The advertising technology market is busy layering privacy compliance into every aspect of data trading.
And so it should be. A slew of privacy regulations is hitting the world, and the use of data is central to the conversation. The complexity of new and impending legislation across the world represents a minefield for advertisers wanting to run digital advertising across a multitude of platforms, apps and websites.
With the demise of third-party cookies, the operating system for ad tech is changing. That makes this the perfect time to usher in a new age of automated workflows built with privacy in mind, that enables advertising with ease on premium publisher sites.
The ability to serve and reach our audiences is a frustrating experience for all parties involved. If you have worked as a data owner, or a publisher, you would understand this problem. Marketers also face a ton of challenges. As a marketer, how do you gain a competitive advantage when you’re buying the same audiences as your competitor? As a data provider, how do you offer transparency and stay in control of how other players are using your audience data? As a publisher, how can you engage in audience activation in a privacy-safe manner?
We studied the issues for a year while testing the limitations of existing data activation methods – all while new privacy regulations were playing in the background. We found that the root of this problem is legacy workflows that don’t offer control and transparency for data providers.
So, we built a new solution, Connect. Here’s what we learned while building it:
Better audience activation stars with empowering data provider
Marketers—this is important for you too. A prominent issue today is “data leakage” which occurs when data providers are required to broadly share segments outside of their databases, with little knowledge of how they are being used. Trust comes from security and security comes from boundaries. Connect transacts on audience data without broadly sharing it to protect data providers.
Empowering data providers brings publishers to the table
For publishers, the most valuable asset is their relationship with readers and shoppers. Without security in knowing how to keep their first party data private, publishers have rightfully been cautious in entering the audience activation market. When a data transaction system is designed with privacy in mind for data providers, it also opens the door for publishers to join in. Connect allows publishers to activate first party audience data, and offers transparency with real-time reporting on those segments for all data owners on the platform.
Bringing publishers and data providers to the same table benefits marketers
Media and audience data represent two sides of the same coin—you need quality ad inventory as the vehicle for any audience activation. Bringing publishers and data providers together created efficiencies as well as new opportunities for publishers to step up as first party data providers. This offers even more opportunities for marketers to access unique audience data to reach their customers. Connect is one of the only unbiased addressability offerings that combines many of the preferred signal approaches into one platform, including known identity, first- and second-party data, contextual signals, seller-defined audiences, and modeled audiences. The solution enables brands and media buyers to activate a portfolio approach to addressability to improve ad relevance while respecting consumer privacy, well ahead of the ecosystem’s transition away from the third-party cookie.
This approach gives all parties involved – media buyers, data owners and publishers more control and visibility into the performance of key audience data. That marks another step in wrapping more privacy around the business of data in digital advertising.
Originally published in The Drum
