Xandr announced three integrations with identity initiatives on Wednesday: Europe’s netID login consortium, LiveRamp IdentityLink and Unified ID 2.0 (natch).
The purpose is to enable digital planning, targeting segmentation and measurement using authenticated IDs via Xandr’s programmatic buying platform, Xandr Invest, and through its ad exchange, Xandr Monetize.
But these partnerships are also part of Xandr’s larger road map to prepare itself and its publisher and ad buyer clients for third-party cookie-geddon.
Navigating the evolving identity landscape requires neutrality and interoperability, said Ewa Maciukiewicz, Xandr’s senior director of product management.
“There need to be interoperable components so we can enable publishers to use their first-party IDs and buyers to work with whatever industry ID solutions will be most relevant to their business, and then bring it all together in our marketplace,” Maciukiewicz said.
Xandr’s overarching approach is four-pronged: support for publisher IDs, support for industry ID solutions, investment in new technologies, such as modeled targeting, and reinforcing its own existing offerings, including contextual targeting.
“We’re not looking to replace the cookie,” Maciukiewicz said. “We’re just trying to build as iteratively as we can.”
And that means making it as easy as possible for buyers and sellers to transact in Xandr’s marketplace, including through support for industry solutions.
Maciukiewicz said she expects to see the number and variety of identifiers available on bid requests to increase as more buy and sell-side platforms integrate with UID 2.0, netID and other initiatives.
“Then it comes down to the product work we’re doing to help resolve the multiple identifiers on bid requests, to help publishers maximize the value of their first-party data and to help buyers reach the right audience,” Maciukiewicz said.
One way Xandr is hoping to do that work is by beefing up its existing solutions, such as contextual targeting, and making them interoperable with new technologies that are in the works.
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To that end, Xandr is investing in what Maciukiewicz called “data science-driven solutions” that help buyers and sellers continue to, well, buy and sell, without relying on PII coming through bid requests.
Frequency capping is a good example. Frequency capping today is highly dependent on cookies, but there are other contextual data signals that could be used to help prevent overexposure.
“We can use the signals we see on ad requests to model out an appropriate frequency cap, like publishers’ information, including domain, URL and location information,” Maciukiewicz said.
Xandr is also continuing its big bets on connected TV and data-driven linear TV, both environments that were never reliant on third-party cookies to begin with.
“One of the things we’re advising our clients to do is invest in formats like CTV that don’t require traditional third-party identifiers to activate against,” Maciukiewicz said. “It’s a key priority and growth area for us and it’s only going to keep growing in importance.”
