The slow dismantling of cookie-based tech had its fingerprints all over our coverage in 2022 (if you’ll excuse the mixed metaphor).
Data privacy supplied the drumbeat, from stories about clean rooms to new privacy-forward ad tech products to the rise of retail media (a data safe haven). Everyone from platforms to marketers marched to its sound.
And after years of being dismissed as hype, AI is quietly transforming how marketers buy digital media using Big Tech’s ad platforms.
To see what captured the attention of our readers this year, check out this list of must-read stories:
1. Not To Be Left Out, Roku Announces Its Clean Room Service In Time For The Upfronts (April)
A mashup of two top trends this year, clean rooms and connected TV, this was our most highly trafficked story of 2022. Although timed to the splashy (and often superficial) TV upfronts, Senior Editor James Hercher goes deeper in signature AdExchanger style, giving the upfront folks something more technical to digest.
2. Google Analytics To Stop Logging IP Addresses And Sunset Old Versions In Privacy Standards Overhaul (March)
Data is disappearing everywhere. Case in point: Google Analytics, which has been facing challenges in Europe, where many countries have banned its use. In 2022, Google Analytics underwent a global overhaul, but the big product change, which we emphasized in our coverage, was the disappearance of IP addresses. Given their ubiquity in other parts of the ad tech ecosystem, this move could foreshadow the end of IP address targeting.
3. Google’s Encrypted Signals Program Just Entered Open Beta, And Here’s What You Need To Know About It (March)
Channeling the psychic connections of ESP, this (unintentionally?) punny acronym refers to Google’s encrypted signals passed from publishers to buyers in bid requests. But similar to psychics, there’s a mind trick going on in this product. Although Google says it won’t support email-based identifiers like UID2, the new ESP product allows marketers and publishers to encrypt the signal and share it with each other on Google’s platform.
4. Meet Performance Max, The Blackest Black Box Of All Google Ad Products (December)
This deep dive into Google’s bet on AI-based media planning and measurement skyrocketed into our top ten in less than a week. It’s a juicy tale. Even as marketers remain addicted to the performance and time savings that Google’s less-than-transparent ad buying products provide, they’re also beginning to see flaws in the black box model. We cover the good, the bad and the ugly of PMax, on which Google is betting its future.
5. How Retail Media Ad Platforms Are Rewriting The Walled Garden Playbook (April)
Marketers need data, and retailers need high-margin revenue. It’s a match made in heaven, right? But as retail media ad platforms proliferate, they’re embracing the walled garden playbook, including being very protective of their customer data, which makes buying across these platforms into a maddeningly manual process.
6. TikTok Adds Third-Party Cookies To Its Pixel – And Tries To Eat Facebook’s Lunch (April)
It’s not surprising that TikTok didn’t publicize it was connecting to an ancient, not-long-for-this-world technology. But as long as third-party cookies are around, why not make use of them? Plus, as this story points out, adding third-party cookies to its pixel is a signal of TikTok’s desire to improve usability for marketers as it rapidly develops into a more mature ad platform.
7. Google Delays The End Of Third-Party Cookies (Again), From 2023 To The End Of 2024 (July)
Google’s second delay of the third-party cookie deadline cracked our top 10. But traffic for this story paled in comparison to Google’s initial bombshell announcement, and it also generated less traffic than the first delay. Google is now known as that kid who doesn’t turn in their homework on time.
8. Adjust And AppLovin Lay Off 12% Of Their Workforce Amid Economic Downturn (June)
With news looming of a recession, sky-high inflation and general economic uncertainty, everyone’s been wondering how the news would affect ad tech. These layoffs, one of the first to hit the sector in 2022, captured eyeballs, as everyone looked for signs of what lies ahead.
9. Amex Is Planning For The Cookieless Future With An Eye On MMM (March)
As marketers procrastinate at figuring out what to do after third-party cookies go away, one big brand shared how it’s taking action. American Express combines multi-touch attribution with market mix modeling, its older (but more reliable) predecessor.
10. Criteo Makes Its Super Bowl Debut (Really) (February)
Advertising against the Super Bowl doesn’t guarantee success (we’re looking at you, crypto brands), but Criteo took advantage of addressable Super Bowl ads to grab eyeballs during the big game. If you want to know what a creative brief for a B2B ad tech company doing a Super Bowl ad looks like, then you’ve come to the right place. (Answer: It involves a lot of silver metal and hand adornments to create a supermodel-esque “robot.”)
Thanks to our readers for showing us what they like – we’ll be sure to cover more of it – and stay tuned in 2023 as we continue to follow the themes of signal loss, economic uncertainty, retail media, data privacy and connected TV.
