Traditionally, user identification made the advertising experience unique. Each player in the value chain dropped their own third-party cookie (including an ID) and then synched with each other to receive its own ID.

The decision to stop supporting third-party cookies on Google Chrome – the most widely used web browser – will make user identification and campaign monitoring challenging.

Here are four solutions you can leverage to take advantage of this shift.

80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company providing a personalized experience.

Source: Epsilon Marketing, 2019

1. Alternative IDs: The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From The Tree

Since third-party cookies are disappearing in less than a year, new actors have found another mechanism to exchange data while putting user-privacy first.

Not too far from third-party cookies in functionality, ID providers have developed Alternative IDs, also called Universal IDs, to identify users and track them across domains.

54% of Equativ’s header-bidding inventory worldwide included an alternative ID.

Source: Equativ, Feb. 2022

A New Idea: The New IDs

These new alternative IDs rely on two different methodologies:

  • Deterministic: The user is identified by a determinist identifier – a hashed email, phone number, etc. While this solution is limited in terms of reach, as it only works on an authenticated user base, it shows great precision when it comes to user identification and mapping with offline data.
  • Probabilistic: The user is identified by some characteristics of their device – user agent, IP address, etc. Unlike the deterministic approach, this this solution provides an approximate identification – as multiple users can have the same characteristics – but with significantly improved reach.

With our ID5 partnership, you can retarget users and activate data with privacy-first user recognition and measurement capabilities.

2. ID-less: Returning to Our Roots

Though user identification made online advertising more relevant for every user, navigating in an ID-less environment is not new. Indeed, it is how advertising worked before third-party cookies dominated. This shift is really just the industry going back to its roots.

Everything Old is New Again

There are two ways targeting in an ID-less environment can provide new benefits:

  • The ability to test and learn before it’s too late. The longer you wait to adapt, the harder it will be.
  • Reach new goals at lower costs. ID-less inventory is synonymous with lower eCPMs and lower CPCs to help you reach your new KPIs.

A Way To Improve Your Campaign KPIs

-35%
Lower eCPM

– 40%
Lower CPC

If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to test and learn, today is the time to start. Combine it with contextual targeting and see how you can meet your campaign goals.

3. Contextual Targeting: Reviving an Old Faithful

Contextual targeting emerged in the early 2000s. However, it moved into the spotlight after GDPR called for improved data privacy and Google announced third-party cookie deprecation. Today’s contextual targeting is nothing like it was before.

Don’t underestimate the power of contextual in an ID-less environment. Natural Language Processing (NLP) – a subfield of AI – gives semantic contextual targeting a whole new perspective.

Users are 2.5x more interested in semantically targeted ads than those without targeting.

Source: Seedtag and Nielsen, 2022

If You Can’t Target the User, Target the Web Page

With contextual targeting, our technology makes it possible to analyze page content to understand the language, images, and audio on the web page. Then, according to this deep analysis, a custom targeting segment will be generated in real-time to display the ad on the user’s screen.

4. First-Party Data Activation: The Golden Egg

Data is key to targeting the right users at the right moment. First-party data, unlike third-party data, is issued directly by the website the user views. With third-party cookies coming to an end, first-party data is limited. Its targeting is more in-depth, resulting in users being served the most appropriate ads.

Collecting First-Party Data is Great. Leveraging it Efficiently is Better.

You know and understand your users best. By collecting and leveraging your own data, you’ll benefit from first-party data activation at its fullest. We make it possible to easily integrate your first-party data at the SSP level and create curated deals available via a Deal ID to the DSP of your choice.

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