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AdTech & MarTech News Highlights: Q1 2022 Roundup

Topics APIFLoCFLEDGEAttribution Reporting APISeller Defined AudiencesEncrypted Signals ProgramPrivacy SandboxAndroidUID 2.0Project RearcOpenRTBPrebidCTVantitrustUK CMAEuropean Commissionidentity solutions

Q1 2022 was a dense quarter for the AdTech and MarTech industry — between Google's continued Privacy Sandbox manoeuvring, the IAB Tech Lab releasing its first Project Rearc specification, a wave of antitrust scrutiny, and a flurry of M&A activity, there was no shortage of consequential developments. Here's a breakdown of the most significant stories.

Top AdTech and MarTech News Stories

Google Chrome Shuts Down FLoC and Introduces Topics API

Back in July 2021, Google Chrome floated the idea that its interest-based advertising proposal — Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) — might be superseded by a topics-based approach.

That possibility became reality on January 25, 2022, when Chrome officially announced it was shutting down FLoC and replacing it with Topics API.

Topics API is the latest addition to Google Chrome's Privacy Sandbox initiative. Like FLoC before it, it's designed to enable interest-based advertising in a more privacy-friendly way than traditional third-party cookie targeting — but with a different underlying mechanism. Chrome signalled it would stop work on FLoC entirely and focus development effort on Topics going forward.

Further reading:

Google Chrome's Privacy Sandbox Opens Testing for Topics, FLEDGE, and Attribution Reporting API

In late January 2022, Google Chrome announced the start of the first origin trials for the FLEDGE proposal and a new origin trial for the Attribution Reporting API within the Privacy Sandbox.

Then, on March 31, 2022, Chrome confirmed that developer origin trials for Topics, FLEDGE, and the Attribution Reporting API had officially begun.

Further reading:

Google Announces That Privacy Sandbox Will Be Extended to Android

On February 16, 2022, Google announced plans to bring its Privacy Sandbox initiative to Android.

The announcement aligns with Google's earlier decision to stop passing its mobile advertising ID — the Google Advertising ID (GAID) — to AdTech and mobile measurement platforms when Android users opt out of ad personalization.

Further reading:

The IAB Tech Lab Launches Seller Defined Audiences

On February 24, 2022, the IAB Tech Lab released Seller Defined Audiences (SDA) — the first addressability specification to emerge from its Project Rearc initiative.

SDA is designed to help publishers monetize their first-party data by creating audience cohorts that can be passed to demand partners (i.e., DSPs) via OpenRTB bid requests using Prebid.

The IAB Tech Lab describes the mechanism as follows:

Publishers or their data partners determine audience attributes based on user interactions on their properties, map similar groups of users to broad, standardized taxonomy attribute descriptions ([Audience Taxonomy]), document audience characteristics/metadata via a standardized transparency schema (the [Data Transparency Standard] aka DTS), then relay taxonomy IDs within OpenRTB to inform downstream signaling by buyers.

Further reading:

Google's Encrypted Signals Program Enters Open Beta

In March 2021, Google announced development of a new feature within Google Ad Manager — the Encrypted Signals Program (ESP) — designed to help publishers share encrypted identifiers, including ID solutions like UID 2.0, with demand partners such as Authorized Buyers and Open Bidders.

A year later, in March 2022, Google announced that the Encrypted Signals Program had entered open beta, enabling publishers to begin sharing these encrypted signals with their demand partners in earnest.

Further reading:

Antitrust Investigations

Regulatory pressure on the major platforms remained a consistent theme throughout Q1 2022:

Mergers, Acquisitions, IPOs, and Funding Rounds

M&A activity in Q1 2022 was notably active across AdTech, MarTech, and CTV:

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