Google’s Topics addresses some of the key privacy concerns that existed around FLoC, however industry experts still have questions around how the new tool will work.
Last week, Google released details on Topics, which will replace FLoC, as it prepares to phase out third-party cookies by 2023.
The latest tool in its Privacy Sandbox allows a user’s browser to determine a handful of topics that represent their top interests for the week based on their browsing history.
Google says Topics are kept for three weeks and that it is restricting the number of topics, which includes fitness, travel and transportation, to 300. Topics will also be selected on the user’s device without involving external servers, including Google servers.
Xandr managing director Nicole Prior says that the tool eases some concerns around privacy, particularly the aggregate fingerprinting risk that FLoC was creating with its 33,000+ cohorts, the lack of transparency for users on the actual meaning of cohorts, and the “uneasiness” of the potential sensitive categories being used to build the cohorts.
“While the new approach is simpler and more transparent, there are several questions that need to be addressed,” Prior says.
“These include whether the solution will advantage larger vendors over smaller players, who will be prevented from accessing certain topics (if they haven’t been tagged on a website with which those topics are associated). This may create a barrier to entry for new actors.
“Given that Topics will be determined on the last three weeks of a user’s browsing history, and will remain unchanged for three weeks, some topics will be six weeks old when used for targeting. How this will affect accuracy and relevancy needs to be addressed.
Digitas chief data officer Maurice Riley says while Topics is an improvement on privacy, it could pose challenges for marketers.
“As currently proposed, whilst the Topics API would help maintain interest-based targeting – which is one of the primary methods of personalised ad targeting today – it has limits that are non-starters,” Riley says.
“For example, it preferences ad tech platforms that can actually access the topics stored for the user, which may squeeze out demand-side platforms and supply-side platforms in favour of direct publisher buys.”
Nicole Prior, Xandr managing director
Topics addresses some of the main concerns that the industry and privacy advocates raised at the time, namely, the aggregate fingerprinting risk that FLoC was creating with its 33,000+ cohorts, the lack of transparency for users on the actual meaning of cohorts, along with the uneasiness of the potential sensitive categories being used to build the cohorts.
While the new approach is simpler and more transparent, there are several questions that need to be addressed. These include whether the solution will advantage larger vendors over smaller players, who will be prevented from accessing certain topics (if they haven’t been tagged on a website with which those topics are associated). This may create a barrier to entry for new actors.
Given that Topics will be determined on the last three weeks of a user’s browsing history, and will remain unchanged for three weeks, some topics will be six weeks old when used for targeting. How this will affect accuracy and relevancy needs to be addressed.
Lastly, Topics are identified from the top domain of a website only (similar to FLoC). This creates an imbalance between larger multi-context sites whose top domains don’t provide much useful information for the creation of a topic, vs more niche, single topic sites which are highly indicative of the topics to which they contribute. So larger sites provide little, while smaller sites provide a lot, yet both are attributed the same value.
Do the changes from Google make it more difficult for the industry to prepare for the end of third-party cookies?
Changing FLoC cohort IDs to Topics does not alter the privacy implications of the technology, and (particularly European) adtech players’ need for clarity on how Google plans to establish and signal the privacy choices (i.e. consent) of the end user within the programmatic ecosystem. This is uncharted territory for the industry so it is no surprise that various approaches are evolving based on technological advances and more crucially, regulatory and consumer feedback.
Does Topics change how you’re preparing for the end of third-party cookies?
We, and other vendors, will need to do testing on Topics to help ensure the privacy of the user. Whilst not previously available with FLoC we hope this will be possible with Topics. Ultimately, we believe that a multi-pronged approach to identity is required.
Tom Curtain, Half Dome activation director
Topics is just one element of Google’s wider Privacy Sandbox plan to bring about the end of third-party cookies in Chrome. For those privacy advocates, it is an improvement given Topics works based on the ability to block digital tracking cookies and focuses more on the individual, rather than the browsing history of users. Google is building its tools to let users view and delete topics, as well as turn off the feature giving users an easier way to opt-out and increase their anonymity.
From an advertiser perspective, the shift from FLoC to Topics will have an impact depending on how important deeply targeted ads are for each industry or budget. Under FLoC, users were grouped into more than 30,000 different categories which provided granular insights into user’s interests. With the introduction of Topics, there are now around 350 interest categories that can be assigned to users. The number of categories will grow over time, but I would not expect it to go too far past 1,000. The current categories are quite broad which is going to impact advertiser’s ability to target effectively, especially those smaller, lesser-known advertisers. These advertisers will have to look at alternatives, such as social or native, whereas those with larger budgets and who are well-established, won’t feel as big of an impact.
