Google Is Backing Cookieless ID Solution Seller-Defined Audiences

Google is helping publishers more easily share their first-party data with advertisers in the open exchange by integrating with the IAB Tech Lab’s seller-defined audiences taxonomy solution, as the digital advertising ecosystem braces itself for cookie deprecation in 2024. Publishers and advertisers are searching for the right ways to target audiences and attribute marketing spend. Without third-party cookies, advertisers are relying more on publishers’ access to valuable first-party data. But often, marketers only get access to this in direct sales deals and private marketplaces. One solution to scale the transaction of publisher first-party data in the open web is the content taxonomy seller-defined audiences. Google is facilitating this process via a new tool called publisher provided signals, which lets publishers share their first-party data with advertisers according to the seller-defined audiences protocol, the company announced today in a blog post. While publishers could share first-party data previously, the IAB taxonomies allow them to group their audiences in a common language, making it easier for advertisers to transact. “What’s changed is there hasn’t been a scalable way to do this,” said Peentoo Patel, director of product management for Google Ad Manager, told Adweek. The tool, which is currently only available in beta mode on Google Ads and DSP Display & Video 360 and not third-party ad tech, is a shot in the arm for seller-defined audiences. Unlike many cookie alternatives, SDA gives power to publishers to define their own audience segments instead of third-party ad-tech firms. However, it currently has limited adoption from the buy-side and raises some privacy concerns because it's still transacting with sensitive variables, as Adweek has previously reported. Early tests of the product have been promising, said Paul Bannister, chief strategy officer at CafeMedia, a beta tester of publisher provided signals. “It's early days, but it's a great new feature that allows publishers to use seller-defined audiences within the Google ecosystem, which is obviously really important.” The product appears to be strong from a data leakage and privacy perspective because publishers can choose to not link their data with other tracking technologies. “Publishers are in total control of what information gets out there,” Bannister said. Google’s FLoC 2.0, Topics, Trade Effectiveness for Privacy Compliance Allowing app publishers to transact first-party data In addition to facilitating transactions with first-party data in the open web, Google is working to facilitate first-party data transactions in the mobile ecosystem. App publishers on iOS, who have lost some ability to run advertisements since Apple’s deprecation of mobile identifiers last year, can better transact against their first-party data with a tool called same app key. The product currently has applications in frequency capping and fraud prevention. The new expanded version of same app key will let app publishers use their own first-party data to create tailored experiences for users. It cannot be used to link user activity to third-party apps. Reframing data sharing Google is also renaming a tool, in open beta, from "encrypted signals" to "secure signals." The tool lets publishers share sensitive information, including first-party data, with third-party buying partners to prevent data leakage. The signals are obfuscated so that Google Ad Manager cannot read them and instead simply serve as the messenger. The new name is meant to reflect that change along with some additional features that give publishers more control over how they use the tool. “We heard feedback from publishers and third-party buyers that you’d like more flexibility with this feature,” Patel wrote in the blog post. “That’s why we’re adding new controls and renaming the tool from encrypted signals to secure signals to better reflect how you can choose to implement its functionality.” Publisher doubts over the role of ad tech, and particularly Google, in brokering their relationships with advertisers is pervasive. There is tension over who controls valuable audience data, and some publishers might be wary that using Google’s ad tech to transact on their first-party data could lead to data leakage or undermine their relationship with readers. Patel told Adweek a key facet of the beta phase is listening to and allaying publisher concerns. “We need to experiment to address those concerns,” Patel said “We do feel that publishers have a lot of valuable audience data and this is the best place to be able to activate on that.” Yahoo and Amobee DSPs Remove Google Open Bidding as a Source of Supply