First-Party Data Advertising: Why it Pays More in 2025 and Beyond
As digital privacy policies continue to tighten and be questioned alongside third-party cookies facing their final destination, publishers across the web are racing to adapt. But for high-volume enterprise websites and large media companies, the opportunity is even greater than the threat. While Google’s April 2025 decision kept third-party cookies alive for the foreseeable future, their effectiveness continues to erode as users block, delete, or reject them at higher rates.
In 2025, first-party data isn’t just a safety net for an inevitable cookie-less future but it’s a clear revenue multiplier. And when paired with the right identity solution, publishers at scale can unlock a level of ad performance and advertiser demand that simply wasn’t possible before.
Why First-Party Data Advertising Outperforms
With Google’s announcement back in April 2025 to not introduce a separate consent prompt for third-party cookies in Chrome left many publishers still questioning the industry’s fate. Despite this ‘long-time coming’ decision, the efficacy of third-party cookies will continue to dwindle as user behavior continues to change and favor frequent blocking, deleting, or rejecting of those cookies altogether. Meanwhile, advertisers will be cognizant of the declining efficacy as well because third-party cookies will no longer provide the insights needed to succeed in present-day digital advertising.
Advertisers crave accuracy. With third-party signals eroding, first-party data that’s collected directly from user behavior, logins, email capture, or declared interest, has become the gold standard. And here’s why:
- Deterministic data = better targeting = higher CPMs
- User-consented data = privacy-safe and yields long-term success
- Real engagement signals = better match rates for buyers
For publishers with large audiences, these benefits compound. More pageviews mean more behavioral signals. More signups mean better identity resolution. More repeat visits mean advertisers can run smarter campaigns and more often. With 2 more months left in Q3 and Q4 always being a key indication for higher ad rates and campaign spends, tapping into data-proven strategies like identity solutions is a gateway to higher revenue yields.
Big Publishers, Bigger Payoff
Smaller sites can absolutely benefit from first-party data strategies. But enterprise-level media companies? That’s where the real uplift happens.
- Match rate matters. High-volume sites naturally have more identifiable traffic. ezID boosts that further by resolving identity across sessions and devices.
- Demand is ready. The Trade Desk, OpenRTB 2.6, and major SSPs are prioritizing bid requests with identity attached. Publishers that send authenticated identity signals, especially large, high-volume ones, gain premium access to that demand. Buyers can also trace how an ID was created and who injected it into the bidstream, increasing transparency and trust (source).
- Scale improves accuracy. Machine learning models perform better with more data. And that dataset can look like emails (e.g. subscribers) or phone numbers. ezID was built to thrive in this environment, continuously optimizing as audience size grows.
How ezID Unlocks First-Party Monetization at Scale
Ezoic’s ezID is not just a simple email-to-hash tool. It’s an enterprise-grade identity layer that works silently in the background to:
- Capture user signals through form fills, behavior, logins, and more
- Pseudonymously tie sessions together for consistent identity resolution
- Automatically send identity-enriched bid requests to demand partners
- Increase revenue of identified users and the overall website while still protecting UX
Because ezID was built by a programmatic ad monetization platform fundamentally rooted in advanced technology proven to succeed in the evolving ad tech industry, it integrates seamlessly with how advertisers buy today.
Real stat: Publishers using ezID see higher CPMs, improved fill, and more premium deals across their inventory. Enterprise partners often report a 2–6x increase in high-value impressions.
Cookie-Less Doesn’t Mean Revenue-Less
As third-party identifiers slowly (but surely) become obsolete, publishers without a first-party strategy will see their ad rates dissolve. This is especially dangerous for high-traffic sites, where even small CPM losses result in major revenue declines.
But for publishers that embrace first-party identity now, there’s a flip side:
- Greater advertiser trust
- Higher auction participation
- Improved user targeting
- New monetization strategies
Tactics like content gating or rewarded ads tied to identity can unlock additional value across several verticals while keeping the user experience preserved.
Why Now, and Why Ezoic?
ezID is a leading identity solution built for content-rich publishers, not just cookie banners or log-in walls. It doesn’t rely on third-party data and it integrates seamlessly, including with powerful tools like Google One Tap, now available to all Ezoic publishers. With One Tap, publishers can collect authenticated identity in a privacy-safe, frictionless way making first-party data scalable even for anonymous traffic.
Whether you’re a top-tier brand with 100M+ pageviews or an ambitious mid-market publisher, ezID delivers real results, unlocking premium demand, enhancing transparency, and yielding long-term ad revenue. Get started with ezID and Google One Tap today.