The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enacted in May 2018 and the upcoming deprecation of third-party cookies on browsers like Chrome and Firefox are hastening the shift to a cookieless environment. The result has been an industrywide pivot from open marketplaces to PMPs or programmatic direct, as well as more interest in contextual targeting and increased use of first-party data.
“With the decline in third-party cookies, it will be tough to run retargeting campaigns at scale, which will lead to a shift in programmatic media buying,” said Lucy Hinton, head of client operations at ad server Flashtalking.
Until the third-party cookie completely disappears, though, shifts won’t be seismic. “Identity initiatives are still very much in their infancy, and we are unlikely to see a web-scale solution for at least 12 months,” she said. “We expect a move toward contextual or publisher-targeted ads, which would suggest a shift from open RTB to PMPs and programmatic guaranteed.”
Spending in open exchanges thus declined by 2.4% in 2020. The pandemic exacerbated this pivot—we previously expected UK ad spending in open exchanges to grow by 7.0% in 2020. The control offered by PMPs, meanwhile, has proven popular.
“PMP deals have increased substantially this year, with buyers and sellers eager for a more reliable and consistent stream of revenue at a time when budgets are strained,” said Pierce Cook-Anderson, country manager for Northern Europe at Smart AdServer. “PMPs are also being used by buyers looking to transact against more quality video content, and the unique first-party data is used to enrich their buying experience and target users in greater detail.”
The cookieless future has also hastened advertisers’ shift toward PMPs. “As uncertainty over programmatic took hold among advertisers, we initially saw a trend toward investment in [private] marketplaces, where there is less dependency on cookies,” said Emma Delserieys, director of customer success and attribution for EMEA at Nielsen. “However, as industry solutions, such as The Trade Desk’s Unified ID 2.0, are being developed to answer ecosystem challenges, there is growing confidence that programmatic platforms will adapt. 2021 will be a year of transition.”