Google on Wednesday released its Ads Safety Report, an annual exercise in which it reviews the previous year’s numbers in terms of creating a safe ad ecosystem for all parties, whether advertisers, publishers or everyday users.

Alejandro Borgia, Director, Product Management, Ads Safety, Google, preceded the release of the report and 2022’s numbers, with a session on the company’s ads policies and enforcement. He also announced the launch of a new transparency tool, the Ads Transparency Center, a searchable repository of verified advertisers across all Google platforms, including Search, Display, and YouTube, which lets people search for a particular advertiser and view the advertiser page.

In 2022, Google added or updated 29 policies for advertisers and publishers. This included expanding financial services verification programs in 11 new countries (including India in August of last year), expanding protections for teens and strengthening elections ads policies.

The numbers themselves reveal why such policy updates are required.

In 2022, the world’s most visited website removed over 5.2 billion ads, restricted over 4.3 billion ads and suspended over 6.7 million advertiser accounts. This represents an increase of 2 billion more ads removed in 2022 from the previous year. Google also blocked or restricted ads from serving on over 1.5 billion publisher pages and took broader site-level enforcement action on over 143,000 publisher sites.

“To enforce our policies at this scale, we rely on a combination of human reviews and automated systems powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. This helps sort through content and better detect violations across the globe,” said Borgia.

In October of last year, Google launched My AdCenter which helps people control the kinds of ads they see across Google on Search, YouTube and Discover. It also allows them to limit ads from sensitive categories and learn more about the information used to personalize their ad experience.

“In the first three months after launch, we’ve seen more than 70 million visits to My AdCenter globally, with people adjusting their ad preferences on more than 20% of those visits. We’ve also invested significantly in giving helpful information to users about our advertisers,” mentioned Borgia.

Consumers now can specifically flag ads, using a feature that's within the ad. Borgia said it’s also worth noting their enforcement touches have played a pivotal role in the policy development process. “The enforcement trends that we've observed help us to see what are the new policies that we might need to launch or what policies might need to be updated.”

Then there is the issue of online financial scams and phishing, even as fraudulent activity continues to rise.

“While not unique to digital advertising, these scams can cause real financial harm and we are committed to combating them on our platforms. In 2022 we expanded our financial services certification program which requires advertisers to demonstrate that they are authorized by their local regulator to promote their products and services. This measure adds a new layer of security against fraudsters and further safeguards people from financial scams,” he said.

Speaking directly to exchange4media on the hot-button topic of AI, especially in light of Google having just rolled out Bard, its chatbot competitor to the much vaunted, Microsoft-backed ChatGPT, Borgia said that it's still early days for Bard, and it's really too early to speculate what form chatbots in general are going to take, “much less the ad formats or the monetization models that will support such chatbots.”

“I will say that AI has been foundational to our ads business and for the last decade, and will continue to bring cutting-edge advances to our products, help businesses and users. When it comes to our ads, policies and enforcement, we've long used a combination of human reviewers and automated systems. Many of those automated systems are relying on AI and technology, but also trained by humans, and these helped us to better detect policy-violating content and remove it at scale,” he said.

Borgia concluded, “While I don't have specific comments on chatbots or Bard, I wanted to share that context because we do have extensive investments in artificial intelligence in general, and specifically for our business.”

As the world moves into a cookie-less future, advertisers and marketers have consciously started experimenting with new models of digital marketing. Unequivocally, contextual advertising has become a top-notch advertising tool ever since Google, The New York Times, The Trade Desk, and Oracle have started using it as a way to serve targeted ads without relying on third-party cookies. It is quite interesting to see Facebook working on developing ‘Facebook News Feed Contextual targeting’.

As part of the e4m TechTalk, Dimpy Yadav, General Manager - Xaxis India, defined how contextual advertising was re-emerging for delivering relevant and targeted messages to India’s audiences. Briefing in layman’s terms, is a form of targeted advertising in which ads are placed on web pages depending on the content of those pages, rather than the data collected from the consumer’s online behaviour. 

Besides looking more into the data and numbers available which are immensely circulated across digital platforms, we tried to find out what’s the way ahead for marketers after the death of third-party cookies? We spoke to marketing and advertising experts on how contextual advertising help marketers in the coming years and how marketers would compensate for the overall loss in revenue the brand suffers after the eradication of third-party cookies.  

Aligning with First-Party Data

As Google announced to phase out third-party cookies by 2024, the marketers have started looking for the best alternatives to target the consumers ahead. Discussing how first-party data can help marketers after the removal of third-party cookies, Siddharth Dabhade, Managing Director, MiQ India, said, “The AdTech industry has been preparing for this eventuality for years now as Apple, Safari, and Firefox have already disabled cookies. At MiQ, we innovate to build privacy-centric audience graphs that tie together multiple, holistic views of identity that are not only reliant on cookies.” 

Moreover, we’ve seen a lot of organisations using authenticated targeting approach by getting explicit consent from a user to use their data - this appears as a pop-up on the homepage or login screen and enables brands to personalise their campaigns for their existing users and customers by gathering first-party data.” Talking further in the discourse of other alternatives available so far, Siddharth shared how contextual and geo/location-based targeting is the way ahead for brands in the cookieless world.  

