First-party Cookies

Over the past two years, the entire advertising industry has been lively discussing the impending deprecation of third-party cookies and its implications for each side of the ecosystem. There are countless articles outlining the general concept of Google’s Privacy Sandbox and its alternatives, as well as assumptions on what will happen to the industry as a whole. However, when it comes to frequency capping – one of the most important tools for both publishers and advertisers, and arguably the least controversial one privacy-wise – there is not enough media coverage, apart from some calls to address the topic.

The testing season of cookieless tools has started with the announcement of Origin Trials for the Privacy Sandbox proposals. Adtech is now filled with various opportunities for testing – contextual targeting, identity solutions, first-party publisher’s audience data, or group-based methods. It is high time to leave feedback about specific tools in the places where it matters.

Everyone loves a good challenge, but some are tougher to tackle than others. For marketers, the big one is the personalization paradox. 71% of consumers prefer personalized ad content, but 74% are also concerned about how advertisers are actually using their personal data. This creates a problem for marketers. They want to reach out to their customers with personalized content but often rely on tracking technologies that are considered invasive. Fortunately, there is an answer to this particular paradox. Brands can use data-driven strategy to leverage large anonymized datasets that provide rich personalization at scale without compromising on privacy.

Google is coming for your cookies, and not the tasty kind lying safely in a tin in your kitchen, but the third-party ones that sit in your browser, watching, waiting, and storing all kinds of information. This has major implications, some good and some bad, for marketers and consumers alike. It also means that many of our old tools will soon become obsolete. However, you don’t need to crack open your tin of real cookies and start stress-eating yet. There are plenty of new tools on their way, one of which we’re going to get into today: The Protected Audience API.

It’s time for our 4th Media Review. This month, we selected 5 stories, such as an update from Chrome on the progress of the Privacy Sandbox and an analysis of the future of reporting.