Third-party cookies are going away, and taking with them most of our industry’s ability to personalize ads and measure performance.

The million dollar question: What do we do about it?

In preparation for a world without third-party cookies, Google and other industry players are working on a two-pronged solution involving their Privacy Sandbox and first-party data.

The Privacy Sandbox offers a series of tools to provide advertisers with some of the targeting they need such as interest group targeting via FLoC.

But it won’t be the same. The Privacy Sandbox won’t allow retargeting and advertising based on the user, with information like demographics, as is the case right now.

Also, the Privacy Sandbox has only been adopted by Chrome thus far, which doesn’t help with audiences using Firefox, Safari or other browsers.

And the Privacy Sandbox is only part of the solution, as Google and Mediavine are well aware. In order to boost revenue on non-Chrome browsers and deliver advertisers the potential value they need, we need to go deeper. Case in point:

In every blog post regarding the end of third-party cookies and the future of programmatic advertising, Google talks about first-party relationships.

These relationships (also referred to as first-party data) are the key to emerging from such a seismic, industry-wide shift with more revenue, not less.

Below, we’ll explore what first-party data is, how to build it, why authenticated traffic is crucial and perhaps most importantly, how there’s power in numbers.

What is First-Party Data?

First-party data is information the publisher (your website) provides to advertisers about a reader, rather than the advertiser relying on third-party data via cookies.

A publisher can collect this data in a number of ways, such as requiring readers to log in and create a profile, gathering information via surveys or even providing information simply based on contextual signals such as the pages a reader has been browsing.

First-party data can be a lot of things, but the key point is that the publisher is collecting and providing targeting signals to buyers, rather than the buyers bringing their own.

When third-party cookies are gone, advertisers lose their ability to bring their own data. But first-party data will still exist, making it monumentally important in 2022 and beyond.

What is Authenticated Traffic?

We’ve talked about first-party data in the past and also about authenticated traffic. Are they one and the same? Is authenticated traffic first-party data?

Authenticated traffic is traffic that you’ve verified. When a reader logs in, you’ve verified who that reader is, therefore the traffic is authenticated.

This by itself is not first-party data, however it can be the start of first-party data.

Once you get a reader to log in, you can encourage them to create a profile or fill out a survey; assign them to interest groups based on articles they read; ask them to share or bookmark; have them subscribe to your newsletter; and more.

This information you build becomes valuable first-party data over time.

However, even before you start collecting first-party data, there is still a very valuable way to monetize authenticated traffic.

Email-Hash Based Identifiers: LiveRamp ATS and Unified ID 2.0

One way for publishers to step up their first-party data game significantly right away is to outsource the collection of first-party data.

With solutions like LiveRamp ATS and Unified ID 2.0, typically referred to as email-hash based identifiers, you’re able to link logged-in readers to advertisers’ first-party data.

This is a great stopgap that allows advertisers to bring their own data, and it’s something that Mediavine is using to jumpstart the first-party data revolution.

But it’s just that: a stopgap.

As publishers, we still need to be building our own data — for both authenticated readers and non-authenticated ones — which will be the bulk of traffic.

The Identity API vs Grow

Right now, we support two solutions. You can go it alone with the Identity API or join forces with other Mediavine publishers to build first-party data together through Grow.

Let’s break down how these two solutions differ in terms of authenticated traffic, first-party data and what the heck happens with anonymous readers.

Authenticated Traffic: Grow Gets You More

With either solution, Grow or Identity API, you can begin using email-based hashes for authenticated traffic and start increasing earnings right now.

Both will accomplish the same goal and help you make nearly 60% more revenue from authenticated users. Again, you can do this right now. Today.

We don’t have to tell you that authenticated traffic is not easy to come by.

Most Mediavine publishers’ traffic is heavily reliant on Google Search, Pinterest, Facebook or other referral sources. While these are all great sources of traffic, those readers typically come to your website, consume one article and leave.

In other words, most readers do not create logins for every site they visit once.

