‘We can’t afford to put all our eggs in one basket’: Advertisers start long-overdue reappraisal of post-cookie identifiers

By Kate Kaye

Marketers still reeling from Google’s rebuke of user-level identifiers are scrambling for answers as the ground shifts beneath them.

To get a foothold, they are focusing on what little detail they do have: they will only be able to use technologies from Google’s Privacy Sandbox like FloC — cohorts of browsing patterns of a group of people rather than an individual — in Google’s own ecosystem, and can use other solutions like the Unified ID 2.0 outside of it.

Understandably, marketers are feeling the pressure to evaluate the relative risks and benefits of each approach before committing to a preference. From understanding data and reviewing tech stacks, processes and teams, to investigating different identifier solutions and testing contextual solutions, there’s a lot for marketers to unpick.

“We can’t afford to put all our eggs in one basket when it comes to one of these alternatives because there are still so many unanswered questions about what will and won’t be permitted,” said Frances Giordano, group director at Media Kitchen. “Instead we have our hands in a few different pots so that we can test several different solutions so that we can change our strategy as they are fully rolled out to market.”

As it stands, FLoC, and Unified ID 2.0 are leading contenders, but there’s no clear winner.

While PMG has emphasized the importance of diversifying marketing and advertising approaches for all clients, the digital agency will continue evaluating multiple identity tech providers, said Jason Hartley, head of search, shopping and social at PMG. “We’ll continue to poke around,” he said. “We’re looking for a durable approach.”

Even so, much of the initial thought process behind those choices seems to be driven — at least in part — by where marketers stand on user-level identifiers in the first place.

For some, those solutions aren’t a viable alternative to third-party cookies, not while there are so many of limited sizes around. For context, there are around 37 alternate identifiers in the U.S. and around 55 worldwide, said Matt Prohaska, CEO of Prohaska Consulting. But without enough publishers and the consumers powering them, alternate user-level identifiers are guilty of form over function.

“Very few publishers or ad tech platforms have been in to talk to us about Unified 2.0, we’ve had to form our own opinions,” said a senior agency exec who was not authorized to speak to Digiday publicly.

Rather than have to work through these issues, some advertisers are playing it safe. In other words, they’re taking the path of least resistance — Google.

“There is pressure from large advertisers on their agencies to stop looking at alternative user-level identifiers and focus on what Google is doing with the Privacy Sandbox,” said one ad tech exec with knowledge of those discussions. “Advertisers are saying ‘if most of my budget is with Google already, why invest in other identifiers outside of Google when there’s so much uncertainty.”

To these marketers, the future could be cohort-based in Google’s walled garden. They have already …read more

Source:: Digiday