As data privacy regulations evolve, publishers are centralizing data within warehouses, but is it enough for data monetization? With DMPs falling short, the future lies in purpose-built applications that enhance activation, streamline audience building, and support complex identity resolution and collaboration. Dive into the challenges and opportunities for sustainable revenue growth in this privacy-centric era.

At this point, it’s not news that years of ongoing changes in data privacy regulation have created massive amounts of change in the way that data is being used (or not used) across the advertising industry.

As IAB Tech Lab CEO, Anthony Katsur, often says, “Just like energy, finance, or healthcare, advertising is now a regulated industry.” As part of this trend, publishers face challenges in creating sustainable revenue growth.

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Navigating Data Privacy in Advertising

Whether it’s the continuing decline in ad revenue that digital publishers are grappling with or the never-ending struggle that the streaming television industry is having to reach profitability it’s clear that owners and publishers of media are feeling the effects of these changes.

One of the areas where these changes are most visible is within the publisher’s data technology stacks. Increasingly, publishers are centralizing the many data sources they need for monetization within their data warehouse. While this evolution brings the promise of insights and connectivity, publishers also need a purpose-built application layer to help them activate and get the most value from their data.

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DMPs: From Central Role to Obsolescence

For years publishers relied on DMPs to be at the center of their monetization efforts. As cookie-based monetization becomes less and less dependable and publishers’ distribution channels continue to fragment outside of the web these systems have failed to develop new solutions for key functions like app and historical data collection, 2nd-party audience enrichment, and programmatic activation.

This leaves most legacy DMPs relegated to web-based data collection, audience segmentation, and simple ad-serving activation. Additionally, traditional DMPs were not built with important capabilities such as data clean rooms, identity resolution, and PETs which are extremely important in our privacy-centric world.

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Data Warehouses: A New Hub for Monetization

Many DMPs have responded by integrating large data sets through mergers and acquisitions to help fill gaps around identity, some are playing catch up by trying to build more privacy-centric features like identity and clean rooms, and others have decided to completely go out of the business. A response to this lack of innovation by DMPs in recent years has been more organizations investing in their data warehouse to centralize their various audience data sources. The question is, is the data warehouse alone enough?

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The Missing Piece: Purpose-Built Applications

As we talk to customers in the market it’s clear that they need applications that can work with their data warehouse to create efficiencies and grow their revenue. One of the biggest challenges is actually activating data.

Data warehouses often rely on applications and integration providers to make data more actionable which leaves publishers building expensive custom solutions and navigating complicated operations.

Similarly to how the Composable CDP movement has stepped up to help marketers evolve how they activate data in their warehouse, media owners and publishers (and new companies like retail media) need solutions that are purpose-built for both the era of privacy as well as ad monetization use cases.

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Embracing the Future of Audience Monetization

Audience monetization platforms of the future need to be able to combine the streamlined audience building and activation (in both programmatic and direct)  that legacy DMPs relied on, while also allowing for more complex tasks like normalizing various data sources, running complex identity resolution models and collaborating within data clean rooms.

As free and scaled 3rd-party cookie data goes away the monetization is shifting to the publishers and media owners who are investing appropriately in their 1st-party-data, and there’s a major opportunity to create profitable growth. Investing in technology to help power this growth is crucial and will separate the winners from the losers during this period of change.

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The article was originally published on August 7, 2024, on AdMonsters.com.

Québecor has leveraged data collaboration to achieve remarkable success in digital advertising. We sat down with Sasha Audet, Audience and Programmatic Solutions Supervisor from Québecor, to discuss their journey in digital advertising, how they leverage data collaborations with partners to grow their advertising business and their plans for TV ads. Explore insights from Québecor’s experience in our latest interview hosted by Ioana Tirtirau, the Director of Customer Success at Optable.

What specific objectives are you aiming to achieve with brands and agencies when it comes to data collaboration?

Our primary objective is to provide brands and agencies with deep insights into their audiences through our data. We've worked diligently with Optable to map all our data. Therefore, when a client comes in, we can match their data with ours. This allows them to see their media consumption within Québecor’s ecosystem. These insights add great value for our clients, and we can activate this data directly, employing multiple strategies to engage with the matched audience.

How do you use data collaboration to grow your advertising business today?

We identified new opportunities with data collaboration, particularly in TV advertising. We plan to use data collaboration in our addressable TV business. By integrating Québecor’s digital environment with TV insights, we can better understand real TV consumption patterns. This helps us identify what TV shows our audiences watch, the times they tune in, and the frequency of their viewing habits. These insights enable us to enhance our addressable TV business by providing more targeted advertising solutions.

Can you give us an idea of how you arrived at this point where you have all these interesting insights to show advertisers? How did you go about preparing your data set?

We invested several years in gathering and preparing all this data, ensuring everything complies with legal standards. We tagged all our properties and used first-party data to ensure accuracy and relevance. After years of hard work, in collaboration with Optable and our teams, we made our gateway to accessible and comprehensive data, enabling us to offer these valuable insights.

Does interoperability play a role for you? Is it important in your first-party data strategy?

Absolutely. Interoperability allows us to bridge different ad tech and data stacks, making it a single entry point for Québecor. This capability, enabled by Optable, allows us to work with a variety of data sources and activate data through advertising seamlessly, regardless of whether our partners are existent Optable users or not.

