Google's Topics API: Advertisers share concerns about topic diversity and other potential challenges - Search Engine Land

Earlier this week, Google announced the Topics API, its latest ad targeting proposal aimed at replacing third-party cookies.

Similar to its predecessor, the now-abandoned Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) proposal, the company has positioned the Topics API squarely between users, who are arguably now more privacy-conscious than ever, and advertisers, who have been holding their breaths over what the future of audience targeting will actually look like.

Now that Google has laid out its proposal, search practitioners are evaluating it against the backdrop of third-party cookies and FLoC.

Topics may be a more realistic option than FLoC, marketers say

“Topics seem more likely to be acceptable to the broader ecosystem as they address several FLoC privacy concerns head on,” said Aaron Levy, head of paid search at Tinuiti. “It’s odd to call this an advantage, but I view anything that launches with a higher likelihood of stability and lesser likelihood of mass opt-outs a win.”

The other PPC practitioners that spoke to Search Engine Land seemed to concur with this point: “On their face, Topics seem like they should be less personally identifiable, which would be a plus for privacy,” said Julie Friedman Bacchini, president of Neptune Moon and managing director of PPCChat. “While some privacy people will still claim it’s too much tracking, it seems much more private than what is out there today,” said Brad Geddes, co-founder at AdAlysis.

Google’s rhetoric surrounding FLoC has been...

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