Welcome to Birdwatching, where we keep track of all the latest updates related to the avian-themed acronyms of the cookieless advertising world.
DeepIntent is building healthcare advertising solutions for the future, and as we’re all aware, the future — or more specifically, the future as of 2023 — will be cookieless. DeepIntent has been mostly cookieless since 2019, and having developed our own cookieless ID graph, my team makes it a point to stay in the know about the cookie deprecation timeline, how other companies are advancing their cookieless advertising efforts, and what other cookieless alternatives will emerge in the coming years. Each month, we’ll compile those insights here, so you too can be aware of what awaits us in the cookieless future.
This month, Technical Product Manager Tom Robinson provides an overview of the TERN proposal, while spotlighting some of the top headlines related to privacy and identity.
The “Bird” of the Month
April’s bird of the month is TERN, a.k.a. “TURTLEDOVE Enhancements with Reduced Networking.” TERN is an improved TURTLEDOVE implementation that attempts to improve on and solve some of its shortcomings.
The major changes it introduces to the TURTLEDOVE proposal include:
- Faster execution. One of the major concerns with TURTLEDOVE is the speed at which auctions take place, and that they’ll slow down page loads. TERN attempts to streamline the network model.
- Better support for dynamic creative and product recommendation use cases.
- Allowing publishers to retain control of auction dynamics, while encouraging second-price auctions.
What’s our take on it? TERN is best thought of as a possible version two of TURTLEDOVE. So, if some sort of technology like TURTLEDOVE comes to fruition, TERN will also.
In Case You Missed It
Here are some of the top headlines from the last month.
- As of earlier this month, the ad industry has finally begun testing three of Google’s Privacy Sandbox proposals, but they might not be as privacy-compliant as originally hoped for.
- AdExchanger provided an overview of the FLEDGE API.
- With identity resolution in such a state of flux in the advertising industry, eMarketer recently shared how marketers are navigating an uncertain future.
