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How to Give Up Cookies

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It has been a looming storm on the horizon for marketers. Seemingly imminent, but never quite upon us. I'm referring of course to Googles long-term Cookie deprecation plan. As a means of self-governance before it is legislated away, Google decided several years ago to end the practice and mechanisms to follow consumers across the open web thanks to cookies used to recognize consumers returning or moving across sites. Instead Google will adopt a privacy first approach and eventually end this practice. Just this week Google made it's fifth delay to the ultimate day of reconning (now some time in 2025). But it can't be delayed or wished away for ever.

In preparation for the change, Google opened up the Privacy Sandbox, an initiative to develop new approaches that allow for targeting relevant consumers without third-party cookies. The intiative has yielded a number of new companies, tools and approaches, including the subject of today's post: PrimeAudience.

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PrimeAudience is an offshoot of RTB House, a global digital media powerhouse based in Poland.  Born of the Google Privacy Sandbox, PrimeAudience uses GPTs and LLMs to tackle the enormous scale of analyzing millions of articles and sites on the open web.  The AI solution is called ContentGPT and provides the ability to use natural language to describe your target consumer. Just as with ChatGPT, Content GPT uses a prompt to define the target, and in just a few seconds combs through hundreds of thousands of articles to find those that will attract that target audience.

The wizard is really mind-blowing.  Quickly identifying and providing a sample list of typically 10 -20 URLs, each with a description of whether it's a solid match, or "probably".  From there you can further  refine the target description or move the next in a simple 3 phase process. Here you can set exclusions like geographies, and select whether to use the PrimeAudience proprietary DSP, Adlook, or your own DSP.

The final step is to activate the campaign using the tens or hundreds of thousands of identified URLs. All f the selected URLs are prescreened to make sure they can be purchased programmatically, and that they comply with stringent safety protocols.  It's important to remind you here that this is all without cookies.  The magic is PrimeAudience/ContentGPT's ability to mine interest groups, and to truly understand the content of every story it reviews, not just the inclusion of keywords or hashtags.

This kind of enhanced form of programmatic-like targeting is particularly powerful for involved purchases and mid-funnel communications.  Take for instance automative.  You're either in the market for a new car or you're not, and even the most targeted communications is unlikely to inspire a unplanned, spontaneous purchase.  And when you are in the market you are rarely looking for "a car", but rather a narrowed category of car: Japanese, hybrid, SUVs.  Here, PrimeAudience comes into it's own with the ability to find what and where these buyers are likely to be viewing and reading across the web.

PrimeAudience has, with incredible speed, adopted AI technology to solve a problem that will drastically change programmatic and display media in the not-to-distant future.  It ensures that we are served ads most relevant to our interests and purchase behavior, all while maintaining our individual privacy.

If you're interested in learning more about PrimeAudience, or seeing their amazing demo, shoot me a note.