Adform, the only global, independent and fully integrated advertising platform built for modern marketing, has unveiled a PwC independent report showing that first-party IDs deliver significant uplift and scale on programmatic ad campaigns run with its ID Fusion solution.

The report, completed by PwC in association with OMD Norway and Renault, involved the running of a real-world campaign using Adform’s ID Fusion technology. Adform’s ID Fusion solution uses first-party IDs instead of third-party cookies to unlock scale for common use-cases such as frequency capping, audience targeting and reporting.

This new, first-of-its kind, PwC study brings reassuring proof for marketers that they have nothing to fear from the so-called ‘death of the cookie’: funnelling ad traffic with identifiers through the ID Fusion solution drove a significant 669 per cent increase in the addressable audience, as well as 161 per cent increase in click through rates, resulting in higher viewability and superior eCPM, and ultimately lowering CPC by 65 per cent.

Additionally, using first-party IDs delivered higher ad viewability, with 80 per cent versus 75 per cent for third-party cookie traffic. Only ad traffic with first-party IDs was able to meet daily spend targets across the campaign period and deliver in full.

In addition to the study of the live OMD Norway and Renault campaign using Adform’s ID Fusion solution, PwC also ran a detailed analysis of Adform historical data, reviewing performance of campaigns ran across environments that support first-party IDs, but not third-party cookies – Safari and Firefox.

“This is particularly relevant because 50 per cent of all users are on cookieless environments while the remaining 50 per cent will become cookieless next year,” said Jochen Schlosser, CTO at Adform.

In the data analysed by PwC, third-party cookies accounted for 66 per cent of users reached on Chrome inventory and only 4 per cent of users on Safari and Firefox. By comparison, when using first-party IDs through ID Fusion, up to 85 per cent of Safari and Firefox users from selected publishers, previously inaccessible, could be identified and turned into addressable users. As a result, using first-party IDs achieved a higher CTR per cemt than for unaddressable inventory.

Lotte Gundersen, digital marketing manager at Renault Norway, said: “ID Fusion has allowed us to reach otherwise un-addressable audiences in cookieless environments. As an advertiser, it is reassuring to know that addressable marketing will continue to be a tool that we can rely on in the future also in cookieless environments, and that we can continue to reach our customers and to optimize our advertising efforts in a manner better aligned with the modern consumers expectations around privacy.”

Carl-Adam Sjölander, digital director at OMD Norway, added: “Our experience with ID Fusion so far has shown great promise for the future, and we look forward to working with Adform and our publisher partners to bring our clients powerful media activations also after we’ve said a final goodbye to the third-party cookie. ID Fusion promises to be a valuable solution going forward as a flexible and agnostic platform that encourages an even closer cooperation with premium publishers to tap into their data in a transparent and privacy-compliant way.”

Adam Edelshain, director, PwC, said: “PwC’s Marketing and Media team firmly believes that trust and transparency are crucial to the healthy future of the digital advertising ecosystem. By subjecting their ID Fusion solution to independent testing, Adform have continued to demonstrate their commitment to this.”

“The phase out of the third-party cookie has seen previously reliable systems unravel. With cookies being made redundant across browsers, channels and devices, marketers risk losing vital segmentation, targeting and analytics capacity. Adform’s ID Fusion platform brings order to the ecosystem. We’re delighted to see the PwC independent report confirm that cookieless success is already a current reality. It’s an exciting time for the industry as it has to evolve quickly to meet new regulatory requirements, and we’ll continue our work to provide the foundation for a fair, open, and privacy-secure advertising future,” concluded Jakob Bak, Adform SVP and co-founder.