For those who closely monitor the divergence in value of addressable (Chrome) vs. non-addressable (Safari) inventory, the drumbeat of third-party cookie (3PC) deprecation drives a rhythmic anxiety against Chrome’s timeline.
No one, including Google, knows how the Privacy Sandbox is going to perform at scale. Early data suggests Sandbox performance is likely to be better than Safari and, at least initially, significantly lower than Chrome with 3PC enabled.
For publishers, losing the 3PC – the much-maligned champion of open web monetization – is daunting. However, once we accept the inevitability of the change, it creates an opportunity to consider long-term strategies to increase inventory value, efficiency and partnerships in the open exchange.
Authentication value extends beyond monetization
Authentication begins with the premise that your brand has a legitimate audience. Increased scrutiny around MFA is a reason to tout the organic audience you’ve worked so hard to build.
Do you have registered users? If so, you should consider integrating with deterministic IDs backed by companies with heavy open market investment like The Trade Desk’s UID2, Yahoo’s ConnectID and LiveRamp’s RampID.
If not, a successful authentication strategy begins by demonstrating a value exchange with the user. Our approach is to create differentiated features between account types and showcase their benefits throughout the session. We’ve found that highlighting optional registration benefits to the user is roughly 20% more effective than a hard wall deeper in the session.
When present, the value of a deterministic ID is significant. Our internal bid-level data across 100% of users (registered and non-registered) shows a 47% increase in CPM. When looking at only cookieless browsers, the CPMs for authenticated users are 107% higher than unauthenticated users.
To reduce login friction, integrating with single sign-on (SSO) providers like Google, Facebook, Yahoo and The Trade Desk’s OpenPass is beneficial. Though we remain solution-agnostic, we blended our SSO selections between what drives the most authentication today (Google and Facebook) with technology from two of our largest buy-side partners, Yahoo and The Trade Desk.
Open Pass is passwordless authentication that exists outside the walled gardens. Although it doesn’t increase UID2 benefit, it provides users a connected experience on sites where it’s been integrated.
It’s easy to imagine the solution driving increased authentication in the open web if the effort successfully gains publisher support. Because the product is new, integration also represents an opportunity for publishers to build a deeper strategic relationship with the largest non-walled-garden DSP.
Improving inventory performance with efficiency
Similar to how an effective authentication strategy begins by creating value for the user, maximizing inventory performance metrics benefits from efficiency.
In testing, publishers should aim for “do no harm” revenue results while measuring improvement to metrics like viewability and CTR that make inventory more attractive. Publishers shouldn’t abandon yield for these changes – rather, they can be integrated without cost and with significant upside.
In addition to buy-side-focused improvements, optimizing for sustainable performance that focuses more on ad quality than request duplication provides foundational improvements to your ad stack and user experience. (By the way, no pun intended on “sustainable performance,” but all of these things also benefit a publisher’s carbon footprint.)
Below are some best practices for open web monetization. These efficiency initiatives lead to better outcomes.
- Stop calling SSPs that fail to clear your price floors on X number of consecutive auctions. This results in fewer ad requests and improved SSP/publisher performance (fill rate, win rate).
- Send a single ad request for multi-size ad units, e.g., 300×250, 300×600, 160×600. This also results in fewer ad requests, plus improved yield from additional ad sizes, and it aligns with DSP policy.
- Stop serving ads to users who are idle on page, not in-focus or off-tab for X seconds. This also produces fewer ad requests, and improves viewability/attention/CTR.
- Stop running auctions for ad units that are not in view. Again, fewer ad requests, improved viewability/attention/CTR.
- Remove ineffective reseller paths. This also reduces the number of ad requests and improves performance for direct connections.
- Remove SSPs with low revenue share of voice (SOV). That’s right: fewer ad requests. Plus, more revenue will go to your most effective partners, and performance with your remaining/most valuable partners will be improved.
Premium programmatic partnerships
SSP consolidation allows publishers to drive a larger impact on partners that have proven to provide differentiated value. Functionally, what does that mean?
Many SSPs have deal teams and SPO packages that deliver exclusive curated media spend to publishers they choose to include. What % of your SSP revenue is open exchange vs. SSP-driven deal packages? Is the deal % growing?
Of course, your inventory needs to align with the goal of the package, but why should you be included? If your partner list is overly extensive or includes an abundance of resellers, it’s possible that your strategy of increased bid density is reducing your impact on your tier-one SSP direct seats, thus limiting your inclusion in deals.
A boutique partner like Kargo is selective about who they work with, but if you can create a case for inclusion, your inventory is represented by direct sellers and sold at CPMs significantly above the open market average. What about DSPs that have built direct-to-publisher offerings like Yahoo Backstage and The Trade Desk’s OpenPath? Partners like this think advertiser-first and target fewer publishers for inclusion.
As a result, how do you create a unique value case to put yourself in a position to be considered? Prioritizing authentication efforts, supporting deterministic IDs, and single-sign-on integrations combined with improved ad stack efficiency are excellent places to begin.
The reality is there will not be a one-to-one replacement for the value of the 3PC. These initiatives are not a performance elixir but provide a path toward quality in the open exchange, a signal I predict will sustain long after the cookie bids farewell.
As publishers, we don’t need to know how 3PC deprecation plays out to put our inventory in the best position to succeed. Our only reasonable rooting interest is one where open web monetization can exist and grow. Let’s build toward that.
“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community.
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