Retail media networks have been a saving grace with the industry facing many uncertainties like a potential ad recession and privacy constraints hindering revenue. 

Emarketer reported that retail media ad spend in the U.S. will reach $45.15 billion by the end of this year. That is an almost 20% increase from last year. Over the next four years, industry experts expect RMN ad spend to reach $106.12 billion, accounting for a quarter of U.S. ad spend. 

Like any new technology, when retail media networks became the new fashionable ad tech trend, publishers and advertisers hesitated to test them. Years later, no one can deny their value within the ecosystem, and everyone is working overtime to get a piece of the e-commerce pie. 

LiveIntent’s new study surveyed over 200 U.S. marketers to analyze their experiences with retail media networks in hopes of improving the already successful medium. 

Adoption and Performance: Do Publishers and Advertisers Understand RMNs?

According to the data, retail media is on the brink of a significant growth phase. Mike Pisula, VP of Product Development at LiveIntent, said, “Retail media is booming because retailers have first-party email data, logged-in users on web and app, and offer closed-loop measurement.” 

But how are brands adopting and performing with RMNs? 

LivenIntent’s study suggests that most marketers understand RMNs to some extent. About 60% surveyed have a general understanding of RMNs, while 40% have a detailed understanding of the medium. Ninety percent surveyed also believe they will significantly increase over the next few years. 

Essentially, publishers and advertisers recognize the value and potential of retail media networks. Many marketers in the survey ranked RMNs effectiveness over other digital media channels. Sixty-three percent believe retail media advertising was more effective than other forms of digital advertising, and fifty-four percent saw significant improvement in sales or customer engagement due to retail media advertising.

Potential Value and Challenges: First-Party Data Assets Ring True, but Inventory Is Limited

Retail Media Networks offer many opportunities, but marketers confess to some much-needed improvements. For instance, marketers seek diverse and innovative ways to reach their audience. Mike Pisula said, “Marketers have clearly expressed that retail media inventory is too limited, especially given the high performance of retail media.”

How to Address Marketers’ Needs: 

• Sixty-one percent of advertisers want logged-in inventory, like email newsletters and alerts, video/streaming, or social media.
• Sixty-four percent want more video, 57% want connected TV/streaming, 56% want off-site media, and 54% want email-based newsletters, alerts, and receipts from RMNs.
• Ninety-six percent of respondents agreed that retailers should monetize their inventory through advertising.

In addition, advertisers mentioned difficulty measuring campaign effectiveness, and about 52% called out a need for more awareness among brands and retailers. 

The industry must acknowledge these challenges to harness the power of RMNs fully.

On the other hand, since Google announced Chrome’s third-party cookie deprecation, many brands flocked to RMNs because of their wealth of first-party data assets. Most marketers surveyed, about 96%, consider first-party data crucial to their overall data strategy, and about 73% said that the incoming cookiepocalypse was their main driving force towards RMNs. 

The Power of Logged-In Media Channels

Logged-in environments like social media and email are crucial for a brand’s success. Jason Kleinman, VP of Enterprise Sales at LiveIntent, noted, “Retailers who can lean into their existing logged-in media channels or explore new ones are sitting on the precipice of rocketship growth.”

The marketers in the survey agree. A majority of the respondents consider logged-in environments essential to RMN’s success. Fifty-two percent of respondents anticipated a slight increase in dollars to retailers’ logged-in media, and seventy-four percent of respondents plan to invest more in retailers’ logged-in media channels than last year.

Retail Media’s exponential growth is evident, but if retailers and brands want to reach their full potential, they must address these challenges and nurture their successes. RMNs can only reach their full potential if their effectiveness drives them, develops the potential of logged-in environments, and utilizes their wealth of first-party data assets.

The post LiveIntent’s Retail Media Report Advocates the Value of Logged-In Media appeared first on AdMonsters.

We’ve been hearing all about Google’s Privacy Sandbox, ever since the tech giant dropped the bomb that third-party cookies in Chrome would one day meet their demise. With its array of cookie-alternative APIs, the tech behemoth aims to redefine online advertising by finding a delicate equilibrium between user privacy and an efficient, thriving advertising ecosystem.

