. Not only do we foresee great power in first-party audience data and stronger than ever buyer-seller relationships, but there is also a greater opportunity for publishers to market the true value of their content.

The first step is for publishers to ask themselves: Am I monetizing all of my inventory, and how can I stand out from the crowd? Taking the time to understand their unique inventory landscape will help publishers smartly create packages with delivery guarantees that their advertisers actually want to buy. 

The media buy

According to one 2020 Industry Pulse Report publisher participant, “Data will be the single most important factor. People want to reach specific audiences and, as a publisher, we need to rely on our first party data that has been cleared from a GDPR and CCPA perspective to offer contextual and behavioral targeting for media specific buys.”

However, curating and selling these custom inventory packages by using first-party data is not as simple as it may sound. Publishers need to partner with an unbiased third-party to validate and optimize these custom packages, especially when trying to win back advertiser trust. Now more than ever, advertisers are relying on verification partners to ensure that their ads are placed in brand safe and suitable environments. When asked about the implications of data privacy regulations, a manager at a global media agency noted, “…Ensuring our media is presented in the way the brand intends is now more important than ever.”

And consumers agree: according to the IAS Ripple Effect study, consumers are 30% more likely to remember an ad found in a suitable environment. Publishers leveraging a third-party verification partner who both sits in the epicenter of the ecosystem and provides patented technology to analyze all page content will be one step ahead of the competition. 

The increasing impact of data privacy legislation means predicting and targeting consumer “wants and needs” will become increasingly difficult. Advertisers looking to reach the right consumers in the right context will need to lean heavier on publishers offering contextual and semantic solutions. Content is still king. So, publishers should continue to focus their efforts on creating quality content and then partnering with an established third-party to help intelligently package and promote it. 

Perspectives

Can your consent management platform handle today’s regulatory challenges?

Digital regulation is in the process of adjusting to a sea of change brought in by legislators at state, national, and international levels. Following the EU’s GDPR lead, the California Consumer Privacy Act took effect meaning publishers must now ensure sufficient measures are in place to protect the data privacy rights of California residents. Otherwise, they face financial penalties due to noncompliance. Many publishers turned to their consent management platform (CMP) to handle these challenges. However, due to poor consent signals, publishers are concerned about continued monetization efforts.

Data protection actions

All data privacy regulations involve three basic tenets:

  1. Data Inventory: identification of all data collected, used, shared and stored by the organization. This frequently involves questionnaires and mapping of data touchpoints. 
  2. Consumer Interaction: covers the rights consumers have regarding their data, i.e., request information, opt-in to collection, privacy policy, etc.
  3. Technology Adjustments: ability to satisfy requirements for upholding consumer rights such as consent management, digital data tracking restrictions, data tracking categories and more.

Data regulation and browser actions put targeted advertising, cookies, and other persistent identifiers under unprecedented scrutiny unlike ever before. Tracking technologies have not been of much legal concern until recent years and private right of action is prompting companies to think and work smarter. 

Even worse, CMPs struggle to send the appropriate signals regarding consent. This is particularly difficult because different markets have different requirements. These unclear signals in RTB muddy the bid process, causing trepidation among AdTech out of fear of serving an ad to an un-consented user. The result? Lowered CPMs for everyone.

Under today’s regulatory environment, the systems by which organizations have previously built their digital ecosystems could cause significant headaches for ad-supported businesses. But it shouldn’t have to be that way. Publishers that take control of their websites and mobile apps can facilitate compliance with any data protection regulation.

The DCN example

The presence of unmanaged third-party vendors and their contribution to widespread data tracking activity are the chief culprits of this digital woe.

