Ready to be part of a FLoC? That’s Google’s acronym for a Federated Learning of Cohorts, a toolset supposedly engineered to help take the “psycho” out of psychographics. How? Well, instead of publishers using cookies to follow you around the web, your browser history will now be held by FLoC. So, instead of your data science team having to ingest a ton of anonymized user data and automating your messaging, FLoC will cluster and classify user behaviors before the data leaves the user’s device.
Said differently, people (you and me) will be assigned (based on our behavioral data) to various cohorts. Then, advertisers will target cohorts instead of cookies. All the normal rules still apply; you can’t target people who are going through a tough time, and you can’t target by belief, identity, sexual interest, etc.
What’s actually new, and how will it change your marketing processes and workflows? Glad you asked. Here’s a link to Google’s announcement and the accompanying Privacy Sandbox site.
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with AI strategy, implementation and governance, as well as technology, media and marketing. Named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology, he is a bestselling author, covers tech and business for Fox 5’s Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN, and writes the popular daily business blog Think About This. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.