Mobile ad spending accounted for 68% of all online ad spending in the U.S. in 2020\u200a[1]<\/sup> and its proportion is growing, making the last point above very important.<\/p>\n First-party data is collected from a company\u2019s own customers (the first party). It is proprietary. For example, Google search and YouTube activity.<\/p>\n Third-party data comes from an aggregate of everyone\u2019s customers. By definition, it is shared by all participants and is cross-site. For example, desktop and laptop browser cookie data. Google Chrome currently collects and shares more third-party cookie data than any other web browser.<\/p>\n Yet another important nuance: browser cookies don\u2019t work well on mobile devices. Mobile devices attach a unique device ID to the data, which becomes first-party data for the hardware manufacturer. Apple is dominant and Google is a much smaller player. Hence Google\u2019s desire for the search engine deal with Apple.<\/p>\n Big tech companies have been facing increasing scrutiny over data privacy and antitrust (non-competitive behaviour based on monopoly position) concerns from governments around the world. On Oct 20, 2020, the US Department of Justice filed suit against Google in an antitrust case over its search dominance. One of the DOJ\u2019s big areas of concern is Google\u2019s search engine deal with Apple.<\/p>\n Like all companies owned by others, Google needs to protect its profitability from government regulators at all costs.<\/p>\n The best future for online advertising services, the lifeblood of all big tech, is first-person data. Google is already the leader there. Forsaking browser cookie data is a relatively easy give for Google. It\u2019s just one of the many pieces of consumer data that gets picked up in search. Only Google\u2019s AdSense and Ad Manager properties, representing about 10% of total 2020 revenue\u200a[4]\u2009<\/sup>are mostly dependant on third-party cookie data. Dropping cookies also sends the right conciliatory message to consumers and regulators.<\/p>\n The bigger issue for Google is replacing the at-risk search engine relationship with Apple. Losing that means losing user data for half its current search traffic. Neither Google nor Apple want this mutually-lucrative deal to end in a hurry. Google\u2019s new ad targeting technology is the contingency plan while this critical mobile search engine issue gets resolved.<\/p>\n Google says it will replace third-party browser cookies data collection with new technology it calls the Privacy Sandbox. Website browsing data will be collected at the device level using a \u2018FLoC API\u2019 (gotta love Google\u2019s coder lingo) and will be anonymised from the very start. Using this data, consumers will be aggregated into 1000-person \u2018cohorts\u2019 of similar interests. So the algorithm will predict brand interest and purchase behaviour based on associated interests and purchase.<\/p>\n For those of you who worked in marketing before<\/em> Google\u2014what does this strategy sound like? It sounds like the way traditional\/offline\/linear media has been sold for decades. Since the Mad Men era. The source of all that old-school-anonymised cohort data? Nielsen diaries, Print Measurement Bureau U&A studies and radio audience surveys. Every linear medium has\/had its own audited program-rating and quantitative consumer U&A research. Google is starting to do the same thing, turning consumers\u2019 digital devices into its proprietary first-party data collection devices.<\/p>\n Based on early testing, Google claims FLoC \u201cis delivering 95% of the conversions per dollar spent when compared to cookie-based advertising\u201d\u200a[5]<\/sup>. It\u2019s curious that delinking third-party purchase data from ad targeting hardly hurts online adverting ROI at all. Wasn\u2019t the hallowed link to purchase behaviour the reason online advertising\u2019s was going to crush its old analog cousins?<\/p>\n Ad targeting based on purchase data and website visits just before purchase are hitting very low in the marketing funnel. Linear media, by necessity, needs to focus on esoteric high-funnel things like brand image building and brand positioning. And it needs to be a little more patient.<\/p>\n What a pain it is being as successful as Google. Just like playing the game of Monopoly, you tend not to have many friends when you own all the best properties. Except those you choose to cut deals with. In January, 2020, Google advised the marketing world that it was doing away with the third-party browser cookie in its industry-leading Chrome browser by 2022. Then came the pandemic. So earlier this month, when Google (Alphabet Inc) announced it would not develop its own replacement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[870,64,3,59],"tags":[911,901,915,186,903,916,902,920,922,910,921,906,914,923,274,912,908,905,733,610,917,919,918,913,904,907,909,277],"class_list":["post-19311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing-industry","category-media","category-news","category-technology","tag-adsense","tag-alphabet-inc","tag-anonymised-data","tag-apple","tag-browser-cookie","tag-cohorts","tag-deja-vu","tag-do-a-ritson","tag-doing-a-ritson","tag-doj","tag-done-a-ritson","tag-first-party-data","tag-floc","tag-going-all-ritson","tag-google","tag-google-ad-manager","tag-google-chrome","tag-google-search","tag-iphone","tag-mark-ritson","tag-nielsen-diaries","tag-pmb","tag-print-measurement-bureau","tag-privacy-sandbox","tag-third-party-browser-cookie","tag-third-party-data","tag-us-department-of-justice","tag-youtube"],"yoast_head":"\nCritical Data Distinctions<\/h3>\n
The Big Event<\/h3>\n
What\u2019s Really Going On Here?<\/h3>\n
D\u00e9j\u00e0 Vu and D\u00e9j\u00e0 V\u00e9cu<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/coyote.ca\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Mark-Ritson-9584-v2_267x267.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Going All Ritson On You<\/h3>\n
![\"end-of-post-symbol\"](\"https:\/\/coyote.ca\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/green-dot_40x40.png\")
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