What have you learned from working directly with advertisers, and how does that change your approach in the market?

Advertisers have high expectations and expect the platform to be turnkey. After working with many clients, we learned that successful collaboration requires significant effort from our side, the advertisers, and the technology providers. These experiences taught us a lot, and we were able to streamline our processes and improve our approach. Now, we have established a great process for all parties involved.

Since you mentioned the process, how is it built within your organization? What is the structure between sales and ad operations for a successful product launch? 

We clearly define the roles of each person involved. The critical part is our subject matter experts. They are salespeople and experts in the product that work directly with clients. They play a crucial role, enabling us to minimize the time spent on learning from every individual involved in sales.

How do you qualify your advertising partners for the collaboration? 

We have business rules in place to qualify clients, ensuring they are ready for collaboration. Our subject matter experts are involved in the qualification process, helping our leads to learn and to work with the product. Experts use specific rules to determine a client's readiness. This process requires substantial preparation and alignment with our technology, especially during the initial adoption phase. Since it is a partnership, the partner must also bring the upfront investment with us so it leads to long-term, successful cooperation. 

Ultimately, we aim to provide long-term, evergreen business for our clients with Québecor. There is a certain amount of work at the setup, but once everything is rolling, there is not much intervention.   

Can you share your experience with onboarding advertising partners to prepare a successful campaign?

The key to a successful partnership is thorough preparation. Before we begin, clients must ensure that their legal, marketing, and other teams are onboarded and aligned. Once we start, we focus on optimizing the campaign, making adjustments as needed, and managing expectations regarding performance, as clients have expectations tied to the third-party cookie world. Both internal and external education must be in place for success. Ultimately, the collaborative effort ensures the campaign runs smoothly and achieves its goals.

Québecor’s strategic use of data collaboration and insights sharing shows how effective data management and targeted advertising can drive growth and success in the digital advertising landscape. We look forward to hearing more about innovative projects from Québecor in the future.

About Québecor

Québecor, a Canadian leader in telecommunications, entertainment, news media and culture, is one of the best‑performing integrated communications companies in the industry. Driven by their determination to deliver the best possible customer experience, all of Québecor’s subsidiaries and brands are differentiated by their high‑quality, multiplatform, convergent products and services.

Québecor is headquartered in Québec and employs more than 11,000 people in Canada.

A family business founded in 1950, Québecor is strongly committed to the community. Every year, it actively supports more than 400 organizations in the vital fields of culture, health, education, the environment, and entrepreneurship.

With the ever-evolving ad industry toward privacy and security, publishers are seeking innovative ways to maximize their data monetization strategies. As it will soon be impossible to rely on traditional tracking technologies, the need for robust solutions to identify users becomes more sharp. Identity Solutions are stepping up to help publishers with user identification in a fragmented ecosystem.

In our previous article, we explored the concept of an ID Graph and its practical applications. An ID Graph is the result of the process known as Identity Resolution. To complete this process, publishers use a set of operations involving the collection, processing, and linking of IDs to establish unique user identity groups at different levels: individual, household, trait and event. In simple terms, it allows a publisher to determine or infer what individual is visiting its websites or apps, whatever device, email, or IP address he comes from, therefore targeting him with a relevant ad.

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CDPs Are Not Enough Anymore

Initially introduced in Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) and used by marketers, ID Graphs has seen adoption by publishers, reflecting the changing dynamics of the industry. The move toward first-party data and the necessity to introduce new advertising and monetization strategies have driven publishers to opt for new ways of building their audiences. Publishers have utilized CDPs to consolidate all available data, create user profiles to increase the value of their ad inventory for advertisers, and enhance targeting capabilities. However, the limitations of CDP capabilities in real-time data processing, basic identity resolution and segmentation are insufficient to support the complex digital ecosystem where users navigate today and also add additional cost to publishers monetization stack.

As a result, ID Graphs now transcend their original CDP scope in more intricate systems, evolving into complex solutions and integrating into platforms, where organizations can securely collaborate around user data and seamlessly activate it. This expansion unlocks new possibilities for publishers, including those in broadcasting, TV networks, and audio platforms, to monetize what they have on the table.

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Accurate Identification for Better Advertising

Optable’s ID Graph is an example of such an advanced solution, providing highly interoperable environment that unlocks many use cases within the sole platform such as audience segmentation, harnessing insights, audience activation, data collaboration, programmatic bidding with enriched IDs and Privacy Sandbox applications.

To construct an accurate and rich identity graph, Optable groups identities by running several critical operations during the resolving process: 

• Auto-normalization to identify the type of ID and cleanse it. For example, spaces are removed from email data, and the format is adjusted according to the specific ID requirements.
• Deduplication and resolution across all IDs, including resolving IPs which CDPs usually do not do.
• Backend hygiene to prevent over-linkages or extra large clusters, ensuring accuracy and delivering precise targeting
• Setting up the numbers of associations to control bid enrichment application, which is not a use case in CDPs
• Configuring the shape and size of the graph. A larger scale implies lower accuracy, similar to look-a-like models.

