Advertising in a Cookieless & Post-IDFA World

by | Jun 2, 2021 | Industry Insights

What’s Going On?

The past few years have been a roller coaster ride for digital advertisers driven by the industry’s increased focus on consumer data privacy. First, there was the introduction of consumer privacy regulations, including GDPR and CCPA. Then came Google’s announcement that third-party cookies would disappear from Chrome browsers completely in 2022. Most recently, Apple’s April release of iOS 14.5 required users to opt-in (as opposed to previously having to opt-out) to the IDFA in order for advertisers to track their data.

These changes created many new hurdles and limitations for digital advertisers, and while the changes towards increased privacy are not entirely novel—nor are they unexpected—marketers are grappling with managing and optimizing campaigns in this new privacy-first era. So what do these new parameters mean exactly? In short, for consumers, this means more transparency, control, and privacy regarding their data. For advertisers, this means less insights and less effective ads, which can lead to less revenue. Let’s take a look at the two biggest disruptors hitting the ad space currently.

 

Everyone’s Favorite C Word: The Death of the Cookie

For 20+ years, advertisers have relied on third-party cookies to track online consumer behavior to both serve relevant advertisements to users and measure the success of online campaigns. However, in recent years, consumers have grown concerned for their privacy and are demanding more transparency from companies regarding how their online information is being collected, stored, and used. Following the removal of third-party cookies, the industry is working to find alternatives for audience targeting, frequency capping, and measurement. Cookies weren’t designed for a multidevice reality and only work on browsers (a big limitation). It’s important to note that there are plenty of other ways to collect user data from alternate sources, as well as data-driven targeting tactics and identifiable information that can be used for retargeting in order to still effectively reach consumers without the use of cookies.

 

Apple of My IDFA: iOS 14.5 Update Impact on Mobile Advertising

While cookies can’t be passed between devices, advertising identifiers on mobile devices allow apps to track users for targeting and advertising purposes. On April 26, the latest Apple iOS 14.5 update became available, requiring apps to ask iPhone users for permission to collect and share their data. Currently, app developers don’t need permission to incorporate targeted ads in their apps. While Apple’s update made it easier for users to control the data they share with advertisers, it made it harder for advertisers to track conversions and optimize paid media campaigns. While Apple pushes through new privacy measures like AppTrackingTransparency (ATT), Google has left its own Ad ID alone (for now).

Consumers seem to be split: 31% of U.S. smartphone owners would allow tracking on all their apps to avoid paying to access them, while 30% wouldn’t allow any app tracking but would prefer to pay a subscription for certain apps. Information can be encouraging, and as many U.S. consumers (70%) express concern over personalized ads, receiving prompts that give clarity over what’s being collected could foster more faith in advertising from uncertain consumers.²

 

The Price of Privacy

Though it’s been over four weeks since Apple’s changes went into effect, the evidence remains mixed. While estimates released from different sources vary (overall and by category), app tracking opt-in rates are expected to be low—though it’s still too early to tell exactly what the impact on attribution and personalization will be. The mobile ad market is worth over $300b and Apple owns about 27% of that, according to Digiday. If almost no one agrees to be tracked under Apple’s new opt-in system, advertisers will be left with very little iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV data to use for ad targeting.

Over half (57%) of all app users on iOS 14+ are still in the ‘Not Determined’ state, meaning they haven’t yet been given the option by the app developer to opt-in or opt-out.³

While mobile app ad budgets may have favored Android in the update’s immediate aftermath, the shift appears to already be losing momentum. This may be partly the result of fewer users upgrading their Apple devices expected, stalling the update’s full impact. Only 14% of global users have upgraded to iOS 14.5 or higher, while only 17% of mobile apps have implemented the ATT framework.⁴ Both figures may be set to explode soon, once Apple begins to actively push the update to its users.

Ad impression costs are down as well. The industry expected a drop when iOS 14.5 was released, but it will most likely be temporary. Alliance partners predict that impression cost will steadily increase as marketers feel more confident with ad performance despite App Tracking Transparency. Ultimately, the death of IDFA does not mean the end of effective advertising on iPhones. It simply means that advertisers will need to shift their ad strategy and reassess methodologies to continue providing relevant ads to users.

