In the advertising landscape, 3P (third-party cookies) had been the most imperative way of showcasing digital ads but with a rollout of Google privacy protocols, the internet browsers no longer support cookies. This decision by Google was announced in 2020 due to which marketers started scrambling and looking for alternative ways to track consumers’ interests and behaviour across the web without infringing their privacy.

The expected timeline to deprecate third-party cookies in the Google Chrome web browser is set for 2023 which is a matter of concern for advertisers. To give them some relaxation, Google has also decided to come up with an effective solution to make www a more secured and ‘privacy-first’ web. The proposed solution is called Google’s Privacy Sandbox which so far has generated a good number of proposals from Agencies, Developers, Ad Tech Creators and other Stakeholders. However, as of now the two solutions i.e. FLoC and FLEDGE had always been in a subjective discussion to plan various workflow options around Privacy Sandbox since 2020 wherein, Google has decided to formalize the guidelines of FLEDGE project.

With constant planning and feedback from Ad Tech creators, Stakeholders and other participants, Google has tried evolving a FLEDGE solution that is expected to be implemented in 2023. This will help marketers and advertisers to deliver personalized ads, tailored to users’ interests.

Let’s discuss in detail What is Privacy Sandbox and Google Fledge?

The Privacy Sandbox is an initiative taken by Google to access users’ information without compromising their privacy by setting standards for the website. Sandbox is also an open-source collaboration between Google and multiple participants in the advertising industry which is created with the aim to make www a privacy-centric space for users. The purpose of this initiative is to make online advertising easier by discovering effective solutions that can replace the use of 3P cookies.

Data compliance has been a hot topic for both the advertisers and consumers whereas Privacy Sandbox is supporting all the participants by developing new technologies that can improvise the privacy standards. Moreover, this will also provide advertisers with the tools via which users’ engagement with personalized content will become much easier.

FLEDGE is a proposal of Privacy Sandbox which is the next step forward to help brands and marketers with effective ways of consumer behaviour tracking. It stands for First Locally-Executed Decision over Groups Experiment which was first implemented in Chromium within the proposals of the TURTLEDOVE family. FLEDGE delivers a privacy-compliant way of showcasing behaviourally targeted ads through an on-device auction. The API enables this on-device auction through the browser to select the ads from the websites that had been visited earlier by the user.

FLEDGE operates on some fundamental principles that look forward to setting standards for the following:

• Browsers that hold consumers’ behavioural data
• Advertisers using this data cannot combine it with other gathered data while showcasing ads
• Ad networks cannot store the users’ interest data

This stays true for TURTLEDOVE and also incorporates the feedback from other proposals from ad tech players such as:

• SPARROW from Criteo
• SDovekey from Google Ads
• SPARRROT from Magnite
• STERN from NextRol

FLEDGE Lifecycle: How does it work?

FLEDGE workflow uses FLoc API technologies that help brands connect with the right audience groups and cater to them with personalized ads. It works following some steps executed by SSPs (sellers), DSPs (buyers) and Browsers. Here’s How:

• Browsers Recording Interest Groups: Browsing behaviour and activities define the interest group; thus, FLEDGE will let advertisers, publishers and ad tech vendors assign users to specific interest groups wherein both advertisers and publishers can own the interest groups as well. The group owners can add users to the groups by calling a Javascript function i.e. “joinAdInterest Group()” and can pass the information to the participants in an auction for that particular interest group.
• SSPs (run on-device auctions): An API gets activated by the SSPs (sellers) on the browser inside the publisher’s page which automatically executes the workflows for DSPs (buyers) and sellers. Under FLEDGE, SSPs will be enabled to use Javascript to effectively define parameters for bid prices. With this process, sellers can also determine the bid winner of each auction and based on the results, they can decide who can bid on ads and further record the final prices and outcomes of the auction.
• DSPs (execute on-device bids): Buyers can be a brand, ad tech providers and a publisher since they look for the ability to publish their ads and decide the auction in which they wish to participate. DSPs define the ad itself and participate in the bidding process by entering into the auction with a price and metadata. SSPs and DSPs define their own needs and pricing for each ad.
• Browsers Render the Winning Ads: When SSPs declare the auction’s winner, the winning DSPs pass the information of the ad with creatives to the browser and renders it inside the protected area. This process under the FLEDGE has also been termed a Fenced Frame which is a secured area under a webpage that doesn’t pass the information to any other web page.
• Event-Level Reporting: After the completion of the auction when ads successfully get displayed to the targeted interest groups, the browser will call a reporting function for SSPs and winning DSPs. In this process, Google will temporarily allow event-level reporting incorporating the information of the winning interest group. This will help DSPs craft quality ads at effectively priced bids and can engage users with more efficient advertising strategies.

To Stay Updated About Fledge, Refer to https://developer.chrome.com/blog/fledge-api/

FLEDGE by Google is still being developed under the Privacy Sandbox which aims to provide advertisers with better tools and participants with developing technologies to improvise their marketing strategies. This is under a trial basis through Chrome wherein, it will be supported by the real-world creators to better improve its workflow that can help advertisers and publishers to maintain privacy and advertise strategically.

We at Xapads Media actively participate in such Ad-Tech updates & RnD processes to stay ahead in the game.

Written by: Rohit Arora, Vice President – Tech and Strategic Initiatives