The future of good data for marketers will be focused on both user and privacy-first pillars.
Amobee director of solutions Dillen Alahendra says these two pillars will be the fundamental requirements to ensure that the advertising industry has the right structure to get prepared for a cookieless future.
“We’re all better off without third-party cookies. Cookies are inconsistent, unreliable and haven’t kept up with the times,” Alahendra says.
In the last few years, marketers have been heavily investing in data and DMPs, but the depreciation of third-party cookies will force marketers pivot strategies to focus on identity instead of cookies.
However, with various changes in the identity space, he says it is important for marketers to have an “informed” process for leveraging data that paints a picture of the brand’s current state and who its customers are.
“We need to focus on third-party data sets that are opt-in and compliant, as well as panel-based measurement solutions that fundamentally reduce reliance on cookies,” he adds.
This data can then be integrated into machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) engines to make predictions and recommendations for informed marketing strategies.
“The pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital technologies across almost every industry and increased time spent in an already congested space: online media,” says Alahendra. “With the amount of available data growing tremendously every single day, the race is on for marketers to utilise this gold mine and stay ahead of the pack.”
Marketers still have a wealth of data at their fingertips despite the imminent demise of third-party cookies. While first-party data is often lauded as the champion among its second and third-party counterparts, Alahendra believes the value of data shouldn’t be based on its source but instead its quality.
“By assessing data this way, marketers can more appropriately determine its value in relation to its application and where it can drive expected ROI (return on investment),” he says.
In saying that though, he does acknowledge the benefits that first-party data holds in helping brands understand, measure and activate through privacy and user-first technology solutions.
“The same way we read books about history is how we should consider first-party data – it provides context to help us understand what was, what is and what could be,” he says.
“First-party data should be used to complement and inform advertisers of the opportunities ahead.”
The key to obtaining quality first-party data is to start with the objectives and outcomes brands would like to achieve with the data. Once this is clearly mapped out, he says brands can leverage their partners, to not only inform best practices, but to help execute a successful strategy.
As the shift towards the user-first, privacy-first world continues, more brands will implement a combination of user and panel-based measurement for audience-based strategies.
Alahendra says panel data will be useful in understanding and measuring marketing requirements, as well as allowing marketers to account for city and country populations.
One of the most important tasks of all though for marketers in this new world will be how they stitch this data together to achieve convergence and optimise campaigns.
“It’s important to think about media buying as a whole – and that includes data,” he says.
“While the depreciation of the third-party cookie will have a significant impact on marketers, working with a partner who is future-proofed with an identity solution that isn’t dependent on cookies will allow brands to seamlessly integrate their data with other opt-in data sources across all marketing channels. This will also free up their marketers to focus on delivering on KPIs.”
Amobee developed an identity solution architecture that provides the right balance between consumer privacy and personalisation, where cookies are not the main currency. The Converged ID goes beyond digital identities and was purposely built to be operable across both TV and digital.
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