Most industries still use cookies in the majority of their programmatic ad buying process, according to data from 33Across. Insurance is the outlier, with half of its buys coming from cookies and half coming from cookie alternatives.

Programmatic digital display is no exception to the ad spending downturn that has sent ripples through our forecast. As marketers scrutinize their investments, social networks are losing share of the programmatic pie while CTV and retail media drive growth.

“[Marketers] need to have the ability to connect disparate data sources, while also getting consumers’ permissions and knowing how they want to be reached,” Tim Finnigan, director of product marketing at Verisk Marketing Solutions, said on a recent “Behind the Numbers” episode. Here are three customer identification challenges and how marketers work to overcome them.

The end of third-party cookies is nigh: Despite advertisers’ hopes for another delay, Google is beginning its pivot to the Privacy Sandbox.

Five US states currently have comprehensive consumer data protection laws in effect. With five more state privacy laws on the horizon, advertisers need to get up to speed with compliance.

Brands need to prepare for third-party cookie deprecation now. “We’re going backward to less personalized ads and less relevancy, and consumers are frustrated with that,” said Logan Patterson, senior director of global business advisory services at Slalom. Patterson, along with two other senior digital marketers, weighed in on pressing questions about an impending future without third-party cookies at our recent Tech-Talk Webinar, “Designing the Future of Enterprise Customer Data Strategy.”

Over half (53%) of executives worldwide say their leading concern regarding their digital advertising strategy is being able to reach target audiences effectively at scale, per IDC.

Disintermediation is getting real, upfront advertisers want their programmatic CTV spending accounted for, and Google shares early results from the Privacy Sandbox.

Tying multiple online, offline, and device IDs to a single person was always complex and costly, even when third-party cookies and mobile identifiers were commonly accepted tools. As legacy identifiers continue to erode, the costs to target and track users’ digital activity have only risen.

The race is on for marketers to bolster their first-party data strategies. But navigating the collection, organization, and activation of that data can be tricky. Here are four tips from experts to help you get started, including creating a “primary source of truth” and keeping your tech stack up to date.

Programmatic display ad spending is growing despite challenging economic conditions. Where it’s growing, and how fast, depends on how much data advertisers can access.

The Trade Desk shows a way forward for advertising: Strong adoption of its Unified ID 2.0 solution led the company to strong Q4 earnings.

Walmart’s fledgling retail media business made big gains in Q4: Ad spending on the platform rose 31% YoY thanks in part to the ads’ growing effectiveness.

After postponing it a couple of times, Google has confirmed it will deprecate Chrome cookies once and for all in 2024. Are you ready? Here’s what you need to know to navigate this new world, including how to talk to internal and external partners, a rundown on identity solutions, and why you need to start now.

Google has a message for advertisers anxious about cookie phaseout: Act now. The search giant laid out its proposed privacy solutions and urged advertisers to adopt new practices.

As the data privacy landscape shifts, it’s become increasingly difficult for retailers to collect and manage customer data.

Programmatic could be publishers’ Achilles heel next year: A new study finds that 53% of marketers expect to spend less on programmatic ads in ‘23.

Today’s privacy-focused ecosystem has fundamentally altered how marketing performance is measured. Ever resilient, most marketers are turning to technology like AI to ensure they can still measure performance and provide personalized experiences, recent Salesforce research has found.

In the US, digital retail media and the ecommerce channel are growing faster than any other major ad format except connected TV. This report analyzes our latest retail media forecast and examines the role market uncertainty could play in this space.

Google’s cookie phaseout delay will help and hurt: Advertisers gain time to flesh out their post-cookie strategies, but adtech vendors could lose sales opportunities.