While there are plenty of benefits to digital meetups, there is no denying that live events provide unmatched networking opportunities. This year, thanks to loosening restrictions, many key organizers are gearing up to bring back the digital marketing events as we know them from before. 

Media buyers, entrepreneurs, business owners, and agencies are all looking for insights, experience, and most importantly, networking opportunities. To ensure no deadline is missed, it’s best to make a list of potentially valuable events ahead of time. 

To make it easier, we’ve listed summits, conferences, and expos that are not only relevant to the programmatic industry but also worthwhile to attend for anyone interested in growing a brand in a digital space.

NRF 2022 Retail’s Big Show

The NRF 2022 Retail’s Big Show conference brings together representatives from retail companies all over the world. This event is not limited to digital marketing. The sessions cover a wide range of topics, from entrepreneur and investment advice to innovation and opportunities. The NRF Big Show is an experience tailored to retail visionaries.

Since 2018, the event organizers have put greater focus on showcasing new technologies from both online and offline retail spaces. Consequently, a part of the event is dedicated to budding solutions that aim to revolutionize the retail space. 

RampUp 2022

RampUp is a conference where marketing technology enthusiasts meet to discuss the future of the industry. The 1.5-day event encompasses sessions on dealing with the most pressing digital marketing issues as well as strategies on improving data handling, partnerships, and performance optimization strategies.

This year, RampUp will be happening in hybrid mode. What’s more, all participants will be given the possibility to access the sessions online, regardless of whether they participated live or online.

Mobile World Capital (MWC)

Mobile World Capital Barcelona is an annual event dedicated to the mobile communications industry. The participants usually include such technological giants as Facebook, Nokia, Ericsson, Intel, LG, or Vodafone. The theme for 2022 is Discover Connectivity Unleashed and the event is directed at business and marketing professionals from the mobile advertising sector.

While two previous editions encountered hiccups and presenter withdrawals caused by the pandemic, this year, the event is anticipated to meet the standard of the pre-pandemic editions, while offering the added benefits of the hybrid model.

The date of the MWC Los Angeles Edition is yet to be announced, while the MWC 2022 Shanghai Edition will be happening June 29th – July 1st. 

Affiliate World Global

Affiliate World Global is the official offline meeting place for affiliate marketers from all over the world. The conference intends to focus on all things affiliate marketing, with special emphasis on Facebook ad tracking, lead generation, eCommerce, and additional sessions on pressing topics such as email marketing, native advertising, or chatbots.

This edition of the Affiliate World conference will actually combine two previously canceled events – Affiliate World Europe 2021 and Affiliate World Asia 2021. All attendees receive a special pass to replay sessions online for 3 months after the event.

Affiliate Grand Slam 

Affiliate Grand Slam is yet another digital marketing event that brings together the industry leaders, innovators, affiliates, companies, and businesses operating within the sphere of online marketing. While the in-person gathering is about scouting for business opportunities in the world of affiliate marketing, search and programmatic enthusiasts can still benefit from the shared knowledge.

With two editions – one in Dubai and the other one in Europe, the event tackles such topics as digital ad tech and upcoming technological revolutions, marketing automation, market trends, e-commerce, social media marketing, content creation, and many more. 

The 2022 editions are set to begin as planned.

LeadsCon

LeadsCon is a meetup point for lead generation and performance marketing enthusiasts from all over the world. This digital marketing event offers its participants the opportunity to discover new business partnerships, gain strategic insights on performance marketing and lead generation as well as introduce practical solutions for dealing with the ever-changing market.

While most attendees of LeadsCon are lead buyers and agencies, this is an important event for agencies and marketing professionals from all corners of the online marketing industry.

Affiliate Summit

Affiliate Summit is yet another conference with multiple locations. The conference revolves all around scaling online businesses in the fast-growing retail environment. The event is aimed at affiliates and media buyers working with the ecommerce industry but it’s also the perfect place to search for innovative ideas to grow your business. 

The affiliate summit is split into 4 in-person events although not all of them are planned to take place this year. 

Search and Performance Insider Summit 

Search and Performance Insider Summit is the first conference on the list that focuses strictly on programmatic marketing. This is a must-attend digital marketing event for performance marketers, agencies, and business leaders in search of technology companies providing the latest trends in programmatic advertising solutions. 

Previous editions of SPIS provided new insights into programmatic strategies after COVID-19. They also touched upon the ongoing changes in terms of growing privacy concerns. We can only expect the new edition to offer more valuable insights on the critical updates in the sphere of online privacy.

Digital Marketing Expo & Conference (DMEXCO)

The Digital Marketing Expo & Conference is an annual event gathering the best of the best from the digital marketing industry. This is the largest conference tackling the subject of digital advertising and the program is so varied as to appeal to any kind of audience. DMEXCO offers seminars, debates, expositions, and masterclasses. It also covers a wide array of marketing channels, including programmatic. 

Last year’s event didn’t shy away from topics like privacy changes, brand safety, and upcoming cookieless revolutions. It’s safe to say we can expect a lot more of that this year.

Traffic & Conversion Summit

Traffic & Conversion Summit lasts 3 days and is packed with sessions straight from industry leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators. The agenda includes the staple of digital marketing, that is, future predictions, social and influencer marketing, content, email, automation, e-commerce strategies, and a corner for media buyers.

Whether you choose the in-person event providing an unmatched networking experience or the virtual digital marketing event that can be comfortably experienced from anywhere in the world, there is bound to be something valuable for all niches of the advertising community.

Digiday Publishing Summit

While the Digiday Publishing Summit is on the expensive side, the networking functions of the event are unlike any other. On top of three days of discussions and insights, attendees are granted two or four eight-minute sessions with publishing executives of their choice. The one-on-one meetings are what makes this digital marketing event special. 

The publishing summit will be happening in person. The differently priced passes vary only in the number of one-on-one sessions available and the benefit of early access booking. 

Note: September edition as well and the Europe edition are yet to be announced.

Brandweek

Brandweek is a conference from the leading source of digital marketing information – Adweek. The event, just like the rest of the platform, touches on topics from the advertising industry, such as innovative technology, content strategy, privacy issues, brand building, and anything in between. 

While the organizational details for 2022 are still tentative, previous editions included attendees from just about every sphere of life e.g. sports, social media, food, fashion, technology, transport, and many more.

Digiday Media Buying Summit

Digiday Media Buying Summit is another digital marketing event hosted by the Digiday crew. This time, focused on media buying, the summit will deal with challenges and opportunities the mid-pandemic world will bring to agencies as well as business and marketing professionals. 

Similar to the Digiday Publishing Summit, the event offers the unique benefit of accessing special one-on-one sessions with executives of one’s choice and the number of such sessions depends on the level of pass purchased.

