University of Adelaide boosts ad performance without cookies

The University of Adelaide has reported substantial improvements in its digital marketing campaign performance following a collaboration with Hybrid, ID5, and Adobe Advertising.

The initiative, aimed at enhancing the reach and effectiveness of the university's Undergraduate and Postgraduate advertisements, addressed the challenges posed by cookieless browsers like Firefox and Safari. These browsers, which do not support traditional cookie-based tracking, present a complex environment requiring advanced solutions to maintain advertisement efficiency.

With privacy regulations and technological changes prompting signal loss across browsers, The University of Adelaide and its partners sought a method to drive campaign efficiency while upholding these standards. As a result, the university tested the Adobe Advertising Demand-Side Platform (DSP) in collaboration with the ID5 ID, employing both cookieless and cookie-based targeting approaches.

The results of this collaboration were notable. The university experienced a 79% decrease in bounce rate and a 70% reduction in cost per view (CPV), compared to standard cookie-based targeting. Furthermore, website users engaged significantly, with an average time on site reported at five times the previous level.

Steph Overton-Firth, Head of Digital Marketing at the University of Adelaide, remarked, "Working with Hybrid, Adobe Advertising, and ID5 allowed us to expand our performance and personalization strategies to privacy-focused environments. The results showed strong engagement and helped increase quality traffic to our website while future-proofing our ability to deliver and maintain performance across all browsers at scale."

Phil Cowlishaw, Managing Director at Adobe Advertising, added, "This collaboration showcases how innovative partners can come together to solve the challenges of an evolving digital landscape. Leveraging ID5 and the Adobe Advertising DSP, The University of Adelaide and Hybrid demonstrated that privacy-focused solutions can drive both performance and engagement at scale—proving that advertisers don't have to compromise efficiency for privacy."

Caitlin Borgman, Chief Commercial Officer at ID5, also highlighted the success of the approach, stating, "The success of this campaign clearly demonstrates that no matter what environment you decide to target you are going to get an uplift compared to cookie-based targeting. By integrating the ID5 ID into the Adobe Advertising DSP advertisers like The University of Adelaide can easily create an enhanced personalized strategies to efficiently retarget audiences despite signal loss."

This collaboration not only adhered to Australia's regional privacy legislations but also preserved and even exceeded key performance metrics in an evolving digital advertising landscape. By leveraging these collaborative technologies, The University of Adelaide successfully navigated the transition towards cookieless browsing, underscoring the importance of innovative and privacy-compliant advertising strategies in today's market.