A pivotal aspect of this endeavor is Topics API,  a mechanism designed to enable a contextualized understanding of users’ interests without tracking the user across sites and apps.

At the recent AdExchanger ProgIO, industry experts shed light on Google’s Privacy Sandbox and Topics API, aiming to demystify the ongoing changes in digital advertising. Scott Messer, Principal and Founder of Messer Media, and Alex Cone, Product Manager, Privacy Sandbox, Google, offered a comprehensive understanding of the Privacy Sandbox’s goals, the timeline for cookie deprecation, the functionality of Topics API, and the future of ad auctions.

1. Striking a Balance: The Premise of Privacy Sandbox

Google’s core mission with the Privacy Sandbox is to create a delicate equilibrium between a more private internet and a sustainable advertising ecosystem.

This core principle aims to enhance user privacy by preventing re-identification across websites, reducing data exposure, and empowering users with more control. Simultaneously, it endeavors to sustain the advertising industry, fostering a thriving ecosystem including advertisers, publishers, and ad tech vendors.

Scott Messer succinctly summarized this balance, stating, “We believe two things can be true at the same time: the internet can become more private, and there can still be a sustainable advertising economy.”

2. A Phased Transition: The Timeline of Cookie Deprecation

Understanding the timeline for cookie deprecation is pivotal for stakeholders in the advertising industry to adapt and strategize accordingly. The phased approach begins with a 1% deprecation in the first quarter of 2024, gradually scaling up to a 100% deprecation by the second half of 2024.

This phased deprecation ensures a smoother transition, gradually leading to a complete phase-out of cookies and providing time for advertisers and platforms to adjust their strategies.

Alex Cone clarified the phase-out, explaining the critical stages of this transition, “Timeline is still the second half of 2024 for 100% deprecation.”  The initial 1% deprecation allows for thorough testing and adaptation, marking the beginning of a new era beyond third-party cookies.

3. Protected Audiences API: Securing Data Privacy and Ad Quality

The Protected Audiences API is a fundamental component of the Privacy Sandbox, playing a significant role in safeguarding user data and ensuring ad quality. It provides a secure storage environment for audience data, facilitating interest group-based advertising while preserving data privacy.

“Protected Audiences API is a first-party data activation API,” shared Cone. This allows advertisers to bid on audiences created on various sites within a secure environment, ensuring data does not leak and maintaining high ad quality.

The Privacy Sandbox comprises a rich collection of over 20 distinct APIs, each designed to cater to various advertising and user privacy aspects. Categorized into ‘Measurement and Relevance’ APIs and ‘Other APIs,’ these tools empower advertisers, publishers, and developers to enhance targeting and measurement functionalities while serving a broader spectrum of functions beyond advertising. This API system forms the backbone of the Privacy Sandbox initiative, driving its functionality and adaptability.

4. Frequency Capping and Data Privacy Measures

Frequency capping is integrated into the Privacy Sandbox within a protected audience for pre-bid scenarios. While it functions effectively within a protected audience, it poses a challenge outside this secure environment.

This feature limits the number of times an ad is shown to a user, ensuring a better user experience. By focusing on achieving frequency capping without invasive tracking outside the protected environment, the feature highlights the Privacy Sandbox’s commitment to align with the overarching goal of enhancing user privacy while optimizing advertising strategies.

5. Attribution and Measurement: Cross-Platform Functionality

The Attribution and Measurement API is a comprehensive analytical tool for advertisers and publishers, seamlessly functioning across both Chrome and Android platforms. It caters to various auction scenarios, including protected audience API auctions and non-protected audience auctions, offering valuable insights into ad performance.

The API not only facilitates first-party data activation, but it also allows bidding on audiences generated on a publisher’s site while ensuring a protected environment that prevents data leakage. On the measurement side, the API provides detailed and granular information through the attribution reporting feature. 

In contrast, a summary-level report offers broader dimensions, albeit in an aggregated format. Additionally, the suite includes the versatile Private Aggregation API, enabling various functions such as reach and frequency calculations.

