EUID adoption increases across the programmatic supply chain, from SSPs to publishers

Alternative identifiers are gaining ground in Europe and the U.K. among supply-side platforms (SSPs) and publishers, reflecting an industrywide hunt across the pond for targeting solutions that can reach fragmented audiences effectively without cookies.

Last month, SSPs including Criteo Commerce Grid, Google Ad Manager, Index Exchange and Microsoft Monetize announced their integration with European Unified ID (EUID), the open-source identity solution developed by The Trade Desk.

This integration enables SSPs to monetize advertiser bids that include EUIDs, helping publishers tap in to this pool of demand and revenue. Media buyers, meanwhile, will be able to better reach authenticated audiences in a privacy-conscious way.

“Our data suggests that brands leveraging EUID can achieve up to a 30% increase in campaign effectiveness, as they can engage with audiences in a more personalized and relevant manner,” says Sebastian Kampmeier, chief operating officer at SS+, an SSP.

Like Unified ID 2.0 (UID2) in the U.S. and around the globe, EUID uses encrypted email data to enable privacy-conscious, deterministic targeting for advertisers, with an eye to Europe and the U.K.’s strict privacy regulations.

EUID isn’t the only alternative identifier gaining traction among SSPs in Europe. Last month, FreeWheel said it integrated First-id, a leading alternative identifier in France, while in July, Index Exchange announced it integrated Utiq’s Authentic Audiences, an alternative identifier developed by some of Europe’s largest telcos.

Unlike data in closed-off walled gardens, many alternative identifiers are interoperable, offering scale, measurement and attribution across their respective ID graphs. EUID, for example, is interoperable with RampID, ID5 and emetriq, among others.

EUID’s impact on publishers

In recent months, the likes of Criteo Commerce Grid and Index Exchange joined top publishers across Europe and the U.K. — such as Reach, BCN, Funke, Figaro, and ¡Hola! — in adopting EUID and other alternative identity solutions.

“Thanks to its open approach, we consider EUID to be one of the most promising ID solutions on the European market,” says Nadeem Qureshi, team lead of product management at BCN Group. “EUID […] offers advertisers a standardized, future-proof way of tracking the user journey across different channels.”

Publishers are facing a raft of uncertainties, from worries that Generative AI chatbots may siphon away traffic with little compensation to over-reliance on Google for traffic. These can all lead to increased pressure on their advertising revenues.

EUID’s increased footprint among publishers reflects the hope that identity solutions can help bolster inventory monetization.

“We consider that tools like EUID — being open-source, interoperable, secure, privacy-friendly and omnichannel — will help address the challenges of maximizing the value of every impression,” says Isabel Amate, head of programmatic ad ops at Atresmedia Publicidad, the advertising arm of Spanish broadcaster Atresmedia, which recently also integrated EUID.

Some are already noticing improvements in their bottom lines. BCN Group’s Qureshi says that on cookie-free inventories, BCN sees an average uplift in eCPMs of more than 20% via the open market when an EUID is present. That increase is corroborated by Cadi Jones, SVP of EMEA at Index Exchange: “Our data indicates that the value of an impression is higher when an identifier like EUID is present in the bid request, allowing publishers to more effectively monetize their inventory.”

Adopting EUID can also help lessen publishers’ reliance on Google for traffic and revenue, says Atresmedia’s Amate. “We all need that to happen, as we should all move into a more objective path to be less dependent from the walled gardens and continue working toward having an open internet.”

The Current is owned and operated by The Trade Desk Inc.