There are approximately two million electric vehicles on the road in the US today, which accounts for less than 1% of the 250 million vehicles currently sold in the country. And yet it’s increasingly difficult to pass a gas station on a major highway or interstate that has not invested in the future by allotting some space for electric vehicle charging stations.
For web traffic kingpin Google, the next phase of its third-party cookie deprecation plan will occur in Q1 2024. At that point, Google plans to test a cookieless experience for 1% of Chrome users. Google will hold out 1% of its Chrome traffic, treating it like cookies have already been removed to get a sense of what performance will look like in the new world.
Yet today, the marketplace predominately – almost exclusively – favors cookied traffic. Publishers and SSPs prefer it because cookied traffic often commands higher CPMs and fees than non-cookied traffic. DSPs favor it because it allows them to understand better who they’re targeting and retargeting and, therefore, measure campaigns and understand performance.
Perhaps the biggest problem of all is that traffic-shaping algorithms push almost all bids to cookied traffic. And the time to adapt is almost running out.
The limitations of current algorithms
Algorithms that prioritize short-term efficiency, targeting and monetization are oriented toward eliminating underperforming inventory before it’s sent to intermediaries.
These algorithms theoretically let through some cookieless traffic. But, today, far too much traffic outside of third-party cookies is excluded from the biddable environment, even if that traffic is aided by solutions like alternative identifiers.
Publishers are feeling the pressure because the cookied ground under which they built their business is shifting. Many may not even realize that a sizable portion of their inventory never reaches the DSPs. And those who are aware of the issue are not pleased that half of their inventory gets devalued just because the user is browsing on Safari.
If the advertiser’s end game is optimization, the algorithms are never going to open up enough until cookies are officially gone and they have no choice but to accept cookieless traffic.
In other words, programmatic needs a portion of traffic dedicated to cookieless right now. Think of it as programmatic’s version of the EV charging station – laying the groundwork for the day that all traffic is cookieless.
It’s in everyone’s best interest to go cookieless
As it stands right now, the cookieless approach can be high quality, high performing, and full of valuable insights for those willing to pursue it. Until more buyers catch on to cookieless inventory, early adopters can benefit from less competition and higher win rates.
Most marketers may not even realize that the majority of today’s campaigns focus solely on Chrome traffic, where cookies are still in play. Meanwhile, cookieless traffic includes the often-ignored but highly desired audiences using Safari, the default web browser on Apple phones, tablets and computers.
If only for the sake of practicality, investing in cookieless inventory now allows buyers to test, learn and adapt while cookies are still around to provide an active baseline. Spending time experimenting will let you reap the benefits when cookies finally disappear.
Some SSPs say the shaping algorithm will eventually do its job, whether cookies are in play or not. But if we’re not overriding the traffic-shaping algorithm to bid on more cookieless traffic now, buyers are going to be starting their optimization efforts from scratch when cookied traffic goes away.
Most of today’s traffic shaping and supply-path optimization standards were built for a user-commoditized internet where you could use third-party cookies to target and measure the same user across multiple paths. Without the cookie to rely on, we’ll have to reassess how we optimize programmatic’s new set of pipes.
Pushing for action
Advocating for change begins with those who hold the purse strings. To get a true picture of what addressability will look like in an unthrottled environment, buyers need to advocate for their DSPs to change their algorithms, open up more queries per second (QPS) to bid strategically on cookieless traffic or test on a proactive platform that is focused on cookieless traffic.
In conjunction, SSPs need to factor alternative identity solutions and tactics into their traffic-shaping algorithms.
Negating cookieless traffic right now is a mistake. It won’t give us a true indicator of what will happen once third-party cookies expire. We’re sacrificing valuable lessons now that will be necessary for better performance in the future.
But unless DSPs alter how their algorithms work, we cannot begin driving toward the future.
“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.
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