Roku has taken a bold step toward the future of online advertising by announcing that it will introduce a technology called Unified ID 2.0 (UID2) across its premium streaming inventory.
The streaming platform, which serves approximately 83.6 million households, boasted that the technology developed by The Trade Desk will offer advertisers more precise targeting of potential customers and a more secure means of facilitating data cooperation with Roku.
“The integration of UID2 takes ad campaign performance to a new level by allowing advertisers to better target, optimize and match their campaigns. They will also gain a secure way to facilitate collaboration on data,” said Roku Director of Global Advertising Communications Sara Saul.
“UID2 offers unparalleled benefits, allowing advertisers to activate first-party data and deliver more personalized ads across platforms,” Saul told the E-Commerce Times. “This increased targeting accuracy not only increases demand and revenue potential, but also supports a more cohesive and effective advertising ecosystem.”
The technology should make the platform more attractive to advertisers because it allows for better targeting, noted Rob Enderle, president and chief analyst at Enderle Group, a Bend, Ore.-based consulting firm. “Better targeting, if done right, should lead to higher conversion rates from viewers to buyers,” he told the E-Commerce Times.
Roku’s adoption of UID2 allows advertisers to reach customers on its platform at scale using first-party data, explained Ava Ginsberg, director of product marketing for paid media at Amperity, a Seattle-based provider of an intelligent customer data platform. “This enables not only more precise targeting, but also privacy-conscious targeting,” she told the E-Commerce Times.
It also allows Roku to work more seamlessly with The Trade Desk as a demand-side platform, meaning it allows advertisers to address more of Roku’s inventory. “Early adopters of UID2 have reported remarkable improvements,” Ginsberg said. “These include better match rates, better ROI and lower customer acquisition costs.”
“If these benefits translate to the Roku platform, it could represent significant opportunities for marketers in this space,” she added.
Does it cause cookies to break?
Mike Vannelli, Senior Video Producer at Envy Creative, a video ad production company in Simi Valley, California. argued that Roku’s adoption of UID2 marks a significant step forward in advertising technology.
“For marketers on Roku, this move can streamline targeting and measurement and offer a more accurate and privacy-conscious way to reach audiences,” he told the E-Commerce Times. “UID2 improves cross-platform tracking while respecting user privacy, making ad campaigns more effective and compliant with evolving regulations.”
Ross Kernez, director of SEO at Mavis, a national tire and vehicle service provider, explained that Trade Desk’s technology uses encrypted identifiers generated from email addresses or phone numbers, creating a secure mechanism for tracking users. “This encryption strengthens user data, reducing the risks of unauthorized access and misuse, thereby increasing overall data security,” he told the E-Commerce Times.
Vannelli noted that UID2 offers a unified open-source framework that can replace third-party cookies. “It uses hashed and encrypted email addresses to preserve user anonymity while providing detailed information about consumer behavior,” he said. “This shift is critical because it aligns with the industry’s push for more privacy-focused solutions.”
“Roku’s adoption of UID2 really signals a broader readiness among online marketers to move away from cookies,” he added. “The industry’s push toward alternative identifiers suggests a collective movement toward a future where privacy and personalization coexist.”
Kernez agreed that UID2 can serve as a viable alternative to third-party cookies. “It offers a privacy-compliant method for tracking and targeting users without relying on third-party cookies,” he said. “Using encrypted email addresses or phone numbers, UID2 enables marketers to identify and engage users while respecting their privacy preferences. This paradigm shift ensures the continued effectiveness of digital advertising in the post-cookie era.”
A revolutionary approach to personal data protection
Ginsberg argued that UID2 is much more than just cookies. “It also provides a means to identify and target users for advertising purposes, but in a way that is more in line with current privacy expectations and regulations,” she said.
“Unlike traditional cookies, UID2 is built on a framework that emphasizes transparency and user consent,” she explained. “It allows advertisers to leverage first-party data, which is increasingly valuable in a post-cookie world. This shift toward using first-party data allows companies to maintain personalized advertising capabilities while respecting users’ privacy preferences.”
“One of the key benefits of UID2 is its ability to work across multiple platforms and devices,” she continued. “This cross-platform capability addresses one of the limitations of traditional cookies, which have often struggled to identify users consistently across environments.”
But she added that it’s important to note that UID2 is part of a broader transformation in digital advertising. “As the industry moves away from third-party cookies, different solutions are emerging, each with its own approach to balancing effective advertising with privacy concerns,” she said. “UID2 represents one of the most significant efforts in this direction and is gaining support from major players in the ad tech industry.”
“It’s pretty revolutionary in how it deals with the big privacy concerns we’re all hearing about these days,” she noted. “Instead of relying on those old third-party cookies that everyone is wary of, UID2 is about using first-party data in a way that respects user privacy. That’s a big problem in today’s climate.”
Ginsberg added that the technology is also revolutionizing how advertisers can measure performance by improving closed-loop measurement. This means that advertisers can track and understand the behavior of individual customers on the UID network in a privacy-first way with greater access and transparency into how campaigns influence customer behavior.
“While it looks pretty promising, we’re still at the beginning,” she acknowledged. “It will be interesting to see how widely it takes off and what impact it has on the industry as a whole. However, from what we see so far, UID2 could change the way we approach digital advertising, especially when it comes to balancing efficiency with privacy concerns.”
UID2 could be a boon for Roku in the current home entertainment landscape. “Roku has consistently positioned itself as one of the best, if not the best, third-party set-top box solutions out there,” noted Enderle. “However, when TVs get this capability as a native feature, they are at risk. Finding ways to stand out among users and advertisers is as much about defending what they have as it is about expanding. This solution should help them do both.”