Third-party cookies, the tiny little files that have propelled brand marketing and advertising strategies for years will soon be obsolete as Google plans to phase them out by next year. It’s the era of data privacy, customers wanting transparency, and governments are implementing data privacy regulations like GDPR to ensure consumer data is protected. While marketers and advertisers are rethinking strategies and leveraging other methods to reach their target audiences, how are publishers preparing for the cookieless era?

For publishers, the cookie ban translates to a massive loss in revenue as they have hugely relied on cookies to monetize content through targeted advertising. While Apple may have already phased out cookies, the Google phase out is set to have a significant impact because of Chrome’s unparalleled browser market share. Targeted ad serving has been based on the data received from cookies and the ban will affect various factors. This includes personalization, frequency capping, re-targeting, and ad effectiveness, as crucial customer data is no longer accessible to power tailored advertising strategies and ad placements.

How are publishers prepping for the new era sans cookies?

To stay ahead of the game, publishers must explore newer avenues and evaluate strategies that ensure they do not lose out on revenue share. In fact, the cookie phase-out is a great opportunity for publishers to enhance targeting, campaign performance, and revenue generation. What avenues are publishers researching?

• The focus lies in data privacy and transparency, making for strategies fueled by zero and first-party data. First-party data is collected directly from the customers on websites, surveys, CRMs, social media, etc, without involving any third party. Zero-party data is information willingly shared by consumers like purchase intent and preferred channel of communication. Zero-party data is collected through surveys, product recommendations/comparisons, or other assets like ebooks. These assets add value to consumers by giving them insights, in exchange for their information.
• Utilizing platforms like CMP – Consent Management Platform and CDP – Customer Data Platform is a win-win for both publishers and consumers. CMPs make it easier for publishers to collate data with consumer consent while ensuring transparency and data usage know-how for consumers. CDPs on the other hand focus on first-party data collection and storage, using tools and advanced analytics.
• With an array of subscription models being used today, monetizing readership through subscription-based models is an effective way to collect user data. Publishers can begin with free trial offers where they collect information about users while they register on the platform for the trial.
• Similarly, virtual events are also a great way to connect with audiences. A 2021 research suggests, 45.7% of marketers said pipeline generation is their primary goal from the investments in virtual events, and most companies allocate between 10-20% of their marketing budget to virtual events.

Contextual advertising for publishers

Contextual advertising has transformed over the years and is fast becoming the preferred choice among leading brands. Today, contextual advertising goes far beyond just keywords or context, and leverages AI to deliver superior ads. A dedicated team with in-depth knowledge, and our exclusive Seedtag LAB to help you create your own contextual universe, we are enabling leading global brands to go contextual.

With our full suite of in-content placements, we are empowering publishers to boost their revenues with contextual AI. Contextual data helps publishers deep-dive into the details and create relevant, high-quality content that resonates with the desired audience. This data also gives valuable insights to advertisers and opens doors to new inventory opportunities as well. This niche helps publishers charge higher CPMs and grow revenue.

Contextual advertising is a great bet for both publishers as well as advertisers today. Publishers have no dependencies on tech partners or other third parties and have the opportunity to foster great relationships with advertisers directly, while it takes away brand safety and suitability concerns for advertisers as well. 

The post-cookie era opens doors to winning partnerships where publishers and advertisers work together to combine the insights of both first-party and contextual data, to create tailored ad campaigns in the privacy-first world. What makes contextual the next big thing is the ability for contextual AI to gauge aspects like sentiment analysis, preferences, nuances, semantics, relevance, optimizing content creation on the publisher side, and campaigns for advertisers.

Access to the most common DSPs, premium demand, and more. Get in touch with us to know more about Seedtag for publishers.

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