With the third-party cookie on the way out, there are a plethora of ‘cookieless’ identity solutions being introduced to the industry. In this piece, Lotame managing director Luke Williams [pictured] gives his tips on how to cut through the noise when looking at identity solutions in a post-cookie world.
It’s getting awfully crowded in the identity landscape. Nearly every month, a new identity player announces their game-changing solution to the FLoC-apocalypse. Now that Google has committed to a third-party cookie replacement, the heat is on marketers, agencies and publishers to accept the behemoth’s proposal or seek alternatives. If you’re not sold on giving in to the walled gardens, identity is a viable and sustainable way to keep digital advertising running and help businesses survive. If you know what to ask your potential partner, that is.
Here are thought-starter questions to navigate the identity solution landscape:
- Does your solution support the authenticated or open web?
The authenticated web requires users to login using an email address most commonly to access content. Early estimates expect the authenticated web to capture 10-20 per cent of users by 2022. The other 80 per cent of the open web is not addressable using authentication but just as valuable and a huge opportunity for top funnel activities like prospecting. A portfolio of both solutions ensures maximum scale and coverage.
- Does your solution support enriched or empty IDs?
Not all identity solutions are created equally. An enriched ID can offer up to 200+ behavioral attributes attached to the identifier, a treasure trove of privacy-compliant, pseudonymized data for targeting, optimization, reporting, frequency management, and more. Many other IDs are empty and some charge additional costs to coordinate and attach relevant data for addressable advertising.
- Where privacy is concerned, is your ID transparent or opaque?
Look for a solution that makes it easy and accessible for consumers to access, request, and delete their data, with a clear, auditable trail. Opaque providers obscure themselves to users, reduce the ability to see data sharing across platforms, and hide tracking methods.
- Is your ID solution siloed or interoperable?
If solutions don’t or can’t talk to one another, you run the risk of incurring translation activity fees, technical incompatibilities across regions, and the loss of consumer profiling and segmentation work. Interoperable solutions, by contrast, offer flexibility and agility across digital advertising that saves time, money, and resources.
Take these questions with you to your next identity conversation or download this handy infographic. We all need to be talking more openly about the alternatives available outside the walled gardens. There’s growth and value to be had in a post-cookie, privacy-first connected future.