What? Digiday Media Buying Summit

When? March 7th – 9th

Where? New Orleans 

Moscow Affiliate Conference (MAC)

While there is still little information on the 2022 MAC edition, last year’s event had around 3000 attendees and 2 full days packed with top agencies and media buying professionals. While the majority of attendees fall under the category of webmasters and marketers, programmatic newbies and gurus alike can benefit from the event.

The 2020 digital marketing event had to be postponed due to the Covid outbreak, however, the 2021 edition took place as planned and there are no issues anticipated for 2022 either.

Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit

Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit is yet another version of the previously mentioned events by Digiday. This time, the focus lies solely on programmatic strategies. While third-party cookies are dying, programmatic marketing is changing rapidly. 

The leading experts of the industry will attempt to answer the most burning questions regarding the new programmatic landscape.

Web Summit

Web Summit has been called the world’s premier tech conference. In 2021, it brought together over 40k people including many senior leaders and technology pioneers of the vast webspace. The event is not limited to digital advertising but focuses on the whole online entertainment industry, including eCommerce. 

Last year’s topics included such niches as advertising, crypto, gaming, investment, leadership, sport, social media, and many many more. In short, there is no company that wouldn’t fit the criteria to benefit from this conference. 

eCom World

Ecom World is the largest e-commerce conference that comes exclusively in an online form. It deals with the topic of leading and growing an e-commerce business from the ground up. Consequently, the topics cover every aspect of such an operation, including customer service, store design, brand building, and advertising (including search advertising).

It’s possible to attend as a solution provider or a freelancer, brand, or e-commerce store. The difference between the kind of ticket is the option to get featured on the marketplace, plus prolonged access to conference benefits.

Hero Conf 

Hero Conf is a meeting place for brands, agencies, and SaaS companies from all over the world. The event is aimed not only at professional-level enterprises but also at freelancers and affiliate marketers that are only getting into the business. PPC advertising is the theme of this conference.

Hero Conf comes in two editions. The schedule for the Austin event is already out and it includes such topics as Programmatic Advertising for PPC Experts. So, while this isn’t strictly a programmatic event, it will be useful for business and marketing professionals who want to expand their knowledge.

Search Love Conference

The Searchlove Conference is a two-day event offering all kinds of skill-building workshops. Despite the name, the conference covers a much broader range of subjects than search. From SEO, analytics, and customer experience to email marketing, search and Google algorithm updates, Searchlove provides value to anyone from the digital marketing sphere.

Searchlove comes in three in-person editions. What’s more, all attendees can access the slides after the conference or opt to purchase a special video ticket that grants access to conference recordings.

DigiMarCon

DigiMarCon is the largest digital marketing conference series in the world. The lineup of events includes 40 separate events in 18 different countries. When it comes to topics, there is no specific focus point. Everything connected to media, advertising, and marketing gets its fair share of attention. 

While not all events will have their online counterparts, DigiMarCon enthusiasts who can’t or won’t be able to attend the events can still benefit from a special online edition. 

We won’t be sharing the full lineup here due to a large number of events, but the full list of conferences with dates and locations can be accessed here.

MozCon

MozCon is a conference for SEO professionals that also touches upon other topics from the online marketing sphere. Agencies and executives looking to expand the outreach of their businesses are bound to benefit from this event. However, if your interest is purely in programmatic advertising, this event might be the most optional position on our list.

The agenda for 2022 is set to be announced in spring this year. Moz customers, however, are already able to purchase the early bird tickets.

Programmatic Summit Melbourne/Sydney

Marketing professionals from down under can’t miss the Programmatic Summit created in partnership with IAB Australia. The event is aimed at digital marketing professionals from both supply and demand sides of the programmatic industry. 

There are two editions of the Programmatic Summit and while this is a large regional event, presenters are not limited to locals and the agenda tackles global marketing issues.

Munich International Search Summit

The Munich International Search Summit focuses on global problems and challenges of working with search traffic. While Search engine marketing is the primary focus of this conference, search engine optimization is an area that won’t be omitted. 

The 2022 agenda is not yet fully developed, however, sessions that are already planned include the latest trends in Google Ads, SEO content clustering, and practical solutions for search marketers.

What’s more, three additional editions are in the works. Search Summit London, Global, and Barcelona are all set to return in 2022, however, details are yet to be announced.

UnGagged London

The UnGagged London conference is advertised as an edgy, liberating event without the sales pitches and trivial bits. It’s aimed at intermediate to professional digital marketers and offers a broad program including programmatic marketing. 

While in the previous years, Ungagged appeared in the US as well, in 2022 only the UK version has been announced so far. What’s more, there is no online coverage. The event organizers take pride in providing the attendees with practical solutions that have not yet been made common knowledge.

Programmatic I/O

Programmatic I/O is a strictly programmatic conference for both the sell-side and buy-side of the digital marketing industry. The event allows attendees to meet leading experts and decision-makers in the sphere of programmatic advertising. The two-day event is aimed at anyone operating in the new cookieless world. 

While the 2022 agenda is yet to be announced, last year’s schedule covered all the key areas of programmatic growth (e.g. privacy changes, first-party data takeover, or new forms of performance measurement).

Programmatic Pioneers Summit 

The Programmatic Pioneers Summit unites programmatic and marketing leaders from all over Europe. The event includes brands, agencies, technology providers, platform providers, and anyone else operating in the programmatic space. 

With the key topics revolving around the cookieless future of digital marketing, this advertising conference provides all the strategic insights for brands planning to grow their business in 2022.

Inbound

The Inbound conference is not limited to programmatic media but encompasses the whole sphere of digital marketing. Apart from the latest trends and innovations, Inbound provides the fundamentals needed to immerse yourself in the world of online, e.g. meetups allowing you to connect with peers and exchange ideas.

Hosted by Hubspot, Inbound is gearing up to organize its biggest online event in 2022. All details are yet to be announced, however, Inbound has a proven track record of delivering one of the best virtual events amongst digital marketing conferences.

Conclusions

There is no shortage of networking events available in 2022. In fact, many suspended events or online events are back to their regular in-person form. Marketers and agencies looking to discover new solutions are presented with a varied line-up with a focus on any sphere of affiliate marketing. 

2022 will be a year of making connections and discovering new solutions. 

See what NewProgrammatic has to offer.

Check out the demo!

The post Programmatic Advertising Conferences – Most valuable events to attend in 2022 appeared first on NewProgrammatic Blog.

Each digital marketing method has its perks, and if you combine that with a clear outline of your marketing strategy, you have a two-step recipe for growth. However, opting for popular solutions puts your brand up against a very saturated market. And it might seem like just about anything in terms of advertising has been done already. But some solutions, albeit popular, remain underutilized. And that’s exactly what can help you grow your brand.  

