CDP Institute

Measuring ad performance was never easy, but privacy-related data restrictions and fragmented media channels have made it much harder than ever.  Google is offering Meridian, an open-source media mix modeling system that won’t be as precise as cookie-based measurement but does promise to draw a meaningful big picture.  It’s in limited release now with plans to offer it to everyone “coming soon”.

Post-cookie measurement is on the minds of Topsort, a retail media adtech startup that just raised a $20 million Series A.  The company offers a retail media tech stack, data clean room, and retailer ad network.  They’re especially proud of their AI-driven ad bidding engine.

Location data raises plenty of privacy issues but Placer.ai sidesteps them by selling aggregated traffic information.  They have just expanded their partnership with retail analytics giant dunnhumby, which will use the information to build a unified picture of in-store and out-of-store customer journeys.

The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), aimed to curbing the market power of the biggest tech companies, came into force earlier this week.  Google announced several product changes to comply, including making it easier to find shopping comparison sites, offering more search engine and browser choices for Android phones; and adding new consent options. Most changes will only apply to users within the EU.

Google isn’t the only company making changes in response to DMA.  TikTok has launched a Data Portability API allowing registered developers to request permission to transfer user data and has improved the functionality of its Download Your Data tool for personal and business users. TikTok will also create a web form for business users to provide feedback on DMA-related features.

As more video advertising is delivered outside of TV screens, marketers find themselves wrestling with increasingly fragmented campaign reporting.  Comscore is providing some help by expanding its YouTube campaign ratings to include YouTube Shorts and in-feed inventory. Marketers will also be able to cross-measure standard video inventory on YouTube and YouTube TV across CTV, desktop and mobile devices.

Customer Data Platform Amperity has unveiled two new AI tools, Explore and Assist, that will join the existing products, Stitch and Predict, to form an AI suite, AmpAI. Aimed at business users, Explore will support engagement with data using natural language; Assist will help both technical and non-technical users develop and customize new data assets on the platform. The capabilities seek to fix data quality and access challenges.

Google’s much-criticized Privacy Sandbox had some good news yesterday when Microsoft said it would add preliminary support for the Privacy Sandbox APIs across Microsoft Advertising products. Microsoft Edge has also introduced an Ad Selection API allowing advertisers to select and deliver relevant ads to users without relying on third-party cookies.

While advertisers continue to rely heavily on third-party cookies for programmatic ad buys, they are slowly preparing for the cookieless future.  33Across reports investment in cookie alternatives within its ad exchange grew an average of 9% in Q4 2023 compared with the previous quarter.  Retail advertisers invested 26% of their budget in cookie alternatives during the period, more than double the share of one year ago.

Rejecting shareholder demands that it divest Segment, Twilio announced a plan to continue selling it as a stand-alone product, integrate it more closely with its other offerings, increase growth, and cut costs.  New layoffs are almost sure to follow, on top of a 25% company-wide staff reduction in the past two years.   The company reports that Segment lost $72 million in 2023, despite 7% revenue growth to $295 million.

Openprise, which now calls itself a Revenue Data Operations platform but qualifies as a CDP, has raised a $25 million Series B, bringing total funding to $58 million. Revenue Operations, if you haven’t been keeping up with your industry buzzwords, supports marketing, sales, and service organizations.  This Openprise survey on the topic found just 9% of RevOps professionals were very satisfied with their data.