The Turning Point: Google Sets the Stage

Google’s 2020 announcement to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome was a wake-up call for the ad tech industry. Fast-forward to January 4, 2024, when Google began the phase-out, affecting 1% of Chrome users as a precursor to a complete ban later in the year. This bold step underscored the pressing need for innovation in how ads are delivered without compromising user privacy.

Leading the Charge: AdsWizz’s Approach to Cookie-Free Advertising

At AdsWizz, we saw the writing on the wall early. Our analysis reveals that while we expect the impact of third-party cookie deprecation in Chrome to be minimal across our platform overall, with less than 5% of daily ad requests logged on average, some signal disparities inherited from the type of environments operated might inflate the risk set by Google’s browser enforcement. Additionally, environments characterized by low signal and the absence of cookies, which are predominant in podcast and streaming mobile app listening, may encounter minimal impact due to the phasing out of third-party cookies. Conversely, publishers relying heavily on web environments might face a more significant effect. 

Innovation at the Forefront: Contextual and Mood-Based Advertising

Our leadership shines in contextual advertising, particularly within the podcast realm. We’re pioneers in introducing Comscore Predictive Audiences, leveraging our proprietary transcription technology to classify podcast content. This approach, combined with Comscore’s panelist consumption data, creates a content-to-content bridge that offers a nuanced view of listener preferences, setting a new standard in ad relevance without infringing on privacy.

Our Mood Targeting technology is another area where we’re breaking new ground. By understanding the emotional context of content, we enable advertisers to connect with audiences in a deeper, more meaningful way, enhancing trust and ad effectiveness.

Embracing New Technologies

Our commitment to innovation and privacy-respecting ad targeting methods remains steadfast, and there will be more to come from our ongoing work with Google’s Privacy Sandbox. Our efforts extend beyond technology to strengthen partnerships with major data vendors and industry bodies, ensuring a seamless transition to a post-cookie era.

Looking Ahead with Optimism

AdsWizz maintains its commitment to privacy-focused solutions as we navigate the evolving realm of digital audio advertising. We stand ready to tackle the challenges and seize the opportunities to help our clients engage with their target audiences effectively and responsibly.

We’re eager to hear from you! Contact us now to share your thoughts, questions, or insights. Let’s explore the future of audio advertising together!

by Maria Breza

Vice President, Audience Data Operations & Ad Quality Measurement at SXM Media and AdsWizz

and

Vice President, Customer Success at AdsWizz

The post Privacy Pioneers: The Shift from Cookies to Context appeared first on AdsWizz.

Advertisers who run on invalid inventory are paying for a service they are not actually receiving, which can result in a waste of resources and negatively impact their ROI. Being the leader in digital audio, AdsWizz knows the importance of staying ahead of these bots and has the tools and subject matter expertise to address the uniqueness of the audio environment. 

With invalid traffic filtering, we are taking proactive steps to build comprehensive safeguards to ensure our clients’ audio advertising campaigns are bot-free.

Invalid Traffic (IVT) Filtering on the Marketplace

Our clients expect to have their ads served to genuine human customers rather than bots or automated scripts. They want to buy with confidence and trust, knowing their campaign will be free of IVT.

To provide this confidence, AdsWizz partnered with HUMAN Security, a Media Rating Council (MRC) accredited cybersecurity company that stops digital fraud across the buyer’s journey to detect and mitigate IVT. The partnership involves integrating HUMAN’s Programmatic Ad Fraud Defense solution to provide pre-bid mitigation for marketplace inventory, enabling the SSP to prevent invalid opportunities from being presented to buyers while protecting working media dollars. 

The solution employs 2,500 dynamic network, device, and behavioral signals, parsing them through 350 technical, statistical, and machine-learning algorithms. These are regularly updated based on the traffic patterns HUMAN observes via AdsWizz and the internet. HUMAN’s validation loop marries pre and post-bid data to ensure accuracy by constantly strengthening detection to stay one step ahead of fraudsters.

General Controls and Inventory Quality Reviews 

Risky environments can be detrimental to audio investments. The AdsWizz Audio Marketplace, a digital exchange for advertisers and publishers to buy and sell audio advertising, is continuously curated to offset these risks. Along with automated filtering technologies, AdsWizz has transparent processes to vet, certify, and manage publishers with ongoing monitoring.

AdsWizz has implemented an inventory qualification process, allowing buyers to select from a large pool of premium streaming and podcast publishers. Our teams carefully qualify each publisher and perform advanced automated checks and technical verification on privacy and addressability. Following certification, ongoing marketplace monitoring gets carried out to ensure campaign normalcy.

Empowering Secure and Effective Digital Audio Advertising

Our platform and marketplace have brand safety capabilities that allow users to exclude specific audience categories and topics. This provides better control over the path of their ads. Our blocklisting powers can also easily intercept fraudulent domains, malicious IPs, and user agents. For Second Screen retargeting campaigns, we have integrated with various security partners to embed a blocklist of up to 40,000 domains. These URLs are frequently updated to ensure they catch the latest threats.

Recognized by the Trustworthy Accountability Group and awarded the TAG Certified Against Fraud Seal, we are deeply committed to combating fraud and invalid traffic by promoting greater transparency in the digital advertising supply chain.

