Why Identity Matters More Than Ever
Digital advertising has never been static—it evolves as rapidly as the open web it helps monetize. Today, privacy regulations and user expectations have changed the game. Data can no longer flow freely through systems without oversight. While these shifts are necessary and positive for consumer protection, they introduce immediate challenges for publishers.
Understanding your audience—who just landed on your homepage or clicked into a newsletter—has never been more important or more difficult. As traditional identifiers fade and third-party signals deprecate, publishers must adopt new strategies to sustain revenue and deliver effective advertising. A first-party identity graph is a foundational step toward solving this challenge.
Below, we offer brief guidance on where to start with the identity graph. To access the full guide with more details, recommendations, best practices, and case studies, download the Sell Side Guide to Identity here.
What Is a First-Party Identity Graph?
An identity graph is a framework that resolves fragmented signals into a unified audience view. Through identity resolution, data is matched and linked—creating clusters that connect individual and household identifiers under a single, persistent profile. Learn more about identity resolution on our blog.
For publishers, creating a purpose-built identity graph means turning logged-in user data, subscriptions, and other deterministic signals into scalable, addressable audience assets. It’s your best defense against signal loss—and a smart way to future-proof your advertising business.
Where to Start: Set Goals and Assemble the Right Team
Building identity infrastructure is not a siloed initiative. It must be cross-functional, coordinated, and strategically aligned. Start by forming a working group that brings together: Data Strategy/Product Manager, AdOps or Data Operations, Data Scientists, Data Engineering, Audience/Direct Sales, and legal team.
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Define how you will measure success for each of the use cases. Here is an example of what to measure to evaluate your overall data and identity strategy
- Authentication rate growth (overall and by domain)
- Match rate improvement across key partners (e.g. SSPs, DMPs, CDPs)
- Share of authenticated vs. anonymous impressions served
- Percentage of impressions enriched
Audit and Centralize Your Data
Before building your graph, conduct a full audit of your first-party data ecosystem. Identify where user data is collected, how it's stored, and how it's managed across the teams and organization. Include licensed third-party datasets in the review.
Centralizing this data, ideally in a cloud data warehouse or trusted platform, ensures consistency and scalability of your dataset. Focus on deterministic identifiers like hashed email addresses, which are privacy-compliant and durable across environments.
Make Authentication a Strategic Priority
Authentication is the cornerstone of a robust identity graph, yet many publishers still see less than 30% of traffic from authenticated users. As cookies disappear and traffic fluctuates, increasing authentication becomes urgent.
Common strategies include: platform-based login (e.g., Google, Meta), premium subscriptions or paywalls, email/newsletter sign-ups, and gated content. Test and optimize these methods to increase login adoption and build a reliable first-party data set.
Monetize Your Identity Graph: Direct and Programmatic
Once your identity graph is set, it becomes a powerful tool to maximize yield across both direct and programmatic channels. Learn more about how identity graphs amplify publisher revenue.
Direct Ad Sales
- Build high-value audience segments using both deterministic data and contextual insights.
- Enrich those audiences with licensed third-party attributes to expand reach and improve relevance.
Collaborate with brands in clean rooms to generate custom segments based on overlapping user profiles.
These tactics unlock better-targeted media plans, deeper advertiser relationships, and higher deal values.
Programmatic Revenue
- Enrich bid requests with deterministic IDs to increase win rates and CPMs.
- Support audience curation strategies by offering exclusive segments with high engagement or conversion potential.
- Lead data marketplace monetization through anonymized audience segments or contextual overlays.
These strategies, powered by identity graphs, improve fill rates and ROI while maintaining compliance.
Choose the Right Data and Technology Partners
The success of your identity strategy depends on the partners you select. Look for solutions that integrate into your existing tech stack and enhance your ability to deliver addressable, privacy-safe advertising.
Key partner types include:
- Identity Enrichment Partners: Provide additional identifiers (e.g., hashed emails, universal IDs) to expand reach across browsers, devices, and platforms.
- Audience Attribute Providers: Add demographic, behavioral, and intent data layers to increase segmentation depth and targeting accuracy.
- Audience Curation Platforms: Offer premium packaging of your audience segments for programmatic buyers—often managing enrichment, segmentation, and sales representation on your behalf.
Vet each partner for privacy compliance, interoperability, and track record with publisher integrations.
Ready to Build? Download the Sell-Side Guide to Identity
This article is just the beginning. Our full guide offers a comprehensive playbook for publishers building a first-party identity graph. You’ll learn:
- How to future-proof your monetization strategy as cookies and device IDs disappear
- Proven methods for building a first-party identity graph that drives performance
- Smart tactics to boost authenticated users with logins, subscriptions, and engagement tools
- Privacy-first frameworks to stay compliant and earn user trust
- Real-world use cases to drive ROI across programmatic, direct sales, and data collaboration
- Examples of how leading publishers are partnering on identity to unlock new revenue streams
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