The future of digital advertising in a cookie-free world
Why Goodbye to Cookies is Good News for Publishers Online publishing is in revolt against Google, which it will not support by 2023 plus third party cookies. A Copernican revolution in the advertising market, which can turn into a great opportunity. If you are ready to take it Long live consumer privacy As we are at one of the biggest breakthroughs in digital advertising, advertising identifiers now seem to be crumbling under the pressure of new privacy regulations and the ever-growing awareness of end consumers about it. This reflects the growing trend of users to become much more aware of the value of their data, also thanks to big tech players, such as Apple, which has implemented the new iOS privacy rules, making it much easier to decline ad tracking than before. . With all of this in mind, there will clearly be an inevitable shrinkage of IDs readily available to advertisers.
The same goes for Google, which had been planning to delete cookies for years, but only recently announced its new tool called Topics, a replacement for FLoC, another form of web tracking. Since the future of cookies and Device IDs depends on the decisions that the big players in the tech world are making and will take, the industry will have to find “future-proof”, as well as unpredictability-proof solutions that are independent of these moves. Last but not least, legislators, with Europe and the GDPR at the helm, require companies to obtain explicit user consent before accessing the personal ID of a computer or smartphone. As a result, the share of consumers who agree to share their data for advertising purposes is plummeting.
What is fingerprinting and how much we need to worry about it With the progressive setting aside of cookies, advertisers are resorting to this technique to track online users, which is even more treacherous and on which not enough is being done for the moment. Has personalization ever been the most satisfying choice? Even through the most well-known personalization techniques based on cookies and IDs coming from mobile devices, the knowledge of the targets of interest by the brands and their adtech partners is still very limited. For example, they may know that customers visiting site Y are also visiting site W, but only if the two websites are part of the same advertising network.
However, they have no way of knowing that their target audience is using the Z video on demand service, because that site is outside their network and has no space for advertisements. Even unified IDs cannot improve advertisers' understanding of the interests of their target consumers. It is simply not possible for them to access essential information relating to their target, when this is in land that does not belong to them directly. This situation will become even more complicated to deal with in a reality where IDs are shrinking.
Advertisers around the world will start looking for alternatives to these traditional targeting models and adjusting their strategies accordingly. Contextual and semantic advertising seems to be the most obvious solution, but it is not the revolutionary alternative that brands aspire to today.
Google is ready to replace cookies The giant has announced Topics, a new system to limit tracking online but continuing to provide data for ads Is contextual and semantic targeting the answer? In the search for alternatives to the faltering methods of personalized advertising that does not involve the use of cookies, many ADtech platforms have turned to contextual and semantic targeting. A simple to implement technique capable of offering ads relevant to the surrounding context, contextual and semantic advertising provides an understanding of the target based on the context of the app or of the reference web page, considering information such as location, time of day and type of content being read. These data put together allow you to estimate an approximate profile of a potential visitor but, in reality, give brands a very limited actual knowledge of the audience. Furthermore, this technique cannot be considered as truly differentiating as any online advertiser has access to this type of contextual information contained in an RFQ.
For industry players both of these options - personalized or contextual advertising and semantic - do not meet the basic requirement demanded by brands and advertisers: understand the behavior of their target.
As long as adtech experts use sub-optimal targeting techniques and will have difficulty accessing the required levels of knowledge of own audiences, brands will be severely hampered. After all, the value of online advertising lies in the fact that a particular brand can have access to a range of information about its consumer that other brands do not have.
The rules on cookies in Italy have changed Privacy Guarantor updates the guidelines on cookies. It will no longer be enough to scroll down a site to accept the data tracking policy. New addresses also on analytics cookies Personification, not personalization In 2015, Gartner defines "personification" as "the act of providing digital experiences to consumers based on their belonging to a 'person segment', rather than on the use of their personal identity ".
Although not a new concept, the use of 'personas' has laid a solid foundation for Personified Advertising, a completely new kind of technology that goes far beyond just 'person' and which it could be the answer to the problems of the sector. Personified Advertising is the revolutionary innovation that allows brands to satisfy the need for knowledge of their target in a broader and more complete way, while protecting privacy since it does not use cookies or IDs coming from devices.
Il Personified Advertising works by using public interest data to qualify impressions instead of personal data that qualify users. These data are specific to the interests of the target and have been analyzed over several years, monitoring users who have consented to access their vast and unique mobile journey, through a wide variety of apps and websites. This data archive is constantly validated through the information obtained from specific surveys to guarantee advertisers an in-depth and updated knowledge of their users' preferences.
Being able to identify the right interests that will truly involve the target audience offers brands a significant advantage over competitors. In viable solutions, only a few can offer niche insights into the chosen target such as, for example, "users of the Daily Mail site are much more interested in video on demand services than the rest of the population". Knowing and understanding these types of preferences is essential for those who wish to successfully reach the appropriate online audience and who realistically visit a specific website or app more. Technologies that use "personified" methodologies can enable all of this, providing strategic insights that make a difference and that give better results.
Mozilla wants to track Facebook's tracking The organization that develops Firefox launches a study for understand how Facebook Pixel tracking works The future of digital advertising Personalized advertising provides limited knowledge of users' interests and will soon disappear. Contextual and semantic targeting alone will not be enough to fully understand users.
It is therefore clear that the use of Personified Advertising with a targeting action without ID and cookies can be a successful alternative on the market, which provides useful insights while respecting privacy. As a complete, unique and non-replicable tool, it emerges as the only "future-proof" and sustainable solution to keep digital advertising in line with its mission: to enable brands to understand and target specific audiences, without making it disperse value or lose sight of their purpose.
