Video Advertising After the Cookiepocalypse

As the advertising world braces for the full deprecation of third-party cookies, one thing is clear: video advertising must evolve. The tools and techniques advertisers have relied on for years—cookie-based tracking, behavioral profiling, retargeting—are rapidly becoming obsolete. In their place, contextual signals and first-party data are stepping into the spotlight, particularly within the architecture of VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) tags.

In this post-cookie landscape, the VAST tag is no longer just a conduit for ad creatives and tracking URLs. It's becoming a rich vessel for contextual data, helping advertisers understand where and how their ads are being served—without violating user privacy. This shift not only ensures compliance with emerging privacy regulations but also unlocks new opportunities for more relevant, effective, and privacy-safe ad targeting.

Let’s dive into how the world of video advertising is changing, what it means for publishers, advertisers, and developers, and how you can embrace contextual metadata within your VAST tags to stay ahead.

The Evolution of Video Advertising in a Post-Cookie World

Life Before the Cookiepocalypse: Cookie-Based Targeting Reigned Supreme

Before we dig into the future, let’s briefly review the past.

For years, third-party cookies allowed advertisers to track users across the web, collecting behavioral data that powered hyper-targeted ad experiences. In video, this often meant being able to retarget viewers with ads based on previous page visits, purchases, or interests—even if those activities occurred on entirely different websites.

Combined with device IDs and cross-domain scripts, cookies made user-level targeting easy. But this came at a cost: user privacy. With the rise of regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and increasing scrutiny from browser vendors and OS manufacturers, the cookie's days were numbered.

Today, Safari and Firefox have already blocked third-party cookies, and Google Chrome is following suit. The era of cookie-based targeting is ending.

Enter Contextual Targeting: The Future of Privacy-Safe Video Advertising

With third-party cookies on the way out, advertisers must find new ways to reach relevant audiences. That’s where contextual targeting comes in.

Contextual targeting isn't new—it predates cookies—but it’s experiencing a major renaissance. Rather than tracking individual users, contextual targeting analyzes the content of the page or video environment to infer user interests. In video, this means leveraging metadata about the content itself: genre, category, keywords, page URL, and more.

And the best way to pass that data through the video ad stack?

The VAST tag.

The Evolving Role of the VAST Tag in Contextual Targeting

Originally designed to standardize video ad delivery, the VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) developed by the IAB Tech Lab is now becoming a core part of contextual video advertising.

VAST 4.x and beyond introduced support for detailed content metadata, which can be used to help buyers make informed decisions—even in the absence of cookies.

Here are the key fields gaining prominence in a post-cookie world:

content.category

A standardized list of IAB content categories (e.g., IAB1 - Arts & Entertainment, IAB17 - Sports, etc.) that describes the nature of the video content.

content.keywords

A comma-separated list of keywords related to the video content, useful for keyword-level targeting or exclusions.

content.id and content.title

Unique identifiers and titles for the video content help with content-level frequency capping, exclusions, and reporting.

content.rating, content.language, and content.series

These fields give additional context—helping brands maintain brand safety, reach language-specific audiences, or associate ads with particular series or franchises.

Before vs. After: A Real-World VAST Tag Transformation

Let’s compare a simplified "before and after" example of how VAST tags are evolving for contextual targeting:

Before (Minimal Context, Cookie-Dependent Targeting)

Copy
<!-- BEFORE (cookie-based targeting): -->
<VAST version="4.0">
  <Ad id="100">
    <InLine>
      <AdSystem>MyAdServer</AdSystem>
      <Impression><![CDATA[https://example.com/impr?cookie=abcd1234]]></Impression>
      <!-- No content context is provided -->
      <Creatives>...</Creatives>
    </InLine>
  </Ad>
</VAST>

After (Contextual-First, Privacy-Safe Targeting)

Copy
<!-- AFTER (contextual targeting): -->
<VAST version="4.0">
  <Ad id="100">
    <InLine>
      <AdSystem>MyAdServer</AdSystem>
      <Extensions>
        <!-- Pass IAB content category IDs for this video -->
        <Extension type="IABContentTaxonomy">
          <ContentCategory taxonomy="iab_content">8</ContentCategory>
        </Extension>
      </Extensions>
      <!-- Impression URL now includes context params instead of a user cookie -->
      <Impression><![CDATA[https://example.com/impr?category=8&keywords=travel,adventure]]></Impression>
      <Creatives>...</Creatives>
    </InLine>
  </Ad>
</VAST>

Why This Matters for Publishers and Ad Tech Platforms

Publishers and SSPs that fail to enrich their VAST tags with contextual metadata risk being left behind. In a post-cookie world, advertisers are prioritizing inventory that provides contextual transparency.

Benefits of VAST contextual enrichment:

• Higher CPMs from buyers seeking premium, brand-safe, and targeted inventory.
• Better fill rates as DSPs increasingly look for content signals over user IDs.
• Improved relevance and reduced wasted impressions for advertisers.
• Compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and COPPA.

The IAB’s Role: Standardization & Support

The IAB Tech Lab has been instrumental in preparing the industry for this shift. Standards like:

• VAST 4.x
• Content Taxonomy v2
• OpenRTB 2.6

…are now more critical than ever. Implementing these standards ensures that contextual signals are both interoperable across platforms and understood by buyers.

Contextual Signals + First-Party Data = The Winning Combo

While contextual targeting is rising, it works best when paired with first-party data collected directly from users—such as account preferences, app usage behavior, or subscription data (all consented).

Together, these tools form the backbone of a privacy-forward video ad stack that doesn’t depend on invasive tracking or opaque ID graphs.

Wrapping Up: Don’t Just Survive—Thrive After Cookies

The post-cookie era isn’t the end of targeted advertising—it’s a reboot. For video advertisers and platforms, this is a chance to embrace contextual relevance, rebuild trust with audiences, and prioritize transparency.

Your best friends in this new world?

VAST tags enriched with contextual metadata
IAB standards and taxonomies
Privacy-first design thinking

By investing in these tools today, you'll not only survive the cookiepocalypse—you’ll come out ahead.

Key Takeaways for Publishers & Marketers

• Adopt Contextual First: Shift your video ad strategy from cookies to content. Prioritize extracting content categories and keywords for each video page, and include them in your VAST tags.

• Use IAB Taxonomy: Map your content to IAB Content Taxonomy IDs (v3.0 or 3.1) and send those in the VAST request. This “common language” lets buyers target or avoid topics precisely

• Update Your VAST Implementation: Move to VAST 4.x and use your macros to carry context metadata. For example, add elements or query params as shown above. Ensure your ad server or wrapper is configured to fill these values dynamically.

• Leverage Keywords and URLs: In addition to taxonomy IDs, include relevant keywords/tags and (optionally) the page/video URL. These help DSPs verify context and fine-tune targeting

• Test and Iterate: Monitor performance metrics as you roll out contextual tags. You may see increased engagement (view rates, completion) and higher eCPMs for contextually-rich inventory. Adjust which categories/keywords are most valuable to maximize yield.