Is data privacy your jam? Do you think the term “cookieless” is meaningless? Do you now associate “Sephora” with the California Consumer Privacy Act more than with cosmetics?
If the answer to any of those questions is “yes,” then you’re in the right place.
Greetings, fellow privacy wonks. I’m Allison Schiff, AdExchanger’s managing editor. Welcome to AdExchanger’s Data Privacy Roundup, a newsletter that will demystify the privacy landscape through the lens of ad tech.
Consent will be a big topic in this newsletter, so let’s be sure we have yours. If you don’t want to continue receiving the Data Privacy Roundup on a weekly basis, you can opt out and we’ll try not to take it too personally. 😭 But if you stay, we promise to deliver worthy content. 🎉
Power to the people
Buckets of ink have already been spilled about data privacy regulations, signal loss, legal compliance challenges, the end of third-party cookies, Big Tech under fire in DC, platform privacy changes and all manner of related sturm und drang.
I’m personally responsible for spilling a lot of that ink. ✍
And so instead of spilling any more right now, I’d prefer to talk about the consumer perspective, which is part of the forcing function behind all of this drama. Or, should I say, the people’s perspective.
It’s a resolution of mine to start using the word “people” more often than the word “consumer.” People are more than just what they consume.
That good old value exchange
Back in 1994, when the first clickable web banner ran on HotWired.com, getting consumer attention was pretty easy.
The ad, which was for AT&T, famously declared, “Have you ever clicked your mouse right HERE? YOU WILL,” and it generated a now unfathomable 44% clickthrough rate.
But that ad copy aged like milk. 🥛👎
The only reason people clicked at such a high volume is because of the novelty. Clickthrough rates have been falling precipitously ever since.
The average CTR on a banner is down to 0.04%, which sounds about right.
There are lots of reasons why people don’t engage with ads. Maybe an ad isn’t relevant to them or they’re experiencing creative fatigue. Maybe they just don’t like being retargeted or they dislike advertising in general.
Or, perhaps, they’re simply sick of being bombarded by opt-in prompts and they’re wary of being tracked across the internet by a phalanx of overly persistent companies they’ve never heard of.
Ask someone who isn’t in the online ad industry whether they know what the advertising value exchange is, and I bet they’ll have no idea what you’re talking about. 🤨
Fact is, the industry is in a pickle, and I don’t claim to have the answer. But I do have a question: How much will the digital ad industry have to change in order to save itself from itself?
A lot, I suspect. But there’s no reason the journey can’t be fun.
Let me know what you think. Drop me a line at [email protected]. Oh, and if you have any amusing privacy-themed memes or tweets to share, please send them along. I’m starting a collection.
