Exclusive: Yahoo's ID Testing Lets Advertisers Compare Campaigns Without Cookies

Yahoo is helping ad buyers get ready for cookie decline. The company is letting buyers compare campaigns running with third-party cookies and identifiers against those running without, days after Google finally deprecated third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users. This testing capability is an evolution of Yahoo’s Identity Solutions, which covers addressable and non-addressable inventory. The former is covered by ConnectID, which has consent-based, first-party and partner data from Yahoo on 192 million people in the U.S. The latter is covered by Next-Gen Solutions, which uses artificial intelligence to extrapolate from a panel audience of Yahoo ConnectID users into non-addressable environments. “On average, Yahoo clients testing this capability found that they were able to drive more than 90% of the same reach with Yahoo Identity Solutions when cookies weren't available that they were when all cookies were made available, allowing buyers to maintain reach and scale in a cookieless world,” a Yahoo spokesperson told Adweek. Marketers Eye Transaction Data in a World Without Cookies Yahoo began testing this capability for its identity suite via its demand-side platform across all web browsers and in-application inventory with 10 of its ad partners, including Canadian agency Klick Health, last fall. It's now available to all ad buyers using its DSP. While cookie deprecation is no news to advertisers, what has been lacking is testing capabilities within the competitive programmatic identity solution landscape. This is crucial to distinguish addressable inventory from non-addressable inventory, letting advertisers assess lift and incremental reach. While Yahoo is one of the first ad-tech firms to introduce testing, the challenge for advertisers lies in comparing solutions across the identity landscape. “You're comparing something to nothing,” said Shiv Gupta, U of Digital founder. “And something usually wins versus nothing.” Yahoo’s current capability supports the testing of its Yahoo Identity Solutions. However, its ad partners will also be able to test Google Privacy Sandbox APIs (application-programming interfaces) later this quarter, said Adam Roodman, senior vice president of product strategy and management at Yahoo. Little difference in reach and cost Yahoo’s solution lets advertisers A/B test a control line that includes all third-party cookies and identifiers, with a test line that runs across the same environments without third-party cookies and device IDs, which uses Yahoo Identity Solutions for targeting and buying. Advertisers can compare control and test campaigns. Identity testing can be run using a variety of audiences, including demographic, income, interest, lookalike and predictive. Last March, Klick Health, a commercialization partner for pharmaceutical and life sciences clients, approached its DSP partners to test ad targeting in cookieless environments. In the fall, the company ran a four-week-long test using Yahoo’s Identity Solutions, via a control line within a third-party cookie environment, and a test line on the same inventory but in a cookieless environment. “At the end of the test, we were able to identify with confidence that we would be able to address our audiences in a cookieless future,” said Kristy Quagliariello, vp of programmatic at Klick Health, adding that the solution was scalable, addressable and found little difference in the reach and cost between the test and control. The company wouldn’t share specific details. The accuracy of IDs While Yahoo’s testing capabilities show that ad buyers can maintain reach and scale in a cookieless world, accuracy is a concern in many ID conversations, said Gupta. Even if the A/B test indicates that the non-ID portion of the campaign yields positive results in terms of reach compared to cookies, brand safety and brand suitability may be compromised if the ID solution is inaccurate in its targeting, potentially leading to non-relevant ads being delivered to the audience. "That can be a really bad user experience," Gupta added. A Yahoo spokesperson said there is no industry way to test accuracy, as you cannot store user data across sites: Instead, accuracy is tied to the source of the data that a solution uses. Holistic views across measurement The health industry, and clients of agencies like Klick Health, are particularly heavily reliant on contextual ad targeting and stand to benefit from mechanisms such as frequency capping, targeting conversion, attribution and reach metrics. “I would argue that measurement is the most affected by [cookie] deprecation,” said Loch Rose, chief analytics officer at Epsilon. “That creates a challenge for advertisers. How are they going to know which solutions work best?” However, all advertisers want more correlation between inventory and their customer base, as well as the ability to link their first-party data to transactions. “Those are the hardest use cases to sustain in the post-deprecation world,” said Rose. “An advertiser should get to that next level of detail and understand whether all of the pieces in their advertising chain will still work for them, based on the partners they work with.”

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Exclusive: Yahoo's ID Testing Lets Advertisers Compare Campaigns Without Cookies

Clients like Klick Health can A/B test campaigns in both cookie and cookieless environments

Trishla Ostwal

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Trishla Ostwal