Analysis of leading DCN member websites reveals that 81% of the executing code required to render the user experience is from third parties. Other data points include:

  • 774: average number of domains executing
  • 8%: executing domains are risky
  • 138: average number of cookies dropped per user session
  • 21% of cookies exhibit lifespans greater than 1 year

With your websites and mobile apps causing this much code executing on consumer devices, you cannot ignore the data compliance risks of external code from service providers and third parties. As a site owner, you must know exactly what personal information your digital assets collect, the reason it’s collected, and who has access to the information. This will help you accomplish two CCPA obligations: 

  1. Provide users with full disclosure of what information you collect from them.
  2. Inform users in case their data has been misused or shared without consent. If consumer data is leaked or mismanaged, your company (and associated digital vendors) must accept responsibility for the incident and work to recover consumer trust and re-establish the brand’s position. 

Approximately 8% of executing, client-side code presents a controllable risk. These domains are overtly malicious, have a history of suspicious activity, or mask their ownership. Inability to verify domain ownership is a red flag; this type of obfuscation is basic tactic adopted by bad actors. Unmanaged third-party code is routinely hijacked and used as a backdoor to infiltrate consumer-facing websites and covertly skim customer data.

Throughout 2019, several big brands made the headlines and found themselves in regulatory hot water because of large scale data attacks by cybercriminals. These breaches resulted in well-known industry giants being slammed with record-breaking regulatory fines and penalties. 

Thus, it’s vitally important for companies to implement digital security measures to ensure their CCPA preparedness. 

Compliance is not a spectator sport 

Compliance is more involved than simply drawing up contracts that require service providers to comply with obligations. You must be just as concerned with ensuring that providers are compliant as you are with upholding your compliance. 

Many publishers perceive compliance to be harmful to page views, content consumption, and as a result advertising revenue. However, it has quite the opposite effect. Consumers and advertisers alike gravitate towards businesses that care about their privacy and strive to secure it. They’ll remain loyal to companies that have full visibility and knowledge over the data collection taking place on their sites. They expect companies to be transparent about and communicate all the information that will be collected during a browsing session. 

Compliance management can be burdensome and time-consuming without the right tools and expertise. But when procedures are optimized and tools with the capability to provide a broad view of the digital ecosystem are implemented, compliance management can be operationalized and streamlined to gain total control over unauthorized data tracking and take back control of the digital landscape your company operates on.

About the author

Chris Olson co-founded The Media Trust with a goal to transform the internet experience by creating better digital ecosystems to govern assets, connect partners and enable Digital Risk Management. Chris has more than 15 years of experience leading high tech and ad technology start-ups and managing international software development, product and sales teams. Prior to The Media Trust, Chris created an Internet-based transaction system to research, buy and sell media for TV, radio, cable, and online channels. He started his career managing equity and fixed income electronic trading desks for Salomon Brothers, Citibank and Commerzbank AG.

Advertising | Perspectives

Let’s celebrate the decline of the third-party cookie

The “death” of the third-party cookie is a popular narrative shaping the advertising industry today. But while the usual story is one of doom and gloom for publishers the reality is altogether more positive. This is a headline we should celebrate. 

Consider this: For more than a decade, third-party providers have aggregated publisher data, packaged it and sold it to advertisers. This revenue should – and will – be reclaimed by publishers in the months to come. 

Today, third-party cookies are at the heart of the digital advertising economy, which is built on data. Programmatic has enabled advertising to be transacted based on rich granular user data and is now used to fuel 85% of all digital advertising. 

The promise for advertisers is that they can hyper-target their perfect audience. It’s little wonder the third-party data market is now worth $19bn in the US alone. 

A privacy-first world

However, it’s an unsustainable model, and one that is already breaking. Browsers and regulators are enforcing privacy restrictions that will change the very foundations of the internet. Tomorrow’s web is moving to a privacy-first model, where third-party cookies are no longer available for advertising. There are also legal implications for businesses that do not comply with consumer data rights. 

Take both Firefox and Safari, which this year has made significant changes to their browsers including the routine blocking of third-party cookies. To media buyers, these users are invisible. They cannot be served targeted advertising. With the two browsers controlling up to 40% of overall traffic to publisher sites, it’s easy to see why the doomsday headlines are coming in thick and fast. 

