12 spots left to attend the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit
This article is a WTF explainer, in which we break down media and marketing’s most confusing terms. More from the series →
The IAB Tech Lab’s seller-defined audiences specification is one of many, many digital ad industry efforts to replace the third-party cookie with purportedly privacy-friendly alternatives. It’s effectively a cohort-based targeting method packaged with a nutrition label for the corresponding ad targeting data.
Instead of a publisher sharing person-specific identifiers like cookie-based IDs or email addresses with advertisers, audiences are organized into groups based on categories like demographics, interests and purchase intents using IAB Tech Lab’s Audience Taxonomy standard. And advertisers can check the makeup of these seller-defined audiences by referencing the corresponding data transparency label that outlines who provided the audience data, what the audience segment is, how the segment was compiled and what the underlying data source is.
However, as the name “seller-defined audiences” implies, publishers are in charge of establishing these audience segments. This has become a cause of consternation among advertisers and agencies because some publishers might define the same audience differently than others or differently than a marketer, as outlined in the video skit above.
More in Media
Adobe, Harvard Business Review and Disney Advertising are among 2025’s DMA finalists
The finalists for this year’s Digiday Media Awards showcase how brands push boundaries by smartly integrating emerging technologies. Each entry highlights a commitment to deepening audience engagement with interactive formats, inviting participation and building community. With a sharp focus on measurable outcomes, the campaigns demonstrate clear impact through tangible results, proving that innovation and strategy […]
TikTok touts livestreaming as next big revenue stream for creators and agencies
Through private Discord servers and Zoom webinars, TikTok’s livestreaming push is educating creators about live gifting on TikTok Live.
WTF are gray bots?
AI agents, scrapers and crawlers powering the agentic era are quietly reshaping the web — and potentially the digital economy.