The Road to Zero: A Checklist for Publishers

How to prepare for the cookieless era

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In advertising, it has long been a given that most personalized experiences are delivered via the use of third-party cookies. This mighty identifier collected and stored pieces of information on a browser by someone other than the website owner and these cookies were used to target users based on their data and behavior.

All that officially changed in January as Google initiated a 1% restriction on third-party cookies and announced their plan to fully implement restrictions across all Chrome users by the end of 2024 - at some point. Once this change does occur, 90% of web browsers will not support third-party cookies and traditional advertising strategies will no longer be effective.

While we're still waiting on an official deprecation date, that shouldn't stop anyone from preparing for what is still moving towards a privacy-centric future.

As cookies begin to disappear, campaign execution will need to evolve to reflect limited:

• Audience targeting and retargeting
• KPI measurement and attribution
• Reach and scalability
• Frequency capping measurement

To counterbalance these effects, digital campaigns must be executed differently and everyone will need to adapt to a new era of identity. As a publisher, improving the addressability of your inventory will be key in helping advertisers execute their campaigns with zero impact in a cookieless world. Below we walk though some key strategies to help you do so.

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Make your inventory addressable

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There are three ways to improve the addressability of your inventory and it's important to implement all of them to retain the same reach and efficacy as third-party cookies provide.

1. Implement alternative IDs on your inventory

• Use at least one probabilistic and one deterministic ID
• Identify which alternative IDs are the most used within your region
• If buyers primarily purchase your inventory via open auction, consult with the top 3 DSPs buying your inventory to identify which alternative IDs they comply with to integrate those solutions and relay the information to your SSP

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2. Implement seller-defined audience (SDA) segments

Seller-defined audiences allow publishers to standardize and monetize first-party data via cohort-based audiences without needing to reveal user identity to advertisers.

• Partner with a compliant provider (CDP, DMP, etc.) that enables inventory and audience categorization
• The provider needs to sync and send the SDA segments to your SSP to create 1:1 or curated deals or to run on open auction with compliant DSPs

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3. Implement content metadata

Video content metadata describes the video content and where video ads are displayed. This includes information like content video title, content category, content provider ID, etc.

• Improve monetization by qualifying your content with data and passing it to your SSP

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Build your addressability offer

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• Sync your first-party data segments enriched with alternative IDs from your DMP with your SSP to leverage first-party data to run 1:1 deals
  
• Create 1:1 deals with your SDA segments
  
• Deliver PG deals with frequency capping based on alternative IDs

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Expand your offering

• Become a curator: Expand your reach with our curation offer
  
• Become a data provider: Resell your first-party data on our curated marketplace
• Use our data clean room: Create an incremental revenue stream through audience extension

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Equativ is your addressable partner

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As it becomes clearer that alternative IDs alone won't be enough to fill the gap created by cookie deprecation, successful campaigns will require many solutions. By combining a focus on these areas, you can be sure you're well-positioned to survive and thrive in the face of cookie deprecation.

Our team of experts can help you implement and test each of the solutions mentioned above so you can focus on driving outcomes.

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