NewFronts 2024: Google shows advertisers a cookieless world, talks CTV, AI and first-party data

Google kicked off the 2024 Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) NewFronts with a presentation on Monday focused on making unified video ads across CTV and YouTube available to buyers through its Display & Video 360 (DV360) platform.

It also announced partnerships with media companies that allow buyers to target audiences across publishers and AI tools that help allocate budgets and create audience segments.

Here’s a summary of the major announcements Google made during its nearly two-hour presentation:

Through Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation (PAIR), DV360 buyers can target audiences on properties belonging to partnered media companies, such as Disney and NBCUniversal. Google announced that it’s sharing the PAIR protocol with the IAB Tech Lab so ad tech and media companies can reconcile their first-party data as Google phases out third-party cookies (a process it delayed for the third time last week).

DV360 is getting new AI tools that make programmatic video ad buying more efficient. Starting this summer, buyers can input their ideal audience and get a list of related AI-generated segments. Google also lets buyers set their engagement goals with custom bidding, with AI creating signals that show desired impressions. More specific CTV-related signals are coming soon.
Marketers can quickly buy inventory on NBCUniversal, Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery from within DV360 — something they can already do with YouTube. Google AI can optimise the percentage of its budget towards guaranteed and non-guaranteed inventory based on deal terms and goals. Omnicom Media Group is an early adopter of commitment optimiser.

Last week, Google delayed the depreciation of third-party cookies for the third time, this time to 2025. Despite the continued delays, Google is still struggling to prove its Privacy Sandbox alternative to advertisers and regulators. By focusing its Newfront on CTV and tools for tracking consumers without third-party data, the tech giant is still trying to get advertisers comfortable with a cookie-less world.

“CTV is one of those areas where it isn’t cookie-based, and we have an opportunity to start fresh,” said Kristen O’Hara, VP of agency, platforms and client solutions at Google, during the presentation.