Rise of the Persistent ID in Wake of New EU Cookie Regulations

Third-party cookies are widely used by the global advertising industry to understand web browsing patterns and target adverts to web users. However, with the principles of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) finalised by the EU member states and scheduled to take effect in May 2018 it's essential for advertisers to find an alternative way to identify target audiences online while maintaining their privacy. A strong solution for this is the “persistent ID.”

Here at Jumpshot we're lucky to own one of the world's largest sets of persistent first party ID's. Our persistent IDs allow organisations to move towards identity management targeting while maintaining the user's privacy, allowing advertisers to base their targeting on anonymised sets of browsing activity across browsers or devices. The consumer's privacy is protected while targeting is optimised. 

The possible end of third-party cookies?

Article 10 of the European Commission's proposed regulation requires software companies to educate consumers about the types of cookies used, clearly calling out third-party cookies, and providing an option to block cookies altogether. If passed, this will become a mandatory part of the software installation process. This regulation will also apply to pre-existing software, which will need to be updated to adhere to the new privacy regulations by May of 2018. 

Consumers will be able to decide if they accept or reject third-party cookies, and the online advertising industry has to expect that the percentage of users that will elect to block third-party cookies altogether will increase significantly. 

A persistent ID is an identifier at the device level for an individual, which captures online activity across browsers and domains. Therefore Persistent IDs are more efficient than third-party cookies for creating audience seeds and look-alike segments because of their stable characteristics.

The future of the online advertising industry rests not with third-party cookies but with persistent IDs. Persistent IDs can not be deleted, they are non-intrusive, and they do not expire. In fact, the average lifetime duration of a Jumpshot ID is 11 months, which is unheard of when compared to cookies or tracking pixels.

As users increasingly reject third-party cookies these trackers will become less widespread and less effective. When advertisers’ ability to identify users based on third-party cookies decreases their associated cookie-based targeting efforts will diminish. However, targeting based on persistent IDs can outperform this outdated method.

Jumpshot has built hundreds of audience seeds from our clickstream data of 100m devices across a variety of industries. These seeds can be used to create look-alike audiences for new customer acquisition. Examples of Jumpshot’s audiences include luxury car shoppers, loyal hotel customers, and car insurance intenders. 

As they say, "Persistence pays off!".

Contact me for more info: [email protected]. I'll also be attending MWC in Barcelona from 27th Feb - 2nd March.