Ah, display ads. Like bell-bottoms and vinyl, they’ve been declared dead so many times they’re practically immortal. “Who’s even looking at banner ads anymore?” you might scoff as you doom-scroll through TikTok or Instagram Reels for the third time today. But here’s the thing: display ads aren’t dead—they’re just stuck in an awkward midlife crisis.
And while we’ve all been busy obsessing over the flashy new kids on the block—CTV, short-form video, and apps—the web has been quietly waiting for someone to realize it still has potential.
Paul Bannister, CSO of Raptive, broke it down on The ADOTAT Show. “Display isn’t dead,” he said. “But the real question is, can the web be relevant as more things like CTV, TikTok, and Reels eat more time?” It’s a valid question.
The web, once the digital land of milk and honey, now risks becoming the neglected family sedan sitting in the driveway while everyone fawns over electric cars.
Let’s unpack this.
Third-Party Cookies Are Over. Move On.
Remember the industry freakout when Google announced they were axing third-party cookies from Chrome? Then remember when Google said, “Wait, not yet”? It was like watching someone throw a tantrum, only to be handed a lollipop. But the temper tantrum missed the point entirely: cookies are already obsolete for 70% of web users.
Bannister laid it out plain: “The open internet has a lot more transparency than walled gardens do… you have better transparency on the open internet.” While adtech spirals into panic mode, the reality is that a huge swath of consumers already exists in a post-cookie world. Chrome? Sure, it’s still dominant, but 40% of Chrome sessions are already cookieless, thanks to incognito browsing or users who—shocker—don’t want to be tracked like a deer during hunting season.
Meanwhile, Apple has shoved tracking into a coffin with its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, and Google is slowly doing the same with Privacy Sandbox. Yet many advertisers are still glued to third-party cookies like it’s 2012. Let it go.
Publishers: Stop Phoning It In
Here’s where publishers enter the chat. For years, they’ve been the misunderstood middle child of digital advertising—overlooked, undervalued, and underpaid. But while adtech has been sobbing over signal loss, publishers have quietly been sitting on a goldmine: first-party data.
According to Bannister, “You can either be big, like a giant pool of inventory that can be optimized, or you should be small and super niche and targeted and know your audience better than anybody. Anybody who’s in between those two points is really going to struggle.” Translation: go big, go niche, or go home.
Publishers who know their audiences—and I mean really know them—have the opportunity to build solutions that actually perform for advertisers. First-party signals are already driving results that third-party cookies can’t touch. Bannister noted that publishers who apply their data to impressions can see yield grow by up to 76%. Imagine leaving that money on the table because you’re still trying to optimize a half-dead banner ad.
So, What’s Next? High-Impact Innovation
Let’s be real: most display ads are boring. Users ignore them, advertisers underpay for them, and publishers treat them like necessary evils. That’s a problem. As Bannister put it, “How do we do more high impact, how do we do more native, how do we do more things that can drive more value for advertisers and drive more value for us and our publishers as well?”
He’s right. Slapping generic banners all over the web isn’t going to cut it. Publishers need to pivot toward high-impact formats, native integrations, and experiences that actually engage users. Think less “one-size-fits-all CPM fodder” and more “premium inventory that marketers can’t ignore.”
And let’s not forget transparency. The open internet still has the edge here. While walled gardens like Facebook and Google keep advertisers in the dark, the web can offer clearer insights and cleaner partnerships. That transparency doesn’t just build trust—it builds budgets.
The Advertiser’s Dilemma
Let’s be real: advertisers, you’ve been throwing so much money at the walled gardens you might as well set up direct deposit with Facebook and Google. It’s easy, it’s scalable, and it feels like it’s working—until you step back and realize you’re pouring buckets of cash into platforms that give you opaque results and zero control. Meanwhile, you’ve forgotten what a real partnership with a publisher can actually do for you.
Instead of chasing after the last crumbs of third-party cookies—like some sad, broken vacuum—it’s time to wake up and embrace a smarter future: publisher collaborations and data-driven contextual targeting. Why? Because publishers have what you need: first-party signals that are clean, compliant, and, most importantly, effective.
And this isn’t some pie-in-the-sky fantasy. Publisher-first-party data has already proven itself, doubling or tripling reach compared to your tired cookie-based strategies. Think about that: twice or three times the reach of the shrinking audiences you’re scrambling to find on platforms. Oh, and the cherry on top? These signals don’t just scale—they convert. Increased sales, lower CPAs, and long-term sustainability. All while respecting consumer privacy. It’s the holy grail you’ve been ignoring.