 

Industry Response

The removal of third-party cookies and new privacy changes under iOS 14.5 provide an opportunity for industry players to be creative with their approach to audience targeting and measurement. Companies who have already future-proofed their tactics and processes will be best positioned to thrive in the new privacy-focused landscape. Despite the significant demand for identity-based solutions by marketers and the ad industry’s acknowledgment that the space needs a new form of identity resolution, there is no single solution as there is no single identifier that can replace a cookie or an IDFA.

Back in 2019, The Trade Desk introduced Unified ID 1.0, which aimed to eliminate the cookie-syncing process and help buyers and sellers identify audiences effectively. The Trade Desk began building version 2.0, an open-source upgrade that removes third-party cookies from the equation and is interoperable, last year. Additionally, a number of companies, such as LiveRamp, Criteo, LiveIntent, ID5, and Kochava, are building their own identity products.

While cookies and IDFAs have served as the main way to track users, there are alternative ways to reach audiences. Establishing a balance between protecting consumer anonymity, while still allowing advertisers access to data, is a win-win for everyone. With the right innovations, the ad-tech industry and digital marketing will continue to be successful in the post-IDFA world.

 

The Digital Remedy Approach

With 20+ years of experience, we always have and will be ready to adapt to the ever-changing digital landscape. We support and are prepared for on-going industry changes to increase consumer privacy and transparency surrounding data. Digital Remedy continues to work with the most technologically advanced partners (DMPs, DSPs, CDPs, etc.) to best manage digital ad campaigns amidst industry changes and will continue to strategically serve our clients moving forward.

 

Mobile Campaigns

Our strategic partnerships with leading location services providers ensure we avoid any significant impact to the scale and quality of our location-based campaign data. Our targeting and measurement tactics leverage multiple forms of identity and have transitioned beyond MAIDs. Our location partners have been fully prepared for IDFA opt-in enforcement for months and have employed identifiers outside the IDFA, such as hashed-IDs.

Our SDK-based partners are integrated with a number of mobile apps that would enable location services tracking so all it takes to keep a device in the ecosystem is an opt-in to one app on the user’s phone. For example, if the opt-in rate is 10% and a user opts-in to just one of the 10 apps with location services on their phone, we’re not losing anyone in our pool.

 

Targeting Capabilities

Digital Remedy has partnerships with industry-leading technologies for identity resolution and numerous data partners with access to alternative identifiers, including second-party data, and first-party CRM data, to ensure continued targeting scale. We utilize a variety of cookieless targeting solutions and will continue to connect clients with intended audiences—delivering enriched audiences for relevant omnichannel digital advertising. While there are expected drops in targeting device pools, causing some contraction in segment scale, audience-based targeting remains a powerful solution. Our partner audience panel is substantial, with plenty of buffer room and ability to grow despite industry changes.

 

Impact to Attribution

By leveraging leading technologies for identity resolution, we’re ensuring continued attribution capabilities during current industry shifts. Digital Remedy has access to first-party data through our partners, which offer users value in exchange for location sharing. Less than 15% of iOS impressions are matched via MAID—losing 90% of them would only impact attribution feasibility by 1% to 2%. Changes to conversion rate and lift, if any, will be within acceptable ranges. Additionally, we’re able to offer alternative options for measuring campaign success, including brand lift studies.

 

Sources:

  1. Tinuiti, 4/20/21, What is an IDFA (and How Will Apple’s iOS 14 Update Impact Advertisers)?
  2. eMarketer, 5/06/21, US adults who recently updated to iOS 14.5 show openness to apps tracking them
  3. Flurry, 5/20/21, iOS 14 Opt-in Rate: Behind the Numbers
  4. Appsflyer, May 18, 2021, The impact of iOS 14 & ATT on the mobile app economy
  5. Appsumer, 5/17/21, Week 3: Key lessons learnt about SKAdNetwork (SKAN) and App Tracking Transparency (ATT) so far
  6. Simform, 1/05/21, App Usage Statistics 2021 that’ll Surprise You (Updated)

Mike Seiman

Mike Seiman, CEO & Chairman, is the founder of Digital Remedy, a digital media solutions company leading the tech enabled marketing space he co-founded while still a college student at Hofstra University in the early 2000s. The company has grown quickly and is now a major player within the crowded digital advertising landscape. The rapid growth of Digital Remedy, formerly CPXi led to its inclusion on Inc. Magazine’s list of fastest growing privately held advertising/marketing companies in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2014. Mike was selected as a semi-finalist in Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year initiative in 2010 and 2013 and as a finalist in 2009 and 2014. In his free time, Mike serves on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, Hofstra University. He also focuses on numerous philanthropic initiatives including sitting on the boards of the H.E.S. (Hebrew Educational Society non-profit community center) and Children International, where he spearheaded the development of community centers in both Guayaquil, Ecuador in 2010 and Barranquilla, Colombia in 2014.

