Context is everything

The imminent arrival of iOS 14.5 and enhanced privacy protection for consumers has created shock waves through the advertising industry. These changes are long overdue, and will provide us all with a much greater understanding about how websites and apps track our online activity.

With Google proposing their controversial FLoC technology to deliver a new way of grouping users anonymously within a Chrome privacy sandbox it’s clear that third-party cookies will also be phased out rapidly.

Although some marketers are attempting to stretch the new privacy measures with techniques including CAID (China Advertising ID) and still allow tracking of apps without user prompts, this is very likely going to receive harsh penalties from Apple.

The best approach is to accept the playing field has changed, make privacy a priority and explore new ways of marketing that are less invasive.

What about first-party data?

Best practice advice is typically to use first-party data to build audiences wherever possible. This is sensible, although something companies often struggle with due to low volumes of usable data and issues regarding permissions. In other words it’s not acceptable to use an email address a customer provided three years ago for a Mailchimp signup to create a custom audience.

Contextual targeting can help

Programmatic contextual targeting offers an excellent alternative way to reach audiences based on what they are reading and consuming online. It’s growing rapidly, with industry estimates suggesting the global contextual targeting market will be worth $447 billion by 2027.

How does it work?

In simple terms this technique allows your display creative to appear next to relevant content on websites and apps by defining categories and keywords. Let’s explore these:

• Contextual category Very useful for top of funnel activity, and broad categories can be used to place your ads on relevant websites, eg business, sport, health, etc.
• Contextual keywords Offers much more precise and granular targeting. If you were selling exercise bikes examples might be ‘home gym’, ‘personal training’ and ‘health goals’.

Key benefits of contextual targeting

• Respects privacy No personal or behavioural data is required.
• Fully optimised Programmatic campaigns allow continual adjustments to be made to keywords without this affecting overall performance.
• High quality inventory Programmatic platforms offer an excellent range of high quality websites and PMPs (Private Marketplace) deals. 
• Flexible Contextual targeting can be layered with first-party data to create more detailed audiences profiles.
• Intelligent Semantic technology that underpins contextual targeting can also analyse positive or negative sentiment offering additional brand safety. For example you could prevent your ads from being shown next to content that is negative or critical.

Want to learn more? Dotkumo have helped companies run programmatic contextual targeting campaigns, and would love to speak to you. Book a free 30 minute call today