Adapting to the New Cookieless reality: An Expert Update for Publishers
Welcome to a new piece in Yieldbird’s series, drawing from our own research into the significant shifts in the programmatic…
Publishers, Advertisers, SSPs and all other kinds of Ad Tech companies have been looking for an alternative solution to third-party cookies since 2017, when Apple released the first version of its ITP.
The process of using cookies was never perfect, and according to the most recent research, carried out by IAB, around 50% of users were never available for recognition using this method. Still, it was the market standard and considered to be the best option. Until now, that is.
New solutions for the cookieless future
The situation has begun to change, and will continue to do so, as many ID solutions have already been developed and released; including some really cool options, such as Tradedesk’s Unified ID 2.0 or ID5’s Universal ID, to name just two.
One of the most common questions we get from our Publishers is which ID to choose, and how to work with multiple IDs in order to cover the biggest possible part of the lost potential.
Luckily, Prebid.org has approached companies such as Yieldbird, having created and developed a User ID module as a key element of the Prebid Open-Source Header Bidding software suite. Thanks to this tool, as of this moment tens of different modules have been made available in Prebid which Publishers can use to integrate with their selected ID solutions; and there will be more in the future.
In the eyes of many, this tool has a high chance of helping to establish the “New Normal” in terms of user recognition and targeting. Of course, such progress will depend a great deal on the individual plans of the browsers.
What is Prebid.org’s User ID Module
This user ID module supports multiple ways of establishing pseudonymous IDs for users, which is an important way of increasing the value of Header Bidding. Instead of having several exchanges syncing IDs with dozens of demand sources, a Publisher can choose to integrate with any number of ID schemes.
This module generates, stores, and transmits standardized IDs within the bidstream, and it is open to standardized ID vendors who may look to provide their sub-modules to specific content creators.
There are over 20 universal ID sub-modules currently available within the Prebid User ID module, including britepoolId, criteo, id5Id, identityLink, liveIntentId, netId, parrableId, pubCommonId, pubProvidedId, sharedId, unifiedId,which can be implemented also via the most common wrappers on the market, such as Rubicon, Adform or 33across.
How Prebid.org’s User ID Module works
Prebid’s module allows Publishers to access a number of standardized identity solutions at the same time, which comes in handy when filling in gaps on different geos or verticals.
With the use of this tool, Publishers are able to take advantage of first-party data in the Header Bidding wrapper and determine which IDs refer to which buyers. Publishers and DSPs can also recognize and understand the user data much better, which improves the performance of the whole process even more.
In overview, the process looks as follows:
1. The Publisher determines which user ID modules to add to their Prebid.js package and consults with their legal counsel in order to determine the appropriate user disclosures.
2. The Publisher builds Prebid.js by specifying one or more ID sub-modules they would like to include. e.g. “gulp build –modules=____IdSystem”. You also need to add the userId module to your Prebid.js distribution.
3. The page defines User ID configuration in pbjs.setConfig()
4. When setConfig() is called, and if the user has consented to storing IDs locally, the module is invoked to call the URL if needed. If the relevant local storage is present, the module doesn’t call the URL and instead parses the scheme-dependent format, injecting the resulting ID into bidRequest.userId.
5. An object containing one or more IDs (bidRequest.userId) is made available to Prebid.js adapters and Prebid Server S2S adapters.
6. In addition to bidRequest.userId, bidRequest.userIdAsEids is made available to Prebid.js adapters and Prebid Server S2S adapters. bidRequest.userIdAsEids has userIds in ORTB EIDS format.
The User ID module from Prebid is one of the first really collaborative steps in terms of a standardized approach to replacing third-party cookies.
Unlike solutions based on probabilistic identification, the module uses Publisher common IDs created with the use of deterministic matching. This kind of approach allows for appropriate ads to be displayed for relevant users, which not only increases the total match rate but also the bid rates and the eCPMs which Publishers can earn for their audiences.
How Prebid.org’s User ID Module works
The solution remains far from perfect, and we need to wait and see what will be the final adoption rate, as well as the browser approval for such activity; but I think it’s safe to say that the Prebid User ID module looks like one of the safest bets in the race for the the 3rd-party cookie replacement.
At Yieldbird, we implemented Prebid’s User ID module several months ago in order to help our Publishers better identify users and segment them for efficient, targeted advertising.
QuickWrap, Yieldbird’s Header Bidding solution, simplifies the usage of multiple IDs which boosts Publishers’ Programmatic monetization by providing Advertisers with the required audience so as to realize only profitable ad campaigns. If you want to learn more about the details, please let us know!
