Experimenting is key to winning the battle for a new identity solution

This post is sponsored by PubMatic Asia Pacific.

As the third-party cookie deprecation deadline looms, publishers, media buyers and everyone in between are busy trying to figure out what the replacement looks like. Advertisers, agencies and publishers face a myriad of options. But there is no silver bullet as of yet.

Without the strong ID resolution that third-party cookies currently provide, publishers’ ability to monetise their audiences will be hampered. Media buyers won’t know exactly who those audiences are, or how valuable they are – so they won’t know how much to pay to reach those audiences. Operating without cookies, or a suitable alternative, means everyone will lose out.

However, selecting a suitable alternative to the cookie is not that straightforward. There are increasingly more programmatic vendors who promise ID resolutions, and nobody has a crystal ball to tell media buyers which ones will gain critical mass and be viable in the long term. It’s not surprising there is a lot of uncertainty in choosing this identity partner.

The key, then, is to start experimenting early. Smart publishers are identifying partners that align with their strategies for identity resolutions, consumer privacy, and testing; testing vendors, testing their platforms and testing their ID resolution systems.

Experimentation with identity resolutions can give publishers a lift today, while they chart a successful long-term course for tomorrow.

Solutions such as PubMatic’s Identity Hub can help guide publishers and advertisers along the path to the addressable future. Identity Hub is an easy way to deploy solutions that allow publishers to start testing independent identity solutions such as those from LiveRamp, The Trade Desk, ID5, and Criteo, at the flick of a switch.

And it’s not just publishers who will benefit. As they experiment with sending new IDs, buyers can start to direct spend their way – promising a potential CPM lift for publishers alongside a performance lift for advertisers. It’s a win-win situation.

In the battle for a new identity solution, it won’t be a case of one winner takes all – rather publishers and media buyers need to think about assembling the best arsenal of solutions they can. And the key will be trialling the different weapons at their disposal now, while they still have time to find the perfect mix.

The writer is Khin Mu Yar Soe, associate director of customer success at PubMatic.