Blog skyhook logo Relevant Content or Privacy: Choose Both

Apr 16, 2014 8:30:00 AM

Relevant Content or Privacy: Choose Both

Posted by Skyhook

Read All Posts

Publishers are always looking for ways to increase the value of their ad inventory and deliver relevant content to their audiences. The challenge many publishers face is how to increase ad inventory value through personalized ads without exposing sensitive, personally identifiable data and violating user privacy. As a result, publishers are settling for lower value inventory because they don’t have the ability to share anonymized more valuable consumer data with their SSPs.

There are 3 main ways that publishers can extend their access to sharable, ad-request-friendly user data, but only one of them provides both consumer privacy and the ability to increase ad inventory value:

hello-4

Sharing User Email Addresses

Consumer intelligence companies such as Acxiom and Epsilon can generate a ton of personal data from an email address such as demographics, household income and interests. However, most publishers do not want to give away the contact information of their registered users because it’s invasive to consumer privacy.

Sharing Usage History

Sharing detailed browsing history of how each user used an app, or viewed articles is a way to increase the value of ad inventory and deliver relevant content. However, publishers view that data as proprietary to them, and are reluctant to toss it in a raw format into the advertising ecosystem.

The Solution: Anonymous Personas

The truth is that publishers don’t need to violate consumers’ privacy or give away proprietary information to increase the value of ad inventory and deliver relevant content. Publishers have the ability to intelligently build contextual, anonymous personas of their audience based on their real-world activities. These personas can combine census demographic data--like income level, education, gender, age and ethnicity--with behavioral patterns based on where users go and when.

Personas enable publishers to enrich their inventories without violating consumers’ privacy. Publishers can tag their inventory with personas and align them with existing or new parameters in ad requests. The added context around the request will drive higher CPM rates to a more targeted audience.

Personas are not personally identifiable information on consumers--they say more about the consumers’ mindset and intent at a given point in time, rather than divulging confidential and personal information. Personas allow publishers to tell the demand side a lot about their audience while keeping the individuals anonymous and protecting users’ privacy.

Bottom Line

With anonymous personas, publishers can gather contextual and relevant data on consumers without violating their privacy or giving away proprietary information. This solution creates a better user experience for consumers, who receive relevant content specific to their lifestyle while maintaining their privacy. Gathering information through augmented audience personas also creates a better user experience for publishers, who maintain a trusting relationship with consumers while gathering time based data that increases the value of their ad inventory resulting in higher CPM and greater conversions.venues_cityscape