Google’s latest General Data Protection Regulation update has unsettled publishers and independent ad tech vendors.
Last week, the tech platform confirmed it’s limiting how many ad tech vendors publishers can get user consent for, should they choose to use Google’s consent manager provider, or CMP, under the GDPR, as first reported by AdExchanger . Publishers that use Google’s consent-gathering tool, Funding Choices, can only use 12 ad tech vendors, according to an update on Google’s support blog .
While ad tech vendors publicly display confidence, many are privately panicking. “No one is safe,” said an ad tech executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They’re scrambling to get in front of publishers. There is no way the average publisher’s ad tech and sales teams can fully understand the nuts and bolts of how some of these second-tier ad technologies work. So, it’s going to come down to their relationships with publishers.”
Several publishers Digiday spoke to received a flurry of emails from ad tech partners on May 4, asking if publishers plan to use Funding Choices, and if so, whether they are among the chosen 12 vendors. “People are getting nervous they won’t have access to good supply,” said a publishing executive.
No one knows why Google picked 12 as the number of vendors. To some publishers, it seems like an arbitrary figure that’s way lower than what most publishers require to maintain their programmatic revenue. A quick count of the main data management platforms, supply-side platforms, demand-side platforms, ad servers and viewability companies in the market (excluding Google) comes to 20 vendors. Both ad tech and publisher execs predict vendor consolidation as a result of the restrictions. “I can’t see it as anything other than a vendor bloodbath,” said a publishing executive who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Read More at The Original Article: digiday.com
