As third-party cookies continue to be phased out, setting first-party identifiers and activating first-party data will be key to delivering relevant ads in the privacy-centric future. One solution that Google created to address this challenge for larger, more technically advanced partners is publisher provided identifiers (PPIDs).
Today, publishers are testing dozens of ways to identify users on their sites and apps. Some of these methods rely on signals like IP address and tactics like fingerprinting that Google along with others in the industry do not support. These approaches have raised flags with leading publishers, with over 70% of large US publishers expressing regulatory concerns about using IP addresses to identify audiences.1
To deliver relevant ads in browsers that no longer support third-party cookies, publishers will need to use identifiers that not only provide key capabilities, but also withstand regulatory scrutiny related to user privacy. In this report, we share how global publishers are using first-party identifiers like PPIDs to unlock new revenue growth.
What are publisher provided identifiers?
PPIDs are pseudonymized first-party identifiers that are created and controlled by publishers. Historically, this type of ID has been a go-to solution for traffic without platform or browser IDs, such as connected TV and some app traffic. Today, PPID adoption is growing because it can be used in browsers where third-party cookies are restricted.
PPIDs both protect user privacy and offer long-term regulatory compliance because they cannot contain any personal information or device IDs. Additionally, Google and advertisers have no visibility into the underlying data associated with a publisher’s PPIDs. And because each publisher assigns its own IDs, information cannot be shared across sites. This means that users cannot be tracked across the web. Lastly, PPIDs can be used in direct deals and in the programmatic auction via Google demand.
Unlock revenue and key capabilities for advertisers
Enabling publishers to safely scale the use of first-party identifiers in the programmatic auction not only unlocks ads personalization but also replaces core third-party cookie functionalities that are critical to advertisers success, like cross-device reach, frequency management and creative optimization.
Early adopters of PPIDs are seeing significant revenue uplift from their experiments. For example, in 2022, Grupo Prisa, a global Spanish-language media conglomerate, ran A/B tests using PPIDs for ad impressions on El Pais, the leading Spanish language newspaper worldwide. It compared campaigns using PPID versus those with no signals present (including third-party cookies) and saw an immediate RPM uplift of more than 15%.
Mediavine is another Ad Manager partner who recently tested and subsequently scaled the use of PPIDs in the programmatic auction to improve their publisher clients’ revenues. In an A/B test where a subset of Safari and Firefox traffic was split, half included PPIDs based on first-party cookies, and the other half didn’t include any identifiers. The traffic with PPIDs generated a 7% uplift in programmatic revenue, which led the team to activate PPIDs across all 9,000 of the sites that they manage.
Continued support for publishers
During the first half of 2022, the number of publisher domains attaching PPIDs to their inventory increased by 12x.2 In the same window of time, the number of large US publishers who believe privacy-related changes will drive an increase in revenue more than doubled year-over-year.1
A few years ago, findings like those above would have seemed impossible, but many partners are seeing significant revenue gains by replacing third-party cookies with PPIDs. In a high-performing test, News Corp Australia experienced a 2x lift in eCPMs when PPIDs were activated on browsers where third-party cookies and other cross-site identifiers were not available. When asked about their implementation of PPID for programmatic, News Corp Australia said,
PPID for Programmatic empowers publishers to realize increased revenue in a privacy-safe way; it is vital for publishers who have the need and technical capabilities to implement a first-party identifier across their properties to prepare their business for the next era of digital advertising.
For more information or to get started with PPIDs, please visit Ad Manager’s PPID help center article. We also recommend that partners explore publisher first-party cookies and same app key which offer some similar capabilities as PPIDs without technical work required.