With the fading commitments of the third party cookies, and Ad-buyers wanting a huge chunk of ROI along with the shift of audience to free content consumption through FAST or CTV, publishers are now facing an ocean of challenges to find a perfect scope of monetization that’ll be profitable in all sense.
Now some adaptive publishers who seek a possibility to survive this change are trying this “3 Pillar Strategy” which consist –
- First Party Data Segmenting
- Contextual Targeting
- Adopting Universal ID solution
To unlock the growing FAST/AVOD inventory in India to sustain and grow revenue.
Why this matters now
The evolving Indian ecosystem of Connected TV which is creating premium inventory (FAST channels, CTV apps) with massive reach, that advertisers want to buy against.
At the same time, global digital ad revenue continues to rise, pressuring publishers to offer higher-quality, privacy-safe audiences. These twin forces make investing in identity and contextual capabilities a commercial imperative. Source: The Economic Times+1
Pillar 1 – First-party data:
First-party data (email, logged-in behavior, subscription signals, app IDs) is the most reliable way to identify and segment users without relying on third-party cookies.
Industry surveys show publishers increasingly rate first-party data as the key driver of future ad revenue and advertisers value authenticated audiences for targeting and measurement. Publishers should:
- Prioritizing consented logins and value exchanges (premium newsletters, gated content, loyalty benefits) to increase the percentage of identifiable users.
- Instrument site and app events with a unified schema so signals can be activated across ad stacks and server-side platforms.
- Offer advertisers clean first-party segments (e.g., high-intent business readers, frequent video viewers) with transparent data lineage.
A larger share of authenticated users directly translates into higher CPMs and better programmatic demand. Source: The Gradient Group+1
Pillar 2 – Contextual targeting:
The Contextual relevance is resurging as a privacy-safe complement to identity-based buying .
Modern contextual uses NLP, scene recognition for video, and semantic topic graphs to match ads to content with strong brand-safety and lift metrics.
Market forecasts show the contextual ad market expanding rapidly, reflecting advertiser appetite for relevance in a cookie-less world. Publishers can tryout:
- Exposing rich contextual signals in ad requests (page taxonomy, sentiment, keywords, video metadata).
- Building pre-packaged contextual suites (e.g., “finance-news + market-watch videos”) that agencies can buy programmatically.
- Combining contextual segments with first-party cohorts (cookieless) to improve conversion while respecting privacy. Source: grandviewresearch.com
Pillar 3 – Universal IDs:
Universal ID solutions (UID2, other open ID frameworks) let publishers map consented, hashed identifiers across web, mobile, and CTV apps enabling cross-device reach while giving users control.
Adopting a standard universal ID can increase demandability of inventory because buyers regain confidence in match rates and frequency controls. Key actions:
- Integrate a vetted universal ID (or support multiple) in the header bidding and server-to-server stack.
- Ensure transparent consent collection and an easy opt-out to meet regional privacy expectations.
- Use unified IDs to power frequency capping and audience extension across FAST/CTV where cookies aren’t available.
FAST & CTV: the monetization sweet spot in India
With the surge of FAST channels and CTV apps becoming popular in India more people are buying smart TVs and are looking for free, ad-supported content.
Now this change has become a new scope of profit investment for advertisers in FAST channels, because they work like traditional TV, reaching large audiences and keeping viewers engaged for longer.
But to get the best results, advertisers need accurate data to target the right people and measure success.
Publishers who combine their own audience data, detailed content information, and universal IDs will earn higher ad rates (CPMs) from advertisers.
Industry reports confirm that FAST will continue growing through 2024–25, attracting even more brands and platforms.
Practical roadmap
- Run a login & consent audit; add one high-value exchange (newsletter + gated video) to grow first-party identifiers.
- Tag content with a robust taxonomy and add contextual metadata to ad calls (genre, language, sentiment).
- Pilot a universal ID integration in a small supply path (one site + one CTV app) and measure fill and CPM delta.
- Package FAST/AVOD inventory with first-party cohorts and contextual labels present as a premium buy to agencies.
Conclusion
So as a publisher there won’t be any requirement to choose between privacy and monetization, as by doubling down on all the three pillars of “3 Pillar Strategy”, by aligning these capabilities with the growing FAST/CTV demand in India publishers can rebuild robust, privacy-safe yield.