Programmatic buying after third-party cookies – here’s how to target advertising in the future

Third-part cookies are going – nobody panic! There are plenty of other tried-and-true ways to target advertising. Sanoma’s data covers almost the entire Finnish nation, and both your current and future clients are sure to be in there somewhere. 

As the digital world changes, there is often an upsurge of questions, says Programmatic Manager Miia Salmi from Sanoma. 

“Right now, many are wondering if the data they’ve used for targeting can be replaced with something as effective. The truth is, targeting has always been done without third-party data, too.” 

It is true that some things are bound to change or disappear – retargeting, for example, can’t be done without third-party cookies. When it comes to programmatic buying, the surefire way is to work directly with a publisher that can offer their own data. 

“One of the basic principles of programmatic buying has been the possibility of choosing the media and targeting separately. This won’t be possible in the future. In Finland, however, most advertisers are already doing private deals with publishers, and that is what I recommend”, Salmi remarks. 

Locate your key audience with a data partnership 

The majority of Finnish people have created a Sanoma account, making it the main way to identify users in Sanoma’s digital channels. The information of logged-in users is combined with behavioural data from the channels. The most popular method of targeting is utilising location data; this is especially useful for small or local businesses. 

Sanoma’s digital network reaches 89 % of Finnish internet users weekly. 

“This means targeting possibilities in a scale of millions. Our reach is enormous, and we can target advertising according to age and gender to four out of five users of our channels,” says Head of Data Niko Hovilainen. 

A data partnership with Sanoma is a great way to reach precision in targeting and deepen customer understanding. A growing number of advertisers is interested in using their own customer data and already defined audiences to target advertising. 

“A partnership is a way to locate your existing customers in Sanoma’s media. From a small group of customers, we can also model a lookalike group to create bigger campaigns to,” Hovilainen explains. 

Read more about Custom Audiences

 The right ad in the right place – why go for contextual targeting? 

Sanoma produces tens of thousands of articles in a month. The variety of media, themes, and topics enables targeting advertising to the most opportune contexts. 

“When an ad fits its environment and doesn’t appear disruptive, it is easy to receive,” Salmi says. 

The contextual data of each article contains both wider categories and individual keywords. There are hundreds of categories and thousands of keywords to choose from. In addition to display advertising, contextual targeting is also available for e.g. video advertising. 

“You can target a section of a website, choose very specific topics, or anything in between. Combining keywords may also prove effective for reaching your audience from different angles,” Salmi points out. 

Contextual targeting does not rule out audience targeting; in fact, using both might give you the best results. 

“Demographics are attributes of people – the context anticipates where their mind goes. Football boots are more likely to hit their target next to a sports article than anywhere else,” Hovilainen concludes.