The bravest attempts at pioneering in advertising, such as Uber’s clever drone campaign, have left the world speechless. But paving the way with extravagant campaigns is unaffordable or inefficient for most brands. Uber’s campaign, although it was newsworthy and went viral, was also considered too much.

On the other side of the spectrum are the time-tested solutions. They’ve been here for nearly two decades, and what they have in common is that people either grew to accept them or hate them. The percentage of US users using an adblocker grew by 72% since 2014. Also, a recent study from HubSpot revealed that the omnipresent pop-up ads are actually the most hated ad format. Pre or mid-roll video ads were a close second with 100% of consumers skipping such ads whenever possible. Invasiveness and excessive frequency were also cited as one of the things most likely to turn the sentiment against the brand to negative.  

Another study quoted modal, intra-content, and autoplay ads as the most hated. Deceptive links made the top of the list as well. The common pattern is – if the ad is begging for attention, it’s not likely to get it. It’s just going to build brand resentment. 

Similarly, looking for unknown and unique ways of promoting your brand can easily backfire. Experimental ad placements on gaming consoles, smart fridges, smart TVs, and even space satellites are a hot topic, but they’re not exactly painted in the best light. In fact, these formats have not yet reached the status of popularity and there are already solutions for blocking them.

But we’re not here to tell you what ads to avoid, we’re here to bring your attention to the underutilized ad formats with potential. They often have proven track records of bringing solid results but they’re not overused (yet!). 

Let’s take a look at the 7 underutilized ways of driving traffic to your website.

1. Contextual advertising

Contextual advertising is currently the top contender to take the place of overall best ad format. Since third-party cookies are becoming more and more scarce, cookieless ad formats are the future of privacy-first advertising. Contextual targeting is promising not only a similar level of performance but also a targeting method that is not as intrusive and meets the highest standards of brand safety. Consumer attitudes towards contextual personalization are most favorable in comparison with other types of personalization, such as behavioral, retargeting, demographic, etc.

Driving traffic to your brand via contextual advertising ensures that ads will be displayed in a relevant context. Such ad formats include (but are not limited to) in-app advertising and search traffic, especially from alternative search engines. 

That’s why in-app ads, being a prime example of contextual ads, are considered brand-safe, because the environment of the app is highly controlled. Apps are also preferred over mobile sites due to better user experience, speed, and extra features. 58% of millennials prefer shopping through apps because of the streamlined process and pre-saved data. Apps are simply more engaging. And moving your online advertising into a controlled in-app shopping experience with keyword targeting is a good way to drive more conversions. An example of an in-app ad provider is AdColony but you can find other DSPs offering in-app mobile amongst other ad formats.

Another example of brand-safe advertising are contextual search ads. This method of direct-to-customer advertising can be provided by Google Search, Brave In-Browser Ads, but also NewProgrammatic solutions. At NewProgrammatic, we offer two ad formats based on user intent – whenever users start typing something into a search bar, they’re immediately provided with thematic suggestions. Such precise targeting is made possible by close relationships with trusted publishers like mobile keyword apps, search engines, or similar. 

2. Social ads 

Social ads might be a surprise on a list of underutilized ad formats, however, the social space is currently so vast, there are still apps and sites that haven’t been fully exploited. Of course, Google Ads and Facebook ads will not be discussed here. The ‘duopoly’ already dominates the ad tech industry with a combined share of close to 80% of the £14bn digital advertising market. 

Social media marketing, however, is not limited to the giants. Many other platforms offer advertising placements and unique platform-native ad formats. Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram are full of video ads, rolls, brand-made filters, interactive spots, and other creative solutions.  

Let’s take a look at some of the underappreciated social media platforms with solid advertising options:

Pinterest Ads

Pinterest is a platform where users can save pictures and videos on their dashboards. It’s the most common platform for grouping ideas and inspiration. Pinterest’s audience is made up of 70% of women, and 85% of usage occurs on mobile devices. Pinterest Ads look like pins, so they blend in seamlessly with the rest of the content. 

The available options include: static ads, video ads, install ads, carousel ads, shopping ads, and collection ads. With Pinterest, you can target keywords and interests, demographics, audience lists, and specific ad placements.  

Quora Ads

Quora is a forum-like platform offering the community to ask and answer each other’s questions. The platform has a 43/57 female to male audience ratio, and mobile is the audience segment that generates the most clicks on Quora Ads. What’s more interesting is that 65% of Quora users have a college degree and 54% of adult users report a yearly income of $100k or more.

Quora Ads are based on contextual targeting or behavioral targeting. The ads are placed amongst user-generated responses to questions and can be seen as topically related content. Quora ads are intent-based and similar to Google Ads with the advantage of being a less saturated platform.

TikTok Ads

TikTok is a video-sharing platform that focuses on social networking through sharing short videos. The platform has only been established in 2016 but the user base has already reached nearly 700 million monthly active users. Also, 60% of TikTok’s worldwide audience are between 25 to 44 years old, with US statistics alone learning towards the younger demographic with 69% of users being between 13 and 24 years old.

TikTok ads come in the form of videos that blend in with the rest of the content. The ads can be placed on various pages (e.g. in-feed or details) and the supported targeting includes audience, demographics, interests and behaviors, as well as detailed device segmentation. 

3. Real-time bidding (RTB) Advertising

Real-time bidding is actually a mechanism that enables programmatic mass advertising via ad exchange platforms combining both demand-side (DSP) and supply-side platforms (SSPs). Ads can be bought by impression or click in real-time so there is no need for a direct relationship between the advertiser and the publisher. In fact, platforms based on real-time bidding are often self-served and have an array of targeting options to place bids on. 

Some examples of RTB-based programmatic ad formats are push notifications or domain redirects.

Push notifications can drive traffic to your brand by appearing directly on user devices. Push ads are most popular on Android mobile devices thanks to their native appearance; however, you can also display push notifications on desktop devices and iOS mobile devices thanks to the in-page push variant. Push ads are extremely cheap in comparison to other brand-suitable marketing formats and they can instantly reach the highest volumes of traffic. 

Push ads audience consists of users who subscribe to receive notifications from websites they are interested in. Ad exchanges group them into audiences that are most likely to display interest in a certain topic (e.g. travel, education, or e-commerce); but you can also choose to target all of the available volumes in a particular location to reach the widest audience.

Opt-in rates for push notifications amount to roughly 81% on Android devices and 51% on iOS devices. Open rates differ across the industries but the overall medium open rate for iOS is 3.4% and 4.6% for Android. Plain and generic push notifications are also not the preferred medium of promotion and there’s a much higher likelihood of success with optimized campaigns.

