Now that the third-party tracking cookie will remain on life support, at least for another year, what’s next for publishers?
While many ad tech industry insiders feel strongly that most cookie alternatives weren’t exactly ready for the cookiepocalypse anyway, most all agree that it’s definitely not time for publishers to press the snooze button. They should be using the runway they’ve been given to go full force on testing alternatives in comparison to third-party cookies (at least while they’re still around).
Leading up to our webinar with Lotame — Identity Is a Team Sport: How Publishers & Marketers Can Move Beyond the Cookie Together on June 30, 2021, at 1 PM ET — I spoke with Alexandra Theriault, Lotame’s Chief Customer Officer, to get her take on how publishers should be thinking about identity solutions now that they have more time.
At our upcoming webinar, Theriault will present key survey findings from “Beyond the Cookie: The Future of Advertising for Marketers & Publishers.” Advance Local and Rush Street will join her to share how they’re actively implementing and testing identity solutions. Register now!
Lynne d Johnson: Now that Google pushed back that date of third-party cookie data deprecation until 2023, should publishers be thinking about identity solutions any differently than they were when they were preparing for the cutoff in 2022?
Alexandra Theriault: Not at all. We still believe third-party cookies will fully disappear. Technology, like Lotame’s, already has meaningful applications for existing cookieless environments e.g. Safari and Firefox, which account for 40% of the open web.
Our Panorama ID has delivered higher yield in programmatic initiatives, specifically 3x the average CPM for non-addressable inventory. With these impressive results in mind, we strongly recommend publishers continue their testing efforts and establish a future-proofed revenue strategy.
An important question publishers should ask ID providers they are considering, is whether or not they charge a fee for access to the ID, a fee often passed to agencies. We expect testing of taxed IDs to slow in favor of non-taxed or free IDs. Dedicate your valuable dev resources where it will have the most impact.
LdJ: One major concern publishers have about new identity solutions is if they’ll actually provide privacy (and security) for consumers. What is Lotame’s position on this and how does Lotame’s Panorama ID solve for privacy concerns?
AT: Panorama ID was invented to tackle the consent challenge. When GDPR became law, it stated that transparency, accountability, and control were paramount. Some portion of web traffic would include an authentication signal from the user, and that there would / could be a system to offer cross-platform accountability within that traffic. Lotame focused our efforts on a solution that addressed the non-authenticated portion of the web, estimated to comprise nearly 80% of all web traffic.
Our North Star was to make consent work the way consumers think it does. We use active consent and reactive opt-out to fulfill that promise. When a user gives permission on a specific device, consent is limited to that device. Conversely, when a user opts out on a device, Lotame will opt that user out of all devices attached to that profile in our graph. Our transparent consumer controls puts the individual in the driver’s seat of privacy with a clear, auditable trail.
LdJ: Another big question that publishers have about ID solutions is, “Will they scale?” What can success look like for publishers and their advertising partners in a world without cookies?
AT: While we expect publishers to continue investing in user authentication strategies, such as paywalls and regwalls, the delayed expiration of third-party cookies in Chrome will undoubtedly slow these initiatives, and yield less scale than the 20-30% coverage promised.
Lotame’s Panorama ID is not limited to authenticated IDs the way some others are. For publishers that have adopted our Panorama identity technology suite, they are seeing the Panorama ID return up to 80% of the time.
Don’t forget to register for our webinar, Identity Is a Team Sport: How Publishers & Marketers Can Move Beyond the Cookie Together, with Lotame On June 30, 2021, 1 PM ET. Alexandra Theriault, Lotame’s Chief Customer Officer, will present key survey findings from “Beyond the Cookie: The Future of Advertising for Marketers & Publishers.” She will be joined by Advance Local and Rush Street to walk us through how they’re actively implementing and testing identity solutions. Register now!