DIGITAL ROUNDUP - January 2025

Welcome to this month’s edition of the roundup to some core updates in the digital advertising industry.

NB: the following represents my own opinion & not that of my employer

Google updates platform policy with data collection implications

DEEPDIVE

In somewhat of an under the radar update from Google, all ad policies across its buy-side (Ads / GMP) & supply-side (GAM) have been updated with specific detail on how the tracking of users can be done, specifically in regards to newer advertising mediums like Connected TV & Games Consoles.

The update released on 18th December 2024 will come into effect on 16th February 2025, with 1 major conclusion being drawn from it: the use of fingerprinting may be deemed acceptable in a Google advertising world. Fingerprinting is somewhat of a grey technique used to track individuals by using a variety of signals to make an approximation of a certain user. Outside of using 3P Cookies or Mobile Device IDs, the core signal leveraged to do this is IP Address.

There are plenty of vendors out there that fingerprint as part of their solutions already, so the opportunity to tap into the Google space which predominantly has prohibited it will be financially motivated to these vendors.

But why are the Google advertising teams wanting to do this? The use of IP address does exist as a form of targeting in Google Ads but primarily for exclusions & has never really made it onto the more enterprise tools until now. The rise of Connected TV where IP address for now remains the currency of choice, means that Google’s competition have surpassed them outside of YouTube. This adjustment of policy could bring both GAM & DV360 back into power for a CTV targeting / measurement space.

The elephant in the room however is that this is somewhat ironic, given Google have prohibited fingerprinting on web / app for so long in their ads platforms. But more importantly, the Chrome / Privacy Sandbox teams will still likely ensure proposals like IP Protection go ahead as planned, similar to their Apple counterparts.

IP Address no matter what is already in the crosshairs of privacy advocates & the browsers themselves, either through capping the last octet of what is passed or the rise of VPN style solutions like Apple Private Relay. It is inevitable that IP address will follow the 3P cookie in being restricted in some form, but not necessarily on the newer mediums of CTV at first. Given the UK data regulator the ICO already has called the platform policy update irresponsible, it will still be on advertisers and agencies to tread lightly in 2025 when using existing or new solutions in Google’s ad space.

Barb planning tool overestimates reach on BVOD by 40%

DEEPDIVE

The UK Linear / Digital TV space is one of much complication and politics, with the latest bombshell to hit it coming from one of the core cornerstones of traditional TV in BARB. It’s planning tool Advanced Campaign Hub has been found to overestimate BVOD reach for several years by up to 40%, meaning quite significant implications for media investments between TV & BVOD when leveraging that as a source of truth.

Whilst it is true that there are no perfect solutions particularly in the measurement space, this is quite alarming to come out and will likely have not gone down well across the broadcasters themselves as well as the traditional advertisers who operate in the TV space.

ATL (Above the Line) Media & in particularly TV will continue to have a roll to play in UK advertising media planning, that is not up for debate especially when cited against newer research initiatives or MMM readouts. However whilst new partnerships occur in the UK to compete against the likes of Netflix / Disney+ alongside fully fledged digital solutions like ITVX with baked in data / measurement through Data Clean Rooms, it is hard to imagine that investment will not migrate its way into the digital space more over time, particularly for BAU activity.

And therefore measurement of something like Reach becoming pivotal, to which the continuous push of ISBA’s Origin solution is in my eyes one of the most important projects in all of advertising, despite the critics from some of the broadcasters alongside BARB. Both approaches can co-exist but taking in digital signals from the likes of Google / Meta / Amazon alongside the ATL data, leveraging Privacy Enhancing Technologies & spitting out a view is ultimately the future. To some degree, the likes of Audience Project has proven this, with Nielsen / ComScore now pivoting to this model on a more digital heavy space.

OTHER KEY CALLOUTS

SOCIAL / SEARCH HIGHLIGHTS 📱

• Google have responded to DOJ remedies, without wanting to let go of Chrome / Android (Google)

• LinkedIn have made some new ads updates as part of a December update (LinkedIn)

• Meta have a nice measurement frameworks podcast with adidas citing best in class measurement (Meta)

• Meta have some new analysis on how they have scaled out Experimentation (Meta)

PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS 🌐

• Google have pushed out new tools for CTV on its supply side GAM for CTV publishers (Google)

• DoubleVerify have released a new GenAI avoidance tool for advertisers (BusinessWire)

• IAS have teamed up with Lumen to release an attention tool within their existing solution (IAS)

• Amazon have fully launched Rewarded Ads as a new ad format to tie incentives to ads (Amazon)

IDENTITY HIGHLIGHTS 🆔

• Criteo have put out some testing on what a 3P cookie opt out notice could look like from Chrome (Criteo)

• Amazon have some good new collateral on AWS Data Cleanrooms from AWS re:Invent 2024 (Amazon)

• CNIL in France have gone after dark patterns for publisher opt in, to avoid users being tricked into consent (CNIL)

• EU regulators are now turning their attention to Google’s ad targeting, specifically against minors (WSJ)

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