Advertisers have been nimble throughout the variety of challenges that have impacted the targeting and privacy landscape: GDPR, CCPA, other state legislation, like Maryland’s—even the third-party cookie phase-out, which many didn’t think the industry would be able to overcome. Ad land and ad tech quickly pivoted strategies, working hand in hand with each other to provide solutions to the “cookie apocalypse,” well before the phase-out goes into effect next January.
But as always, Big Tech has to have the last word.
Google issued additional policy, putting a wrench into the viable alternative solutions we’ve invested in, such as Unified ID 2.0. It’s almost like we’re set back to square one, without passing go, or collecting $200.
Only the likes of Google, Apple and Facebook—because of their dominance in the industry—will be able to thrive in the environment that’s being built. Because of their combined control over digital audiences and a plethora of approved first-party data, advertisers will need to rely on them for accessing audiences.
Walled garden strategies will become campaigns
Google has taken another shot against independent ad-tech platforms, where more and more players, like SpotX, Xandr, The Washington Post and others announced support and integrations. But now, Google is asserting its power, ensuring that a main solution for the post-third-party cookie landscape becomes obsolete. Companies outside of Google, Apple, YouTube, Twitter, Amazon and other walled gardens won’t and truly can’t benefit from this newly unfolded policy. Brands, publishers, SSPs, DSPs and the ad-tech ecosystem as a whole simply don’t have the data to be able to exist in these new restrictions and thrive.
Now, the complex ad ecosystem will become more divided and fragmented. Advertisers need to develop completely separate audience strategies for campaigns inside of walled gardens and outside of them, because the access to data (and insights they will be able to leverage from that data) will be drastically reduced. Meaning media buys, strategies and where spend is allocated will look different across the board.
CTV bubble expands
The growth of CTV and ad budgets being reallocated to CTV has been the story of the pandemic. While ad dollars haven’t always kept up with viewership increases, this might be the final push to meet the demand. The CTV space will be less impacted by these restrictions because it’s largely driven by email logins, so the ecosystem should be relatively unscathed in the aftermath of Google’s privacy crusade.
Accessing first-party data via direct partnerships
To survive this and ultimately continue to engage with potential customers, companies will need to audit their current tech stack and weed out unnecessary partnerships that will no longer provide immense value. I foresee more direct partnerships starting to form between SSPs, DSPs and overall more supply path optimization strategies, so advertisers are working with approved first-party data and insights.
This has the added benefit of cleaning up ad tech and making sure publishers have more visibility into who is buying their inventory, as well as for advertisers creating less chances for fraud and clear ROI on investments.
Right now, we’re at the mercy of Big Tech, and unfortunately, Google is choosing to flex its muscles after we’ve already started to understand how to thrive in the cookie-less world. But, this only creates more opportunities for creativity and to hone in on the potential of direct buys and emerging CTV channels.