Commenting more on third-party cookies, Ravi Kumar, Founder, and CEO, MadHawks, said, “Third-party cookies limit your ability to control how and which of your information is used by the websites you visit. While large platforms such as Google and Facebook may have strict privacy policies and data-sharing controls for users, many unscrupulous websites can collect more information than users want to share. The removal of third-party cookies will only limit or regulate the flow of information between users and websites. The system will be replaced by a Google Ad Centre. The Ad Centre will allow internet users to choose which ad categories they want to see.”

Further mentioning some additional pointers to make targeting audience in a post-third-party-cookie world more interesting and effective, Rajeev Pandey, Director of Global University Systems, said, “Embracing data transparency and focusing on quality over quantity can bring more creativity in the content. Also, collaborating with partners to find innovative solutions can help the brand target the right audience.” 

Contextual advertising is the future

Discussing more on how contextual advertising can become the best alternative to third-party cookies, Mitesh Kothari, Co-founder, and Chief Creative Officer, of White Rivers Media, said, “Contextual targeting helps us understand the consumer sentiment and deliver content in a highly relevant environment. There are multiple advanced contextual targeting tools as well now that rely on technologies like natural language processing and image recognition that allows potential customer identification and pertinent content delivery.”

Following the McKinsey report on how the deprecation of cookies will lead to an approximately $10 billion loss in revenue, Siddharth further described how cookie depreciation will impact key brand metrics across channels, He said, “Virtually every channel brands use today will be impacted by the deprecation of cookies, including the measurement data. Household reach, IP-based conversions, footfall, incremental lift, ROAS, and CPA all currently rely on cookie-based attribution for measurement of the interlocking key between channels. A single solution to cookieless measurement is unlikely, Authenticated IDs, clean rooms, in-app measurement, attention, brand surveys, and TV measurement–is important to explore multiple solutions that solve for multiple identifiers and to continue to push innovation in measurement through strategic and collaborative partnerships.” 

He mentioned that contextual targeting is an alternative to demographic targeting that targets users based on their passions, habits, and interests. By targeting users based on interests, affinity audiences include users across demographics, making it more inclusive than demographic targeting. Girish Ramachandra, Founder & CEO, Shopalyst added that Brands will get access to newer forms of targeting on media platforms - which could be based on cohorts instead of individual identities. Targeting relevance combined with contextual personalization will be the cornerstone of success for brands.

Other alternatives

Apart from discussing various alternatives for the cookieless future, marketing experts focus on conscious advertising as an option ahead. Krishna Iyer, the Director – Marketing at MullenLowe Lintas Group, said, “In terms of traffic, conscious advertising can attract a wider audience that shares the brand values and beliefs. This can lead to more organic traffic and word-of-mouth referrals, as loyal customers share their positive experiences with others. As for conversion, it can help in two ways. Firstly, it can attract consumers who are more likely to convert because they share the brand values and are more likely to identify with the messaging. Secondly, by building trust and a stronger connection with the audience, brands can increase customer loyalty, leading to repeat business and higher conversion rates.”

Integral Ad Science has announced its Publisher Optimization solution within the Amazon Publisher Services (APS) Connections Marketplace.

APS is a suite of cloud services that helps publishers build, monetize, and grow their digital media business. IAS is now the first verification provider accessible within the APS Connections Marketplace – a services marketplace where publishers can easily activate multiple technology solutions with little or no new development work, saving them time and resources and creating new revenue opportunities.

“IAS's presence within the Marketplace is an important step in addressing publishers’ needs to maximize inventory and increase revenue,” said Yannis Dosios, Chief Commercial Officer, IAS. “We are excited to open the door for publishers on APS to work with us to improve efficiency and yield by delivering advertisers’ KPIs for brand safety, ad fraud, viewability, and contextual relevance.”

With IAS Publisher Optimization, publishers can automatically optimize ad delivery down to the placement level for both direct and programmatic deals, and, as a result, increase inventory yield with greater alignment with their advertisers’ brand safety and suitability priorities.

Bobble AI has launched a new platform - Bobble Super that allows users to purchase directly from AI-based keyboard, media networks have reported.

The platform allows access to a gamut of services like food ordering, ticket booking and gifting.

The application employs intent detection technology that maps user intents across their smartphone usage. This allows personalisation of product offerings and service recommendations.

As per Ankit Prasad, Co-founder & CEO of Bobble AI, the platform allows swift transactions for brands and business partners through non-intrusive prompts on the keyboard, similar to word suggestions.

Prabhvir Sahmey, Senior Director, Samsung Ads and India lead for the company, is confident that the company is future-ready for the cookie-less future.

When the first cookies were developed for browsers, users still had to prove their credentials through passwords and had to keep doing so even as ‘sessions’ saved the user’s information on the internet server. Cookies essentially allowed you to save that information.