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Different Data Types for Improved Identification: Deterministic And Probabilistic Identifiers 

ID graphs are not made the same. They can be built and scaled differently depending on the type of data matching used. There are two following ways to do that:

• The deterministic method of matching is based on data explicitly given to users; therefore, those are identifiers that are most certainly linked to the individual: names, emails, and telephone numbers provided by the person. This approach is more accurate, but it is harder to scale as these data are more challenging to acquire or enrich. The alternative solution for the publisher here is to use the existing first-party data networks of deterministic identifiers. Examples include Experian’s LUID, TransUnion’s TUID and LiveRamp’s Ramp ID. While these centralized ID providers provide a strong foundation for creating an ID graph they oftentimes come with limitations on how they can be used and therefore should be thought of as part of our overall solution.

• The probabilistic method is a broader concept based on predicting user behavior and plausible events similar to those noted for similar IDs originating from identifiers on the household level. Probabilistic IDs are the product of analyzing and stitching different cross-channels and devices' data signals. The method is based on similarities and probabilities and, consequently, is not 100% accurate. However, one of its advantages includes the possibility of measuring a large number of probabilistic events and scaling the ID Graph faster.  

Companies like ID5 and Predactiv offer probabilistic IDs. These providers process signals such as device IDs, IP addresses, behavioral and contextual data to infer the person’s identity and increase data matching rates.  

These two methods created quite a buzz in the industry, arguing that deterministic matching is the right and only way to match data accurately. However, the answer lies in the golden balance, where two methods are combined in different proportions. Here, the publisher must find its own ratio between accuracy and scalability. 

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Enhancing Ad Targeting and Boosting Revenue

In the cookieless environment, with addressability being continuously undermined from signal, identifying and targeting users is an important goal. Publishers can significantly increase their revenue by using purpose-built identity resolution to create comprehensive identity graphs. There are several reasons for this.

First, consolidating and linking data points together on different levels allows publishers to identify and reach more individuals and households within desired customer groups. With a large number of identifiers and licensed data providers evolving in the market, publishers are also able to amplify ad addressability by enriching audiences and scaling graphs. 

Second, by injecting deterministic and/or probabilistic IDs into their database, media companies can activate programmatic ads and achieve higher bid density. Thanks to enriched audiences in the bid stream, publishers can increase revenue.

Third, by working with a third-party data provider, publishers can resolve their identity graph to partner datasets to create new addressable audience segments. These new segments, such as demographics like gender, age, or household income, can then be packaged and sold to advertising partners for ad activation.

Lastly, a growing area of monetization growth for publishers is data collaboration. Data collaboration comes from working directly with advertising partners to safely match data in for both audience activation as well as sharing insights about audience traits or purchase behavior. This helps publishers grow their revenue by creating better plans with their advertising partners and offering unique measurement solutions which ultimately leads to bigger commitments and higher CPMs.

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Identity Solutions are a key part of Optable

Our Identity Solution is designed to help media businesses adapt to the rapidly changing digital advertising realm. Decision makers need to consider comprehensive identity solutions as a new alternative to third-party cookies to deliver performant targeted campaigns and boost revenue in both direct and programmatic advertising.

Optable offers a comprehensive approach to identity resolution and developing customer ID Graphs, enabling our clients to enhance audience engagement and revenue through better addressability and personalized ad content. By establishing a first-party identity graph and processing second-party data, Optable aims to improve addressability across cookieless environments, enrich audience insights, and unlock new revenue streams through data collaboration. Ask for a demo to learn more.

As ad tech undergoes radical transformations, publishers have no choice but to adopt proactive strategies to support their advertising business. This is especially crucial, considering that their revenue depends more on digital channels each year. Therefore, media companies must evaluate new solutions to comply with privacy changes and maintain revenue from ads. One powerful answer to the industry shifts is the adoption of ID Graph, a Swiss knife for data management and activation.

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Unifying Your Audience View: The Power of ID Graph

An identity graph, or ID Graph, merges data from various touchpoints to create a comprehensive customer view. This centralized dataset includes interconnected data from different channels, providing valuable insights into the audience and helping publishers recognize or infer who is on their website. For broadcasters and audio platforms, this means understanding your viewers' and listeners' behaviors across devices and connecting those insights back to the broader audience strategy.

Types of Identifiers that are commonly used in a unified customer graph:

1. Individual IDs
   1. Hashed Emails
   2. PII (name, email address, phone number)
   3. Customer IDs
   4. Cookies
   5. Audio ID
   6. MAIDs, GAIDs and IDFAs
   7. Universal IDs

2. Household IDs
   1. IP addresses
   2. CTV IDs
   3. ZIP code
   4. Device IDs

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A variety of data sources could be used to build and optimize an ID Graph. The most essential sources include first-party audience data from CRMs, data warehouses, and other cloud-based customer platforms, as well as usage data collected from their owned properties through SDKs, streaming data collection, and other methods. For audio platforms and TV networks, data from streaming platforms, set-top boxes, and listener/viewer interactions can significantly enhance the accuracy of custom ID graphs.

Incorporating authenticated personally identifiable information (PII) makes the graph more accurate. The most common approach is to obtain consenting browsing data such as IP addresses and first-party cookies. However, publishers often partner with other identity data providers due to the limitations of collecting first-party data. The company can opt to collaborate with partners that provide identity data, alternative IDs, or licensed data for audience enrichment.

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Profit-Generating Use Cases That Optable’s Identity Solutions Unlock for Publishers

To demonstrate their value to ad partners, publishers must become experts in their audience data. An ID Graph helps publishers determine effective strategies and enhance their ad services. Let's delve into four illustrative use cases within Optable that can unleash effective data monetization strategies.