As the world of digital audio advertising continues to grow, so do the challenges of combating IVT. Fortunately, AdsWizz is at the forefront of this battle, offering robust capabilities, including AI-driven resources to detect invalid traffic, verification of the “audibility” of audio ads, a continuously curated marketplace, advanced inventory qualification processes, and blocklisting tools. These measures help ensure that ad campaigns are effective, safe, and secure.

Stay Tuned for More AdsWizz Content!

• Follow our tech blog for more news about our products and solutions.
• Want to learn more about how to fight ad fraud? Check out A 4-Step Plan to Fight Ad Fraud by Brendan Kelly, Director of Ad Quality Measurement at SXM Media.
• Visit the Contact Us page if you are not an AdsWizz partner and want to get in touch with us.

by Maria Breza

Vice President, Audience Data Operations & Ad Quality Measurement at SXM Media and AdsWizz

and

Vice President, Customer Success at AdsWizz

The post Combating the Threat of Fraud in Digital Audio with Invalid Traffic Filtering appeared first on AdsWizz.

Balancing privacy concerns and delivering relevant audio ads is crucial in this shifting landscape. According to Comscore’s State of Programmatic study, around 47% of marketers plan to adopt ID-free tactics by the end of 2023. 44% of ad spend is projected for third-party ID-based targeting, while 25% is dedicated to audience targeting using first-party data. Additionally, 32% of the budget is allocated to ID-less contextual segments.

The audio advertising industry is at a crossroads, grappling with evolving consumer preferences, privacy regulations, and technological advancements. Marketers will need strategies that balance privacy considerations, exercise a continuous understanding of industry trends, and test new solutions to adapt to the evolving audio advertising landscape to position themselves for success in the dynamic world of audio advertising.

Embrace a Privacy-First Mindset and Transparency

Embracing a first-party mindset is prioritizing direct relationships with users and leveraging first-party data to deliver personalized and relevant ad experiences. This approach lets advertisers build trust, enhance targeting capabilities, and create meaningful connections with their audiences. It involves building rich experiences with consumers where a true value exchange is in place for access to consumer information and partnering with publishers to utilize data collected directly from users, such as preferences, behaviors, and interactions, to deliver tailored ad messages that resonate. 

A shift towards a first-party perspective helps advertisers to have greater control over data privacy and compliance while maximizing the effectiveness of their audio advertising campaigns. These first-party data sets are invaluable for deterministic matching. Still, they will also be the building blocks for more probabilistic methodologies, which will use additional signals like context to expand their reach. With these continuing evolutions, staying informed on current (and upcoming) laws and regulations governing audio advertising is vital. Marketers and brands undoubtedly benefit when they comprehensively understand data privacy regulations in their jurisdiction and wherever their target audience might be.

Educate and communicate with your audience to build trust. A little goes a long way.

Transparency is crucial in building trust with consumers. Brands must communicate to their audience how their audio advertising campaigns collect, use, and protect their data by implementing a robust consent management framework that lets users quickly understand and control their data-sharing preferences.

Collaborate With Trusted Publishers and Platforms

First-party data has always been audio’s secret weapon. Streaming audio has created sticky user experiences, where many consumers continue to be open to sharing identity information in exchange for a great user experience, and podcasting is breaking through with audience targeting options rooted in powerful contextual signals.  

As a best practice, prioritize user privacy and data protection by aligning with privacy-first platforms and leveraging technology and tools that enable you to follow strict privacy protocols, employing measures like differential privacy, encryption, and secure data storage.

There’s strength in numbers, figuratively and literally, and pooling different resources can accelerate power.

Harness First-Party Data With Comscore Predictive Audiences Targeting

Access to audience data is crucial for the success of digital marketing campaigns. With privacy regulations and industry shifts rendering cookies and traditional mobile ad IDs less dependable, brands and businesses must explore alternative and superior data sources to target their audience effectively. Time is of the essence in this pursuit.

With cookie-free targeting and AdsWizz’s AI Transcription Technology, Predictive Audiences, developed in collaboration with Comscore, ensures a reliable pathway to contextually relevant podcast advertising. Advertisers and publishers can precisely target their desired audiences by selecting segments based on TV viewership, OTT consumption, and consumer behaviors. Integrating Predictive Audiences with the AdsWizz platform enhances engagement and campaign performance by delivering ads on episodes that align with the target audience’s interests. With Comscore Predictive Audiences and AdsWizz’s advanced technology, connecting with desired audiences in the podcasting landscape becomes more precise and effective.

The Short Replay

In the ever-evolving landscape of audio advertising, proactively addressing the challenges surrounding identity and privacy is crucial. A privacy-focused approach and prioritizing first-party strategies are essential to successfully navigating these issues. By emphasizing transparency and effectively communicating how data gets utilized, brands can establish trust with their audience and create impactful audio advertising experiences. Safeguarding user privacy is ethically imperative and vital for ensuring long-term business success in today’s privacy-conscious world.

• If you are an AdsWizz partner and want to learn more, please click here.
• If you are not an AdsWizz partner and would like to get in touch with us, please visit the Contact Us page.

By Maria Breza

Vice President, Audience Data Operations & Ad Quality Measurement at SXM Media and AdsWizz

and

Vice President, Customer Success at AdsWizz

The post Navigating Identity and Privacy Concerns in Audio Advertising appeared first on AdsWizz.