Unfortunately, this means most publishers going on their own and using Identity API or products such as Slickstream will see less than 1% of readers authenticate.

Our goal with Grow is 5-10% of authenticated traffic, a significant difference.

Why do we think we can help you authenticate that much?

• Grow is a Single Sign On. It’s much simpler to convince readers to log in once, with an existing account they have for thousands of Mediavine websites, than it is to get them to register and log in with a new account every time. As Grow continues to, well, grow and becomes ubiquitous, readers will recognize it and happily log in.
• Grow provides a lot of tools. Grow isn’t just a Single Sign On but also an entire engagement suite of tools like Favorites and Subscribe — and that’s just the beginning! We’re working on many more ideas that will natively integrate with your site to enhance readers’ experiences and drive them to sign up and log in.
• Grow makes your site the destination. Building off of point #2, Grow tools are designed to help you build a relationship with readers. We’re working on solutions that will drive your readers back to your site, time and again. This is already the case with Favorites and Subscribe, with more on the way.

First-Party Data: Grow Exclusive

To go beyond email hashes to build and package your own first-party data, you’ll need to join the group and get on board with Grow.

Why? Because programmatic advertising requires scale.

This is what we learned with Mediavine Ad Management itself. Without hundreds of millions of impressions, we could not even join some of the ad exchanges. Without billions more, we couldn’t reach the scale needed for direct advertiser relationships.

Even if your site is wildly popular and has millions of readers, when it comes to authenticated traffic, you’re looking at reaching maybe 1% of that number. If you start dividing them into segments, you’re talking about hundreds of readers down from millions.

Again, achieving optimal revenue from programmatic advertising requires scale in the millions and billions. Going at it on your own just isn’t plausible.

Once we have millions of users logged in across Mediavine sites consenting to personalized ads, collecting first-party data at the scale that advertisers need becomes viable.

Non-authenticated Traffic: Neither…yet.

Even if you’re running Grow and hitting our lofty goals, that still leaves us with the issue of how to handle the remaining 90% of your readers.

How to do that is the multi-billion dollar question in our industry.

One big part of the solution we mentioned before is the Privacy Sandbox, which will work whether you run Grow or not but is limited to Chrome.

That still leaves the majority of our traffic. While we don’t have all the answers just yet, we can assure you, as with everything else, Mediavine has big plans.

We’re exploring solutions using Grow’s recommendation engine, our contextual analysis and more to build first-party data even for anonymous users.

It won’t be an easy path, but we’re confident that our multi-faceted approach will ultimately usher in a more sustainable, privacy-centric, open web.

The post Grow and First-Party Data: Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Grow.

Actually, don’t stop us. It bears repeating, since the health of our entire ecosystem depends on solving for the end of third-party cookies.

Mediavine’s solution is twofold:

• Helping our publishers garner and utilize first-party data.
• Implementing Privacy Sandbox proposals.

On the first-party data front, Mediavine recently introduced Grow, our in-house framework designed to help websites get more traffic, improve user experiences, build email lists and most importantly, encourage readers to log in and consent to personalized ads.

Today, however, we’re here to talk about a new tool we designed for those publishers who already have — or who wish to build — their own first-party data solution independent of Grow: The Mediavine Identity API.

While the Identity API is not for the faint of heart, and in many respects falls short of what we believe Grow will ultimately achieve, we’ve created a viable solution for publishers wishing to go this route.

Below, we’ll explain how the Identity API works and why, when it’s worth the time to implement it and how it differs from Grow.

Introducing the Mediavine Identity API

The Mediavine Identity API is a lightweight, JavaScript API in our Script Wrapper that will allow publishers to provide their own authenticated traffic to be used in the bid stream.

In other words, if a user logs in or provides their email address and consents to personalized ads, you can now tell our Script Wrapper and we will use this data in ad auctions.

When a user logs into your website, or you collect their email address in another way, and you have obtained consent to use that address for the purpose of personalized ads, you will make a call to our Identity API using a simple function and pass on that email address.

It works via a simple single JavaScript function that serves as a user opt-in for personalized ads and a single function allowing you to opt them out.