1. Unlock revenue by using ID Graph in activation of segmented audiences

Signals come from many places. Merging them simultaneously in real time is challenging for most datasets, but not for a purpose-built ID Graph. Graphs allow publishers to update and expand centralized data from multiple locations. This empowers ad sales and data teams to categorize specific user segments and differentiate their audience across all available sources for targeted advertising.

Insights from segmenting help publishers define unique audiences and communicate their value to advertising partners and make informed data strategy decisions, including planning and activation. Segmentation within a comprehensive ID Graph becomes a game-changer for audience activation. For audio platforms and TV networks, segmenting based on listening or viewing patterns can offer precise targeting opportunities, whether through direct ad placements or programmatic buys.

Publishers should seek interoperability within their ID Graph to make activation seamless and hassle-free. This allows to onboard specific customer clusters to ad platforms. For digital publishers, this means activating audiences directly on websites through SDKs or integrating with ad servers. Consider it as a secret recipe on how to reduce the tech stack and to make the life of your data teams a bit easier. In Optable’s highly interoperable environment, publishers can seamlesslyI activate custom audiences with all of the mentioned options, enhancing marketing campaigns and helping partners achieve their goals. Read our article on interoperability to revisit its importance.

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2. Use ID Graphs to boost partnerships through data collaboration

Over the past few years, publishers started increasingly adopting data collaboration to work with their advertising partners in a privacy-protected way to build & activate data-driven campaigns. The key to effective data collaboration is the use of first-party data. Publishers who have invested in strong identity graphs for their first-party data will create efficiencies in segmenting and creating new audiences, grow their partnerships by sharing deep insights with advertising partners, and maximize their match rates and addressability.

Based on first-party data, data collaboration is a robust tool that drives highly accurate and high-performing advertising, generating profits for all involved parties. Optable as a data collaboration platform amplifies the collaboration capability with the custom-built ID Graphs, analyzing user data before and after matching. Publishers can explore this alternative to create new revenue streams amidst industry shifts.

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3. Maximize the revenue from programmatic deals with ID Bridging

The process of stitching first-party identifiers and signals from other data partners into ID Graph is also referred to as ID Bridging. It helps publishers increase the value of their inventory for buyers on programmatic platforms by increasing the amount of IDs they can share with their demand partners for a specific visitor. Sending the enriched bid request with additional identifiers allows publishers to increase the addressability of their audience to the marketers. The outcome for sellers will be growth in bid density and an increase in programmatic yield. 

When proposing this solution to publishers, Optable prioritizes transparency to ensure our customers have full visibility and the ability to choose which identifiers and data signals are used. Optable also recommends that publishers work with their demand partners to determine exactly how IDs can be used. ID Bridging can be an efficient data monetization strategy for media companies, bringing sustainable revenue growth from building durable audiences and selling valuable ad space to advertisers in the post-cookies era.

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4. Test a new way of advertising through Privacy Sandbox 

While Google decided to hand over cookie deprecation to the end users of Chrome, the Privacy Sandbox remains an efficient advertising solution, aligned with privacy regulations and we anticipate over time that this approach will gain usage not just within Google Chrome but also within other browsers. The Optable team offers publishers and advertisers a working solution to test the new technology for programmatic ads. ID Graph complements the new advertising framework by allowing publishers to onboard their audiences for targeting through the new capabilities of the Privacy Sandbox module.

ID graphs are emerging as a powerful data management tool that unlocks data activation and collaboration use cases, assisting publishers to grow their ad businesses in the industry that prioritizes user data protection. With centralized data and enrichment opportunities, publishers can increase revenue from programmatic ads and direct ad collaborations. 

To learn more about Optable’s Identity Solution, ask for a demo. 

In recent years, changes in consumer privacy regulations have created disruption within the media and advertising ecosystem. Publishers have felt some of the biggest impact, needing to change the way they think about ad monetization so they can continue to respect user privacy, reduce reliance on third parties, and build sustainable revenue growth.

Key to helping publishers navigate these challenges is their data management and collaboration technologies, which enable them to utilize private identity data, extract meaningful business insights, and safely scale data activation.

Optable is the maker of an end-to-end data clean room platform for the advertising industry that integrates with BigQuery and enables audience activation and insights through connections with downstream systems.

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Optimizing data management for monetization

The methods and systems that support audience-focused ad planning, activation, and measurement have undergone a massive shift. As a result, publishers are needing to reevaluate their data strategies, shifting their investments to cloud computing and big data. Unfortunately, a lack of innovation in data management platforms (DMPs) for publishers has stifled revenue growth and created inefficiencies in operations. This lack of ROI in legacy DMPs comes from the following challenges:

1. Platforms can’t deliver insights across known users, anonymous traffic, and ad data. A shift across the media landscape to subscription-based approaches and user consent has meant publishers have an influx of first-party data from their audiences. This change means they need new types of privacy-centric tools to not only manage this data, but also combine it with other datasets to derive insights for both internal business operations as well as advertising partners.
2. Identity management can consume the limited resources of modern publishers and media companies. As media consumption has continued to fragment, identifying your audience to deliver relevant media and advertising has become a struggle. Many customer data platforms (CDPs) and legacy DMPs rely on systems that are too rigid and profile-based. This makes it difficult to understand true audience reach and attributes, and leaves analytics teams with incomplete or error-prone data sets.
3. There’s a lack of privacy-centric data monetization tools and integrations for publishers. Given the rapid onset of privacy changes, many publishers are navigating a reduction in addressability, signal loss, and programmatic revenues. Current technologies lack interoperability with second-party datasets, advertising ID providers, and ad delivery systems to support direct sales growth.
4. Legacy solutions are not extendable and interoperable across a growing cloud ecosystem. Data management solutions have not kept up with innovation in the cloud computing ecosystem. This makes data extensibility into native cloud tools for things like modeling, custom queries and data visualization is difficult without cumbersome data copying. Additionally, most data management platforms lack native functionality with cloud-based clean room capabilities, such as data analysis rules and egress restrictions, across all major cloud providers.