Do the changes from Google make it more difficult for the industry to prepare for the end of third-party cookies?
I don’t think it makes it more difficult given that Google is already behind their rivals when it comes to limiting third-party cookies. Third-party cookies have been restricted for years across Safari, Firefox and Brave. However, in saying that, it’s going to have an impact on the market given Google’s large market share. The end to third-party cookies is coming on Chrome and this is just another step towards the end, so I would expect further changes. Change can be good and this phased approach to end third-party cookies by Google allows for advertisers to evaluate their reliance on third-party cookies and adjust the way they buy and plan their media. Google Topics is a sign that Google will keep working towards eliminating cookies, even if that goal remains a year or two away.
What’s interesting about Topics is that as a user moves around the web, Chrome will store five categories per week with only three categories being shared with advertisers based on the three-week historic interest. These categories will be based on the users most visited, however, I am sure the average user would have more than five categories of interest over a week. This is going to mean that there’s going to be opportunities missed for advertisers who are advertising products/services that fall outside of that user’s five most popular categories for that week.
Maurice Riley, Digitas chief data officer
The platitude ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ applies here. Consumer data privacy policy wonks and activists alike knew that FLoC was never really protective of privacy. To them, Topics API is a thing of beauty compared to FLoC v1, since it will eliminate the possibility of fingerprinting via the cohorts, and via sensitive category-targeting like religion, sexual orientation, and other often maligned identities.
Marketers, however, might not have hearts in their eyes. As currently proposed, whilst the Topics API would help maintain interest-based targeting – which is one of the primary methods of personalised ad targeting today – it has limits that are non-starters. For example, it preferences ad tech platforms that can actually access the topics stored for the user, which may squeeze out demand-side platforms and supply-side platforms in favour of direct publisher buys. Also, the Topics available for targeting might be relevant to advertisers’ reach and frequency goals which might give pause to many categories, FMCG brands being one.
Do the changes from Google make it more difficult for the industry to prepare for the end of third-party cookies?
Things have been constantly changing since 2017 when Apple introduced ITP. Marketers should be comfortable with change knowing there is not one solution that fixes all and there are no sure-fire proven solutions for data deprecation. Google is doing what every marketer should be doing: lean in, implement new technologies, evolve, and test new strategies to hedge.
Does Topics change how you’re preparing for the end of third-party cookies?
In preparing for the end of third-party cookies priority, Australian marketers have gained a lot of ground in the last 5 years. According to a recent Epsilon & Publicis Groupe Study of senior managers to C-level executives across Australia, 79% have prioritised enhancing data collection and analysis to build customer personas.
The data strategies we are working with our clients on to take control of their data destiny will not have wholesale changes. That is because it includes – as all data strategies should – scaling the already proven solutions, such as the importance of nurturing first-party data; and testing those still unproven, such as Topics API. Then, we can know the different potentials for scale, levels of investment needed, and technology infrastructure requirements, and can then do the appropriate value calculations.
As Topics API and other Privacy Sandbox proposals progress, we will be watching closely. We will be advising our clients and governing our test, learning, and evolving priorities accordingly.
Gagan Batra, Insighten director
Topics doesn’t sound like an improvement on FLoC. It is still breaching consumers' privacy, it doesn’t explicitly ask for user consent. It still serves as a ‘black box’ to advertisers and really would work in isolation from the wider media-buy standpoint. On the positive side, having far fewer segments makes fingerprinting or reverse-engineering much less likely.
Do the changes from Google make it more difficult for the industry to prepare for the end of third-party cookies?
I don't think the industry is relying on Google anymore.Marketers have moved on from targeted advertising, retargeting tactics and Google's changes do not make any difference anymore. Marketers are starting to take a brand-first creative-led approach and no matter what Google will come up with; the industry will test, use, and adapt according to their campaign needs, and only invest if there will be positive ROI. However, Topics does complement the contextual advertising route that advertisers have started to explore over the past year.
Does Topics change how you’re preparing for the end of third-party cookies?