Behind the scenes, this functionality is integrated with multiple Identity partners, such as LiveRamp. From that point on, we automatically pass along the publisher’s first-party data to ad exchanges.

Once you’ve done this, you can begin making more money from users on all major browsers today, even while third-party cookies still exist.

And when third-party cookies are gone? As we’ve discussed at length, we anticipate that first-party data will be even more valuable and critically important.

How Do You Obtain Consent?

With Grow, Mediavine handles the process of obtaining consent for you when a user creates an account at Grow.

We obtain explicit consent to show a user personalized ads (in other words, they click a checkbox with plain text next to it) when they agree to our Terms of Service, which covers all of this.

With the Mediavine Identity API, it’s the publisher’s responsibility to obtain consent. This is necessary to remain in compliance with privacy laws such as GDPR and to maintain a sustainable ecosystem.

What About Privacy? Is This Secure?

In order to keep your data secure, we automatically create what’s called a “hash” of each email address, which is essentially a random hex string (letters and numbers) that ensures the user’s email remains private.

That hash — not the email address itself — is then passed to our identity partners, such as LiveRamp, and converted to an even more secure “envelope.” That envelope is then passed to partners in the auction.

Only partners with the right “key” can open the envelope, and even then, they can only access the hashed identifier, not the original email.

This is similar to how it works with Grow, except in that case, the email address never even enters the browser; everything happens server-side for an even more secure transaction.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of a JavaScript API, this needs to happen client-side if you plan to collect your own email addresses using the Mediavine Identity API.

NOTE: Grow will allow you to collect email addresses also; we will be releasing the Grow subscribe functionality early this year.

Why Is There an Opt Out?

We’re trying to build a more privacy-centric web, and that means we need to provide users with transparency and choices. With Grow, a user can opt out easily simply by logging out on any page.

If you’re collecting first-party data on your own, we recommend you do something similar; make it as clear as possible that users may opt out of personalized ads and tell them how to do so.

Remember that the cornerstone of any first-party data solution, whether that’s Grow or API-based, is to respect and protect your users.

Do I Need to Use Authentication or Verification?

Grow is a privacy-first solution, which means we require users to log in, consent to personalized ads and verify their email address before we integrate with partners such as The Trade Desk with Unified ID 2.0.

Why all the steps? Because it’s about trust — not just between publisher and reader but also between publisher and advertiser.

By verifying the email address and authenticating the user before sharing it with advertisers, the data gathered in the process is more reliable — and Mediavine and your brand remain trusted partners.

What Kind of Opt-in Rates Can You Expect?

With Grow, there is a “community” effect; if a reader creates an account, then with a single sign-on they will easily login to thousands of sites.

This makes it much simpler to encourage users to log in to your website with less friction. We’re already at work on a number of features and tools for Grow that will help you accomplish this.

For these reasons, we believe that 10-20% of users opting in is a reasonable goal — and a similar projection to what other industry players are predicting.

Again, though, that’s with Grow.

If you’re going it alone, the “results may vary” non-answer may be an understatement given how every website differs from the next.

For example, if you’re only measuring this by your newsletters sign-ups, we would guess that less than a fraction of a percent of readers opt in.

As a result, the Identity API likely isn’t worth implementing.

However, if you have a robust login system for a member-only section, or have exclusive content behind a “freewall,” you’ll likely see much higher authentication rates and this will be worth your time to implement.

How Do You Enable This API?

You can start by sending our Identity API help document to your developer or other parties you’re working with to collect first-party data.

Again, it’s important to disclose all of this to your users — how and why you’re collecting consent — as well as provide an easy opt-out.

You’ll also need to encourage your readers to sign in and explore new, creative ways of making that happen. Along these lines, Mediavine is building a number of tools for Grow, such as Recommended Content and a Save Recipe button.

Bottom line, using the Mediavine Identity API won’t be as easy as collecting first-party data with Grow. However, as with everything else, we are here to support our publishers no matter what path they choose to embark upon, either as a community or individually.