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Privacy-safe addressable ad products for publishers

Optable is a next-generation data management and collaboration platform that is privacy-focused by design and built to harness the power of today's big data and cloud computing ecosystem. To achieve this, Optable focuses on three key areas of innovation.

1. Composable identity
The Optable platform simplifies the complexities of processing and analyzing audience identity data in the age of privacy. By creating a flexible identity system, publishers can shape their audience graph for maximum accuracy and addressability. Optable also makes it easy to connect alternative identifiers such as UID 2.0 or ID5 to your audience data so that you can understand the full spectrum of advertiser demand and maximize revenue. It’s also straightforward to enrich audience data through connecting to second-party data sources, such as True Data.

2. Interoperability focused on monetization
Optable makes monetization easy. It’s built the tools and integrations needed to keep up with programmatic ad-tech ecosystem changes. Audience data is fully interoperable through the Google Cloud ecosystem (and beyond), which means it’s easier to activate through ad servers like Google Ad Manager (GAM) or Google DV 360, or use pre-built clean room applications within BigQuery. This combination means that direct sales and ad operations teams can quickly and easily move from ad partner planning, to audience building and insights, to actual campaign activation.

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3. Audience insights across all known users and event traffic
Audience building and analysis with Optable provides a comprehensive 360-degree view without the massive upfront engineering that’s usually required. By allowing audiences to be created, synthesized, and managed using both known user data as well as anonymous events (such as page visits or ad serving events from GAM), operational teams can glean meaningful insights, service unique requests from ad partners, and optimize campaign performance. For example, in the image below, Optable Insights shows customers key information about the size and makeup of their private identity graph as well as the makeup of Traits across their audience.

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One of Optable’s early customers, a major North American news publisher, developed a digital-first publication strategy in 2017. As part of this they built an ad-sales strategy focused on privacy-safe first-party data monetization. A key pillar to their strategy is data collaboration through Optable. Through this investment they achieved a 9% annual increase in ad revenue in 2022.

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How Optable creates growth and efficiency

Optable on BigQuery empowers publishers to monetize their data assets, even if they lack engineering resources. Optable provides the right tools and integrations so teams can use their data to create ad products. For example, audience data can be exported directly into Google Ads Data Manager for easy activation.

The data clean room is one of the most important technologies in the media and advertising space. The Optable platform gives publishers pre-built applications that are powered by BigQuery data clean room primitives and APIs. These can also easily be extended to power secure data collaboration across other cloud ecosystems using Optable’s ‘Flash Nodes’ and ‘Flash Connectors.’ Flash Nodes allow companies to invite partners to easily onboard their data into a limited version of Optable simply for the purpose of collaborating with that partner; this reduces the friction of setting up a whole new collaboration platform. Likewise, ‘Flash Connectors’ give companies a set of primitives that can be shared with partners who use AWS, Snowflake, and BigQuery so that Optable users can collaborate directly with partners who house their data in those environments without moving any data.

Rather than just focusing on moving data in and out, Optable’s platform is built for a data-warehouse centric world, so publishers can extend their capabilities. Identity graphs can be shaped and custom modeling easily deployed directly in BigQuery. Additionally, the capabilities of the Google Data Cloud enable custom use cases such as data visualization in Looker. To help navigate data security compliance, Optable has built ‘Bring Your Own Account’ functionality to allow customers to utilize a Google BigQuery instance that’s fully controllable.

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Optable partners with Google across many areas, including a new integration with the Google Privacy Sandbox APIs that enable publishers to easily onboard and activate audiences as well as enabling marketers to run campaigns via Privacy Sandbox. An early access program enables these capabilities directly through the Optable platform. You can learn more here.

Later this year, Optable is announcing enhancements to its audience data management and collaboration capabilities, including support for ad serving events through Google Ad Manager and the release of the Google BigQuery Connector to allow for zero-copy partner collaboration.

Optable also recently became a Google Cloud Marketplace vendor, so Google Cloud customers can now purchase and implement Optable’s platform directly. Following the recently announced general availability of BigQuery data clean rooms, the Optable and Google teams are working on an integration to unlock more planning, activation and measurement use cases for the media and advertising ecosystem.

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The Built with BigQuery advantage

Built with BigQuery helps companies like Optable build innovative applications with Google Data Cloud. Participating companies can:

• Accelerate product design and architecture through access to designated experts who can provide insight into key use cases, architectural patterns, and best practices.
• Amplify success with joint marketing programs to drive awareness, generate demand, and increase adoption.

