Alternative ID vendors have been hardcore pitching advertisers for years that email-based IDs can work for CTV.
But skepticism still abounds.
To be fair, email-based alt IDs are a viable third-party cookie replacement for online display and video. And for many omnichannel advertisers, it makes sense to port alt IDs over to CTV, which is incompatible with third-party cookies. Smart TVs mostly run streaming apps, not web browsers.
But many CTV buyers and sellers aren’t convinced it makes sense to use a one-to-one targeting signal like email addresses in a media channel that doesn’t prioritize one-to-one ad personalization. They also worry that alt ID providers aren’t checking whether the data underlying these IDs is accurate and was provided with consent.
Another concern is that many free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels – which don’t typically have direct access to email logins – are creating email-based IDs using data sourced from third parties or other questionable sources. The worry is that such arrangements go against the spirit of alternative IDs, which are supposed to be based on a publisher’s first-party data. And if advertisers are being asked to pay premium CPMs for IDs built on the same murky third-party data they’ve always bought, what exactly are they paying for?
