DoubleVerify launches contextual advertising solution

DoubleVerify, the platform known for supporting ad viewability and brand safety and combatting ad fraud this week launched Custom Contextual targeting for its DV Publisher Suite. With the demise of cookies, more precise contextual advertising is one way to reach relevant audiences without infringing on privacy.

Going beyond keyword analysis, Custom Contextual will lean on DoubleVerify’s Semantic Science engine which categorizes content into some 200,000 concepts. The solution is expected to help publishers monetize their inventory by offering highly relevant topics to specific advertisers.

The Semantic Science ontology includes seasonal categories like Halloween, as well as in-market categories. For example, it can identify content, the consumption of which is consistent with purchase intent — such as reviews.

Why we care. It remains an open questions whether there are alternatives to third-party cookies which can even come close to matching their effectiveness in targeting relevant audiences. There are concerns that identity resolution solutions based on first-party data will sacrifice reach for precision, and thanks to delays in Google’s development timeline no-one quite knows yet how FLoC would work in practice.

Contextual ads, of course, have been around just about forever (think about how “soap-operas” got their name), but it’s better supported by technology than ever before, and of course presents no threat to consumer privacy. Maybe it’s a next-big-thing.