The looming end of the third-party cookie is likely to turn many facets of the media-buying process upside down, making it more important than ever to stay ahead of what's next for advertisers. 

In our latest research survey, Digiday polled 146 buy-side professionals, spread out across advertising agencies, consultancies and brands, about how they and their employers were preparing for the end of the third-party cookie. 

Get a taste of the resulting findings below and subscribe to Digiday+ to gain full access to all Digiday research, including exclusive analysis and key insights.

Digiday Research: Contextual targeting will have its renaissance

By Max Willens

There is a lot of uncertainty about how the coming Google changes will affect the ad-buying habits of brands and agencies. 

But publishers that have been hoping for a return to more contextual targeting can rejoice. 

Digiday polled 146 buy-side professionals about how they and their employers were preparing for the end of the third-party cookie and found that slightly more than half of respondents said they would be spending more money on ad campaigns that used contextual ad targeting. 

More respondents named contextual targeting among their approaches than “investing in technology to acquire more first-party data” and “using ad tech-built cookie alternatives.” Only one option — “revising attribution/measurement frameworks” — was selected by more respondents.