Techcrunch has published an excellent article that explores the case against adtech. It’s remarkably fair and balanced but concludes that the case against behavioral advertising is stacking up. One of their key pieces of evidence is that the New York Times has stopped using ad exchanges and user tracking in Europe due to concerns about the GDPR while at the same time their ad revenue has increased.
I mentioned this in a comment and Phil remarked that not all publishers have the resources of the Times and that perhaps ad exchanges could be viewed as providing a service for small publishers—or even bloggers, I suppose—who want to advertise. That’s a fair point but doesn’t address the larger question: is behavioral advertising the best way, or even a good way, to spend your advertising budget?
Techcrunch says that the adtech industry is facing increased pressure from above and below. From above because the GDPR is an existential weapon in the hands of regulators concerned with privacy. Even in the U.S., the government is making more and more concerned noises about adtech’s abuses.
The pressure from below could also be existential. Users are awakening from their slumbers and seeking to put an end to the snooping into their activities. They have a formidable weapon: ad blockers. Already, about a third of users have deployed ad blockers and their use is increasing. Some advertisers have responded by refusing to serve content to sites with blockers but if blocker usage increases much more that will cease to be a reasonable strategy.
If you’re at all interested in or exercised by advertiser tracking, you should definitely take a look at the Techcrunch article. It’s a good summary of where we stand.