Emojis (20%), rich formats (25%), tailored send times (40%), advanced targeting (threefold), and personalization (fourfold) can all improve reaction rates. 

Domain redirects, on the other hand, allow you to bid on misspelled URLs – after entering such a URL in the search bar, a user would be redirected to your chosen destination. This type of traffic is also known as parked domain traffic or zero-click traffic. It is another cheap method of driving traffic to your website based on search intent.

For example, if someone looking for a particular domain, let’s say, a store with cocktail dresses misspells the URL of the site, you can bid on that exact misspelling and lead them straight to your brand (presumably also selling cocktail dresses). The targeting options are based on keyword targeting — brand to brand or generic. You can also segment your audience based on other parameters such as a device used or location depending on what the ad exchange platform has to offer.

4. Augmented reality ads

Augmented reality has been a growing trend in the advertising industry. It might also be one of the most creative and engaging ways of advertising. 

But what’s the use of augmented reality in advertising? It’s simple –  it provides an additional layer to a physical experience. Some notable examples of applying AR to digital marketing are: visualizing the view from stadium seats before purchasing, virtually trying on cosmetics, clothes or accessories, and decorating your home through an IKEA app. 

But that’s not all. Augmented reality has made some unforgettable advertising campaigns in the public space as well. Bus stops seem to be the objects most easily adjustable for an augmented reality experience. That’s why campaigns like Pepsi’s Sci-Fi experience went viral worldwide and brought an increase in Pepsi Max sales 35% year on year (YoY) for the month the campaign was live.

Augmented reality ads, however, cannot be purchased from a programmatic advertising solution. They are provided by creative agencies such as Grand Visual and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take years to plan and execute. 

5. Help a reporter out – HARO

Volunteering your expert knowledge to reporters can be a great way to put your company out there with very little effort. HARO is a special system for journalists to submit requests for expert insights about a certain subject. On the other end of that system, there are professionals and brand representatives who possess expert knowledge on certain subjects. 

While signing up for HARO, you can specify exactly what is your area of expertise. Then, you will receive multiple requests a day and it will be up to you to pick them, get in touch, and discuss what you can offer. Getting featured in a story can not only increase your website traffic but also provide SEO benefits in the form of a quality backlink. There are some things to remember as HARO can be rather competitive:

• Be quick – the requests are sent out in the form of mass-mailing and there can be hundreds of brand representatives with relevant experience ready to pitch their brand.
• Be persistent – for the same reason as above, it might take some time for you to be chosen as the expert that receives recognition.
• Be honest – only pitch if your expertise is exactly what’s needed. HARO is a system for reporters to find experts and you offering inapplicable knowledge is only going to waste everyone’s time.

In short, HARO can be a great free method of gaining and maintaining PR. If your pitch is good enough and you get contacted by a reporter from a known site, you get the kind of exposure you would otherwise have to pay hundreds of dollars for.

6. Content marketing

If you’re wondering why content marketing is on the list of underutilized ways of driving traffic to your brand, it’s because there is a lot more to it than first meets the eye. Content marketing is all about attracting customers to your brand with content. You can have an informative blog and share insightful social posts but you can also go one step further and employ some of the underused tactics. Let us show you two note-worthy options. 

Newsjacking

Newsjacking is the practice of capitalizing on popular news stories to drive traffic to your own site. While the name of that practice might suggest shady activities, when done right, newsjacking can be beneficial from the PR standpoint and can generate organic traffic for weeks to come. 

While the simplest of newsjacking would be to spin an angle on a popular news story to make it relevant to your industry, or sharing your commentary as an expert, there are more creative ways to go about it. 

Have you heard about McDonald’s losing their Big Mac trademark in Europe? When Burger King Sweden heard about it, they decided to exploit that to their advantage by poking a little fun and naming their sandwiches ‘Big Mac-ish but flame-grilled of course’ or ‘Like a Big Mac but actually big’. 

Nonetheless, stealing another’s brand’s spotlight is not a necessary SEO technique. Content marketing entails not only search engine optimization but also gaining referral traffic from sources such as social media channels, an email marketing campaign, guest posting, or video marketing. While it might seem like you’d need a massive marketing department to handle all of that, there is a much better solution.

Recycling and repurposing content

Recycling and repurposing content can generate more traffic with only some additional effort. It also makes scaling your audience easier by reaching people on different platforms and in different ways. If not all channels align with your audience’s preferences, repurposing content is bound to reach the nooks and crannies and bring you more customers. 

How can you repurpose and recycle content?

Assuming that you have the base – the first piece of content e.g. an article – you can now turn into a different kind of content:

• Illustrative video content,
• A podcast or a series of podcasts expanding on the subject,
• Various guest posts adding a host-specific angle,
• An infographic to be posted on social media,
• Gated content with the purpose of lead generation and/or exclusive content inside,
• A live webinar,
• Create a roundup or a learning hub,
• A course sharing your brand’s expertise on the subject,
• Organize a live event in collaboration with other experts.

Some Internet users prefer to read, others to listen, to watch, or to interact. And while your own site and social media might be one of the biggest players among the channels used in marketing in 2021, your SEO efforts should expand further beyond, preferably over most of the available channels.

Just remember that sharing old content with superficial updates is not content repurposing. While you can build off of something, old materials should not be reused just for the sake of attracting new customers without bringing any additional value.  

7. Loyalty programs

Continuously attracting new customers to the brand still doesn’t fully account for its success. Generating more sales through search engine optimization, guest blogging, finding new sources of website traffic or paid advertising is not enough to guarantee prosperity. That’s because returning customers spend 67% more than new customers. What’s more, the cost of acquisition of a new customer is 5 to 10 times higher than selling to an existing customer. 

Loyalty programs are on the rise and the reason is that they are effective. Despite the relatively saturated market (with more than 90% of companies having some sort of loyalty program), and the lesser importance of loyalty programs among younger generations, focusing on a program that maximizes value can bring a competitive advantage.

Loyalty programs can take many forms. However, the most common ones in the e-commerce world focus on gathering points either for the number of purchased items or for the money spent. What customers can receive in return is cashback, discounts, additional promotions, coupons, early access, free shipping, free products, or coupons for affiliated brands.

Additionally, providing an individualized loyalty program experience takes customer satisfaction to the next level. According to Bond’s Loyalty report, an increase in personalization of a program increases member satisfaction by over 6 times. That means that if the first-party data gathered on the user base is used in an efficient and relevant way, it can increase not only the feeling of brand affiliation but also customer retention and spend.

Overall, loyalty programs are a solid option for driving traffic to your brand but they do come with certain drawbacks as well.