But here’s the catch: this shift requires you to actually think differently. Lazy media strategies that funnel 80% of your budget into the same three platforms? They’re not going to cut it anymore. You need to diversify, put some trust back in the open web, and treat publishers like strategic partners, not afterthoughts. Build campaigns that leverage their first-party data, create real audience connections, and stop expecting walled gardens to solve all your problems. Spoiler: they won’t.
The clock is ticking, and the era of buying ad impressions on autopilot is over. The publishers are ready, the technology exists, and the audiences are there—if you’re willing to meet them.
A Reality Check from Outside the Bubble
If you think this is just theoretical, let me hit you with a dose of reality. While the ad industry continues its existential meltdown over cookies, the real players—the ones with actual skin in the game—are moving forward. Brands like Coca-Cola and Disney aren’t waiting around for the industry to figure itself out. They’re already re-writing the playbook, investing in integrated partnerships and leveraging AI to deliver hyper-personalized strategies that work. You know, the stuff that actually reaches consumers and drives results.
Take Disney. It’s not just pumping out content for Disney+ and calling it a day; it’s also weaponizing its data infrastructure to bridge the gap between streaming audiences and advertiser dollars. Coca-Cola? They’ve stopped throwing money at spray-and-pray strategies and are instead treating data partnerships as table stakes. These companies understand that the future isn’t in endless, outdated CPM buys—it’s in precision, personalization, and collaboration.
Meanwhile, the walled gardens—yes, I’m looking at you, Google, Facebook, and Amazon—are getting harder to trust. Transparency? Forget about it. Advertisers are pouring billions into these ecosystems only to be handed a pixelated black box with a wink and a shrug. “Trust us, it worked.” Great—until you realize you’re spending millions to “target” users who are bots or people who couldn’t care less.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: advertisers are starting to wake up to the fact that walled gardens are less utopia, more feudal system. You get a small plot of data, pay heavy taxes (ahem, margins), and if you don’t like it? Tough. The platforms own the audience, not you.
The brands winning in this landscape are the ones not tethered to legacy thinking.
The future belongs to those who innovate and collaborate, not those who stubbornly cling to third-party cookie crumbs and outdated attribution models. You either partner with publishers who know their audiences—or you keep throwing money at algorithms that can’t tell the difference between a loyal buyer and a Russian troll farm.
Final Thoughts: Stop Writing the Web’s Obituary
Display advertising isn’t dead, but it’s been coasting on fumes for far too long. The web still matters—it’s not some relic of the dial-up era—but let’s be honest, it needs a serious glow-up. High-impact ads that don’t look like wallpaper, native formats that respect the user experience, and first-party data partnerships that connect brands to audiences in meaningful ways—these are the lifelines.
The open internet can’t win by playing defense while TikTok, CTV, and short-form video hoover up attention spans. It’s like showing up to a sword fight with a spoon. The web has to go on offense—and I mean bold, innovative, “oh, that’s actually interesting” offense—building tools and solutions marketers can’t find anywhere else.
Because here’s the thing: publishers have the data. Advertisers have the budgets. The only thing they don’t have? A collective backbone to collaborate and innovate, instead of sleepwalking back into the arms of the walled gardens.
As Paul Bannister put it when we talked on The ADOTAT Show: “Trying to expand the pie of the industry is a big deal. The more transparent you can make the open internet, the more buyers will trust what they’re buying and spend more money.”
Translation: advertisers need clarity, publishers need fair value, and the open internet has to stop acting like the underdog.
Transparency isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the bridge to getting buyers off the sidelines and dollars flowing back into quality inventory. You don’t win trust by building black boxes; you win it by building better.
So, can we please stop writing obituaries for display ads? Stop treating the web like a washed-up TV star waiting for its next reality show cameo. The potential is there. The infrastructure exists. The consumers are still browsing (despite what Gen Z’s TikTok addiction might suggest).
What’s missing is a spark—something that lights up the open web with innovation that actually delivers. The brands that embrace this new reality, the publishers that get creative, and the advertisers that ditch their cookie addiction? They’ll win.
The web’s not dead. It’s just waiting for someone to stop dithering and set it on fire
—in a good way.
