• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, January 11, 2024

Brands may feel that email addresses are a suitable replacement for cookies. But 48% of consumers are opposed to sharing their emails for more targeted ads, while only 23% are agreeable, according to a new study from Adlook, released on Thursday at the CES 2024 conference. 

Yet 29% say they might share based on the ad’s value, Indeed, 62% will provide their emails, 37% for significant discounts and another 25% for just about any offer.  But 38% are reluctant.  

"Many in our industry see hashed email as a cookie solution, yet consumers remain  reluctant to trade emails for ads,” says Patrick Gut, vice president of U.S. at Adlook. “Email addresses are becoming more difficult to manage given PII concerns, dummy accounts, and beyond.” 

In general, 58% of shoppers say they are positively influenced in their purchasing decisions by relevant ads. However, 27% claim this rarely happens and 16% say it never does.  

At the same , 59% of consumers feel it is safer for brands to target anonymized user groups instead of using one-to-one ad targeting. Another 27% feel this is equally safe, and 14% less so.

"Consumers are signaling a desire to end one-to-one user targeting,” Gut adds. “Group-based targeting is gaining favor over legacy tracking. Enabling that is difficult however, and AI will need to play a role.”  

And what about AI? AI offers a more long-term solution, with a focus on delivering -- not just on cookieless, but identity-less advertising,” Gut contends.

But consumers remain skeptical of the industry's good faith: 74% suspect some online tracking still occurs even when they opt out. Only 26% expect no tracking after opting out. 

"Apathy towards online tracking is clearly high,” Gut says. “People expect tracking despite opting out, highlighting the need for less ID-based and more AI-driven, anonymous targeting.” 

And privacy policies don’t always help. Of consumers polled, 51% skim these documents and 20% read them in full. But 30% rarely or never review them. 

Even when they do read them, only 25% claim to fully grasp privacy policies. 

"Many don't fully read privacy policies or simply don’t understand them,” Gut explains. “We need to better educate the public about these policies for their benefit in terms of user experience, advertising, and privacy.” 

Adlook surveyed over 1,000 U.S. consumers on January 3.