• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, January 31, 2024

Google has turned off cookies for 30 million users of its Chrome browser -- and publishers are already feeling the impact, judging by Google Cookie Depreciation and Topics API Impacts, a study by Assertive Yield. 

It means that “advertisers will shift more spending to GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon) and away from the direct business, as they have the data to allow the best targeting,” says Tom Jenen, senior advisor at Assertive Yield. 

Based on Google’s test traffic, prebid ranks as the least prepared for the decline of third-party cookies.

Moreover, “by looking at all display sources combined, including direct campaigns and programmatic, we see that for the majority of observed publishers, the drop in revenue per thousand ad requests is between 23% and 50%.”

In addition, “Prebid’s highest bidder’s CPM in auctions without third-party cookies is down by 59%,” the report continues. 

On average, “publishers see only 2/3rds of the revenue per impression opportunity that they would typically see with a ‘regular’ user."

Prebid performance is “declining across all regions. However, in countries with a stronger prebid market, such as Canada and the US, the decline appears to be less severe compared to other countries."

Based on test data, these are the changes in prebid won session RPM by country:

• US: -74.51%
• UK: -74.51%
• Canada: -77.88%
• Australia: -79.91%
• Germany: -83.74%
• France: -83.74%
• Japan: -83.74%

As cookies disappear, publishers should prioritize these key areas, the study says:

• Integrating and optimizing identity solutions
• Increasing authenticated traffic (email/phone number collection)
• Preparing for the revenue impact of the next phase of cookie depreciation rollout
• Compliance with data protection laws like GDPR or CCPA, and access to relevant documentation such as Data Processing Agreements and Terms of Service 
• Methods of data collection and storage, and policies on sharing user data with third parties 

Publishers need to collaborate with platforms and dedicate resources to product development by integrating machine learning, contextual cues, and probabilistic modeling to execute targeted campaigns on a large scale efficiently.

Finally, the study warns that “even with ‘cookieless’ tools, cookie laws may still apply to various tracking technologies. It’s crucial to collaborate with your legal team to address these issues before making any procurement decisions."