Google to Put Out New Publisher Tools Following ID Shake-Up

A week after Google took a bat to email-based identifiers, the company announced it would rollout new tools to help data-rich publishers earn more from programmatic ads. Google announced it has begun expanding the use of publisher-provided identifiers (PPIDs), previously reserved for traditional and automated direct deals, for programmatic campaigns. In a nod to the fact PPIDs favor larger publishers with a wealth of first-party data, Google promised a follow-up announcement on tools for smaller publishers “later this year.” The announcement was made in a blog post by Deepti Bhatnagar, group product manager, Google Ad Manager, where she also outlined how the latest tools will fit into the online advertising giant's Privacy Sandbox initiative. We’re investing in—and empowering publishers to adopt—strategies that support those direct relationships. —Deepti Bhatnagar, Google Ad Manager "In addition to the Privacy Sandbox, we believe that publishers who have built first-party relationships with their audiences should be able to provide personalized ad experiences to those customers," she wrote. "That’s why we’re investing in—and empowering publishers to adopt — strategies that support those direct relationships. PPIDs are fashioned from anonymized first-party data and then fed into Google Ad Manager by the publisher, improving certain functions such as audience segmentation and frequency capping. The company also previewed a potential feature that would allow publishers to share encrypted data with approved advertisers through Google’s infrastructure. The new tools follow last week’s explosive announcement that Google will not support cookie alternatives on its ad stack. As publishers and ad-tech vendors have digested the news, many unanswered questions remain. Chief among them is whether Google’s policy will end up advantaging its own products at the expense of competitors’—for example, if it leaned on Chrome’s 64% browser market share to nudge users away from independent IDs. That could raise fresh antitrust concerns just as regulatory scrutiny is reaching a boiling point. More practically, Google’s latest move is likely to keep publishers off-balance as they search for alternatives to the third-party cookie. Namely, many publishers, especially those without robust subscriber bases, are thinking about whether contextual targeting could be their future, despite the downsides involved. The announcement comes at a time when Google is preparing to experiment with third parties over its Privacy Sandbox proposals, which aim to replace cookies with a different technique called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). Inside Google Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox Proposals Last week's announcement caused much frenzy in the industry. The uproar was such that it prompted Jerry Dischler, Google's advertising chief to take to the virtual stage at the IAB's Annual Leadership Meeting to provide some clarification. “We’ll be using those APIs for our products just like everyone else and not build any backdoors or special affordances for ourselves,” he told attendees. "We’re not going to block advertisers or publishers from directly connecting through first-party relationships. Those who work with Google Ad Manager will continue to have control over their direct relationships with buyers and the vendors they choose." watch: Spotlight Shines Brighter On Google’s Dominance Following Latest Privacy Move