Google has announced the Topics API, its new user privacy and location solution, which will replace the much-criticized FLoC solution.
The era of FLoC (Queue Federated Learning), Google’s user targeting solution, is officially over.
Google has been preparing marketers to remove third-party cookies since early 2021, a change that came as a surprise.
What is FLoC?
If you don’t know what FLoC is, here’s a brief overview. You may have heard of it in the industry news, but what does it actually mean?
FLOC (Group Federated Learning) to launch in March 2021. This is a privacy sandbox program that will essentially allow browsers to enable interest-based targeting.
The solution was introduced due to concerns that third-party cookies will be deleted in Google Chrome in 2023.
An FLoC solution would be a big change as individuals are grouped into groups to protect anonymity and user privacy.
Advertisers will be able to target based on these groups, but the impact of individual targeting remains an issue. Groups will be made up of thousands of users, not individuals themselves.
New theme API
Google seems to have taken the feedback from the advertising community seriously when introducing the Theming API solution.
Topics API is a privacy sandbox solution for interest-based advertising.
The main difference between Topics and FLoC is how it collects interest locations.
With the new Topics API solution, your browsing behavior selects “topics” that are of personal interest to you during a given week. These topics are only stored for three weeks and then deleted.
Themes are only stored on the user’s device, without the need for external servers, including Google’s.
How are topics different from FLoC?
While both positioning solutions revolve around user interests, there are some key differences between them.
The biggest difference is that topic interests will be removed from users every 3 weeks. While FLoC groups users into groups, there is no time limit on how long a user can stay in that group.
Additionally, previous FLoC solutions generated cohort IDs that advertisers could use to target. The new Topics API solution will have no cohort IDs and will use Topics to share with advertisers and sites.
In addition to the functional differences between the two solutions, there are also differences in user privacy controls.
Using the theme API, it gives the user control. Users will be able to view topics relevant to them. Individuals can also opt out of topics entirely, or delete specific topics related to them.
Sites deemed sensitive categories are automatically excluded from users, such as race or sexual orientation. This update puts user safety first.
Why should advertisers care?
Google is still moving forward with removing third-party cookies sometime in 2023. Because of this change, advertisers need to know their options.
Understanding this new targeting solution will help advertisers start planning how their strategies might change, if any, in light of these changes. Knowing which themes are coming later this year can help you understand where to target your ads.
Remarketing efforts (beyond first-party data) may still be limited due to individual user privacy. Instead of relying on browser activity to close a sale, you may need to shift your advertising approach to focus on the best way to capture first-party data as quickly as possible in the customer journey.
source: Google
Image Credit: Andrei Suslov/Shutterstock