BigQuery gives ISVs the advantage of a powerful, highly scalable unified AI lakehouse that’s integrated with Google Cloud’s open, secure, sustainable platform. Click here to learn more about Built with BigQuery

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The article was originally published on the Google Cloud Blog as part of a series showcasing tech companies and data providers that are Built with BigQuery.

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All around the world, the right to consumer privacy is being painstakingly tightened up through legislation. In Canada, that process takes the form of Bill C-27, a stronger, modernized legal privacy and data protection framework that governs the protection of individuals’ personal information, as well as the legitimate need of organisations to collect, use or disclose aspects of that information. And just like everywhere else, publishers, advertisers and ad platforms operating in Canada must be ready to comply.

Bill C27: Canadian privacy legislation

New privacy legislation is inevitably daunting for businesses, particularly when it limits commercially important applications of data. But there are ways to continue making effective and strategic use of data without violating consumers’ right to privacy.

The right way to collaborate on the basis of audience data is by using the data clean room approach. Data clean rooms focus on enabling collaboration between partners using audience or customer data, enabling personalization of offers and content, but with transparency and privacy controls at the heart of the user experience.

Optable is a data clean room solution that is uniquely positioned to serve Canadian customers.
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Optable data clean room platform: A made in Canada solution

• We are a private Canadian company, already fully compliant with the EU’s established GDPR laws

• Ideally for Canadian publishers and advertisers, our hosting takes place in Canada, with none of our infrastructure based in the US or elsewhere

• We don’t undertake probabilistic matching on our platform - in other words, we don’t identify users across different devices and applications

• We are ID-agnostic and do not operate a global identifier of any sort

• We fully support the consent element of the legislation, according to which organisations are generally required to obtain meaningful consent for the collection, use and disclosure of personal information 

• We offer robust data subject request support, for maximum transparency and compliance

• Our differential privacy features prevent the re-identification of individuals

• We collect first-party data in real time, using the client’s domain name. This data remains the legitimate property of the owners - Optable does not sell, rebundle or use audience and customer data in any way

• We are integrated for activation. Our platform snaps right into any client’s existing activation infrastructure using Prebid, SDA and ad server integration - no need to export data

• We create purpose-limited clean rooms that give our clients complete control of the outcome 

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Amid the upheaval of broad-based new privacy legislation, data clean rooms are a compliant oasis of data collaboration, allowing companies to plan, measure and activate campaigns securely, with full regard for privacy, transparency and regulatory compliance. So if the many positive aspects of Bill C-27 seem to come with a sting in the tail for your data practices, data clean rooms are the privacy-preserving solution.

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Photo by Jason Hafso on Unsplash

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This article was originally published on LinkedIn.

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Far from being competitive, data clean rooms and customer data platforms are complementary. If you’re serious about maximising the value of your audience data and digital advertising, you need both.

Traditionally, when it came to managing data and building advertising audience segments, particularly for online acquisition, Data Management Platforms (DMPs) ruled the roost. But things are changing.

While DMPs mainly rely on third-party data to build audiences, increasing privacy legislation and the dismantling of third-party cookies and device identifiers mean cultivating and harnessing first-party data is now critical. And, in addition to acquisition, retention, engagement and personalisation are now key focuses as brands tackle changing customer journeys that are non-linear, fluid and fragmented.

Additionally, shifts to identity-based experiences - dealing with multiple forms of dynamic identity and recognising individuals’ myriad connected devices, emails and other identifiers - require new approaches to managing this complexity. The result is that CDPs have come to the fore.

These allow data supply chains to be connected and the data normalised, providing a centralised, real-time source of truth that enables publishers and brands to gain data sovereignty and deliver effective data strategies.
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‍Unlocking the value of data

As publishers and brands wrestle with the changes occurring in the digital advertising environment and address the loss of traditional data signals by bolstering their first-party data, simply collecting, collating, controlling, safeguarding and managing the data isn’t enough. What’s also critical is amplifying its value to deliver effective data-driven advertising and achieving this relies on partnerships.   

In a perfect world, the many CDPs available today would employ the same standards and be built on open-source software so their users could easily partner with the customers of any other CDP. But we don’t live in a perfect world, and this is where DCRs - or, to describe them more accurately, Data Collaboration Platforms (DCPs) - play a crucial role.

Today, successful advertising is only possible through direct collaboration with partners, be they publishers, brands, or agencies.

DCRs act as middleware, allowing users to facilitate secure data connections with trusted partners to capitalise on the value of data in delivering personalised advertising, while maintaining security and privacy – all without putting personally identifiable information at risk.

In this way, DCRs unleash the value of first-party data, turning it into a competitive advantage for the data owner. For advertisers, this means achieving better results from ad campaigns by activating their data and measuring success. For publishers, it means leveraging the value of their own first-party data to allow advertisers to deliver more effective advertising, without exposing it through the bidstream or identity graph.   

It’s not just about connectivity. DCRs must achieve this in a frictionless manner, so users can collaborate with any partner they choose. 

Closed systems stifle collaboration. A true DCR offers interoperability, flexibility and ease of use, utilising open-source, decentralised approaches so users can create rooms and invite parties to collaborate directly, irrespective of the platform they are using.

In a cluttered advertising ecosystem, DCRs must remove complexity and make the whole process - from inviting collaboration and data onboarding, through to activating it and measuring success - simple and quick. Essentially, they become the mechanism for leveraging the first-party data stored in a CDP.

