There are many, many methods the ad tech industry is using to prepare for the ever impending cookie-pocalypse.

From Google’s PAAPI (anyone else feel like they are in a Pit Bull video right now?) to hashed emails and identity solutions, many different cookie-free life rafts are starting to float in a sea of fears for the future of publisher revenue.

While our cookieless future blog series (stay tuned!) will continue to cover the myriad of ways in which Playwire is preparing to ensure the continued monetary success of our publishers, this article is focused specifically on how Identity Solutions factor into the mix.

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Let’s start with the basics, just in case.

What is an Identity Solution?

Put simply, Identity Solutions provide a way for advertisers to match a user to a known profile as they travel across the web. For publishers, the ability to connect a visitor currently on their site to a known profile, and pass that information up the bidstream to advertisers, can greatly impact the revenue potential of each ad they put in front of that user.

Who are the Players?

As we move farther and farther toward the inevitable cookie-free future, more and more identity players have surfaced on the market.

Today, some of the biggest players are:

  • LiveRamp ATS
  • GooglePAIR
  • Amazon Publisher Audiences
  • Fabrick
  • ID5
  • Prebid SharedID
  • Lotame Panorama ID
  • Lexicon
  • LiveIntent

Learn more about some of the biggest players, in depth, with this article on top Identity Solution providers.

And rather than trying to pick a winning horse before the race has even started, Playwire has decided to bet a little bit on every horse, making a win unquestionable.

How Much Do Identity Solutions Impact Revenue?

Playwire has, for years, been steadily incorporating and testing various identity solutions into our publisher technology to prepare for this eventuality (and frankly to eek out some additional dollars for publishers even ahead of the switch).

And, never content to just hope that something will drive more revenue for our publishers, we’ve extensively tested the real value that each identity solution we have incorporated provides.

Important to note: These tests were conducted in a cookied environment, because we wanted to see just how much revenue these solutions were capable of providing publishers today.

Identity Solutions_Incremental Increases in RPS

Each of our ID solutions that are currently in our stack have been extensively tested and confirmed to provide an average of between 2-4% incremental uplift on revenue in a fully cookied environment. Running these same tests in a cookie-less environment will undoubtedly return far greater revenue increases.

We did find a solution or two during our testing phases that didn’t provide enough of an incremental uplift to keep around, but it was the exception rather than the rule.

The Bottom Line

Who is the best? While we aren’t sharing the details on individual identity solutions in the graphic above, what we can tell you is that the most widely used solution (read: most important solution to implement and greatest revenue potential) is Prebid’s SharedID Solution.

What’s the magic number? The other resounding conclusion to these tests is that each additional solution you add provides more incremental uplift. It is definitely a case of “the more solutions you integrate, the more you can make.”

What’s the perfect mix? Each ID solution provider brings with it a different audience of stored IDs, and thus provides different audience-matching ability on each individual publisher site. Essentially your audience may benefit more from one ID solution, while another site may see little benefit from it, and find greater value in a different solution. Each site ends up with their own “best” mix.

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