Conclusions

Growing your business means expanding the reach of your advertising efforts. That can mean adding more advertising campaigns, cultivating mutually beneficial partnerships, targeting wider keywords, investing in search engine optimization, or buying into any of the ad tech industry’s trends.

However, just as much as going with tried and tested results might not work for your business, being innovative and thinking outside the box can bring varied results. Ultimately, it’s about what works best for your business, and the advertising market is filled with solutions that still have some untapped potential. 

We talked about contextual targeting as the best brand-safe way to increase traffic to your website. We also mentioned social media ads as many brands don’t look past social media influencers and the ad tech duopoly – thus missing out on underused platforms that have the capability to generate significant traffic. Next, we brought your attention to real-time bidding (RTB), which despite being a very popular method, is often omitted from brands’ advertising strategies. 

The list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning less conventional methods of gaining recognition such as helping out reporters or going big with augmented reality ads. Despite SEO ranking being on the mind of every website manager, strategies such as newsjacking or repurposing content can boost your brand’s organic traffic without taking a long time to complete. Lastly, loyalty programs are everywhere because they work. So, make yours count and keep the churn rate down.

Don’t know where to start? Start from the beginning!

Try contextual advertising with NewProgrammatic

The post 7 underutilized ways to drive traffic to your brand appeared first on NewProgrammatic Blog.

The digital marketing landscape has indeed changed a lot in the last decades, and online advertising is now facing a new era. So, what is the future of programmatic advertising going to be like in this new, cookieless world? Let’s find out.

The state of digital advertising in 2021 is looking good

The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t been easy for anyone and 2020 was indeed a challenging moment for the digital advertising industry, too. Still, despite the pandemic and major changes happening to third-party data tracking (that have really put a strain on the ad-tech world for a moment) programmatic came out of the turmoil in a pretty good and unshaken state — while also showing significant growth.

According to Statista, the global ad spend for programmatic advertising in 2020 reached an estimated 129 billion dollars, and is now predicted to exceed 150 billion dollars in 2021. As reported, such growth can be attributed to the rapidly increasing use of software and algorithms that help streamline and automate the ad buying and serving process, thanks to which programmatic has become “one of the most indispensable digital marketing tools worldwide”.

Also, according to IAB Europe and Attitudes to Programmatic Advertising Report 2020, we’re currently experiencing significant investment growth as programmatic budgets continue to increase. The percentage of advertisers who invest more than 41% of their display ads using programmatic solutions increased to 70% in 2020, from 55% recorded in 2019. 

The remaining months of 2021 will probably build even more anticipation for the great third-party cookies phase-out from Chrome, but this should only be seen as means to forming new strategies and adapting to new opportunities brought by the privacy-oriented trends that will continue throughout 2022. 

Overall, with new programmatic solutions emerging on the market every year, as well as brands and marketers increasingly recognizing the potential that lies with data-driven yet brand-safe solutions, the future is looking more than promising for the programmatic industry. 

The end of third-party cookies doesn’t mean the end of ad targeting

Speaking of the long-planned depreciation of third-party data tracking by all major browsers on the market, one thing is clear. The end of third-party cookies does not mean the end of user-targeted advertising. 

What it means is that brands and marketers now find themselves in need of user-oriented solutions that can still deliver desired results, but at the same time meet newly introduced privacy regulations. 

Companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook have naturally followed suit and thus responded with their own ways of enabling advertisers user-oriented ad targeting that doesn’t rely on third-party cookies. Because some of the proposed solutions haven’t been fully released to the ad-tech world just yet, as tech giants are constantly working on improving their post-cookies targeting systems, it’s hard to say which option is ultimately the best. 

Still, the good news for advertisers who have heavily relied on third-party data tracking in the past, and would like to continue targeting users in a similar yet privacy-compliant way, is that there will be ways to secure that kind of supply. And from many possible options, Google’s Privacy Sandbox seems to be at the forefront of a cookieless targeting race. 

Google Privacy Sandbox

The Privacy Sandbox initiative was announced in August 2019 and was first meant to be introduced in 2021. Due to a bigger scope of work needed for the project to fulfill its purpose, earlier this year Google has announced that they’ll be pushing the release date a year later — that is until 2023. 

But why the delay and what actually is Google’s solution to third-party cookies depreciation? 

The Privacy Sandbox by Google is a series of smaller projects and initiatives aiming to enable broad user targeting without third-party cookies or cross-site data targeting that could violate user privacy. What’s important is that the ideas come from other stakeholders in the ecosystem (the W3C group), not just the Chrome team alone. There are over 30 proposals that cover different scenarios, and Google developers are working on the key initiatives to deliver both user-friendly and advertiser-satisfactory solutions. 

The two core elements include:

• Replacement solutions for cross-site tracking that don’t rely on third-party cookies.
• Removing third-party cookies from Chrome completely once new solutions are implemented. 

Thus far, the key initiatives were FLoC (later on replaced by Topics API) and FLEDGE (TURTLEDOVE). 

FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts)

One of Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiatives is FLoC, a system of Federated Learning of Cohorst, aiming at creating a privacy-first mechanism for advertisers to target users based on collecting information regarding their interests rather than cross-browser data tracking. 

The way FLoC is supposed to enable Chrome and other browsers in the ecosystem to do that without third-party cookie tracking is the following.

• From the advertiser’s perspective: advertisers should add the FLoC algorithm code to their websites, which will allow browsers to collect the cohort data that can be then shared with various ad-tech platforms. If such a platform learns that a specific website provides a specific segment of cohorts that record shared interests, adequate ads will be served to that cohort. 
• From a user perspective: when a user enters various websites with the FLoC code added, their browser collects information about user interests. The FLoC algorithm then streamlines the interest data collected from various websites and browsers, and assigns interest cohorts to that user, without sharing other user or browsing data. 

FLEDGE (TURTLEDOVE)

To better understand the differences between the FLEDGE and FLoC proposal, there’s yet another term that needs discussing — it’s TURTLEDOVE.

• TURTLEDOVE stands for Two Uncorrelated Requests, Then Locally-Executed Decision on Victory and is more of a conceptual proposal rather than a technical solution.
• FLEDGE on the other hand is the subsequent technical experiment based on the concept of TURTLEDOVE. Similar to FLoC, it also has to do with collecting interest cohort information from browsers using the FLEDGE API.
• FLoC vs. FLEDGE — for the first solution it’s the internet browsers that assigns the cohort to a user. While the second one gives such possibility to publishers and ad-tech platforms, also allowing them to define the events that make a user belong to a specific cohort. So, the two options are similar in terms of creating audience segments and cohort-targeting but differ on the cohort-determination level. 

Topics API

After introducing the FLoC initiative in 2021, Google faced considerable criticism. The privacy-centric approach to tracking was found to have substantial shortcomings, potentially exposing Chrome users to discriminatory targeting practices.

