If you’re not sure where to start navigating the ever-evolving privacy landscape, Dennis Buchheim has some answers. He’s been a longtime advocate of privacy-forward advertising technologies and practices with experience as CEO of IAB Tech Lab and leadership roles at Meta, Yahoo and Microsoft. He is the founder of ThinkMedium, an advertising and media advisory firm that recently released a Publisher Readiness Playbook to support publishers in navigating ongoing data, identity and privacy shifts.
We recently spoke with Buchheim about common privacy misconceptions and how creating an implementation plan can help publishers sustain and grow their businesses amid evolving industry regulations and platform policies.
State of the Industry
Buchheim focuses on privacy and data strategy, including the implications of privacy laws and platform (Apple, Google and others) policies on the advertising ecosystem.
“We continue to see signals that the industry isn’t even ready for changes that have already happened,” Buchheim said, adding that his group focused on publishers first because it’s a challenging segment that he wants to support.
“Publishers’ strong connection to consumers, providing valuable services and maintaining a free and open internet have motivated us to help this group.”
Misconceptions About Privacy
While much of the industry’s focus has been on how companies can adhere to state and international privacy laws, platform policies are having a similar or even greater impact on how consumer data can be used for advertising.
“Decisions by platforms like Google and Apple have a significant impact on what’s possible for different advertising use cases,” Buchheim said. “Publishers need to look beyond the regulations into the different platform policies and identify what constraints they must operate in for each one.”
Another misconception is understanding the different stages of data handling.
“It’s important for publishers to think about what level of consent is needed and how the data will be used and processed before they start collecting it,” Buchheim said. “They also need to think about what is happening when they work with vendors. What are vendors doing with the data publishers provide and how are they processing it?”
Establishing Advertising Use Cases
Buchheim recommends that publishers take stock of their unique business strategies and advertising use cases, which help guide decisions about privacy and data strategies. Determining which use cases to focus on depends on a publisher’s revenue strategy.
Publishers can identify their top-priority advertising use cases by assessing what data is needed to deliver ads to a specific audience, whether they have that data or need to obtain it, and whether data collection meets all requirements.
For example, a publisher might have consented location and interest data and be considering enabling private marketplaces for ads that target audiences individually or collectively based on this type of data. Defining these use cases can help publishers evaluate their preparedness for privacy-related changes by outlining potential revenue impacts and adopting solutions to mitigate these impacts.
“Not all use cases are affected in the same ways by privacy changes,” Buchheim said. “Targeting, planning and activation use cases are different than measurement use cases.”
He added that publishers should decide which use cases are most important to their businesses and focus on whether they have the right data, partnerships and technologies in place.
“You don’t have to boil the ocean, but it helps to assess the use case and ask: Am I solving for it today? What’s going to change? How should I change my practices going forward? Asking those questions will lead to a purpose-built approach that will help decide what actions to take to become compliant, whether it’s implementing in-house technology or working with vendors.”
Creating a Comprehensive Plan
Publishers should look at combining both ID-based and ID-less solutions to maintain effective and compliant advertising strategies.
“In the playbook, we created a taxonomy that includes both types of solutions to give publishers a structure to more easily track what’s changing and evaluate solutions through a common language,” Buchheim said.
“When thinking about your solutions portfolio, ask what you want to take from the ID side and from the ID-less side and look at how these solutions work together to solve your use cases.”
All Publishers Need a Privacy Strategy
Buchheim said while the playbook is geared towards publishers with well-established internal operations, all publishers should think about how they’re collecting and processing data, what tools and solutions they need to implement, and how they’re planning to stay ahead of privacy-related changes.
“Publishers should be familiar with a range of solutions so they can make informed decisions about which vendors will help them meet their needs,” Buchheim said. “Help is definitely out there, but it’s also good to have a basic understanding of what the ecosystem looks like and how it’s evolving so you can make the best decisions possible.”
Learn more about AAM’s privacy and data compliance programs.
