Hannah O’Neill, VP of Sales at Nano Interactive, examines the dubious relationship between ad tech and profiling based on historical data. With divorce on the horizon in the form of a cookie phase-out, where should advertising look next?
Adtech is facing a once-in-a-lifetime change: signal loss. But it’s not like we haven’t known this for a while. So, when Google first announced its intention to phase out cookies a full four years ago, in January 2020, why are we acting now?
There’s a theory as to why. We’ve been focusing on the wrong kind of data for years. We often hear that advertising is a fast-paced industry. But were we in such a hurry that we didn’t realize that the widely adopted tactic was deeply flawed from the beginning?
Data disappears in a vacuum
Profiling has become the overwhelmingly accepted approach in online advertising, facilitated by third-party cookies that allow platforms to effectively track people throughout their digital lives. But this also ignores a very real fact. An expression of intent such as visiting a site, searching, or abandoning a purchase would have a completely different meaning if it happened within 30 days of him rather than within 5 minutes of him. To be honest, until now, few people have questioned such oversights, for whatever reason.
Add to that the fact that approximately 70% of consumers take steps to limit tracking from behind their backs on a weekly or more frequent basis. His 40% of the browser market has been off limits for quite some time, and Safari already closed its doors to his cookies years ago. Is an already flawed approach further undermined by increasingly irregular data behind it?
Second, the rise of retargeting seems to go hand in hand with profiling. The lack of context and timing is a source of consumer frustration. And according to Nano’s latest consumer research, 49% of consumers who mask their data from trackers are doing so to avoid this very act. Retiring cookies will only make it more likely that creatives will reveal their secret gifts to family members on another device, as IP addresses will be used as a backup.
29% said they wear a mask to avoid this exact situation. Meanwhile, several reports have surfaced suggesting that IP is likely to be the next target for technology gatekeepers. In December, Digiday went so far as to say that all companies should “really rethink the use of IP addresses to track their audiences.”
Why ads need to focus on intent data to reach consumers
Rather than selecting campaigns based on past actions, intent marketing, which includes live signals such as content, context, and attention, allows advertisers to limit already limited or declining people-based signals. can be avoided. It also allows buyers to reach groups at scale in a live yet relevant way, beyond any assumptions or previous events.
People-based data takes into account that we perform all kinds of different activities and roles, depending on the time of day, device, and most importantly, the tasks and entertainment we pursue. It has always been associated and applied to profiles without having to do so.
Media and advertising have come full circle, from audience surrogates like magazine verticals and TV ratings to direct targeting of profile groups via cookies, even if some question their accuracy. I did. Back to the present, signal loss from link decoration to her IP to SDK is in the news every week. Along with this, the transition to intent proxies is also in full swing. These signals, such as attention, sentiment, content, and context, are alive in a way never before seen in print, cookies, and other IDs.
Above all, profiling places no value on the environment, and it arguably contributes to the devaluation of quality and original journalism, as well as the rise of the “made for advertising” phenomenon.
“Absolute things” and “today’s situation”
A few years ago, at least one commentator had already pinned this distinction, which is now unfolding before our eyes, for profiling. That’s what I learned yesterday,” says Jay Acunzo.
In contrast to the intent-like approach, Acunzo says, “Isolate the variable and test it specifically. This recognizes that generalizations are dangerous and context is everything.” So it’s better to test and learn in today’s context.”
This couldn’t be more perfectly applicable to the situation we’re in right now.
“We are moving forward with that data, but that data is in the past. And now more than ever, today will be very different from yesterday, and tomorrow will be very different from today,” says Acunzo.
It is an immovable fact that if the signal is lost, today will not be the same as yesterday. And we will inevitably have to change the way we work.
We often hear that advertising is a fast-paced industry. It’s so fast that it’s almost impossible to keep up. However, in the case of cookies and broader signal loss, we have known the need for change for years without changing our approach.
At this juncture, the flaws in the original approach may still be correctable.
It’s time to move from the past to the present, from emptiness to context.
Hannah O’Neill, VP of Sales, Nano Interactive