We believe the free and open web is at stake, and it is our job to help you solve for this change, either through Grow or our Identity API.

The post Identity API: Build Your Own First-Party Data appeared first on Grow.

Grow is integrated and live with Unified ID 2.0, the identity solution built for the community by The Trade Desk.

What do all those words mean and why should Mediavine publishers be excited about everything we said?

Please bear with the forthcoming acronyms and ad tech jargon, because this is really big news you’ll want to know about.

What is The Trade Desk?

The Trade Desk (TTD) is the largest independent Demand Side Platform (DSP) in the industry. If you don’t know what a DSP is, it’s the software advertisers use to buy inventory programmatically via ad exchanges.

We know that was a mouthful, but being the largest independent DSP is a huge deal. It means that a ton of advertisers are submitting bids to the Mediavine auction through TTD.

With the kind of demand volume The Trade Desk controls, any initiative the company involves itself with is set up for success.

That’s why we’re so excited about our integration with Unified 2.0 and the potential impact on Mediavine publishers’ bottom line.

What is Unified ID 2.0?

The Trade Desk first built the original Unified ID during our industry’s attempt to build a single, universal identifier.

This identifier made tracking user behavior — and serving personalized, higher-paying ads to that user — easier across multiple ad exchanges and with multiple buyers using a single user match.

Like much of the publishing industry, Mediavine supported and adopted TTD’s original Unified ID.

It had a great run, but as Bob Dylan famously sang about programmatic advertising, the times, they are a-changin’.

The Unified ID was built as a third-party cookie, which is soon to be a thing of the past. Google’s announcement to phase out third-party cookies sometime in 2024 tells you all you need to know.

Enter: Unified ID 2.0

We’ve talked at length about how the end of third-party cookies will alter the industry in the coming years, and like Mediavine, The Trade Desk is consistently ahead of the curve.

They developed Unified 2.0 for the new world we’re living in. It’s built around first-party data, or the idea of user consent.

As an industry, our goal is for audiences to opt in to personalized ads by choice, after being authenticated or logged in to a site.

So what makes the new, improved Unified ID 2.0 so unique and poised to be an incredibly viable solution in this regard?

• Although initially developed by The Trade Desk, it will be open sourced and handed to an independently-governed body.
• The email addresses of authenticated users are hashed, encrypted and securely transmitted using rolling decryption keys, protecting users’ personal information.
• It’s built with the privacy-first mentality that will define the ’20s, with easy user controls to opt out at any time.
• The Trade Desk is backing it. As the largest independent DSP, we can’t stress what a great head start this is in terms of adoption.

Unified ID 2.0 = Greater Security and Revenue in 2021 & Beyond

Google predicts programmatic revenue will drop up to 60% without third party cookies present. Mediavine spends countless hours solving for this, and Unified ID 2.0 is yet another piece of the puzzle.

Traffic from users who have been authenticated and synced with Unified ID 2.0 won’t see that revenue decline. If anything, that traffic will become even more valuable as there’s a decreased supply of addressable users, causing advertisers to bid and pay more to reach their same audience.

Even better is that this applies not only to Google Chrome traffic, but to Safari, Firefox and other browsers who already block third-party cookies. With Unified ID 2.0, you can begin earning more money today.

And best of all? Mediavine publishers are uniquely positioned to do so, as the first to integrate with UID2.

Mediavine is the First Publisher Live with Unified ID 2.0

Because Grow is perfectly aligned with the goals of Unified ID 2.0, The Trade Desk chose Mediavine as the first live, active integration and the potential payoff of this opportunity is exciting and worth repeating.

It’s an honor to partner with the largest independent DSP and help set a new privacy-first standard for our evolving ecosystem.

We hope you’ll join us in furthering this effort, if you haven’t already – innovative solutions are right at your fingertips.

If you’re already running Grow, you’re already among the first sites on the web to send out bid requests containing Unified ID 2.0.

If you don’t run Grow, well, time to change that! It’s free to Mediavine publishers and can be set up through the Dashboard.

