B&TB&TB&T
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Technology
  • Regulars
    • Agency Scorecards
    • Best of the Best
    • Campaigns of the Month
    • CMO Power List
    • CMOs to Watch
    • Culture Bites
    • Fast 10
    • New Business Winners
    • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Jobs
  • Awards
    • 30 Under 30
    • B&T Awards
    • Cairns Crocodiles
    • Women In Media
    • Women Leading Tech
Search
Trending topics:
  • Cairns Crocodiles
  • Nine
  • Seven
  • Pinterest
  • WPP
  • AFL
  • Anthony Albanese
  • Thinkerbell
  • NRL
  • Federal Election
  • Cannes Lions
  • State of Origin
  • AI
  • B&T Women in Media
  • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Channel 10
  • ARN
  • TV Ratings
  • Radio Ratings
  • Sports Marketing

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
Reading: Google: Interest-Based Audience Ads Perform Nearly As Well As Third-Party Cookie Ads
Share
B&TB&T
Subscribe
Search
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Technology
  • Regulars
    • Agency Scorecards
    • Best of the Best
    • Campaigns of the Month
    • CMO Power List
    • CMOs to Watch
    • Culture Bites
    • Fast 10
    • New Business Winners
    • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Jobs
  • Awards
    • 30 Under 30
    • B&T Awards
    • Cairns Crocodiles
    • Women In Media
    • Women Leading Tech
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
B&T > Advertising > Google: Interest-Based Audience Ads Perform Nearly As Well As Third-Party Cookie Ads
AdvertisingTechnology

Google: Interest-Based Audience Ads Perform Nearly As Well As Third-Party Cookie Ads

Tom Fogden
Published on: 19th April 2023 at 10:34 AM
Tom Fogden
Share
3 Min Read
SHARE

Google has been testing digital ad solutions without third-party cookies and the results seem to be promising.

“In the first quarter of 2023, Google’s ads platforms conducted an experiment to understand how our interest-based audience (IBA) solutions perform when they rely on a combination of privacy-preserving signals,” explained Dan Taylor, the company’s vice president of global ads.

“These signals included contextual information, the Topics API from the Privacy Sandbox and first-party identifiers such as Publisher Provided IDs. Our research did not compare the performance of third-party cookies to the Topics API alone, but rather a broader suite of signals available in a privacy-first world.”

Using interest-based audience solutions that cover affinity, in-market, custom audiences and demographic segments on Google’s display network, in combination with privacy-preserving signals, Google found that return on investment decreased, though not as much as ad cost, and that click-through rates remained high.

Specifically, Google Display Ads advertiser spending on IBA decreased by between two and seven per cent compared to third-party cookie results. The conversion per dollar amount, as a proxy for return on investment, decreased by between one and three per cent.

Click-through rates, meanwhile, remained “within 90 per cent of the status quo.” Google said it also saw similar performance on Display & Video 360 ads.

Taylor added that while the experiment suggested that AI-powered optimisation can improve campaign performance, campaigns using optimised targeting or Maximise conversions bid strategies were less impacted by the removal of third-party cookies. This indicated that machine learning could play a significant role in driving results.

However, the results “should not be considered as an unequivocal indicator of Google’s IBA performance after the third-party cookie deprecation.”

Despite that, Taylor saw fit to throw some scorn on rival technologies being touted as alternatives to third-party cookies.

“Some are turning to blocking personalized advertising outright — which can lead to more intrusive forms of tracking such as fingerprinting — while others are building alternative identifiers to track people across the web and apps,” he said.

“We believe that neither of these are good outcomes for user privacy and that ad tech platforms can set a new standard for privacy, meet consumers’ expectations, and give businesses the tools they need to grow through the power of innovation.”

Google also said that it will continue to iterate and run more rounds of testing ahead of the death knell on third-party cookies finally tolls.

Join more than 30,000 advertising industry experts
Get all the latest advertising and media news direct to your inbox from B&T.

No related posts.

Share
Tom Fogden
By Tom Fogden
Follow:
Tom is B&T's editor and covers everything that helps brands connect with customers and the agencies and brands behind the work. He'll also take any opportunity to grab a mic and get in front of the camera. Before joining B&T, Tom spent many long years in dreary London covering technology for Which? and Tech.co, the automotive industry for Auto Futures and occasionally moonlighting as a music journalist for Notion and Euphoria.

Latest News

Westpac Banks On Michelle Klein To Lead Marketing & Growth
23/06/2025
Diversity Council Australia Celebrate Its 40th Birthday With New Brand Identity
23/06/2025
The B&T Awards Are Back!
23/06/2025
Cannes Lions Investigating Grand Prix Win Amid Claims Of Manipulated Submission
23/06/2025
//

B&T is Australia’s leading news publication magazine for the advertising, marketing, media and PR industries.

 

B&T is owned by parent company The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.

About B&T

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise

Top Categories

  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Opinion
  • Technology
  • TV Ratings

Sign Up for Our Newsletter



B&TB&T
Follow US
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Register Lost your password?