Publishers Feel Better Prepped for the Post-Cookie Future

When it comes to post-cookie preparedness, one year can make all the difference. So says new data collected by video ad platform Teads, in the second iteration of its annual survey of nearly 450 publishing executives on their state of readiness for a cookieless internet. The analysis, which was shared exclusively with Adweek, will be available publicly in March. The report looks at the multi-year effort from publishers to transform their businesses and loosen their reliance on third-party cookies, a shift prompted by the January 2020 announcement from Google that it would be eliminating the identity tech. But the transition period has been defined by industry-wide indecision over the proper path forward. That confusion is compounded by the fact that advertisers are likely to continue transacting using cookies until the night the technology disappears. “For publishers, the regulatory and legislative environment is such that we are not sure how these solutions net out,” said Stephanie Layser, vp of data at News Corp. “We are pretty prepared, but some of it is a bit of a waiting game. And advertisers are not interested in buying on cookieless solutions until cookies are gone.” This sense of uncertainty prompted Teads to conduct the survey, so it could better gauge exactly how quickly publishers were progressing, said Teads chief strategy officer Todd Tran. “There has been a lot of disruption and confusion in the industry and we wanted to have a finger on the pulse,” Tran said. “We wanted to have a more structured way of collecting this feedback—and since we have a unique level of access and depth, the information is unique.” Embracing the opportunity Compared to the results from 2020, small, mid-sized and premium publishers all expressed a stronger sense of confidence about their ability to navigate the coming shift. The percentage of publishers that view the deprecation of third-party cookies as an opportunity increased 100% year over year, as 50% of participants responded that the shift “gives us the opportunity to differentiate through our first-party data and the quality of our content.” The findings also reflect a general rise in education related to the topic. In one datapoint, 30% of publishers responded “I have a strong understanding of all the new initiatives in the industry and their benefits/drawbacks,” up from 23% in 2021. On the opposite end, just 6% responded “I have limited to no knowledge of cookies and the cookieless future,” down from 10% the year prior. Unknowns still dominate the post-cookie conversation, and the survey reflects how publishers have acted in response. As a hedge against this unpredictability, many media companies have pursued multiple strategies at once, with most devoting significant efforts to building out their first-party data infrastructure. Most (63%) see first-party data as an answer, 59% see contextual within their offering and 43% are considering adopting a unique ID. Just under 30% are considering the Google Privacy Sandbox offerings, such as the recently announced Topics API. Concerns over registration walls As part of their efforts to build out email-based identities, publishers have begun to experiment more frequently with registration walls. But throwing up walls has consequences regarding user experience, traffic and ad monetization. “What everyone needs to be doing is balancing the needs of the business against the needs of the consumer,” said Jana Meron, svp of programmatic and data strategy at Insider. “You have to understand the risks and rewards of everything you put on your site.” Yahoo Introduces Its Cookieless ID, Next-Gen Solutions, for the Open Web In the absence of third-party cookies, registration walls let publishers identify their site visitors and better tailor their editorial and ad offerings. Unlike a universal ID, which mirrors cookies in its aim, registration walls face no regulatory scrutiny, making them a failsafe option for publishers looking to expand the size of their known audience. However, the survey reflects the anxieties publishers have toward the walls. Only 45% of publishers say they have a strategy for increasing the use of logins—and 93% say less than half of their users use them. Logins also pose questions about the reader journey: 45% of respondents worried about how they would impact the user experience and 49% worried about their impact on traffic. Other concerns include inventory monetization capabilities (33%), technical implementation of logins (31%) and conflict with subscription models (18%).

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Publishers Feel Better Prepped for the Post-Cookie Future, New Data Finds

Half of the respondents now view the shift as an opportunity

Mark Stenberg

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