Look into the future with Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform and Adobe Advertising Cloud
Audience management and activation practices have fundamentally changed. Dynamic privacy policies, the continued deprecation of third-party cookies and mobile IDs, and rapidly evolving consumer behavior mean marketers are grappling with the future of identity management and how to best learn, respect, and engage their audiences. These changes have spurred the test-and-learn foundation of our coming integration between Real-Time Customer Data Platform (CDP) and Advertising Cloud.
Over the last few years, advertising, identity, and privacy ecosystems have rapidly evolved, making it difficult for marketers to keep up. There is a long-running industry trend to limit or remove the use of third-party cookies and mobile identifiers and instead prioritize user privacy, consent, and preferences. Government regulations such as GDPR and CCPA have come into effect, and browser changes like Apple Safari's Intelligent Tracking Prevention have already exerted pressure on the use of cookies. Google's plans to deprecate third-party cookies from Chrome and the Privacy Sandbox on Android will be another powerful forcing function for companies to rethink their value exchange with customers and their data.
The fragmentation of identity leads to fragmentation of the larger advertising ecosystem, with marketers struggling to activate audiences across paid media placements to acquire and grow their customer base.
These changes in the advertising, identity, and privacy ecosystems may reduce the scale and reach of marketing tactics that traditionally depend on third-party cookies. For example, upper-funnel acquisition campaigns fueled by third-party cookie syncs and customer engagement data acquired without consent.
Many brands have recognized the need to build data strategies centered around durable first-party identifiers. Durable IDs, including personally identifiable information (PII) and hashed PII collected with consent, are less likely to face browser and regulatory restrictions and allow brands to take ownership of their first-party data and build relationships directly with customers. These brands will need a strong partnership with both, and between, their CDP and activation partners to ensure a connected experience is delivered.
This rethinking is especially critical for the individuals and teams who build media strategies to reach and engage target audiences. CMOs, data management professionals, and advertisers are all trying to get the right message in front of the right audience at the right time - and at scale. They oversee many audience touchpoints and seek to consolidate disparate data to get a holistic view of their prospects & customers to drive acquisition, retention, and growth.
To do this effectively in a world without cookies, many of the current systems and practices need to evolve, especially those heavily relying on non-durable audience identifiers. Without a solution to align consumer privacy and consent while still meeting media objectives, marketers will struggle to show value, and organizations may question paid media's efficacy.
This evolution must occur on both the buy and supply sides of the advertising industry. As buyers evaluate and adopt emerging audience identifiers, their ability to achieve scale is dependent on publisher adoption so that they can transact on these IDs. Both buyers and sellers must honor consent and ensure teams are marketing responsibly throughout the process.
Adobe Real-Time CDP helps brands take control of their data management by building strategies based on durable first-party identifiers, including PII and hashed PII. By connecting customer data sitting in silos across the organization with a patented data governance framework, teams can market responsibly and create a foundation for expanding use cases that benefit the entire enterprise.
With Adobe Real-Time CDP as the central hub for actionable first-party data, marketing teams can activate customer experiences consistently across all touchpoints, including digital advertising channels addressable with Adobe Advertising Cloud like paid search, display, video, native, audio, connected TV, and more.
Adobe Advertising Cloud's mission to deliver powerful connected advertising experiences for customers goes hand in hand with the current industry and technology trends around consumer privacy and identity. Integrating with Real-Time CDP means marketers and advertisers will be able to perform many of the key functions that currently exist today in the cookie-based ecosystem – particularly segment building and activation.
In addition, Adobe is helping marketers navigate the future of the cookieless digital marketing ecosystem with durable identity partnerships and powerful publisher integrations, and valuable test and learn strategies.
Today, Adobe Advertising Cloud announced we will integrate with Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform to deliver connected experiences powered by first-party data. Customers can soon activate Adobe Real-Time CDP audiences with Advertising Cloud, understanding how their segments perform and scale in both cookie and cookieless environments. In addition to currently ingesting cookie-based segments, this upgraded integration will ensure customers can continue using their valuable first-party data even after major browsers and operating systems deprecate third-party identifiers. Additionally, the expanded integration will allow marketers to deliver connected experiences across paid media channels.
While the industry is still in a state of identity evolution with change on the horizon, it is prudent to begin building future-proof strategies and foundations today. For example, by activating Real-Time CDP segments via Advertising Cloud, marketers can test how their audiences perform in browsers that have blocked 3rd party cookies and browsers that still allow them.
In summary, Adobe Real-Time CDP and Adobe Advertising Cloud offer a powerful combination of future-proof audience management and activation capabilities when used in tandem. Ensure the continued success of your business through industry changes by getting started today!