As the role of cookies diminishes and audience data signals face challenges, marketers are increasingly turning to AI to enhance addressability, targeting, and measurement in their advertising strategies.

With AI driving significant transformations in programmatic advertising, the industry is witnessing a shift towards audience targeting without cookies, leveraging real-time data processing to optimise targeting and measurement. In response to the evolving landscape and the diminishing appeal of Google’s Privacy Sandbox and ID solutions, marketing teams are embracing AI as a pivotal tool for future success. This paradigm shift underscores the critical role of AI in navigating the cookieless future and capitalising on innovations in ad tech.

Quantcast’s latest guide delves into how marketers leverage AI to adapt to the cookieless future, optimise programmatic advertising, and elevate targeting and measurement strategies.

Advertisers are strongly inclined to boost their AI investment in response to the loss of audience data signals. A multi-signal strategy emerges as the most effective approach, particularly with decreasing enthusiasm for Google’s ID-based solutions.

Source: Marketers’ 2024 Insights Addressability and AI, Global Research by Quantcast

The impact of diminishing cookies is prompting advertisers to turn to AI solutions, with a notable majority planning to increase investment in this area over the next two years. As advertisers gear up to leverage AI technologies, they are acknowledging the significance of integrating multiple options to optimize programmatic targeting. A combination of contextual, cohorts, and first-party data solutions is widely recognized as offering the best return on ad spend.

The trajectory of programmatic advertising stands at a crucial juncture, marked by ongoing discussions around cookie deprecation and the rise of global privacy regulations. Marketers are encountering unparalleled obstacles in engaging online consumers. The most recent research illuminates how advertisers are gearing up to thrive in this evolving landscape. Success hinges on leveraging all available data signals and utilizing AI-driven technology to cultivate a comprehensive understanding of the audience.

Source: Marketers’ 2024 Insights Addressability and AI, Global Research by Quantcast

A multi-signal strategy integrates both deterministic and probabilistic data to achieve precision and scalability. Real-time assessment and processing of this data are essential for effective implementation in marketing campaigns. Artificial intelligence serves as an ideal solution to address this challenge. By leveraging AI, marketers can move away from relying on outdated third-party data and instead interpret more nuanced, diverse, and expansive signals that reflect consumer interest and intent. AI’s capacity for pattern recognition at a massive scale enables the synthesis and analysis of data to uncover insights beyond the surface, assisting marketers in identifying their target audience.

Download the guide to explore the transformative potential of AI in navigating the cookieless future and driving success in programmatic advertising here.