Lately it feels as if no one is happy with the Privacy related changes in our world.

Apple has gone ahead with massive privacy changes, starting with App Tracking Transparency, and continuing with the Privacy Manifest. When the change was originally announced, it triggered a reaction from major ad platforms like Meta, Snapchat, and others who issued revenue alerts. Some players like Meta tried fighting in the court of public opinion by claiming that the move is harming SMBs (only to get a backlash from the same SMBs…).

Google has postponed its’ cookie deprecation for the third (forth? fifth!?) time, after seeing that the impact over CPMs may plummet instantly, causing advertisers and publishers to lose revenues by not being able to target ads as well as they could using 3rd party data access.

It seems that while one side is pushing for the inevitable Privacy – another side is pushing against.

On the one hand – agencies such as the FTC, and others, go after the big platforms with fines and lawsuits related to privacy, data breach, and anti-trust lawsuits for their “monopoly” position within the industry; and on the other hand – agencies such as the CMA, and others, go after big platforms for their unfair advantage over independent ad platforms.

And while no one is really “happy” about the changes – change does bring opportunities.

In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king

The ability to track and attribute conversions to an individual user is diminished in a privacy world. Unlimited access to 3rd party data, allowed publishers, and advertisers, to exchange PII with attribution platforms, who then were able to match “click” and “conversion” ids for the purpose of attribution.

The new reality forced Advertisers to move away from “deterministic” attribution methods such as last click attribution, and start using better probabilistic measurement methodologies such as media mix modeling, and always on incrementality platforms (…such as INCRMNTAL ☺). 
Instead of counting clicks and giving 100% credit to only one ad – this new probabilistic measurement offered Advertisers with the ability to measure return over VALUE.

Context over Credit

The ability to target an individual user is diminished in a privacy world. It’s becoming more and more difficult with programmatic, as DSPs are unable to track users across publishers. 
3rd party data access did offer DSPs with the ability to target an individual, however, rather than target based on context, the addiction to the postback meant that DSPs were indivertibly biased to target “credit”. 

The new reality of privacy forced DSPs to go back into contextual targeting. Contextual has been a wonderful concept where ads are targeted based on the context of the user. The concept of contextual targeting means that the ad platform will attempt to “match” between the advertisement (message, product, advertiser) with the context of the user (the placement, the publisher, the device, the time of date). Sounds basic – but contextual targeting was almost lost to “data driven advertising” and the repercussions were simply – terrible.

“Everything is an ad network”

The unlimited access to 3rd party user level data meant that only the players who were able to prosper were giants – those with an almost unlimited and continuous access to users’ devices.
Smaller players had no chance to get significant credit for the value they yield. 
Data Driven Advertising became a double edged sword.

The limitation over access meant that every platform, and every publisher that had a unique audience, and/or, a unique relationship with an audience, and/or, a unique domain – had an opportunity to not only generate value for Advertisers – but also win the credit for doing so. 
“Everything is an ad network” a phrased coined by Eric Seufert predicted exactly this – justifying smaller players to exist and thrive.

The ethics of privacy unavoidable

3rd party access to user data was never a fair trade-off, and the promise of tracking was a lie to begin with. 
Just imagine the funnel you went through as an individual user before you _____________ (Insert latest purchase).
 

• Did you see any ads for the product/service? 
• Did you hear about the product/service from anyone?
• Did you research the product/service?
• Where were you when you made the decision?
• What was your state of mind?

Now imagine the amount of personal data, and maybe even, invasive data that ad platforms, ad networks, and data brokers, would need to trade to answer all of the questions above, all this while the actual question marketers want to answer were as simple as: “did this campaign work?” or “should I spend more or less on this channel?”

The trade-off between the data adtech tried accessing, and the question marketers wanted answered was completely off. Privacy would certainly win this fight. 

Privacy is here to stay

Privacy wasn’t only inevitable. It was also the only solution forward.

Privacy isn’t only here to stay, but it also created some incredible positive opportunities: 

• Measurement is better now – measuring VALUE and not counting clicks. 
• Contextual targeting is what technology has aspired to
• Smaller players have a real chance of matching with Advertisers

Anyone who ever weaned of a vice knows that doing it gradually, or delaying the action is just an attempt to avoid the problem – not solve it.

The way forward is going cold turkey, and adapting to the new reality.

As someone who’s spend 20+ years in adtech, I can safely tell you that Privacy is here to stay, and it’s much better than what you may be worried about. Join me.