ID-Free Targeting that Performs

According to our 2024 State of Programmatic report, 58% of marketers anticipate migrating the majority or all of their targeting efforts to cookie-free tactics by the close of 2024. Furthermore, 62% of marketers foresee increasing their utilization of contextual data throughout the year. This trend underscores a collective optimism and proactive approach within the industry towards embracing contextual solutions as a viable path forward amidst evolving privacy regulations and technological shifts.

Proprietary Research: Performance of ID-Free Audience Targeting

But this shift towards new data sources for campaign targeting begs the question: How do Proximic by Comscore’s ID-free Predictive Audiences compare to the ID-based audience targeting we know and love?

Proximic by Comscore sought to answer that exact question through head-to-head testing across 2 simultaneous campaigns that compared the performance of an ID-based audience of Online Holiday Shoppers against the same audience delivered as an ID-free Predictive Audiences. All other campaign parameters were held constant, such as spend, duration and inventory filters.

The Results: ID-Free Predictive Audiences Were Superior Across All Data Points

Incremental Reach

• The study revealed that ID-free Predictive Audiences reached a 96% incremental audience compared to the same ID-based audience, effectively doubling audience reach against the same target.

This finding underscores the potential of AI-powered contextual technology to drive scale amidst the challenges posed by the scarcity of ID-based inventory.

Cost Efficiency

• Furthermore, targeting the same audience criteria with ID-free Predictive Audiences resulted in a 32% lower average eCPM compared to the same ID-based segment.

This enhanced cost efficiency enables marketers to achieve better ROI while reaching more of their intended audience.

In-Target Rate

• ID-free Predictive Audiences demonstrated an 84% accuracy rate in reaching users that matched the selected targeting criteria, showcasing significant accuracy without any reliance on user identifiers.

The accuracy of these ID-free Predictive Audiences is strong and only expected to grow as technology improves, providing advertisers with reason to trust this new way of getting their brand message to their target audience.

Inventory Placement Quality

• In the head-to-head test ID-free Predictive Audiences ads appeared on higher quality inventory compared to the same ID-based audience with 27% of ID-free Predictive Audiences ads appearing on Comscore MediaMetrix Top 100 inventory placements compared to only 21% for the ID-based audience’s ad placements.

The implications of higher quality inventory placements are massive for SPO (supply path optimization) - demonstrating a path for advertisers to make more cost efficient performative programmatic placements on high value inventory.

As signal loss and privacy regulations continues to compound, embracing ID-free audiences such as Predictive Audiences represent a vast opportunity for advertisers seeking to navigate the complexities of today’s digital marketing landscape and continue to achieve performance and scale.

To learn more about Predictive Audiences and the future of ID-free targeting, contact us today.