Weekly Roundup: Ad Tech Trends, Google Privacy Sandbox Update, Standardized Citation Process, And More

Summary

• eMarketer says that the total ad spending will increase by 19.9% instead of 15.0% this year.
• Global digital ad spending will increase by 29.1% rather than 20.4%.
• Zenith Media predicts that travel ad spending will grow 2-6 times faster than the whole ad market between 2021 and 2023.
• Travel brands spent 63% of their ad budgets on digital formats during 2020. By 2023, they’ll allocate 70% to digital.
• Digiday reports one in six publishers is using identifiers in more than half of their deals. Most of the publishers have tested between two to five identifiers in recent months.
• The UK’s Information Commissioner has expressed her opinions and expectations of the future of the ad tech industry. Meanwhile, the Members of the European Parliament have already voted for tougher restrictions on data collection.
• Google has revised its commitments related to the development of Privacy Sandbox amidst the antitrust investigation in the UK. The tech giant says that it’ll apply the commitments globally if the CMA accepts them.
• The Association of Online Publishers has devised a standardized process to request citations for original content.

Ad Tech Trends For Publishers

Worldwide Digital Ad Spending

eMarketer has released its worldwide ad spending report. One of the key highlights is how the older predictions have changed throughout the year. Here’s what you should know:

• The total ad spending will increase by 19.9% instead of 15.0%.
• The increment in the total ad spending will amount to $33 billion.
• Digital ad spending will increase by 29.1% rather than 20.4%.
• Worldwide digital ad spending will reach $491.70 billion this year.
• Despite having a high base, countries like the UK, US, and France will top the digital growth chart.

Travel Ad Spend

Travel was the most disrupted industry during the pandemic. But, the recovery has started picking up slowly. A report from Zenith Media highlights:

• Travel ad spending will grow 2-6 times faster than the whole ad market between 2021 and 2023.
• But, the travel ad market won’t reach pre-pandemic levels until 2021.
• Travel brands spent 63% of their ad budgets on digital formats during 2020. By 2023, they’ll allocate 70% to digital.
• India will lead the recovery with a 31% growth rate till 2023. 

Adoption Of Identity Solutions

Digiday says that a majority of the publishers are now using alternate identifiers. Most of the publishers have tested between two to five identifiers in recent months. One in six publishers is using identifiers in more than half of their deals. As the market of identifiers is growing rapidly, publishers have many options to choose from. Currently, the UID from the Trade Desk is leading the race. If you’re confused about ID solutions, read our introductory guide for a heads up.

Privacy Rules

UK Privacy Watchdog Warns The Ad Tech Industry

European countries are giving a tough time to the ad tech industry with their strict privacy rules. Almost every week, we see new developments that make targeting difficult in the EU. Recently, the UK’s Information Commissioner has expressed her opinions and expectations with the industry. She expects the new methods of advertising to have “clear data protection standards”. The upcoming technologies should:

• Engineer data protection requirements by default into the design.
• Offer users to avoid ads derived from personal data.
• Be transparent about how and why personal data is processed across the ecosystem and who is responsible for processing it.
• Demonstrate fairness, lawfulness, and transparency in the processing of personal data.
• Address existing privacy risks and mitigate any new privacy risks.

We can expect that these opinions would impact European privacy laws in the future. Meanwhile, the Members of the European Parliament have already voted for tougher restrictions on data collection. It can lead to changes in the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and complete prohibition of data collection from minors.

Verifying age before collecting the data can become a huge challenge for the industry. But, companies have to comply if the law comes into existence. 

Google Privacy Sandbox Update

Google has revised its commitments related to the development of Privacy Sandbox amidst the antitrust investigation in the UK. The company says that it’ll ensure that the changes in Chrome apply equally to Google and third-party products. The development of the Privacy Sandbox APIs will consider the inputs from the Competition and Markets Authority and Information Commissioner Office.

Google has already offered a set of commitments for the same purpose earlier this year. The current revision is the response to the feedback from the Competition and Markets Authority. If the CMA is satisfied with Google’s offer, it’ll close the investigation and move to a new phase of active oversight. The authority aims to ensure that Google’s deprecation of the third-party cookie causes minimum damage to the competition and user privacy.

The company has outlined the following amendments in its blog post:

• Monitoring and reporting: Google has offered to appoint an independent Monitoring Trustee who will have the access and technical expertise needed to ensure compliance.
• Testing and consultation: More extensive testing commitments and transparent process to take market feedback.
• Further clarity on data usage: It won’t use its first-party data for tracking and measurement of ads on non-Google sites. It’ll also restrict the use of Chrome browsing history and Analytics data on Google or non-Google websites.

The tech giant says that it’ll apply the commitments globally if the CMA accepts them.

Publishers Attempt To Solve The Citation Problem

When you don’t get a link for your original article from fellow publishers, you incur the loss of potential traffic. An original story deserves a link that credits the publisher. A citation link also brings SEO benefits to the original publisher. The reader is entitled to know the source of information too. In other words, proper citation is helpful for publishers and readers. Still, you’ll see many stories that do not link to their sources. The Association of Online Publishers has decided to end this problem with a standardized citation process.

The suggestion is to dedicate an email address for all the citation requests. The email addresses can have a naming convention – for example, attribution@thepublisher.co.uk. Whenever a publisher finds that his work is not cited, he can contact the other publisher via email and request an attribution. If the other publisher agrees, the original publisher will get a do-follow link. 

Currently, the protocol is backed only by the AOP’s audience development steering group, and some more publishers like The Sun, Global, and Bauer. Soon, the association will try to pull more publishers and trade bodies. This initiative will help many original content publishers if it becomes widely adopted.

“Every publisher wants its original reporting to get the visibility in search results, especially the top stories, that they deserve. Unfortunately, we don’t feel like that’s always the case. Despite Google’s best efforts to try and reward original content, there are inconsistencies in the way publishers have been linking to and identifying the original source of stories.”

– Carly Steven, head of SEO at The Sun

Moments That Matter

A rose is a rose is a rose, but please, make it clear to your readers what a “subscriber” is – Nieman Journalism Lab

Are The Emerging Titans Of AdTech Credible Competition To Google And Facebook? – Forbes

China steps up pressure on tech with draft online ad rules – Reuters

Now nonprofit, The Salt Lake Tribune has achieved something rare for a local newspaper: financial sustainability – Nieman Journalism Lab