After pushing the project’s launch date to 2022 and then 2023, the FLoC idea has recently been killed and replaced with Topics API.

• In Topics API, each website that chooses to participate would be manually mapped to a topic (based only on domains, not subpages).
• Users would be assigned topics from a limited pool of options (provided by both IAB’s Content Taxonomy and Google’s own review) based on their browsing habits from the previous three weeks.
• Topics associated with a particular user would be shared with each website that user visits to help advertisers show more relevant ads without revealing the browsing history of a user.

Why first-party data are the future of programmatic advertising

As Google pushes the Privacy Sandbox release date forward, brands and marketers are not eager to just sit and wait. Many stakeholders don’t want to be associated with third-party data tracking already, others don’t want to invest in solutions that can soon become deprecated, while others are simply hesitant towards soon-to-be targeting mechanisms that are still quite vague and not fully implemented. So, what’s left? 

The answer is first-party data, a brand-safe and privacy-friendly solution coming directly from users who voluntarily agree to share their data. And given third-party data seems so out-of-fashion in 2021, a new approach towards first-party data advertising has been adopted.

Possible solutions for brands to deliver ads without the use of third-party data tracking are:

• Waiting until Google’s Privacy Sandbox solution is released to the public. 
• Creating their own first-party data collection base.
• Partnering with ad-tech companies offering to enable the creation of such a client base.
• Relying on contextual advertising solutions working on first-party data only.
• Partnering with ad-tech companies enabling both creations of first-party data client base and contextual advertising solutions for brand-safe and cookie-free advertising strategy. 

Digital marketing trends for a cookieless future 

Digital marketing is facing the dawn of a cookieless era. This means that brands and marketers need to focus on both — securing a steady streamline of first-party data or another reasonable solution to track users on a broad scale, as well as tapping into the cookieless advertising trends quickly emerging on the market. 

Since no marketer wants to miss that train, here are our top 5 choices for digital marketing trends in a new, cookie-free world.

Programmatic advertising reigns supreme

As already reported, the prognoses are looking more than good for the programmatic industry in the upcoming year. With the global ad spend estimated to surpass 150 billion dollars in 2021, a 20% rise in marketers who claim to treat programmatic as one of their major advertising strategies, global efforts to establish new ways for advertisers to target their programmatic ads on a large scale without the use of third-party or cross-site data tracking, and even showing significant growth during and post-pandemic, there’s no doubt that programmatic ad serving will reign supreme in 2021 and upcoming years. 

Programmatic brought in-house

Due to advertising budget cuts caused by the coronavirus pandemic threat, as well as the growing accessibility of programmatic solutions for both ad-tech savvy companies and brands that only recently became interested in automated ad buying, programmatic is now being brought in-house. 

It does not mean that each brand is now focused on building their own programmatic platforms — it costs time, energy, talent, and money. But with new programmatic solutions available on the market, it’s much easier to manage the process in-house while partnering up with platforms that have the technology and experience in helping brands make the most of their solutions. 

Growing investment in brand-safe solutions 

As a result of the shift in bringing the online advertising strategy in-house rather than relying on agencies only, as well as new opportunities emerging on the market, more brands are eager to invest in their own programmatic solutions. Also, brands are eager to invest more thanks to budget savings generated thanks to cutting out the middleman. Another explanation is that due to the pandemic, programmatic turned out to be one of the most direct ways for brands to reach their customers. Hence, increased investments into what seemed an only viable option, and has since proven effective — even in the post-pandemic time. 

First party-data over third-party targeting 

Naturally, those in the programmatic industry who want to stay on top of their game have to undergo a major transformation, too. That’s because programmatic advertising in a new cookieless era cannot afford to rely on outdated targeting methods or ad formats that don’t guarantee brand satisfaction. If brands are now looking for new programmatic solutions to meet their customer demand, ad-tech platforms need to do the same.

New solutions for cookieless advertising 

With a proven track record of successful programmatic campaigns through most difficult times, more brands using programmatic in-house, growing investments, and user-oriented changes made globally, the emergence of new programmatic solutions (especially at a dawn of a new cookieless era in advertising) is a natural consequence. Ad-tech platforms are now in for a treat to tap into a whole new demand market, and brands can’t wait for what the tech platforms have in store. 

Contextual advertising is back even though it has never left

Contextual advertising can be described as one of the oldest forms of advertising in general — whether it’s print or digital. And even though it has significantly evolved and transformed into a fully automated process of online media buying and selling, contextual advertising is now back to save the cookie-less world.

In the past years, cross-site tracking and third-party cookie targeting became extremely popular methods of identifying specific users online. Because of that, contextual advertising was moved to the sidelines. But with the recent call for increased user privacy and better transparency in data-sharing practices, major browsers needed to take actions to limit the use of third-party-data tracking. The shift in user privacy has now given way to the advent of contextual targeting — in a new, updated form.  

Contextual advertising can be now seen as a user-friendly and brand-safe way to connect with users based on their choice — instead of breaching user privacy and trust — becoming one of the easiest and most easily accessible alternatives to online advertising in a post-cookie world as reported by Forbes.

It doesn’t involve third-party cookies and is based solely on users’ choice to engage with a specific type of content. The evolved technology helps streamline the most adequate ad matching as well as allows for effective and efficient content categorization. But most importantly, it offers a continued and undisturbed supply of revenue for both advertisers and publishers, as well as a brand-safe and privacy-oriented form of advertising for brands and marketers. 

Brands that use programmatic solutions to up their game

With all the available answers to the problem we’re yet about to face — as third-party data tracking is still possible today, but soon won’t be — brands and marketers are now testing what strategy works best for their needs. And by brands, we mean a variety of products from cosmetics to gin brands. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google’s plans to restrict third-party data targeting prompted big brands to revamp their data strategies. This time the brand in question was Bacardi, testing their programmatic alternatives for Bombay Sapphire — one of the most popular gins on the market. After conducting test campaigns focused on targeting anonymized users, the WSJ reported that the brand saw an increase in CTR and cost efficiency while refraining from third-party data usage:

Bacardi says those and other encouraging signs give it confidence in its ability to build its brand and sell products even once it no longer has access to individual ad tracking and targeting technology that Google plans to move against next year.

But not all brands are happy to follow the suit — some try yet alternative methods for user targeting and try to outsmart tech-giants in their customer data collection practices as reported by the Wall Street Journal in their article on sidestepping Apple’s privacy rules. 

Yet for brands in need of cookieless solutions that don’t cause turmoil, we recommend following NewProgrammatic case studies that prove programmatic advertising can be both effective and brand-safe.

How can marketers prepare for a cookieless future?