Not really. I still don't believe this is the final solution from Google. Google is famous for releasing a beta version and keeping it in the industry for a number of years, getting real-life user feedback and then making a decision / not releasing it most times. This time a lot of money is at stake hence the reason why it is so hard for Google to come up with a finished product that would not have an impact on revenue and profits.
Google is driving all of these processes on their own timelines, the ones that suits their agenda. The industry is fast moving towards first-party, authenticated visitor data and Google needs to act quickly.
Mike Woosley, Lotame COO
Google describes Topics as a browser-side utility that will assign a user up to several from a “handful” of interest areas that will persist for three weeks. This type of capability hearkens to contextual advertising techniques circa 2005. Unfortunately, the technology as described would be grossly insufficient for the needs of the vast majority of modern marketers who require detailed personas to determine marketing voice, segment customers, measure brand affinity, and tune marketing for complex products like insurance with very detailed segmentations. Even the difference between “Sports'' and “Hockey” can be the difference between worthless and worthwhile for the digital marketer. The latter category might just be 3-4% of the traffic in the former. Google could never survive relying on such basic tools for its vast empire of authenticated traffic, and to bequeath it to the rest of the world borders on insulting for most of the digital media industry.
Dany Coutinho, SillyFish head of operations
Focusing on topic isn’t new for Google, this has always been one of the many targeting options. Cookie-based targeting only improved the targeting and the messaging to the consumer. Topic targeting has been curated to improve relevance and exclude sensitive categories. The user’s browser determines topics that would be their recent interest based on their browsing history. So there is a certain level of improvement for the consumer, yes.
Do the changes from Google make it more difficult for the industry to prepare for the end of third-party cookies?
While this appears to be a step back, it is only because of the stringent privacy laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the Australian Privacy Act among the many that have been forced upon media organisations to follow these new regulations. As difficult as it may get for the advertising industry, this is a much required step to see that the consumer privacy laws are followed.
Does Topics change how you’re preparing for the end of third-party cookies?
Topic targeting will be a little different than how it has been in the past. One of the key points is the restriction of the number of topics to 300. The key change to this is the topic selection will be on user’s device and no external server. Topic targeting is made to enable a browser’s transparency and control over the data in the Chrome browser – building controls to see topics of interest and to remove the one’s disliked.
Travis Clinger, LiveRamp senior vice president of addressability and ecosystem
Based on our assessment, Topics enables standardised high-level interest segments across the web—very similar to what contextual does on a publisher page today. There also appear to be mechanisms to increase user control, privacy, and transparency, and to prevent nefarious tracking such as fingerprinting. All in all, we see this as a positive step forward for the industry, but it’s not the silver-bullet solution for publishers. LiveRamp has always maintained that the future state of the digital advertising industry will be based on both contextual and addressable solutions, not either/or. Topics, for example, will have the power to serve as a valuable intelligence layer for publishers and marketers, but it must be paired with audience data. Remove audience data from the equation and publishers will still have too many blind spots to effectively monetize their inventory and compete on the open web.
John Vlasakakis, Next & Co founder
Compared to FLoC, Topics is providing far more up to date audience interests and despite only being 300 categories I believe it will allow an improvement in performance for campaigns
Do the changes from Google make it more difficult for the industry to prepare for the end of third-party cookies?
It keeps you on your toes definitely , but Google is good at providing what the user wants and it is adapting here to provide something which is easier to adopt.
Does Topics change how you’re preparing for the end of third-party cookies?
Not really, we know first party data is key and this is the future for all brands even if transactions don’t occur directly with them. Any solutions like Google’s FLoC replacement only add to our strategy.
Dan Richardson, Yahoo AUNZ head of data
Google’s FLoC received policy and industry criticism for the possibility of fingerprinting techniques and the opaque nature of user cohorts (i.e. cohort IDs would not be interpretable). Unanimous feedback pushed Google to replace FLoC, a replacement for interest cookies-based targeting, with Topics API. Whether it's an improvement - for privacy reasons, most likely yes, but for an advertiser's performance, that's TBD.
Do the changes from Google make it more difficult for the industry to prepare for the end of third-party cookies?
Topics is currently in the proposal stage and, according to Google, developers will be able to test it in the near future. It's reassuring that the pressure placed on Google about controlling users' data with FLoC prevailed. At Yahoo we’re collaborating across the industry to carve a path forward that meets advertiser and publisher goals while respecting user privacy. This means enabling people to connect to the content they want and helping advertisers and publishers reach and monetise audiences with the best consumer experience possible.
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