“Using privacy-safe technology, PAIR gives advertisers and publishers the option to reconcile their first-party data for audiences who have visited both the advertiser's and the publishers' sites. This allows you to connect with your known audiences more closely to drive better performance, all while respecting people's privacy expectations.” Nicky Rettke, VP, Product Management at YouTube, during Google Marketing Live 2023

The advertising industry is undergoing significant changes due to evolving technology, stricter privacy regulation and heightened consumer awareness. These factors have prompted the advertising industry to reassess long-standing practices that have underpinned the ecosystem for over a decade. A key component of these changes has been the phasing out of third-party cookies, which have been instrumental in enabling data-driven advertising. 

Last week, Google confirmed its plans to commence the deprecation of third-party cookies in Q1 2024. To prepare for a world without third-party cookies, customer-centric organizations have been hyper-focused on the collection and activation of first-party data to future-proof their data-driven marketing activity. 

To fully harness the potential of this customer data, advertisers and publishers have turned to data clean rooms and data collaboration platforms. This shift towards new technologies is already delivering impressive results, with collaborative first-party data campaigns powered by InfoSum, consistently outperforming third-party targeting methods.

Today, Google has demonstrated its commitment to providing advertisers and publishers with a seamless and secure way to access the power of Display & Video 360 in the new privacy-first era. InfoSum is proud to partner with Google and Display & Video 360 to power PAIR, an exciting solution that combines the scale and reach of Display & Video 360 with the world's most secure and cutting-edge data collaboration technology, InfoSum. 

What is Google PAIR?

Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation, or simply PAIR, is an encryption protocol developed by Google in partnership with InfoSum that allows advertisers and publishers to securely and privately match first-party datasets to build custom audiences based on individuals known to both parties. 

With PAIR, advertisers and publishers can activate encrypted first-party information without ever sharing data between parties and ensuring the aggregated data is only readable and meaningful in the limited context of their direct relationship. Not only is this approach beneficial to advertisers or publishers who are able to collaborate seamlessly, but consumers will also benefit from better advertising experiences. Using PAIR, consumers are only shown ads from companies with who they have a direct relationship, giving them greater control over their advertising experience. 

InfoSum’s data clean room technology will facilitate the advertiser-to-publisher relationship, enabling both parties to match their first-party data using the PAIR protocol. This ensures data is never shared between the two parties, and only the encrypted data gets shared with Display & Video 360.

Advertisers and publishers will upload, encrypt, and manage their data via InfoSum’s data clean room software, giving advertisers and publishers additional privacy guarantees and reducing the data access required by Display & Video 360.

Seamlessly use Google PAIR with InfoSum

For InfoSum clients, the experience of utilizing the PAIR protocol will be seamless. Both parties wishing to collaborate using the PAIR protocol get started by Bunkering their data. A Bunker is an ultra-secure private cloud instance that only the data owner can ever access. 

The advertiser and publisher are able then to exchange permissions that will enable the other to analyze their chosen dataset. Importantly, these permissions never grant data to the raw data and only provide the ability to determine the intersection of the two datasets. 

The match rate between those two datasets is then calculated and returned instantly, enabling the advertiser to create and activate the audience immediately. The advertiser's PAIR audience is pushed directly to Display & Video 360, and the publishers to their SSP of choice. 

It's that simple. And because it is InfoSum, both all parties benefit from our industry-leading privacy and security features. Including:

• Permission-based controls: Only InfoSum enables each party to control what data is connected, by who, for what purpose and for how long, down to the individual key and attributes. 
• Ultra-secure data connection: PAIR is an extension of InfoSum's existing non-movement of data technology, Safe Audience Transfer. This privacy-safe approach enables advertisers and publishers to safely activate matched audiences through Display & Video 360 using the PAIR ID without sharing, centralizing, or commingling any data.
• Instant match rates: Beyond our best-in-class privacy and security, InfoSum's global clients rely on us for speed, ease of use and efficiency. PAIR users will enjoy immediate match rates to instantly identify the overlap between audiences for transparent and lightning-fast partner assessment. 
• Secure and seamless activation: All advertiser PAIR audiences are pushed directly to Display & Video 360, and all publisher PAIR audiences are to their choice of SSP for secure and seamless activation through InfoSum's existing integrations. 

The combination of InfoSum and Google PAIR enables organizations to execute data-driven advertising campaigns using Display & Video 360 safely and securely. PAIR is an ecosystem solution that works with all browsers and SSPs, enables advertisers to deliver more effective customer experiences with higher accuracy and ROAS, and publishers to extend the addressability of their inventory and maximize yield by offering high-value and more relevant segments. 

Get started with Google PAIR and InfoSum today

As Jerry Dischler, VP/GM, Ads at Google, said at Google Marketing Live: “If you get privacy right, customers will notice.”

From its inception, InfoSum has been built with privacy and security at its core and designed for an advertising ecosystem built on first-party data. InfoSum's clients have led the industry in innovation, developing cutting-edge first-party data solutions utilizing our data collaboration technology since 2019. Now is your chance to join those pioneers as early adopters of PAIR. Get in touch to learn more about PAIR and get started testing today.