David Zapletal

Before graduating in 2005 with degrees in Retail and Consumer Science (with an emphasis in eCommerce) and a Minor in Public Business Administration at the University of Arizona, David Zapletal had already successfully grown a start up ad network from serving an initial 1 million impressions per day to over 10 million impressions per day. It was his deep understanding of internet advertising during the industry’s beginning stages that led him to another start up at the time, CPXi. More than 8 years that have passed and Zapletal currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Digital Remedy. In that role he continues to help grow and implement optimization tactics across various ad serving platforms, oversee daily operations of the account management and trafficking groups and maximizes ROI for Direct Response advertisers as well as for Publishers. Outside of Digital Remedy, Zapletal commits his efforts to an organization called Camp Dream Street, a camping program for children with disabilities, where he serves on the Board of Directors.

Jeff Reitzen

Jeff has worked in multiple facets of the online industry, from sales to operations as well as consumer engagement, content analytics and most recently in data optimization. His career began as a wedding, bar mitzvah, and Sweet 16 DJ where he learned the delicate balance of crowd energy management. Quickly, this skill made him incredibly successful in managing online sales for Geico. He joined CPXi at its startup stage as employee number 4 and has been a key driver of continued growth. His unique knowledge of what converts in the digital ad space, the application of data, and how to optimize platforms for efficiency continues to be invaluable to Digital Remedy clients. Today, Jeff is responsible for innovating and optimizing all Digital Remedy offerings including platforms, systems, tools, and internal processes—ensuring the organization remains on the precipice of the marketplace.

Mike Juhas

Mike Juhas, has over 13+ years of experience in ad tech client services, working with brands, agencies, and publishers ranging from top 10 advertisers to small regional organizations, to rep firms, holding companies and independent shops. An integral member of the Digital Remedy team, Juhas leads all client relationships, including facilitating onboarding and integration, establishing relationship protocols, overseeing Quarterly Business Reviews and status meetings, navigating financial coordination, and overseeing 24/7 team support. His specialties include consultative services, planning strategy, and account management disciplines. Juhas lives in New Canaan, CT with his wife and two daughters, and their dog, Perry–the unofficial company mascot.

TJ Sullivan

TJ Sullivan has over 20 years of media sales and leadership experience. His knowledge of the digital media landscape, ability to develop strategic solutions that solve brand challenges, and talent for motivating sales teams, have made him a vital member of several media and ad tech organizations. Before joining Digital Remedy, Sullivan was VP, Connections at iHeart Media, a cross-divisional group that enabled national advertisers to seamlessly work with multiple iHeart business units; CRO of Reelcontent, a video distribution company for brands; SVP of sales at AdoTube, a video ad network; and was Co-Founder and SVP of video measurement company, OpenSlate—for which he is still an advisor.

Sullivan had served as the President of 212, New York’s Interactive Advertising Club, and currently advises many early stage start-ups in the programmatic and video space. Notably, RUN (sold to Publicis in 2014), Futures Media, Transmit.Live, and Kubient.

Outside of his work in the media industry, Sullivan sits on the Board of St. Elizabeth School in Wyckoff, New Jersey and the Advancement Committee of St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, New Jersey. He resides in New Jersey with his wife and four children.

IP Zone: Leverage the relationship between users and the location of their IP addresses in a cookie-free, safe and scalable way.

Behavioral: Combine first party with network analytics and enormous scale to define custom audience channels that are optimized to sites with high brand engagement.

Demographic: Reach the right audience based on demographic characteristics such as age, gender and income.

Mobile Device: Target users by mobile device type (Smartphone, tablet, etc.), carrier and operating system.

