Whether you believe that third-party cookies are horribly ineffective OR you simply want to be prepared for a post-third-party cookie world, it’s important to understand one of the most supported alternatives to third-party cookies. In this post, we have made it easy to understand what Unified Id 2.0 will look like and why you should care.
Before diving into Unified ID 2.0 (UID2), it’s important to understand what caused the rise of UID2 to be expedited. Here are a few of the key events and the associated timeline that gave rise to UID2:
- 2016 – GDPR adopted
- 2018 – CCPA adopted
- 2019 – Apple starts to block third party cookies in Safari by default
- 2020 – Google announces Chrome will obsolete third-party cookies by January 2022
- 2021 Q2 – Apple implements App Tracking Transparency Changes
- 2021 – Google delays third-party cookie plans by two years
- 2023 – CPRA fully operative in January, enforcement in July
- 2023 – Google revised the cookie obsolescence deadline to “late 2023”
Each of these events greatly impacted or will impact third-party cookies as we have known them to be. iOS accounts for about 55% of the mobile market in North America. Chrome accounts for 69% of the global desktop internet browser share. When iOS and Chrome both make moves towards the depreciation of third-party cookies, the impact is widespread and unavoidable.
Unified ID 2.0 Defined
UID2 is an open-source framework that publishers, advertisers, and platforms can use to establish identity without third-party cookies. UID2 has gained steam and interest with the announcement and actions of both Apple and Google on iOS and Chrome, respectively. UID2 was spearheaded by The Trade Desk but has become a collaboration. At this point, UID 2.0 codebase is fully open source. IAB Tech Lab had the code committed to it in May 2021, more specifically the code was committed to PRAM (Partnership for Responsible Addressable Working Group), which is run by IAB Tech Lab.
How Does Unified ID 2.0 Work?
The process for the consumer is quite easy. The consumer/user is prompted for their email address and that email acts as the ID that allows them to receive personalized ads. The process certainly is a bit more complex for ad buyers, DSP’s, and data providers. See the diagram below for a visual overview of what to expect.
What Makes Unified ID 2.0 Different From Third-party Cookies?
For starters, third-party cookies take a passive approach. They track consumers essentially without the user’s approval or explicit permission. While many argue that this provides users with a more relevant ad and website experience, it is not a method that is easy to control or navigate from a consumer’s perspective.
UID2 will require a user to provide their email address before a publisher can create a UID2 identifier.
What results is that a consumer will be clearly given the control over whether they’ll receive personalized ads or not. It’s proactive vs passive.
Impact on Brands and Marketers
While change can be scary, this new approach opens up the door for a better, more effective approach.
- Consumers have control and should more fully embrace personalized ads when they know they are in control.
- The government will be more likely to support an approach where complaints are low and consumers are in control.
- Brands have an opportunity to deliver targeted, personalized ads while lowering the risk of generating complaints.
- This new approach helps create more competition against the Walled Gardens (Google, Facebook, Amazon). This sudden and dramatic change is causing many 3rd parties and agencies to band together around Unified ID 2.0. This is a very positive thing.
Programmatic marketing, specifically the partners that Above The Fold works with, has embraced “beyond third party cookie” approaches for years. While many areas of marketing may be negatively impacted by this new approach, programmatic will not be impacted in a significant way by the changes that are occurring.
We’d love to show you the power of hyper-targeted approaches, using demographic, geographic, and behavioral data. Email us to set up a time to chat – julianne@getabovethefold.com
