TripleLift releases industry’s first third-party cookie replacement test results

TripleLift, an ad tech platform that enhances digital advertising across every screen, has released the industry’s first-ever large-scale test results demonstrating that its recently launched first-party data targeting solution is effective across the web, even in cookie-restricted environments. When a third-party cookie was unavailable, the offering significantly enhanced outcomes for both advertisers and publishers, the results show.

The TripleLift Audiences solution is particularly effective in addressing the nearly fifty percent of the internet that already functions without cookies, and it provides a path forward as the industry prepares for additional addressability disruptions in 2024. Currently, about 49% of global ad requests are made without cookies. Once Google deprecates the use of third-party cookies across its Chrome browser ecosystem, which is scheduled to begin in January 2024, approximately 95% of the open web will no longer be addressable in this manner, according to estimates.

Ed Dinichet, Chief Revenue Officer at TripleLift mentioned that as an industry they have been contemplating the impending cookie apocalypse, but they often forget that nearly half of the internet is already unaddressable. Although numerous concepts have been proposed, there have been no concrete results demonstrating that any of them can solve deprecation on a large scale. Currently, this solution is effective for advertisers.

The results, which were delivered in collaboration with a significant global advertiser for consumer electronics, indicated that impressions enriched with publisher first-party data performed better. 

“First-party publisher data is underutilized in the programmatic ecosystem,” said TripleLift Vice President of Product Management Airey Baringer. He also mentioned that TripleLift Audiences allows for the simple activation of first-party data to enhance targeting on every impression, with or without third-party cookies. The data is superior and outcomes are enhanced for both publishers and advertisers.

Since its introduction in June of this year, a number of brands and agencies have run paid campaigns utilizing the first-party data segments of TripleLift Audiences. This solution creates curated segments using the publisher’s data in order to identify and reach audiences on their own websites, as opposed to dropping cookies on users and following them around the web. 

Additionally, CPMs increased for publishers during the test. Since TripleLift Audiences enables publishers to monetize content that has become untargetable due to the deprecation of third-party cookies, they can now resell those impressions using first-party data targeting.

This offering has been made possible by TripleLift for two reasons. First, it leveraged its 2022 acquisition of Zurich-based DMP 1plusX to establish the framework of sophisticated technology, data protection, and privacy standards required for an actionable first-party data segmentation strategy. Second, it leveraged its decade-long, trusted relationships with publishers to offer integrated native ad products.

“This is a win-win situation for the programmatic ecosystem,” said TripleLift’s Baringer. “Publishers benefit because they are able to monetize more of their inventory, resulting in higher CPMs.” Advertisers benefit because they can target more precisely without the use of third-party cookies, resulting in lower CPCs and enhanced performance across all post-click metrics.”