data driven women 1.1, september 2014

Demystifying Online Advertising

Alison SondereggerEngineering ManagerBrightRoll

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Alison Bellach Sonderegger

● UCSB, 1999o BS in Computer Science o BA in Religious Studies

● “Full-stack Generalist”● Joined BrightRoll in May, 2014● Likes memes in presentations

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Agenda

● An Extremely Brief and Non-Exhaustive History of Advertising

● Advertising Technology (AdTech)

● Privacy

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Not On The Agenda….

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Television

Ads provide a significant amount of funding for most television networks.● Sunday Night Football $593,694*● The Big Bang Theory $316,912*● America’s Next Top Model $25,513*● 16 30s spots per half hour == $$$

How did this start?

*source: http://adage.com/article/media/tv-ad-prices-football-king/244832/

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WNBT/Bulova Test Pattern: July, 1941; $4-9

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Television, cont.

Geographic Targeting: ● geographic

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Television, cont.

Demographic Targeting:● “a section of the population sharing common characteristics,

such as age, sex, class, etc”● Nielsen ratings (user diaries and set meters)

18-49: the golden demo

Popularity in this demo is more desirable than number of viewers● Friends 3x Murder She Wrote (same number of viewers

during overlap)

Then comes the internet and digital content...

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Internet

Ads provide revenue for the site/application that hosts them.● Revenue model is not as straightforward….

o CPM (cost per mille)o CPC (cost per click), CPA (cost per action)

Early ‘70s: advertising on the internet was expressly forbidden (ARPANET, NSFNet)1978: Email ads/spam begin1990s: display ads started gaining popularity

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First Banner Ad, Oct 1994: HotWired.com for AT&T

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Banner Ad, 1996

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Other Types of Internet Ads

Search ads Sponsored content

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Video Ads

Video ads (pre-roll, interstitial,

marquee, sponsored content)

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Internet, cont.

Targeting can be much more specific…● Companies ostensibly get more value for their money● You see content that makes more sense

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Geo-Targeting

Tells an advertiser where you are!● informed by your IP address● reveals location, ISP● usually anonymous (most IPs are dynamically assigned)

Used for…● content localization● copyright

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Content Localization

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Copyright

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Demographic Targeting

Tells an advertiser some specific things about you!● Two cases…

o site serves a specific demographico you’ve knowingly, willingly provided information to a site

● usually awarded with some service (email, cloud storage space, etc)

Used for…● targeting advertisements to a demographic (like Nielsen ratings)

© 2013 BrightRoll, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 BrightRoll, Inc. All rights reserved.

Behavioral Targeting

Tells an advertiser… a lot of things!● what search terms you use● what pages you click● how long you stay on a site● what you buy

BUT: this is not about you personally, it’s about your behavior!

Used for…● highly targeted ads● site usage reporting

How do they do this?

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Cookies!

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The Invention Of The Cookie

● “Cookie” is a term for small objects passed between cooperating systems

● 1995, Netscape: cookies used to track if a site visitor is a repeat

● RFC2109, 1997: Specification indicates only writing/reading by originating domain

● Browsers can control user’s acceptance of cookies

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What is a cookie?

Also called an HTTP cookie…● key/value pairs● expire● tied to a domain and path

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© 2013 BrightRoll, Inc. All rights reserved.

What does a cookie look like?

session-id-time 954242000 amazon.com/

session-id 002-4135256-7625846 amazon.com/

x-main eKQIfwnxuF7qtmX52x6VWAXh@Ih6Uo5H amazon.com/

ubid-main 077-9263437-9645324 amazon.com/

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Cookies are not bad!

Session management● logging into sites● shopping cart persistence

Personalization● skins/custom site layouts● last user to log in

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Examples of Cookie Usage

First visit to zappos.com● First cookie set: session id (identifies you anonymously)

Look at shoes● web server associates shoes with session id

Go to Facebook.com● see advertisements based on zappos.com behavior… huh?

Who can see these cookies?

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Third Party Cookies

Recall: only the domain associated with a cookie can access information in that cookie.

Two choices…● large companies share data between owned domains on the

backend● third-party data collection

● BlueKai, eXelate● use tracking pixels, code snippets, or ask partners to sell

data● track over 80% of the internet

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How TrackingPixels Work*

*interactions all invented

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Outside the Internet...

This happens outside of the internet too! ● Catalina (30 years): “coupon-at-till”

o “Catalina understands and influences the purchasing of more than 75 percent of American shoppers through more than 31,000 grocery, drug, and mass merchant stores nationwide.”

● In-Store Mobile Messaging (BLE): app-driven incentiveso Shopkick shopBeacon

● Anonymized Visa/MC Transaction Histories

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The Target Pregnant Teen Story

“If you use a credit card or a coupon, or fill out a survey, or mail in a

refund, or call the customer help line, or open an e-mail we’ve sent

you or visit our Web site, we’ll record it and link it to your Guest ID,”

Pole said. “We want to know everything we can.”

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Other Cookie Behaviors

Respawning

● Flash-based cookies (Local Shared Objects)● Not analogous with browser cookies● Can recreate browser cookies

Machine Entropy● User Agent + Plugins + generic machine information =

fingerprint● https://panopticlick.eff.org/

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© 2013 BrightRoll, Inc. All rights reserved.

This seems scary… but it isn’t.

Publishers don’t send most of their information to advertisers because they want to protect their audience.

Governments have strict policies in place to protect users.● European Commission e-Privacy Directive: May 2011

o DNT policy considered by W3C● FTC enforcement of browser settings

o 2012: Google pays $22.5m for circumventing Safari settings

The advertising industry is self-regulated (and motivated!).● Internet Advertising Bureau, Digital Advertising Alliance, Direct

Marketing Association, National Advertising Initiative

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Digital Advertising Alliance

● Established in 2010, functions like the BBB● Advocates strong, self-regulating guidelines● Participates with FTC, government bodies to define laws ● In 3 years, took actions against 19 companies, bringing them

into compliance

National Advertising Initiative● Member companies participate in an opt-out program for

behavioral advertising specifically● Still allows cookies related to session management and site

customization

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fin.