Two words, 11 letters: data leakage. These two words strike fear into the hearts of publishers everywhere. A publisher’s proprietary data is a valuable asset, and the thought of it being used by nefarious parties outside of its intended use has long been a barrier to premium publishers making their inventory available programmatically.
In an article written by Digiday earlier this year, an unidentified programmatic buyer tells a tale of how they obtain valuable audience data from publishers via exchanges without ever paying the publisher. They bid on impressions they have no intention of winning, allowing them access to the publisher’s data. They then create their own look-alike models using third-party data vendors and target the same audience on other properties with lower CPMs.
You might be reading this thinking, “Oh no, is this the end of purchasing premium inventory programmatically?” The answer is “no,” thanks to Audience Lock.
To help publishers put a stop to data leakage while still allowing them to execute audience targeted deals with advertisers, SpotX created Audience Lock, a product that allows publishers to customize and control what information SpotX shares with buyers. Information like IFAs and IP addresses can be removed, preventing it from being exposed in exchanges. The information that Audience Lock removes or obfuscates is considered vital by most buyers to determine if they want to purchase an impression. However, because of SpotX’s close relationship with publishers and our rich data ecosystem, we’re able to handle the audience targeting that would normally be done by the DSP and only send bid requests that match the selected audience targeting criteria. This allows publishers to keep their proprietary audience data private while still allowing buyers to reach their desired target audience.
Take back control of your data with Audience Lock. Contact your SpotX Account Team for additional information and pricing.
This article was written by Amanda O’Hara, product marketing manager at SpotX.