As digital advertising grows more invasive, DuckDuckGo offers marketers a privacy-focused alternative through its partnership with Microsoft.
In an exclusive interview with Search Engine Journal, DuckDuckGo explains how its contextual advertising model respects user privacy while providing relevant ads and analytics to advertisers.
This article provides key insights into DuckDuckGo’s privacy-first approach, contrasting it with competitors like Google.
Marketers concerned about reaching potential customers without collecting data will learn how DuckDuckGo offers an alternative way forward.
With Google facing an antitrust lawsuit alleging anti-competitive practices, DuckDuckGo’s privacy-centric approach is gaining renewed relevance.
Google stands accused of stifling competition and reducing consumer choice to dominate the search and advertising market further.
As regulators scrutinize potential anti-competitive behavior, options like DuckDuckGo give the marketplace increased choice.
DuckDuckGo and Microsoft: A Partnership Built on Privacy
DuckDuckGo takes a privacy-first stance, believing privacy is a fundamental human right. As a result, DuckDuckGo has constructed its business model to safeguard user privacy no matter what.
This differs from the practices of many other tech companies, which regularly gather and analyze user data for purposes like advertising.
A representative from DuckDuckGo tells Search Engine Journal that data collection is unnecessary:
It’s a myth that search engines need to track you to make money. We make our money from private ads on our search engine. On most other search engines, ads are based on profiles compiled from your personal information, such as search, browsing, and purchase history.”
What Does DuckDuckGo Do Different?
Unlike its competitors, DuckDuckGo doesn’t monitor users’ searches or browsing history and prevents other companies from doing so.
Instead, it displays private advertisements on its search engine based on search results, not personal data, to generate revenue.
Other search engines associate individuals’ ad-click behavior with a user profile, which can be used later to target ads on that search engine or around the Internet.
By contrast, when you click on a Microsoft-provided ad that appears on DuckDuckGo, neither DuckDuckGo nor Microsoft Advertising associate your ad-click behavior with a user profile.
This method aligns with research indicating that almost 50% of publishing executives don’t believe behavioral advertising provides significant advantages.
Working with Microsoft has been fruitful, turning DuckDuckGo into an advertising platform with an expanding user base of over 30 million in the United States and around 100 million globally.
DuckDuckGo vs. Google
DuckDuckGo takes a unique approach to privacy and transparency, the representative explains:
Our focus on contextual advertising – only serving ads based on the keywords a user types into that one search, not on their past behavior – has fueled our profitable growth.
Conversely, Google’s business model relies heavily on collecting and analyzing user data. Google collects vasts amounts of user data across its products and services, including search queries, browsing history, location data and more.
Unlike Google, which is more opaque, DuckDuckGo prides itself on being transparent about its advertising practices.
DuckDuckGo has help pages that clearly explain how ads are selected and displayed on its site and how its ad auction process works. Google, on the other hand, lacks visibility into its data collection policies and ad auction system.
Complying with Privacy Regulations
DuckDuckGo’s spokesperson explained that since the search engine doesn’t gather any user data for advertising purposes, it easily complies with privacy laws like the GDPR and CCPA that restrict companies’ data collection and use.
Since DuckDuckGo doesn’t profile users or sell their information to advertisers, it avoids the regulatory compliance burdens faced by other tech companies whose business models rely on targeted advertising.
DuckDuckGo embraces “data minimalism,” gathering only essential user information and avoiding storage of personal data. Data minimalism is gaining appeal as regulations tighten worldwide.
Advertiser Response & ROI
Advertisers who have used DuckDuckGo for search advertising have responded positively. The representative tells Search Engine Journal:
We’ve gotten an overwhelmingly positive response from these advertisers, evidenced by yearly increases in revenue and the number of advertisers buying search ads on DuckDuckGo.
Even though DuckDuckGo displays fewer ads than other big search engines, the ads it does show are more prominent on the page. This makes customers more likely to click on them.
“DuckDuckGo is consistently Microsoft’s best-performing partner, with 30-40% lower CPAs than Bing. We have the second highest market share on mobile in the US and 20 other international markets.”
Measuring Ad Performance While Maintaining Privacy
Purchasing advertisements on DuckDuckGo through Microsoft Advertising gives marketers vital campaign analytics while protecting privacy.
Microsoft’s platform supplies all the critical data. However, ad click information isn’t linked to user profiles.
The representative from DuckDuckGo explains:
Buying ads on DuckDuckGo through Microsoft Advertising means the measurement and reporting will be provided by Microsoft. Marketers can receive all the critical information they need from buying DuckDuckGo ads to optimize and run effective search campaigns.
Conversions are also able to be measured via Microsoft’s advertising platform (once a customer clicks on an ad, the full IP address and user-agent string is used so the ad click can be properly processed and charged to the advertiser) however, the ad- click isn’t associated with a user profile and nor does this data get stored or shared other than for accounting purposes.
This exemplifies how DuckDuckGo’s relationship with Microsoft has been mutually advantageous. Microsoft gains a way to display advertisements in a privacy-focused setting, while DuckDuckGo derives an income stream that doesn’t conflict with its business priorities.
Future Plans for Privacy Enhancement
DuckDuckGo intends to keep investing in new technologies to improve user privacy.
DuckDuckGo remains an ad-based business, constantly working to deliver relevant but privacy-respecting advertising to our audience of privacy-conscious users.
One innovation they’re working on is a privately designed ad conversion platform that can be externally verified. This would empower advertisers to evaluate ad effectiveness while protecting user privacy fully.
Private conversion measurement is an industry-wide effort, with companies such as Apple and Mozilla also working on attribution technology which respects user privacy and we’ve started working on an architecture for private ad conversions that can be externally validated as non-profiling.
In Summary
As attitudes and regulations evolve regarding privacy, DuckDuckGo’s contextual advertising model offers an alternative for digital marketers.
By partnering with Microsoft Advertising, DuckDuckGo provides relevant ads without collecting personal data.
As innovations like privately designed ad platforms emerge, privacy-focused options will likely continue expanding.
Featured Image: IB Photography/Shutterstock
