Executive Summary
As third-party cookies and other identifiers are being phased out in the
name of better safeguarding consumer privacy, marketers are waking
up to a defining moment in advertising history. Consumers, whose day-
to-day lives are increasingly digital, expect relevant ad experiences and
demand that their privacy be respected. Programmatic advertising, which
has historically been advertisers’ and media agencies’ go-to solution for
technology-powered access to reach audiences across channels and
devices, must evolve to meet this moment.
The impending deprecation of third-party identifiers, an ever-expanding
set of privacy regulations worldwide, and consumers’ rising privacy
concerns mean that the programmatic advertising ecosystem, and the
advertising technology (adtech) that supports it, must adapt to a privacy-
first reality. Marketers and their agencies are assessing their needs in
light of these changes and prioritizing features and partners, which will
allow them to stand up to rapidly evolving regulatory restrictions and
customers’ expectations. They want machine learning and automation
built into their systems to help bridge data gaps; they need new skill sets
to navigate new tools and ever-changing trends and policy requirements;
and, critically, they expect technology companies to lead the conversation
about current and future changes and what they mean for clients.
In August 2021, Google commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate
demand-side approaches to the evolving landscape of privacy and
advertising. Forrester conducted four in-depth interviews with in-house
brand marketers and ad agency professionals and fielded an online
survey of 1,065 of the same audience to explore this topic.
OPPORTUNITIES IN PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING ARISE AS ADVERTISERS LEAD WITH PRIVACY 3
