Digiday CMO Summit Presentation Recap

I recently had the pleasure of speaking about the Depreciation of Cookies by Google at Digiday’s CMO Summit 2021, hosted by the amazing Priya Rao of Glossy. In this brief article, I’ll be recapping my presentation and the Q&A session at the end. Specifically, I’ll be talking about the methodologies that will replace cookies, a timeline for cookie depreciation in the next two years, and how to differentiate between FLoC and FLEDGE, and the new tech’s test results that we’ve seen so far.?

3 Ways of Solving for Cookies

There are 3 main methodologies being used to solve for the cookieless world. Critically, though, they don’t all do the same thing, and they all have strengths and weaknesses. For modern marketers, finding the right mix of the three will be critical for maintaining the efficacy of your digital marketing. The three methods are:?

1. Identity-based: similar to cookies of today, this way of targeting uses unique identifiers like emails to identify users. Some examples of identity-based tracking are LiveRamp’s ATS, Unified ID 2.0, ID 5, and data clean rooms
2. No identity methods: these are purely contextual ways of targeting and use data like keywords or product category to build that context?
3. Group-based methods: solutions like Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox and Microsoft’s Parakeet that bucket users into cohorts for targeting. Many browser are working on their own version of group-based methods

These methods can have drastically different reach, and some are harder to optimize depending on what system they’re running in. To find the best optimization, marketers will have to run ad campaigns across all three methods to find the right allocation.?

Timeline

As of July 20, the most recent changes in this space are that Google delayed the rollout of their Privacy Sandbox, and Apple changed their app tracking to allow consumers to opt out. Here’s what I consider to be the most likely timeline for the next few years:?

End of 2021: Best-prepared vendors will have working prototypes of their ad tracking matrix?

Beginning of 2022: FLEDGE Origin trials will occur at a larger scale in a critical experimental phase. The community will review and make changes/recommendations based on results.?

End of 2022: The technology behind FLEDGE will be finished or almost finished and nearly ready to implement?

Beginning of 2023: FLEDGE will be fully implemented into the ecosystem?

End of 2023: Cookie technology will be fully sunset

Difference between FLoC and FLEDGE

I’d like to lay out the differences between these technologies here, as there is some confusion, especially with the names being so similar. Both are privacy-focused tracking methods, both are group-based, but they aim to target consumers in different areas of the sales funnel.?

FLEDGE uses 1st-party data based on historical events to do bottom of the funnel retargeting. It’s not just for retargeting, though, it also handles auctions and the publisher side of ad bidding. It solves a lot of problems, and has recently gotten new features like on-device frequency capping.?

FLoC uses 3rd-party datasets, publishers’ first-party data, and lookalikes to best target new audiences. FLoC is for targeting the upper sales funnel, and finding new-to-brand consumers.?

Q&A

Q: What is the future of the space, how will it look by the end of the year??

A: We’re working on a bunch of methods with partners like Google and LiveRamp to solve this issue not from just one perspective but by utilizing a matrixed or modular approach. This tech will likely have improved a lot by the end of 2021, so marketers need to start thinking about how they will allocate their budget across Display. The multiple forms of tracking methodology means that Display allocation will have to be considered much in the way you now allocate budget across display, search, social, etc.?

Q: Will this affect some industries more than others??

A: The impact of cookie depreciation will impact all retailers and ecommerce companies alike. This is why contextual targeting will be so important, because with contextual, marketers will be able to target not based on age range or similar demographic info, but by seeing content that consumers are engaging with that is relevant to a brand or type of products.?

Q: What initial results have you seen thus far?

A: We’ve tested over 500 campaigns live and seen some interesting results. Early on, we found that we could have a 94.5% effectiveness in retaining click-through rates. This means that without cookies, it’s still possible to deliver relevant, personalized advertising. Additionally, on the publisher side, our proposal to Privacy Sandbox called Outcome-based Turtledove was able to provide publishers with 99.8% of their previous margins, meaning they are able to preserve their revenue. Really exciting results!

Q: Can brands be part of this cookieless testing before it goes live??

A: We are still determining the scale of testing currently. We’re running a lot of campaigns, and may double the amount, based on Google’s input. Additionally, we’re going to be the first DSP to test LiveRamp’s ATS solution which will be replacing their current data onboarding method. If you’re interested in testing these solutions, please reach out to me and we can have a conversation.?