GroupM and Google strike new Privacy Sandbox partnership

Some advertisers will soon get to see how well Google’s cookie alternatives work.

GroupM will collaborate with Google to help clients navigate the tech giant’s Privacy Sandbox initiative, the agency announced Wednesday. The aim of the partnership, which the companies dubbed a “post-cookie readiness program,” is to help clients test Google’s Privacy Sandbox APIs, which are designed to eventually replace the third-party cookies that Chrome, the world’s most popular browser, currently uses.

Richard Mooney, global chief data and technology officer at GroupM’s Essence Mediacom agency, described the initiative as a “learning program” for a select number of agency clients. Mooney will oversee the partnership for the agency.

Clients will be able to share the test results anonymously to help troubleshoot the tech, and Google representatives will give GroupM’s clients “direct feedback” and resources as the tests continue, Mooney said during a press call.

“This is looking to test all adtech, across a big swath of adtech providers,” Mooney said. “This is not specific to the Google environment. We’re looking to be able to test the deployment of the Privacy Sandbox APIs across a multitude of SSPs, DSPs, and publishers.”

For now, GroupM will be the “only holding company they will be providing this to for a period of time,” agency spokesperson Jared Baiman said in an emailed brief. It’s not an exclusive partnership, but a “first-to-market” one, he added.

Gentle refresher: Third-party tracking cookies, the code most advertisers use to target and measure digital ads, are supposed to get the axe by the end of next year, but some recent reports have suggested the cutoff could be pushed again, to 2025. (During a Q3 earnings call, chief business officer Philipp Schindler said Google was still on track to meet the 2024 deadline, fwiw).

To replace cookies, Google has already rolled out a few different tools, including Topics, Protected Audience (formerly known as Fledge), and Attribution Reporting, all of which Google says will help advertisers continue to reach the audiences they want, where they want.

Google said it will begin removing cookies early next year from 1% of the internet’s traffic to begin testing within the Privacy Sandbox, and adtech companies have started building their own tools to make sure the internet’s pipes are actually connected.