Publishers Are Now Prioritizing Ad Consent More Than Ever

For a really long time, data collection practices were implemented in a way that was quite secretive with all things having been considered and taken into account. A few changes in EU regulations coupled with a new default opt out feature in Apple’s updated iOS meant that third party tracking no longer held the sway that it used to. This is changing the way that publishers think about advertising in general.

The managing director of the Association of Online Publishers, Richard Reeves, recently spoke out about how many publishers are starting to prioritize ad consent more than might have been the case otherwise. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Reeves was referring to programmatic ad consent which is quite different from, say, a user opting in to receive emails from a publisher of their choice.

Personalization engines that are powered by AI can be a useful tool for publishers because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up showing insights that can help them personalize ads without having to infringe on someone’s online privacy. Reeves criticized the Transparency and Consent framework because despite its fulfilment of all GDPR requirements it might be lumping in too many tracking practices some of which are not all that harmful.

Just 51% of ad revenue goes to publishers, and around 15% of ad revenue ends up being unaccounted for, and that suggests that malicious actors may be entering the fray. The more muddled up and confusing regulations are, the bigger the opportunities would be for so called rent seekers to set up shop.

People will always try to find workarounds for regulations, but for now it seems that publishers are trying to find new ways to obtain consent so that they can get vital tracking data to personalize ads for users. Zero and first party data will become ever more prominent, since it can provide a gap between the needs of publishers and the privacy needs of the users that they are going to be showing their ads to.

Illustration: Freepik / jcomp
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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World