That’s why we developed our solution: to remove barriers, facilitate easy collaboration and provide a frictionless, platform-agnostic approach to delivering the data-driven digital advertising of the future. 
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Don’t think one or the other

So when it comes to debates around CDPs vs. DCRs, it’s not a question of either/or, but both. 

As first-party data and IDs replace the old ways of doing things, CDPs are essential for managing the data complexities. However, advertising success centres on connecting this data with other partners. It’s independent DCRs, like Optable, that provide this critical frictionless collaboration environment so the data can be activated and its value realised, for the benefit of the whole industry. 

DCRs and CDPs play crucial but different roles in fixing today’s broken ecosystem and helping tie everything together. So if you think, ‘Do I really need a DCR if I have a CDP?’ - the answer is a definitive ‘Yes’.

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Privacy is the driving force behind massive change in the advertising industry

When we decided to create Optable it was driven by what we saw as massive changes coming to the way that audience-based advertising worked. This evolution has not been understated as gigantic events such data privacy regulations, changes to how Apple’s massive ecosystem interacts with the advertising industry, and the deprecation of 3rd party cookies across the internet have all received their fair share of airtime. That said, the story is deeper than your typical tech mantra of “disruption brings opportunity.” The mission of the founders of Optable can best be described by what we commonly refer to as “privacy-safe advertising.” At a high level, that may seem oversimplified but the mission here is more than privacy. It's really about empowering media owners and their advertising partners to respect their audience and create a more sustainable, enjoyable and performant experience for all parties - and that all starts with privacy. 

Privacy is the driving force behind so many of the changes that are shaping our industry and it has been the “nail in the coffin” for one of the biggest pieces of ad tech - the legacy DMP. This is exactly why we have spent countless hours going back to the drawing board and re-architecting the DMP from the ground up so that it can support the needs of the media & advertising industry now and in the future. Today we would like to more formally introduce the Optable DMP along with our data activation solution, Optable Activate, and data clean-room solution Optable Collaborate.
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A brief history of DMPs

Data Management Platforms (or DMPs) have evolved dramatically in the last 15 years. They were initially hailed as groundbreaking technologies that could empower media owners, publishers and marketers to better leverage their own data as well as partner data for monetization, content creation and marketing. As digital advertising behemoths emerged and audience-based media buying boomed as the default method of advertising, DMPs chased the opportunities in monetization leading to most first-generation DMPs being relegated to cookie-matching and data reselling through DSP endpoints. Changes in browser-based consent and advancements in cross-device identity spawned a new-wave of DMPs that were less cookie-focused and while many first-generation DMPs were acquired by companies that also have large amounts of consumer data such as Salesforces acquisition of Krux and Nielsen's acquisition of eXelate. Meanwhile the Marketer community fully embraced CDPs as an alternative to DMPs given their greater focus on marketing automation and customer journey analysis. 
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Privacy-centric changes have accelerated and the market needs innovative solutions

What we have seen post-pandemic is that consumer privacy demands are accelerating and the  3rd party data frameworks that fueled tons of data leakage from publishers are now becoming unacceptable from a consumer point-of-view. This is driving a massive shift in the execution of audience-based media buying back to the media owners. As we talk to our customers, we continuously hear many of those first and second generation DMPs just simply don't satisfy their needs as they aren’t built to support a new wave of innovation like data clean room collaboration, and device/browser-focused activation, and scalable real-time audience management across many sites and devices. As a result, we decided to revisit audience data management from a foundation level and re-build the architecture that the media owner and publisher community need to build sustainable revenue growth and deliver great content experience to their audiences.
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Optable is focused on building modern audience data management architecture

Over the last couple years we have worked with many of our customers and prospects to comprehensively map out their cross-organizational requirements as it relates to audience data management. Today, we are focused on building future-proof solutions to monetization but long-term we know the DMP is a central brain for many media owners and publishers and are architecting a solution that can also build a better content experience and solve major marketing challenges. In order to guide our work, we have created 4 principles that shape our DMP:

1. We need to integrate privacy by design - Privacy is the number one force changing our ecosystem and therefore with every capability we develop we are focused on using not only best-in-class privacy technologies but also customizable privacy & data governance controls depending on an organizations need.

2. We need identity solutions that are fully flexible and ecosystem compatible - With a rapidly shifting landscape in audience identity we have focused on developing a platform that can integrate, normalize and orchestrate across both all of your own data sources as well as industry frameworks and 3rd parties. 

3. We need to rethink data activation - This goes beyond just campaign activation to data activation broadly. This means out-of-the-box solutions for data clean room collaboration and seamless integration with all of the right advertising platforms.

4. We need solutions that can scale with a publisher's current resources - Very few media companies have the resources and capabilities to build and maintain data management solutions themselves. We are focused on building for the business user and are shaping both our technology and commercial model so that it can deliver value that is in line with our customers goals and operations.
5. Add something about commercial dynamics 

Our goal is to deliver long term value to our customers and help provide them with a platform for which they can create scalable growth in their businesses. If you are a media owner or publisher and are looking to update or evolve your data strategy - we would love to speak with you!

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Canadian news and journalism outlets have entered into a fierce battle with Google and Meta over the recently enacted Bill C-18, also known as the Online News Act. This legislation, passed by the Canadian government on June 22, 2023, aims to support the Canadian journalism ecosystem by establishing a tax that "digital news intermediaries" such as Google and Meta must pay to the content owners they link to.