The rapid evolution of data processing and proliferation of automated ad serving allowed for programmatic to shift its position from means only accessible to those with a strong technical background to a real game-changer available not only for media-buying agencies and advertisers, but also brands who now bring programmatic in-house. 

The digital landscape is constantly changing and tech platforms are now making everything they can to answer the demand for brand-safe and cookieless advertising that will appeal to both users and marketers. 

That’s why the best piece of advice anyone in the programmatic industry can get right now is to look for multiple privacy-oriented solutions to then diversify their digital strategy using both tried and tested, as well as newly emerged strategies to serve relevant ads that users want to receive.

Book a demo & see how NewProgrammatic can help your brand grow in a cookie-less world.

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Cookies are a part of a large browser tracking scheme that allows advertisers to do their jobs effectively. While some internet users appreciate the well-targeted ads, many raise their concerns about a possible threat they pose to online privacy. 

Over the years, opinions on browser cookies have changed but the mistrust remained the same. The NewProgrammatic blog brings you the complete history of cookies, the changing of attitudes, and their effects on digital advertising. 

The early history of cookies

Before 1995 it was not possible to know whether someone browsing the Internet has seen the same site twice. All kinds of transactions had to be completed in one go or started over again on the next visit. While the first online banner ad appeared in 1994, it was placed on one site only and had no other targeting than the visitors of said website. 

Browsing the web was largely anonymous until 1995 when the first cookie was created. Lou Montulii, a programmer working for Netscape Communications, came up with the idea to track users by placing a cookie on their computer. The purpose of that new technology was to make browsing sites easier. The products stayed in the shopping cart for the user’s next visit and websites became ‘aware’ of who visits them, what action that user takes, and how often they come back.

Cookies were almost immediately adopted by Internet Explorer. Despite both the Microsoft browser and the Netscape browser keeping cookies under the table, those privy to the inner workings of the web had already become concerned about what cookies could be used for.

Cookies enter the world of online advertising

While cookies were designed to be working within the same site (and related sites), there was a simple loophole. Companies could easily agree to share these cookies with third parties. Actually, companies anonymously aggregating user information could easily do so for the purpose of advertising. It didn’t take long for the large Internet advertising companies to get a hold of that.

DoubleClick and Engage were the first companies to try it. They used a common cookie across the web to keep track of what the user was doing. By that point, banner ads were already scattered around the web. It was already possible to identify a potentially suitable audience. But it was only when cookies came about that tracking the performance of ads became feasible. 

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, by 2010 some sites were using over 100 tracking cookies at a time. Among the surveyed sites “some two-thirds of the tracking tools installed—2,224—came from 131 companies that, for the most part, are in the business of following Internet users to create rich databases of consumer profiles that can be sold.”

Third-party cookies became a very popular media topic at the time. Tracking users and consumer privacy was a controversial issue. Nonetheless, despite multiple attempts to stop advertising companies from gathering user data for the purpose of targeting ads, all the directives and laws were either ignored or bypassed. 

The phasing out of the third party cookies

Since 2011, the ad tech industry has grown to insane proportions. Despite Google Ads and Facebook dominating the advertising industry, there were many smaller and bigger ad networks created. DoubleClick (later bought by Google), Yahoo!, Baidu, Criteo, and others were all working alongside social media platforms in filling the web with advertisements. 

In fact, the online advertising market grew by 93% between 2011 and 2016 as reported by European Audiovisual Observatory. Additionally, in 2016, online advertising surpassed TV advertising in revenue. And thus the data collected about individuals browsing the web became worth its weight in gold.

However, to meet the rising consumer expectations and concerns, cross-site tracking had to be limited. This time… effectively.

The main reason for changes was that cookie consent notices established in 2009 were found to be largely ineffective. According to academic research on GDPR consent notices, most pop-ups didn’t fulfill their purpose. They failed to be informative, they offered pre-selected switches in favor of ad tracking, or they offered a single confirmation button with no visible option to decline third-party data.

Apple takes the stand against ad tracking

Apple was the company that took the first step towards limiting ad tracking and protecting the user identity on the worldwide web. In 2015, the release of iOS 9 brought many improvements along with one special functionality – to block ads in Safari. It then became possible to create all kinds of ad content blocking extensions for iOS devices. 

The decision has not been met with enthusiasm from Google and the whole $70 billion mobile marketing business. Publications like the WSJ’s Apple’s Ad Blockers Rile Publishers, or Tech Times’ Ad-Blocking Feature In iOS 9 May Cripple Mobile Advertising Industry, and Techwalls’ Apple’s Anti-ads iOS 9 will Worry the Media Industry expressed the attitudes clearly. 

Apple was doing the right thing. However, it was not the right thing for the advertising industry. Limiting the availability of ad spots could raise the prices for iOS publishers and make it generally more difficult to advertise on iOS devices. And while Google has already been in trouble once for circumventing the privacy measures in Safari, it was once again sharing tips on how to get around the new Apple security rules. 

That was the first blow to mobile advertising. According to Statista, Apple has sold over 230 million devices all over the world, just in the year 2015. By giving that many users control over whether they want to see ads or not, Apple has caused anxiety to many web publishers relying on mobile audiences. 

In 2017, Apple decided to go one step further by introducing Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.0 (ITP 2.0). While this update made Safari one of the best web browsers when it comes to user’s privacy, it severely complicated the lives of performance marketers. Third-party cookies were no longer allowed unless extra steps were taken. The workarounds, however, often made it more difficult to accurately track data. 

Apple’s decision to kill third-party cookies had, once again, a negative impact on companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Ads could still be shared, however, since personal data and preferences were no longer recorded, the ads could not be properly managed. 

The introduction of ITP 2.1 and 2.2 deepened the problem. As of May 2019, first-party cookies were filtered by functionality, and the analytical ones were deleted after 24 hours. And what does that mean for advertising? The workarounds no longer worked. Ad tech giants could no longer track user activity outside a 24-hour window in the Safari browser.

E-commerce advertisers who used the first-party cookie to save data about website visitors could no longer use that. It used to be possible to score a conversion after sending reminders to users who have abandoned their shopping carts or didn’t make a purchase after browsing the site. After Apple’s ITP (2.1, 2.2, and then 2.3) a user had to make a purchase within the same session. Otherwise, the funnel (displaying an ad – sending an email reminder – receiving a conversion) would be broken. An advertiser would still receive a conversion but without accurate data on where it actually came from (email campaigns vs. the original ad).   

Firefox takes steps to improve user privacy

Starting in 2018, Firefox began to gradually improve its privacy policies. At first, third-party cookie blocking and tracker blocking became possible. In January 2019, Firefox 65 introduced options for handling third-party cookies. 

