The new era of digital marketing is still unfolding. The nexus of current and upcoming regulations (e.g., GDPR and ADPPA), the limitation of MAIDs and third-party cookie deprecation, along with growing privacy user concern has a direct and immediate impact on marketers. This is what you should know about it.
The introduction of the new advertising tracking by Apple (ATT) in mid-2021 was most likely one of the factors that drove Google to roll out the Google Privacy Sandbox. The Privacy Sandbox is an initiative that consolidates the browsers’ third-party cookie deprecation along with mobile app advertising ID deprecation. Apple ATT is live with a growing adoption rate, and both are expected to be fully implemented and distributed by 2025. The changes are gradual, yet the business impact is faster than you might expect. Marketers are hungry for an instant solution, but the truth is the reality is quite complex.
Stagnation is not an Option
Marketers and brands used to have full visibility of their digital marketing funnel, enabling a deep understanding of their audiences and results’ measurement. The changes outlined above will take time, but some are effective immediately and will be implemented gradually. The quasi-digital era brings limitation of scale and funnel analysis. Marketers should develop a hybrid strategy that is driven by both ID-based and fully anonymized solutions in the next few years. Investing in the same methods won’t yield results. Implementing new solutions and methods is key for accuracy at scale.
Walled Gardens – Clean Rooms
The changes are leading the ecosystem to develop a new and innovative architecture. Many of the players in the market are intent on nurturing their own walled gardens, also known as “clean rooms”. The players across the ecosystem are developing their own data playgrounds, shifting the segmentation from an open cloud with multiple players to specific domain. Clean rooms allow publishers to share data with marketers about their audiences so they can target ads and measure ad results. Clean rooms also enable platforms and marketers to handle data sets in a controlled environment, without sharing that data with other players.
On-Device Marketing
Given the limitations of the new era, innovation is key for successful digital marketing campaigns. Start.io is the first mobile marketing and audience platform to develop a comprehensive set of segmentation and targeting features that maintain the key elements. Mobile apps have a major advantage in digital marketing: the ability to run the publisher code on the device directly and not through third-party browser is crucial for advanced ad-technology solutions, especially in an environment that is becoming more private at a faster rate. Having a direct relationship with mobile app developers enables multiple first-party data solutions driven by AI and tailored for privacy. With current and upcoming changes in regulations, alongside updates in mobile operating systems, Start.io is reinventing mobile marketing by encapsulating the user segment on the device-level, and sharing it without any identifier or by utilizing an approved ID.
Bottom line
A new era for digital marketers is starting. It won’t be the same old programmatic, however, it doesn’t have to be problematic. An implementation of innovative solutions and technologies along with embracement of new methodologies should help marketers to put their campaigns back on track.