Yet there is another way. One in which publishers which change their business models can survive and even thrive in a world without third-party cookies.

Be prepared 

Currently, publishers are in two camps. They’re either ignoring the coming cookie-apocalypse, hoping that industry ID solutions will be their salvation – or they’re being proactive, rebuilding their businesses around first-party data instead. Let’s take a look at what it takes to be proactive.

Instead of putting their destiny in yet another external company’s hands, every publisher should see this new world as an opportunity, in which they are the primary, and indeed only, online advertising data supplier. Let’s call it the data 2.0 opportunity. 

Unlike third parties, publishers have the technical and legal right to process user data. That’s because they have a direct relationship with consumers. This opens the door to a huge $19bn opportunity for publishers, in the US alone. As third-party data disappears, advertisers will look to publishers to access targeted audiences. Below is some advice for publishers to succeed and take advantage.

Own your own data

The relationship that a publisher has with its audience via subscriptions and behavioral data is becoming much more valuable. But publishers must  shift their mindset and stop needlessly giving away their data. They must protect their advertising revenue by building a first-party data strategy to reduce their reliance on third-party cookies. 

Understand your users 

Third-parties have spent over ten years building and telling audience “stories”. Want to find a sports enthusiast? They could once build you an entire back story about these users, and allow you to target them all over the web. Not anymore, thanks to Safari and Firefox. By using third-party data today, advertisers have no differentiation between a CNN.com, and a NYTimes.com sports enthusiastic and have significant challenges with scale. Luckily, publishers are in a great position to start building their own audience “stories” with rich first party data, not relying on third-party data to do this work for them.

The best place for an advertiser to find and understand a sports enthusiast is directly from a relevant publisher. 

Educate your sales teams

Adapting to a first-party data strategy requires expertise in an area that some publishers may be neglecting. It requires marketing their strengths and repositioning their offering to media buyers. They will need new skills that mirror what adtech companies have been doing so well over the last ten years. If you prepare your sales force to sell with accurate first-party data, you will eliminate any gaps between audience creation and how this data is sold in the market.

Privacy-first = on-device

Chrome, Apple, Brave, and many other tech companies have recently discussed moving data-processing to the device, using ‘edge computing’. They suggest that in order to better protect user privacy, the amount of data leaving a device should be limited. As soon as any user data leaves the device (and is sent to the cloud), a user’s privacy is at risk of breach by a third-party.

It is critical to keep data on-device in the data 2.0 world because your method of processing data is scrutinized.

First-party audiences

There has been a lot of press recently about the rise of context. Instead of relying on profiling individual users, Advertisers are increasingly looking to leverage the context around what a user is reading and their behavior on-site as a replacement of third-party data. 

As third-party cookies decline publishers hold the richest data sets on the web. We support initiatives like IAB Data Labels which begins to explore a common taxonomy around audiences, and not cookies. An advertiser can find their audience in a unified way. 

There is a better way

A recent study showed that publishers stand to lose around 52% of their revenue if Chrome also restricts third-party cookies. This should be a wake-up call to publishers to act now.

The proposed solution is not theoretical. This year we have seen publishers monetize their Safari traffic that lacks third-party cookies. Publisher Immediate Media has seen a 135% increase in revenue year-on-year, Stylist has doubled its advertising yield and Entrepreneur has recorded a 7.6x increase in targetable inventory which resulted in a dramatic boost in their revenue. 

Each is in control of their own destiny, unlocking audiences through their first-party data and monetizing it effectively – even when third-party cookies are unavailable. They are ready for the demise of the cookie. Are you?

About the author

Kristy Schafer works with publishers and top talent to grow US revenues for the industry’s only publisher-focused DMP. With deep expertise in advertising, data and analytics, Schafer spends the majority of her time understanding how changes in ad-tech, browser updates, and privacy impact publishers. She is helping to lead an evolution in the ad industry.

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