Websites running Grow are already authenticating users and building the first-party data that will be so crucial in the coming years — while offering their logged-in users a better product to boot.

Now with recommended content, search and favoriting, Grow isn’t just improving your revenue but also the user experience — which is the ultimate win-win for both your audience, and your website’s future.

Between Mediavine and The Trade Desk, you’ve partnered with two of the most forward-thinking and innovative forces in the industry to make that future more secure and lucrative.

The post Grow: The First Unified ID 2.0 Active Integration appeared first on Grow.

In this business, changes aren’t permanent, but change is. Right now, the way data is collected and protected online is of paramount concern to users and advertisers alike, which will undoubtedly alter the way our ecosystem functions.

Public policy makers have already developed regulations — such as the European Union’s GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), plus new laws enacted in 2023 for Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and Virginia — backing citizens’ rights to control how websites and apps use their data.

With the custom Mediavine CMP, our publishers remained ahead of this curve, and a good thing too: Similar regulations are being considered in other nations, and at least a dozen other U.S. states.

However, legislators aren’t alone in leading the privacy charge. The broader and more consequential changes may come from major industry players — and ultimately publishers themselves.

A groundswell of awareness and advocacy for digital privacy has led web browsers to limit the collection and use of data, as evidenced by Google Chrome phasing out third-party cookies.

That news was big enough, but last week, Google raised the bar even further by directly urging publishers to build stronger relationships with users via first-party data.

“With third-party cookies facing new restrictions across the ads ecosystem,” Think With Google’s blog post reads, “first-party data is now even more crucial to success for publishers and their advertiser clients.”

While Mediavine has long been operating under the belief that first-party data is the future of an open, ad-supported web, this was the most overt signal from Google to date.

The bottom line for the future is simple. Over the next few years:

In a world without the third-party cookie, advertisers will rely on first-party data to identify potential customers.

In this new world, publishers will have to provide first-party data if they want to continue earning high CPMs.

Your data is everything, but this is a good thing, not a scary thing.

With the imminent demise of third-party cookies and the old guard of data collection comes a tremendous opportunity for publishers to bolster their own data capabilities.

And, fortunately, Mediavine is always looking ahead to the future …

Grow and First-Party Data

Mediavine recently announced Grow: Mediavine’s engagement suite built to help publishers connect with their audiences while authenticating first-party data.

Grow is first and foremost, built as a personalized browsing experience for your audience, all with the speed, level of development and stability you’ve come to expect from Mediavine Ad Management.

Shameless plugs aside, the reality is that most independent publishers don’t even know what first party data is, let alone have it and Grow is built to navigate this major industry change.

If it wasn’t clear above, first-party data is when a website itself — the website owner is the first party — gathers data about its readers and passes that on to potential buyers of ad inventory.

Grow, which encourages readers to log in to save their favorites, share content and more, provides you an amazing opportunity to harness that information.

As readers become Grow subscribers, you’ll be compiling first-party data — data that helps advertisers serve the most relevant ads to your readers, while protecting their privacy and earning you the most money.

In the not-so-distant future, as the third-party cookie fades into oblivion, Mediavine publishers adopting Grow will be years ahead of the competition and poised to enjoy the rewards.

Join Grow Labs!

Mediavine Ad Management is over 10,000 publishers strong because of our community, its feedback and support. Our ad technology is made by publishers, for publishers, and the results show it.

Now we’re asking for the same kind of help with Grow.

So much more is coming to Grow that will make this product versatile and indispensable in the years to come, but we’re only as strong as the community we’re building this for.

Together, we can take control of our sites, our traffic and our data, creating our own social network and setting ourselves up for optimal earnings.

There’s no time like the present to shape the future of the industry. Join us visiting your Grow Publisher Portal and enabling Grow Labs in General Site Settings to join our valued team of beta testers!

If you have any questions, comments or feedback about Grow, please email grow.me@mediavine.com.

The post First-Party Data: Why It’s Crucial, and Why Grow is the Future appeared first on Grow.