Geo-Location: Target your audience residential cluster, proximity to retail locations, campaign level DMAs and more.

Contextual: Place a relevant ad in front of a user who is reading content that contains specific terms.

Buying Power and Quality

Let’s be honest. Your ad ops are limited by your access to only a handful of channels and DSPs. You want more reach and better prices, but don’t want to sacrifice quality in order to achieve those goals. Digital Remedy has access to a vast multitude of channels based on relationships we’ve cultivated over nearly 20 years in business. That means we get the best prices, have personal relationships, and don’t get sent to voicemail when we call.

It also means that we can execute omni-channel ad ops for better prices than an internal team, while ensuring the quality is up to industry standards. On top of access to all sorts of specific audiences we’re able to to leverage first- and third-party data across all your campaigns and pivot across platforms based on results. Any campaign, any budget, any platform, any audience. Digital Remedy backed by AdReady is restriction free ad ops….and what could be better than that?

Resources, Time, and Overhead

When was the last time you enjoyed balancing budgets, reading resumes, dealing with aggressive sales teams, or wasting years of time for small gains in performance. By partnering with Digital Remedy you get the full support of $30m in OPEX including marketing teams, sales teams, and a dedicated 24/7 ad operations team. No hiring new employees for media optimization, business development, or account management. No months of training and on-boarding. No long meetings crafting sales materials. Just your team focused on making deals, and our teams and tech focused on supporting and executing those deals in a tech-enabled, digital ecosystem designed to get the most out of any KPI.

Reporting and Support

How nice would it be to have all of your data and insights in one location. We don’t mean an excel sheet sent out once a week with complicated charts, or an XML file with pages and pages and pages of tables (what is this, 2003?). We mean a fully customizable dashboard reporting in real time, or as real time as possible. You get to decide the how, what, and when of the reporting you’re seeing. And that’s ALL of the how, what, and when’s. If you want to see breakouts of all of the individual campaigns in your system, done. If you want broad scope comparisons of all of the campaigns in the last year, done. If you want to see CTR’s for specific audiences and compare them to CPM for your best performing advertiser but limit the scope to campaigns greater than 30k, done. All of this is at your fingertips with the AdReady Dashboard, all in one place.

Jessica Cortapasso

With more than a decade of experience in human capital management, Jessica Cortapasso serves as SVP, People at Digital Remedy. After graduating from Muhlenberg College, she quickly recognized her passion for people and entered the workforce in Human Resources where she gained expertise in employee relations, designing strategic benefit plans, and the development, implementation, and curation of corporate engagement initiatives for big-name brands and small companies alike. Becoming a member of the Digital Remedy family in 2013 while simultaneously acquiring her Masters Degree in Human Resources Management and Development from New York University, Jessica has steered company culture through significant events ranging from acquisitions and a rebranding, to the development and application of our Core Values that shape our daily business practices. Cortapasso resides in Brooklyn, plays competitive volleyball, and loves spending time with her nieces.

Erez Feld

Responsible for the financial and legal practices of Digital Remedy, Erez brings 22 years of experience in precision financial analysis, growth management practices, strategic acquisition, and investment leadership. A graduate of Hofstra University, Erez began his career modeling for corporate finance, and expanded his accounting prowess in the real estate sector. Erez joined Digital Remedy in 2008 as a senior accountant, and helped to create and build an accounting department that could support the rapid growth of the company and aligned with those needs. Over the past 12 years he has evolved through various positions at the company within the finance discipline, supervising and mentoring additional finance personnel, while growing under the tutelage of Michael Fleischman, former CFO of Digital Remedy. Today, he leads the Finance Department by supporting high-level projects such as acquisitions and restructuring, and is responsible for overseeing all financial assets, establishing financial procedures, controls, and reporting systems.