In an opinion piece by What’s New in Publishing, the new options have been called a mere bump in the road. The author claims the Firefox update is most likely to affect only smaller and less trusted publishers. Additionally, Firefox’s insignificant global share of the market (under 5%) means not many businesses will be affected. 

Although Mozilla’s actions were nowhere near as severe as Apple’s, they allowed users to decide how much they’re willing to share. The three options – standard, strict, and custom gave users options to refuse cookies from all unvisited websites, all third-party cookies, or all cookies (including first-party cookies). The strictest options came with a warning about causing some websites to break or malfunction.

In further updates, third-party cookie blocking became a default (not only for the private mode as was the case before). By January 2020, Firefox added default blocking of crypto miners, device fingerprinting, social tracking protection, and a Facebook Container. That last feature made it very difficult for Facebook to collect data about what the logged-in users are doing on other websites.

As reported by Wired, Mozilla has acknowledged that there will be a negative impact on publishers, however, it’s only a matter of time before new technologies will replace third-party cookies. Finding alternative privacy-oriented solutions is a sustainable long-term investment, so rather than worrying about the revenue, publishers will find better ways to target ads.

The beginning of Google’s Privacy Sandbox

Finally, Google was forced to take initiative. In August 2019, Google announced the Privacy Sandbox. While acknowledging the issue of the invasiveness of the omnipresent third-party cookies, Google noticed that the attempt to replace them gave rise to another tracking technology, namely, fingerprinting. As a consequence, Google’s proposal was to create new web standards that would protect users’ privacy while retaining some form of individual user tracking and ad targeting.  

In January 2020, Google announced plans to gradually phase out third-party cookies in Chrome. Their two-year plan included limiting cross-site tracking and giving users more control over third-party cookies. The announcement posted on the Chromium blog also criticized the actions of other browsers saying that blocking third-party cookies, […] has unintended consequences that can negatively impact both users and the web ecosystem. 

Although third-party cookie data will no longer be used to track users, HubSpot reminds all those concerned about the integrity of the ad tech supply chain that this is not the end of online advertising. Google – the search giant – has stated in their blog post they will work with advertisers to ensure that targeting ads will be possible without infringing on user privacy.

Additionally, first-party cookies are still vital. They would remain an integral part of every user’s browser to ensure a smooth experience within the same site. Google’s Privacy Sandbox is also meant to include a replacement for third-party cookies in Chrome. 

What’s the current state of Internet cookies?

When in 2019 Europe’s high court ruled that pre-checked consent boxes for tracking were illegal, a large part of the advertising industry noted significant reporting losses. Tracking without explicit user consent was outlawed permanently. At that point, it was known that changes were coming. 

As of March 2020, third-party cookies are automatically blocked in Safari. Apple was once again the first company to make another big move towards protecting the privacy of its users. Additionally, Apple also blocked fingerprinting, thus making it virtually impossible to track the same user across different sites in the Safari browser.

However, the popular misconception that Google Analytics will no longer work in Safari is not true. Yes, third-party trackers known to collect information about individual users will be blocked. However, as Google Analytics is not one of those trackers, it will continue to work as before. 

One year later, in February 2021, Mozilla introduced total cookie protection in Firefox 86. In simple terms, Firefox will now not only block cookies left by popular tracking companies, but it will also keep all cookies separate. Meaning, no cookies can be used to track you from site to site as you browse the web.  

At last, Google’s original plan to replace third-party cookies by 2022 had to be postponed to late 2023. The reasoning behind this decision was to give more time to advertisers and publishers to familiarize themselves with new ad technologies. The new cookie-replacing solutions are supposed to be integrated into the Chrome Browser before late 2022. This would give the digital advertising industry a long period to move and adapt before the final cut-off in late 2023.

Still, the ad tech industry is skeptical about some of the new third-party cookie alternatives. Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) was Google’s first web tracking alternative that was meant to be developed as a part of Google’s Privacy sandbox. Instead of sharing user data with third-party companies, it would store the data inside the browser. It would also group people into ‘cohorts’ based on the demographic, their habits, and interests.  

Soon after the announcement, The Wall Street Journal and many others have reported that both Mozilla and a lesser-known browser – Brave, are not planning to participate in using the system. The main argument against FLoC is that it harms user privacy in a different way than cookies did, possibly more severely. DigiDay points out that this particular method of targeting could enable discriminatory targeting or data use.

Furthermore, Financial Times said the delay along with the introduction of FLoC seems to be designed to benefit Google. They’re not only responsible for the design of cohorts but also for the effectiveness of the new system. The new developments have even sparked an antitrust investigation into Google’s practices. 

By October 2021, FLoC had been rejected by all major browsers, pushing back the end of the testing phase from the end of Q2 to the end of Q3 2022. In January 2022, the FLoC project has been scrapped and replaced with Topics API.

Topics API assigns each website a topic and then collects information on user browsing habits based on said topics. The main difference between FLoC and Topics API is that users are not grouped in cohorts, thus preventing unique user identification. While Topics API seems to be an improvement over FLoC when it comes to privacy, Search Engine Land claims it’s unlikely that Firefox, Safari, Edge or other browsers will adopt Google’s proposal […].

As reported by The Drum, there’s already been some harsh criticism from advertisers. The solution is said to provide some value to large advertisers but none to smaller businesses with lesser budgets. Targeting based on a limited number of Topics is simply not accurate enough to yield satisfactory results.

While Google works to replace third-party cookies, advertisers can discover the blooming market of alternative advertising solutions and cookieless ad formats.

Conclusion 

Although the invention of cookies has brought a lot of improvements to the way the web works, it’s also brought a lot of concerns in terms of Internet browsers handling personal data. The growth of the digital advertising industry fueled by a breakneck gathering of behavioral data has caused third-party cookies to be one of the most talked-about subjects of the previous decade. 

Nonetheless, the rapidly evolving regulatory restrictions slowly brought back privacy for the web community but as a consequence weakened the ad tech industry. 

As of now, Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox are both blocking third-party cookies by default. They both have additional options to block first-party data from being shared across sites.

Opera and Edge don’t block third-party cookies by default, however, they both have certain options to increase privacy. 

Google Chrome does not block third-party cookies by default although it does provide extensive options for managing privacy settings. As the most popular browser, it relies most heavily on the ad tech ecosystem. That’s also why instead of making drastic changes, Google announced they will be slowly phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome in the next two years. 

As existing technologies are departing from their reliance on third-party data, digital marketers will have to adjust. The ad tech giants can rely on first-party data but brands and agencies will have other options to turn to.  

You don’t have to feel powerless against the constantly changing cookie regulations. If you’re looking for an innovative cookieless way to advertise your brand, NewProgrammatic can help you achieve consistent results.

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