Capitalizing On Cost-Free Content In A Cookieless World

Website investors have a benefit from many of their competitors when it comes to flexibility. A blogger may rely on a particular revenue model or traffic source and may have a number of reasons they are locked-in on those paradigms working.

That’s why investors of every kind of website often needs to stay on the cutting edge of web trends. Often, they may not have specialized vertical expertise but can make a cunning move ahead of trends; allowing them to turn a nice profit. Currently, the environment is primed for change and disruption and one of the areas of emerging opportunities stands directly with capitalizing on the suddenly ‘near-zero cost’ of content from LLMs and a rare game of musical chairs within the advertising industry.

That opportunity is with ads and cookies. I’ll outline how a diverse number of web businesses can take advantage and will include some data below, but encourage anyone interested in the topic to join us at The Flippa/Ezoic Roadshow’s where we’ll be diving into more specific ways to take advantage of this opportunity. Plus, it’s a perfect chance to pick the brains of other investors with their finger on the pulse of the web.

Cookies Died Slowly But Websites Are Slowest To Adapt

When third-party cookies started disappearing, publishers worried they’d lose the data that advertisers need to target ads. Without that data, they feared ad prices (CPMs) would drop, hitting their revenue. But for early adopters of identity solutions, the opposite is happening.

Publishers using first-party data and hashed email identities aren’t just maintaining their ad revenue—they’re often increasing it. According to Ezoic data, sites using these solutions, especially with hashed emails, are seeing a big rise in ad fill rates, which leads to higher CPMs.

For example, hashed email traffic saw a 46% CPM increase on Chrome, with mobile browsers seeing the best improvements. Since mobile is where many users are, this is a big deal for publishers who focus on mobile traffic.

Mobile Browsers and Identity Solutions

Mobile browsers are now the main way people access the internet, making up over 60% of global web traffic. However, mobile browsers like Safari and Samsung blocked third-party cookies earlier than desktop browsers, which makes them a great fit for identity solutions.

Here’s what Ezoic found about mobile traffic:

• Safari saw a 31% CPM boost with email-based identity solutions.
• Samsung’s browser had a 47% CPM increase.
• Even Internet Explorer, which is hardly used anymore, saw a 104% jump in CPM on mobile.

These numbers show that mobile browsers, even though they’re harder to monetize, offer huge opportunities for revenue growth when using identity solutions. It doesn’t just raise CPMs; it improves ad targeting and placement efficiency.

What Are Identity Solutions and How Do They Add Value?

In a nutshell, identity solutions allow sites to anonymize and use their email lists & first-party data they’ve collected to improve the way advertisers target their audiences. Publishers with email lists or good first-party data see big benefits from hashed email solutions that get matched to email addresses with hashed IDs provided by advertisers, and the identity solution providers connect the dots.

It allows publishers to give advertisers more targeted inventory. This reduces wasted ad spend and improves the accuracy of ad targeting. Unfortunately, it’s the wild west at the moment, so there are many providers to integrate so you don’t miss out on ad bidders. It’s why Ezoic launched a universal provider connection platform ez-ID

What sites might be sitting on the biggest opportunity right now?

• Ones With Logged-In Users: Sites with lots of logged-in users (like membership-based platforms) get more value from identity solutions. First-party data from these users is golden for improving targeting, and CPMs for known users are higher than those for anonymous ones.

• Mobile-First Publishers: Mobile browsers, especially Safari and Samsung, offer huge opportunities for higher ad fill rates and better ad bids when identity solutions are in place.

• Those With Premium Content: Publishers with premium or niche content, especially those requiring user registration, can command higher CPMs. Their first-party data makes them attractive to advertisers looking for high-quality, conversion-driving inventory.

In short, identity solutions are not just filling the gap left by third-party cookies—they’re making things better for publishers in many cases and providing an outlet where they can negotiate better rates for their content and audiences.

Sell Your Online Business With Flippa

Access expert guidance and the technology you need to list, market and close your deal.

400,000+ Weekly Active Buyers

20+ Multi-language Brokers

Seamlessly Negotiate and Receive Offers

Integrated Legal, Insurance, Finance and Payments

Get a Free Valuation Now

Sell Now