Mobile has become an increasingly important consumer touchpoint, and the global pandemic has made the mobile experience all the more appealing—a one-stop-shop for content, commerce, and entertainment. As engagement on mobile continues to grow, and mobile device makers evolve their policies in response to a rapidly changing privacy landscape, app publishers must adapt to balance consumer privacy and transparency while maintaining a successful, viable business.
Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) framework, for example, attempts to solve for some consumer privacy concerns but remains an imperfect system. Many consumers are unaware that Apple’s change will have revenue implications for mobile app publishers, and as a result, consumers may lose access to their favorite free apps.
But there is a silver lining.
For more than three years, LiveRamp has been developing an infrastructure that connects authenticated publisher inventory with advertiser demand, all while protecting and preserving consumer privacy and maintaining a responsive, transparent user experience. In May of 2019, we formally launched the Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS), purposefully designed with the understanding that consumers have the right to engage with content providers in a mutually agreeable exchange, and publishers have the right to maintain a direct, trusted relationship with their users.
ATS is built with consumer privacy and transparency at its core, allowing LiveRamp to be proactive and agile so our solutions can evolve with regulation and mandates from global governing bodies, browsers, and device makers. In mobile device instances, ATS is used with ATT consent to deliver a cohesive cross-device experience for publishers, brands, and ultimately consumers. Additionally, we continually innovate to demonstrate our commitment to building a trusted ecosystem where consumer experiences are privacy-focused, transparent, and offer ongoing control of data permission and preferences.
Continued innovation for mobile publishers
Today, we’re announcing an extension of Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS) called On-Device ATS. Similar to ATS, On-Device ATS is a safe and transparent application-first solution that delivers addressability across iOS and Android environments, while giving consumers transparency and control as well as data protections, so advertisers can reach their audience safely and securely. Specifically, On-Device ATS allows mobile app publishers to leverage their direct relationships with users to deliver addressable inventory without sending user or device identifiers off the device. This innovative advancement, built in response to Apple’s new iOS 14 guidance, helps set the industry standard for people-based, privacy-focused addressable solutions that perform across channels.
On-Device ATS creates Bloom filters that represent a marketer’s target audience. These filters are distributed to end user devices and publishers can then query the Bloom filter on-device with a tokenized identifier and pass an audience ID to mobile partners. Mobile platforms map the audience ID to deal IDs where marketers can bid on them. On-Device ATS further paves the way for cohort-driven measurement solutions, allowing for multi-touch attribution on iOS without the IDFA. On-Device ATS adds a layer of consumer privacy and is another way that content developers can deliver addressability to advertisers without mobile identifiers, such as IDFAs and AAIDs.
Because content providers and app developers will be able to evolve their business practices quickly, consumers can maintain free access to the content, games, or services they’re accustomed to relying on. Marketers can continue reaching audiences where they normally engage on mobile and extend measurement capabilities outside of those provided by SKAdnetwork, including attribution beyond app installation conversion and more granular measurement without the same time delays.
Scalable and secure solutions
At the end of the day, both On-Device ATS and ATS move the industry forward by driving collaboration across businesses and giving content providers scalable, secure, and sustainable business solutions while still allowing consumers access to their favorite apps, games, and content.
ATS continues to provide visibility and control to users, and delivers enhanced addressability of publisher inventory. Since its launch, ATS has gained widespread, global adoption—to date, more than 325 publishers worldwide have adopted ATS, including 705% of the U.S. Comscore top 20, and 60% of the U.S. Comscore top 50. Additionally, more than 25 supply-side platforms have adopted the LiveRamp infrastructure, which has also evolved to make LiveRamp’s identifier and additional identifiers available in the bidstream—helping publishers and the industry as a whole collaboratively deliver addressability.
Interested in learning more about mobile addressability and which solution is right for you? Contact [email protected].