Regulators are tightening privacy rules, consumers are less trusting of brands’ use of data and browsers are blocking the data that once fuelled personalised and targeted marketing on the web. To safeguard from the disruption caused by these privacy-based shifts, publishers and advertisers need a way to responsibly activate audiences and restore consumer trust.
Such an outcome requires direct relationships between buyers and sellers, first-party data and publisher cohorts. This will result in supply chain transparency, protecting the relationships publishers and advertisers have with their consumers, respecting consumer consent and not leaking personal information.
The Value of Direct Relationships
As third-party data disappears, advertisers will need privacy-compliant first-party data to understand their audiences’ interests online. And it’s publishers who understand the behaviour of each individual on their website — they know what the interests of their users are, how long they spend on-site, how many times they visit and whether their browsing habits have changed. Working with publishers provides a privacy-safe environment for advertisers to buy in, built on top of consented first-party data and without the need for third-party cookies. Direct relationships between the buy and sell-side also alleviate issues that arise from the complex advertising ecosystem we have today. This complexity is evidenced in the ISBA Programmatic Supply Chain Study, which revealed that for 15 advertisers to buy media across 12 publishers, information is currently passed through 300 different supply chains. As the industry shifts to a new way of buying and selling media, here are the steps that publishers can take to harness their most powerful asset — first-party audience data — and build direct relationships with advertisers.Step 1: Consider Data Availability
The first step is to understand the available data, which falls into one of three buckets:- Behavioural
- Contextual
- Declared