Michael Fleischman

After a successful career as an accomplished Fortune 500 financial professional leading Corporate Finance and Strategic Planning at Cablevision Systems Corporation and its programming subsidiary Rainbow Media Holdings, Michael currently plays a role in the overall management of Digital Remedy including direct responsibility for all financial-related activities including accounting, financial planning, M&A, legal, insurance, real estate and banking relationships. Michael brings more than 25 years of media experience at Cablevision and Rainbow Media and during his career was instrumental in the launching and managing of a number of cable television networks including 10 Regional Sports Networks across the US, American Movie Classics, Bravo, and the Independent film channel as well as the structuring of corporate partnerships with companies including Liberty Media, NBC, Fox/NewsCorp and MGM. Additionally, he was the finance lead on a number of professional sports team acquisitions including Madison Square Garden, the successful IPO of Cablevision and a tracking stock at Rainbow Media.Michael was involved in the creation and launch of Rainbow Advertising Sales which was one of the Cable Industry’s first Local Advertising Sales Divisions.

Tony Pascal

With over two decades of experience in the design, product, and technology space, Tony joined Digital Remedy as a graphic designer in 2007. His responsibilities quickly expanded, landing him in leadership roles across multiple disciplines including creative direction, analytics, monetization optimization, and management of platform development. He continued to grow with the organization over the last fourteen years, overseeing all design, development, and execution of Digital Remedy products and platforms. In his current role as SVP, Product & Technology, Tony leads product and technology development for the company and acts as the go-to liaison across teams, ensuring alignment on all aspects of internal and client-facing technology initiatives.

Prior to Digital Remedy, Tony built and ran his own direct response company from 2002-2007 after graduating from New York Institute of Technology, where he learned the fundamentals of digital advertising and optimization strategies that still remain relevant today.

In a previous life, Tony was a ski instructor and still remains an avid skier today. When he is not leading product development, he can be found working on old cars, rock climbing and hitting the slopes.

Gayle Meyers

Gayle Meyers is an entrepreneur, venture partner, investor, and operating resource in the digital media and marketing industry, with over two decades of executive leadership experience. After launching a management consulting firm, Growthing which is focused on optimizing growth strategies for executive leaders and their organizations, Meyers has frequently been tapped for high-profile consulting and advisory positions to help marketing technology companies enhance their in-market presence.

“Gayle is widely recognized as a leading strategist with years of expertise in the ad tech space,” said Mike Seiman, Chairman and CEO of Digital Remedy. “Her career in discovering and integrating game-changing technologies in the marketing industry will serve as an invaluable resource as we continue to enhance our product suite in the months ahead.”

With expertise spanning multiple disciplines, Meyers frequently serves as a keynote speaker at industry conferences for companies such as Google, Verizon, Omnicom, LiveRamp, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Oracle. A list of her notable past clients who have benefitted from her unique insights to increase shareholder value includes Tinuiti (acquired by New Mountain Capital), Adometry (acquired by Google), MediaForge (acquired by Rakuten), Integral Ad Science (acquired by Vista Equity Partners), and Tapad (acquired by Telenor).

Matt Sotebeer

With 14+ years of experience in ad tech and emerging technologies, Matt Sotebeer brings an uniquely innovative approach in his role as Chief Strategy Officer at Digital Remedy. As CSO, Matt focuses on the intersection between the product, product marketing, tech, data, and sales teams, while fostering productive cross-functional company-wide relationships to inform and influence sales, educate clients, and optimize company performance.

Matt has an extensive knowledge in the integration of data science, creative, and media solutions to drive sustainable growth for companies, with a focus on designing customized, scalable solutions leveraging machine learning alongside human intelligence. Throughout the tenure of his career, he has successfully managed global teams aligned to common goals, encouraged collaborative problem solving, and supported talent growth for entrepreneurial companies including MiQ, Rocket Fuel, and Audience Science.

Jeremy Haft

A proven strategic, revenue, and team leader with over 20 years of experience managing and scaling revenue in the competitive ad tech landscape, Jeremy serves as Chief Revenue Officer at Digital Remedy.

Before joining the team in October 2022, he served as CRO at Channel Factory, where he reorganized the revenue team for sustainable growth and increased the sales team by 3x to drive predictable and more accountable revenue. Prior to that, he served in a decade of leadership positions. Most notably, as SVP of Sales at Amobee and as VP of North America Sales at Viant/Adelphic. At both organizations, Jeremy successfully built and scaled platform and business solutions from their infancy to achieve the desired corporate goals.

Jeremy graduated from The University of Vermont and currently resides in New Jersey with his wife and two children. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling to tropical locations, dining out, cooking feasts with friends, and any new fitness trend he can get his hands on.

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