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The future of measurement is here, and it’s built on privacy. Marketers need effective measurement to understand and optimize performance, and ad tech companies need it to fine-tune solutions and show value to their clients.
But with user privacy taking center stage, traditional measurement methods are evolving. Companies across the ads ecosystem are exploring new signals like first-party data and innovative technologies like the Privacy Sandbox Attribution Reporting, Private Aggregation, and Shared Storage APIs.
This blog post shares how the Privacy Sandbox for web empowers ad tech companies to measure advertising effectiveness while safeguarding user privacy. We'll discuss how these technologies work and provide practical steps to unlock their full potential. Get inspired by real-world examples from ad tech companies using these tools to maximize performance, and discover resources to help you keep pace with the latest advancements.
Let’s start with some basics on privacy-preserving measurement. The good news is that privacy and effective ad measurement can co-exist. To gain accurate insights and make informed decisions, marketers and ad tech providers need reliable data that reflects overall trends and is not skewed by outlier data. This approach respects user privacy because it doesn't rely on individual-level information.
To make this possible, Privacy Sandbox uses techniques like:
Aggregation
Data is combined across many users to show overall trends without revealing individual user information.
Noise
Randomized data, or noise, is added to measurement results, making it harder to identify individual users while still providing valuable insights into overall ad performance. The impact of noise (the signal-to-noise ratio) can be customized with levers like volume of aggregated user data contributing to the report or number of event-level reports received.
Encryption & Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs)
Sensitive user-level data is encrypted in the browser and processed in secure, trusted servers to prevent unauthorized access.*
*For Aggregation Service
Time delays
Reports can be delayed to make it harder to link specific actions to individual users, further enhancing privacy.
We understand there is no “one size fits all” solution when it comes to measurement, and we’re invested in providing customizable tools that support your unique business needs, without compromising on privacy. Learn more about tailoring these tools in the “If you’re ready to level up” section below.
Marketers use attribution reporting to understand ad performance and optimize campaigns. They need to know which ads drive valuable actions, understand which buying strategies are performing best, and measure return on investment. DSPs use this same reporting data to build models that predict which ads are likely to perform well and bid on the best ad placements for their clients.
By leveraging the Attribution Reporting API's flexible reporting options, ad tech companies can fine-tune their bidding models and provide robust reporting and optimization capabilities to marketers—all while safeguarding individual-level information.
Step one: When someone views or clicks an ad on a website, the event is recorded with the browser/device.
Step two: If they engage with the advertisers’s site, the conversion is recorded with the browser/device.
Event-level reports provide visibility into individual ad events that drive conversions (e.g., impression X drove conversion type A).
Summary reports provide detailed and flexible aggregated performance reporting (e.g., campaign X had a $100 return on ad spend).
If you’re just getting started:
If you’re ready to level up:
Explore approaches to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of summary reports by:
Hear more from ad tech companies using these tools today:
Privacy Sandbox technologies can be applied across a number of additional measurement use cases beyond attribution reporting and optimization. For instance, Shared Storage and Private Aggregation APIs can be leveraged together for reach and frequency measurement, allowing you to store impressions in the browser and generate summary reports. Privacy Sandbox is actively exploring reach and frequency reporting approaches for more robust approximations of per-person reach.
Additionally, ad tech companies can experiment with Shared Storage and Private Aggregation APIs for demographic measurement, creative optimization, A/B testing, and more. We encourage you to share your feedback as we build out these capabilities.
The technologies, tools, and tips we've shared today are building blocks for innovation across the ad tech ecosystem. An ecosystem where marketers can continue to measure their performance, ad tech companies can continue delivering strong value for their clients, and users feel safe in their online experience. An ecosystem where measurement and privacy thrive together.
So where do you begin?
The future of measurement is here. Get started today!
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