“Service providers realized they were sitting on this goldmine of information, which would be very valuable to advertisers and consumer goods companies and that’s when the whole business started. So, you no longer have to log into your devices every time, but they also correspondingly have your information which can be sold to third parties and vendors,” he explained.

However, this is a phenomenon that is restricted to browsers, whether on PCs, phones or tablets. “TVs, even CTVs can’t store cookies and will therefore seamlessly transition into anonymization, a data processing technique that removes or modifies personally identifiable information, as the CTV is an individual device, meaning we are prepared for when cookies are off the table,” said Sahmey.  

Besides, he noted, Samsung has ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) - a tool that can take images of what a consumer is watching at any given time and these content preferences can give insights into various metrics.

“Earlier, media plans had to be made a month in advance, but today, with addressable CTV, these can happen within 24-72 hour cycles. And we can provide data and media insights to our clients almost in real time, with data on reactions and to measure how well a piece of content or campaign is performing,” he says.

“The future of marketing is automated and our Samsung DSP will allow our clients to seamlessly manage reach and frequency of their video campaigns across linear TV, CTV, and other devices,” says Sahmey, adding, “We are helping platforms and vendors to automatize their data processes, even as we’re laying a foundational layer and selling the technology to digital buyers and marketers.”

And while Sahmey is more than enthusiastic about the future of Connected Television in India, he notes there’s still time before it becomes mainstream.

“Today we are at an inflection point in the adoption of Connected TV as consumers look to upgrade or switch their home TV devices to ones that can be connected to the internet. There used to be a time when people would buy a new phone every year, but now that has dropped to two-three years. Inversely, TVs used to be a long-time purchase, but now with cheaper screens, devices and data, consumers are looking to upgrade and will upgrade,” he pointed out.

“I look at this as Year Zero for CTV, as more and more consumers and advertisers get access to, explore, and settle on CTVs, with things beginning to massively scale up in 2024. Back in 2005, there were only 20 million people online, and that number rose to 100 million people only by 2015,” he says, continuing, “Today, the internet is ubiquitous with almost everyone at least having access to it. It’s the same with CTV except, because of the ubiquity of the internet, it’s going to take place at an accelerated rate.” 

Releasing a statement, the authority said, “It has been observed that incidences of major network outage of telecom networks occurring due to technical reasons or due to natural calamities are not reported by the Telecom Service Providers (TSP) to TRAI. These major network outages in the country for prolonged duration, especially in border and hilly areas, adversely affect the availability or quality of service in affected areas.

To understand the root cause of major network outages and get relevant support from local authorities extended to the service providers, if needed, the Authority has decided to collect the information about any such outage at the district level.”

TRAI further added, “In view of the above, the Access Service Providers have been directed to report the following:

1. all incidences of major network outages affecting the telecom services to the entire consumers of a district (revenue district as defined by the Union/State Government) continuously for a period of more than four hours, within twenty-four hours of their occurrence, in the format specified in the Direction.
2. the root cause of such major network outage and corrective actions taken thereof, within seventy-two hours of restoration of services, in the format specified in the Direction.

The direction shall come into force with immediate effect, stated TRAI.

PubMatic,(Nasdaq: PUBM), an independent technology company delivering digital advertising’s supply chain of the future, and Silverpush, a leading AI-powered advertising solutions provider, are pleased to announce a strategic partnership that will enable brands and advertisers across APAC to better connect with their target audiences through data-driven advertising.

The partnership will allow advertisers to leverage Silverpush’s AI-powered contextual data programmatically through Connect, PubMatic's audience solution. Connect allows advertisers to engage audiences through privacy-compliant solutions that perform — without relying on third-party cookies or outdated strategies. Advertisers will now have access to valuable audience data, that can be applied on the sell side to bring greater efficiency to their campaigns. 

Silverpush is an advanced advertising technology solution provider powered by artificial intelligence, offering its flagship products Mirrors and Parallels. Its contextual video ad placement targeting ensures the most relevant audience is reached in a brand-safe environment. With a mission to solve complex client problems using data-driven solutions and cutting-edge technology, Silverpush continues to drive innovation in the digital advertising industry. 

Through Connect, advertisers will be able to access PubMatic's premium inventory and use Silverpush's hyper-contextual targeting capabilities to reach their targeted audience in the right context at the right moment which drives engagement and conversions.

"We're thrilled to be partnering with Silverpush - together, PubMatic and Silverpush will provide advertisers with a powerful suite of data-driven tools to help them optimize their campaigns and achieve their marketing objectives," said Brandon Lee, Director Audience Solutions, APAC at PubMatic. "Bringing targeting to the sell-side, via Connect, means buyers can gain greater control over how inventory and data are packaged and transacted to drive the best performance for their campaigns."

"We are excited to partner with PubMatic to provide our AI-powered contextual advertising solutions for a wider reach of audience. This partnership will enable advertisers to create highly targeted campaigns that are based on real-time consumer contexts, delivering better campaign results and ROAS." said Raushida Vasaiwala, VP-APAC at Silverpush.

The partnership is set to take effect immediately, with both companies working closely together to deliver their shared vision.