Data-management platform Permutive is partnering with supply side platform PubMatic to make first-party publisher data more accessible to advertisers, Adweek has learned.
Permutive will enable publishers to organize data for advertisers, while PubMatic will make it scalable on the buy side, according to Peter Barry, vp, addressability at PubMatic. The goal is to make the data monetizable for publishers without compromising consumer privacy.
As of September, nearly 50% of consumers across the U.S. and Europe have chosen to use a web browser like Safari or Firefox, which blocks cookies and ad tracking. And of the remaining 50% who use Chrome, almost 40% have already disabled cookies, according to Joe Root, the CEO and co-founder of Permutive.
So, as more consumers opt out of third-party targeting for ads, brands are only able to reach 30% of their potential customers.
“This leaves 70% of consumers who are unavailable to advertisers across the open web,” said Root.
The partnership helps to solve for that 70% where advertisers buying on the PubMatic platform will have access to Permutive-facilitated cohorts. There, they can target ads to groups of consumers across all browsers without relying on third-party cookies.
Permutive works with a roster of online publishers including Hearst, BuzzFeed, News Corp, The Guardian, Vox Media, Condé Nast and Insider. Through this partnership, publishers can sell 80% of their ad inventory through real time bidding and other programmatic processes via PubMatic’s Connect, according to Root.
Ahead of privacy regulations, both PubMatic and Permutive say they’ll work closely with publishers and ad buyers to leverage the full potential of first-party data.
“Largely publishers understand the importance of this tool,” said Barry. “Now we move to the buy side to run campaigns and meet their ROI goals through this partnership.”
The need to solve for first-party data solutions for the industry is getting more urgent. A McKinsey report concluded that the publishing industry “will have to replace up to $10 billion in ad revenue” due to changes from both big tech and upcoming privacy laws. Some publishers are bullish and the Permutive-PubMatic partnership is one solution to an otherwise fragmented fix.
“The partnership will deliver unparalleled, addressable supply to advertisers while empowering publishers like BuzzFeed to maintain control and safety over our data,” said Alex Mason, head of programmatic operations at BuzzFeed. “This will bridge a scalable audience alternative across the buy and sell side, without cookies, and marks another step toward responsible advertising.”
