Season 7, Episode 22: Quantifying the advertising value of cookies (with Garrett Johnson and Shunto Kobayashi)

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Garrett Johnson and Shunto Kobayashi, professors at Boston University who have co-authored a paper titled "Can privacy technologies replace cookies? Ad revenue in a field experiment." The paper quantifies the impact of Google's Privacy Sandbox on publisher revenue, user experience, and market competition through a field experiment conducted in collaboration with Raptive, a digital advertising management platform.Our conversation highlights the specific challenges faced by the digital advertising ecosystem as it moves away from traditional identifiers and toward a new, more restrictive privacy regime. Among other things, we discuss:How the loss of third-party cookies specifically affects regional markets with stricter privacy regulations like the European UnionIf the adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies like the Privacy Sandbox could truly bridge the revenue gap created by the deprecation of cookiesWhat role browser vendors should play in establishing technical guarantees that satisfy both regulators and advertising stakeholdersWhy the industry tends to respond to identity restrictions by developing more complex identifiers instead of contextual alternativesWhen the concentration of traffic toward larger platforms will reach a tipping point for small-scale content creatorsHow the removal of personalization features on platforms like YouTube serves as a blueprint for future privacy-driven market shiftsWe also cover another paper by Garrett Johnson, "COPPAcalypse? The Youtube Settlement's Impact on Kids Content."Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming backInterested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:SpotifyYouTubeApple Podcasts