Public adtech companies teaming up—we love to see it.
Yesterday, Perion—fresh off introducing Perion One, a strategy unifying its brands and technologies under a single platform, and hiring former Google exec Stephen Yap as Chief Revenue Officer—announced it’s adopting The Trade Desk’s UID 2.0.
According to the company: “The identifier allows advertisers to target the right audiences effectively across devices without compromising user trust.” Perion added that, “Perion’s adoption of UID2 emphasizes the Perion One strategy and reinforces our commitment to simplifying digital marketing, enhancing advertising effectiveness, and prioritizing user needs.”
Why This Matters:
With traditional identifiers fading, adtech players are racing to prove privacy-friendly alternatives can still deliver strong targeting, performance, and measurement.
Perion’s own in-house answer is SORT, a cookieless AI-powered addressability solution. SORT doesn’t collect or store user data. Instead, it analyzes real-time signals—like interests, publisher context, time of day, location, and other cues—to predict how likely someone is to engage with ads in a given category. It finds hidden patterns between users, dynamically grouping them based on shared traits. These groups are fluid—users move in and out as signals change—allowing SORT to serve tailored ads to the right audience at the right moment.
The Trade Desk, meanwhile, is betting on UID 2.0 as the backbone of identity in a cookieless future. On its recent earnings call, TTD said 2024 was UID 2.0’s strongest year since launch.
Experts React:
For Perion, adopting UID 2.0 strengthens its broader cookieless addressability efforts. As CEO Tal Jacobson put it, the move supports Perion’s mission to build a more effective and privacy-conscious digital advertising ecosystem.
“Our adoption of Unified ID 2.0 aligns seamlessly with Perion’s mission to connect the dots between data, creative, and channels in an advertising environment that emphasizes transparency,” he says in the company’s press release. “Embracing this… equips our customers with advanced, easy-to-use solutions that co-exist alongside our proprietary technologies and solutions within our Perion One platform.”
On the other side, Jaime Nash, Director of Product Marketing at The Trade Desk, says, “Partnering with Perion, we’re expanding their future-proof offerings for advertisers to include Unified ID 2.0. With an audience-first approach, we are helping advertisers drive more relevant and impactful campaigns while prioritizing consumer data safety that still delivers personalized ad experiences.”
Our Take:
There’s been a steady wave of moves lately aimed at strengthening addressability and identity capabilities. Between Perion teaming up with The Trade Desk on UID 2.0, Viant acquiring Lockr, Publicis buying Lotame, and Zeta acquiring LiveIntent, it’s clear addressability remains a top priority in 2025.