In a familiar pattern observed in similar laws like Australia's News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, Meta and Google have retaliated by removing links from their platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and Google Search. Unfortunately, this response undermines the very essence of the bill and is expected to inflict financial harm on Canadian journalism. While Google and Meta argue that they only seek a fair market share for their services, publishers contend that this is unjustified since Google and Meta generate billions in advertising revenue while journalists struggle to make ends meet.
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The advertising industry responds with a call for sustainable, ethical & socially responsible advertising practices

The dynamics at play here are further complicated by the fact that media agencies and brands, responsible for a significant portion of news media revenues, control advertising spend. This advertising spend is the primary source of revenue for Google & Meta, which famously represent 80% of online advertising revenue in the country.

Traditionally, Canadian brands and their agencies have allocated the majority of their advertising budgets to these two companies. However, there is a growing trend, driven by recent legislation and broader shifts in advertising, to directly invest media dollars with local publishers. Many agencies and brands have committed to supporting Canadian publishers in light of this impasse. For example, the A2C in Quebec has already taken steps to incentivize collaboration between agencies, brands, and local publishers. Some agencies view this issue as a matter of ethics and social responsibility. Prominent figures in the agency world, like Sarah Thompson, President of Dentsu Media and Brian Cuddy, SVP Responsible Media Solutions at Cossette have been vocal advocates for supporting Canadian news publishers. In response to the announcement from Facebook that all Canadian news will be removed from their platforms within weeks Sarah took to her LinkedIn to share support for local news “We are at a moment of time where action is required to support local owned media, which is more than news.”

In addition to developments within the Canadian ecosystem, there are emerging trends in how marketers allocate their paid media budgets. Advertising executives are increasingly interested in investing more heavily in contextual advertising and leveraging publishers' first-party data for better targeting. There is also heightened scrutiny around programmatic channels, which lack transparency in terms of media ROI. Consequently, there is a growing preference for direct buying. Moreover, measurement strategies are shifting away from the digital attribution focus of the past decade towards more traditional methods, such as brand lift analysis, media mix modeling, third-party audience measurement, and the use of consumer research data and studies.

In essence, these trends indicate a change in the attitudes and choices of CMOs and agency leaders. They are actively supporting a more open and equitable internet through their advertising investments.
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While the dust settles, open internet publishers can prepare for the future

Similar to other legislations, it is probable that Google and Meta will have to pay millions of dollars directly to media owners to avoid taxation. However, the process of finalizing these deals will require time, leaving publishers to suffer from decreased traffic and increased competition with these tech giants for ad revenue. In the long run, there is a possibility that Google and Meta might modify their platforms by completely removing links. The economic landscape has evolved for these companies, and it is not unreasonable to consider their initial link removal as a test to assess long-term effects on user engagement and potential revenue. 

To minimize risk, publishers can take proactive measures to future-proof their businesses. 

Here are some recommendations:

• Build a direct sales model that is data-driven - By hiring commercial professionals with a strong background in data and educating your sales teams on how your organization leverages data to develop advertising products, you can make a significant impact. Google and Meta have achieved tremendous success by adopting a data-centric approach to advertising sales, and marketers will seek partners who possess similar capabilities. The indirect revenue generated from large platforms and programmatic partners will likely remain at risk as marketers shift their strategies. Publishers who can effectively execute direct sales efforts will reap the benefits of these changes.

• Invest in a data collaboration platform - Google and Meta's value proposition lies in empowering advertisers to leverage their own audience data for precise targeting and robust measurement. Recent advancements in data clean room and collaboration technologies have enabled publishers to directly provide these capabilities while safeguarding user privacy and ensuring scalability. Data clean rooms and collaboration solutions now play a pivotal role in publisher's' ability to offer innovative solutions to advertising partners and drive ad revenue growth

• Work with technology partners that help you manage your data better, faster, and more efficiently - Having partners who possess a comprehensive understanding of audience data is crucial. Developing a robust data strategy can be intricate, encompassing diverse approaches like identity management, real-time audience building, and ad activation system integrations. For publishers, collaborating with forward-thinking partners is vital, as they can provide a versatile system that extends beyond advertising to content personalization and marketing applications.

• Don't forget your biggest advantage, your content! - News publishers are the ultimate storytellers, directly connecting with their audiences. With this unique position, you not only gain invaluable insights into their preferences but, armed with the right tools, also deepen your understanding of them. This fundamental knowledge becomes vital as more publishers creatively leverage data to amplify co-branded content, sponsorships, audience creation, and other aspects of advertising. By employing these strategies, you can draw in more advertisers and bolster your revenues.

Canadian publishers are witnessing promising support from agencies, brands, and the public, indicating a positive trajectory. Coupled with the growth of future-proof data collaboration technologies, this presents remarkable opportunities for news media publishers to revolutionize their advertising revenue generation. The Online News Act, a legislation that foreshadows the future of news consumption, holds great significance not only for Canadians, but also for Americans, as similar bills have reached Congress. In the midst of these advancements, we find ourselves at a critical juncture for the open internet, journalism, and democracy as a whole. Numerous Canadian publishers have already partnered with Optable to safeguard their advertising businesses, and for those who haven't, we are prepared to provide our assistance!

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