Identity: First party PPIDs on Google, Yahoo integrates ConnectID with Merkle, UID2.0 case study

This week Google announced new ways for publishers to activate first-party data; specifically enabling the use of publisher-provided identifiers (PPIDs) with Google’s programmatic demand to better customise ad targeting as well as frequency capping and other audience-based ad delivery controls. There’s some interesting results in the PPID testing where publishers were able to drive improvements of 15% or more in programmatic auction revenues when passing PPIDs in inventory without identifiers.

Some publishers using other stacks already pass PPIDs in browser environments where 3P cookies don’t work. So this isn’t a GAM innovation it’s Google playing catch up. Does make it mainstream though which is something.

— SimonJHarris (@SimonJHarris) November 5, 2021

Meanwhile; Yahoo extended its identity partnership with Merkle by combining Merkle’s identity resolution & data platform with its ConnectID solution that has already been adopted by over 3,000 publishers including Cafe Media, Maven and Newsweek.  The move will enable publishers to build cookieless identity graphs from first party data that buyers can then activate within Yahoo’s DSP for improved targeting and measurement.

There was also news this week of a case study for UID2.0 showcasing how ecommerce cookware manufacturer Made In recently completed a streaming TV campaign running on UID2 IDs.

If you’re a Digiday member then there’s also a comprehensive (38min reading time) guide to third party cookie alternatives providing guidance on why/how to enhance first party data; adopting new privacy friendly identifiers; building more partnerships and more.

New figures show scale of Apple privacy changes, but Amazon ploughs on

Data from Lotame has revealed that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy hit Facebook, YouTube, Snap and Twitter to the tune of $9.85bn of lost revenue.  The policy – which forces apps to ask users’ permissions to track them – has meant that the price of ads on Facebook, for instance, has risen as the cost of driving outcomes and measuring them becomes tougher.  The net result is buyers moving to cheaper or more measurable media, presenting a likely trend going forward as buyers plan for more privacy-friendly advertising.

Amazon ploughs on though! Emarketer forecasts that triopoly will account for 64% of US digital ad revenues in 2021 and will surpass 65% by 2023 as Amazon continues to grow its share from 11.6% to 14.6% over the same period.  Advertising is Amazon’s fastest growing business segment having grew nearly 50% year-over-year to $8.1bn in Q3 2021, and that trend is likely to continue with Amazon top of Gartner’s 2021 AdTech magic quadrant:

One of the most appealing aspects of Amazon Advertising’s offering is its cookieless audience data…including from amazon.com, Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, Twitch, IMDb, Prime Video and Fire TV. Each asset contributes behavioral and demographic signals that feed the Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud’s data clean room.

Andrew Frank, VP of research, Gartner

Privacy: Mozilla implements GPC, as Techcrunch digs into big adtech’s push to freeze privacy

Mozilla Firefox will incorporate Global Privacy Control (GPC) – a regulation that tells websites not to sell or share users’ personal data at browser level, joining browsers such as Brave and DuckDuckGo, but the first major browser to adopt it.  Whilst Mozilla is in the good books of privacy; Techcrunch dug deeper into Google’s push to freeze ePrivacy as many other tech giants have been implicated, including Apple.  The article from Techcrunch goes into plenty of detail as to the background of ePrivacy as well as forward looking at the potential issues of data privacy with the rise of connected devices, as well as the level of resource big tech put into delaying regulations.

Other interesting reads

Sub/zero: Can subscriptions & zero party data ever put ads on ice?

There’s an insightful summary piece on the key takeaways from Elevate:Publisher 2021 including the topic of revenue diversification, with subscriptions a starting point but collection of first party data, and experimenting with audio, commerce and more critical.  Why not join Carbon and our panel of esteemed publishing experts to discuss the future of publisher revenues on the 18th November:

Publishers selling to their audiences

In further signs of revenue diversification; Digiday+ research found that nearly 55% of publishers sell products direct to users – versus 63% from subs, 72% affiliate commerce, and 93% from ads.

Ozone Project highlights attention data

Lumen Research recently highlighted the link between quality content and dwell time on accompanying ads quantifying the relationship with figures from The Ozone Project – i.e. 51% more attention vs rest of the web, 111% more attention for video.  The takeaways are applicable to all:  with an increased focus from advertisers on the content they buy next to – particularly with the rise of contextual advertising – publishers are under pressure to create content that drives ad attention with slower scroll speed, larger ads, and fewer ads.

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