Advertisers Still Heavily Rely on Third-Party Cookies for Programmatic; Publishers Increased Their QoQ Cookieless Revenue Across Most Categories in Q4

33Across, an addressable infrastructure designed for the open web, today announced findings from its latest “Q4 Programmatic Cookie Alternative Trends Report.” In creating this new report, 33Across examined programmatic transactions on its exchange to understand cookie alternative and third-party cookie trends among buyers and sellers in Q4 2023.

Current Trends in Third-Party Cookie Deprecation

2023 was quite a turbulent year for digital advertising as the industry experienced economic weakness, layoffs, and confirmation of Google’s third-party cookie deprecation timeline. However, during the second half of the year, positive economic indicators like stable interest rates, increased consumer spending, and continued job growth curbed the fear of a US recession.

Google’s Privacy Sandbox has recently come under scrutiny in a report by the IAB Tech Lab, revealing gaps in the process of purchasing, selling, delivering, and measuring digital ads following the decline of third-party cookies. While Google’s Privacy Sandbox aims to address some of these gaps, the IAB Tech Lab has highlighted additional areas needing attention. Google, however, has disputed the report, claiming it contains “many inaccuracies” and overlooks the broader objective of the Privacy Sandbox: enhancing user privacy while maintaining effective digital advertising.

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33Across Exchange Insights

In contrast to the restraint we saw from marketers during the fourth quarter of 2022, the 33Across Exchange had considerable growth in Q4 2023. On average, advertisers grew their cookie alternative investment quarter-over-quarter (QOQ) by 13% in Q4, increasing their cookie alternative share of voice (SOV) by an average of 9%. Since Google announced it would begin removing third-party cookies on 1% of Chrome users, programmatic buyers have pushed to test alternative identifiers and solutions. However, advertisers still continue to focus most of their programmatic advertising buys on the third-party cookie due to ease of use.

Retail advertisers, in particular, have made significant strides in cookieless investments during the second half of 2023, allowing them to test new methodologies and reach audiences outside of third-party cookies (Safari, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and non-cookied Chrome) at efficient CPMs. Retail advertisers more than doubled their cookie alternative SOV year-over-year (YOY) in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Key Takeaways

• Cookie Alternative SOV Grew by More Than Double YOY for Retail Advertisers: In Q4 2023 Retail advertisers invested 26% of their programmatic budgets in cookie alternative inventory, up 117% YOY.
• Advertisers Still Rely on Third-Party Cookies for Programmatic: Advertisers had a 9% average QOQ increase in cookieless SOV in Q4; however, they continue to rely heavily on third-party cookies.
• Cookieless SOV Increase for Travel Advertisers Correlates to Revenue Growth for Publishers: Travel advertisers grew their cookieless SOV by 8% from Q3 with heavy investment from booking sites and a leading vacation rental company, leading to a 10% revenue increase for Travel publishers.
• Publishers Increased Their QoQ Cookieless Revenue Across Most Categories in Q4: Seasonal events like holiday shopping, sporting events, and entertainment increased cookieless revenue by an average of 17% from Q3.

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