6. Fence Frames API: Fortifying Data Privacy in Advertising

The Fence Frames API is crucial in bolstering data privacy within the advertising sphere. Acting as a secure version of an iframe, it effectively seals off data requests from creatives, thus notably reducing data leakage concerns.

Fence Frames are about sealing off creatives from making requests out, emphasizing their pivotal role in fortifying data privacy. Despite acknowledging its potential to disrupt existing processes, efforts are underway to integrate this API thoughtfully, considering industry requirements and practices.

The post Understanding Google’s Privacy Sandbox and Topics API: 6 Insights From ProgIO appeared first on AdMonsters.

These days the road to success as a publisher depends on who you ask as every publishers journey is unique, but there are lessons we can all learn from those navigating the twists and turns successfully. At AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO on September 26, our own Lynne Johnson facilitated a panel discussion titled “The New Publisher Playbook” with two industry leaders – Mark Howard, Chief Operating Officer, TIME, and Zack Sullivan, Chief Revenue Officer, Future. They offered insight about a world without cookies, scaling your business and the future of privacy. 

In a Cookieless Environment, Building Relationships is Key

The ops industry is moving into a future where having the right data will be key to profitability. Industry professionals previously used third-party data, but that strategy must be amended with changing privacy laws. Direct relationships with consumers and partners will be crucial as we advance. 

Commerce is a huge part of Future’s business, according to Sullivan. The company’s proprietary tech stack is utilized to track users across their journey to illuminate their intent and path to purchase. Having this data about users and their intent is extremely useful. 

“We’re also audience builders. The audience gives us value – we build the brands, they come, it’s a self-perpetuating relationship. The more they come back, the better understanding we have of what they’re doing. Having that relationship is something that only media owners can do,” explains Sullivan. 

He adds that reliance on third-party data has led to newfound problems with attribution. Future is building relationships with media owners to close the gap between campaign buying decisions and their outcomes, increasing transparency along the data journey. 

Howard says that TIME has multiple business models, including B2B, B2B2C and B2C, which makes data more complicated, says Howard. “What ends up happening is you get a data and analytics loop that allows you to understand the different behaviors, the audiences, and the experiences you’re building within the overall framework. That then helps us inform both the user experiences and some of the editorial experiences that they’re going to help us continue to propel forward,” he shares. 

To help understand all of its data, TIME will soon announce a new attribution measurement platform. This platform will create a more holistic story of the data while separating data into buckets of TIME’s various audiences. This will help highlight the outcomes of both campaign and impact metrics that will quantify a return on investment and put the company in a better position to help its partners. 

To Scale or Not to Scale… And How?

Most publishers are now facing the challenge of whether to scale their business and how. This is an evolving issue but best practices have begun to emerge. 

Sullivan says Future can deliver its partners a large portion of their desired addressable audience using its data solutions. “Internally, we’re increasingly looking at using probabilistic data, then saying, ‘Here’s our first-party data. This is why we’ve got really high confidence in probabilistic matching.’ I think things like cleanrooms don’t scale up at a level that’s good enough right now,” he explains. 

Working alongside other publishers will also be a big piece of the data puzzle, for example, by having agreed upon taxonomies at different data levels since there is currently no standardization with taxonomy. 

This is where partnership comes in. “If you’re an agency planner, you want to avoid having  to publish and plan across 15 different specialist brands. You want to be able to say, ‘I’m targeting these cohorts and these taxonomy segments,’” says Sullivan. 

Whether or not to scale has been a question the industry has gone back and forth on for some time now. Howard notes he believes there’s a way for publishers to unite to tackle this issue, not necessarily by forming a coalition, but to share best practices on big issues and go-to-market strategies. 

Painting a Picture of the Consumer in a Privacy-Centric Era

As we move into an era where privacy is paramount, we must find new ways to understand online consumer behavior. One solution to getting a clear picture of individual consumers is identity graphs. 

A big piece of this puzzle will be the value the consumer gets in exchange for giving you their personal information. Sullivan notes that the detail you collect on users depends on the end goal. For example if you are hoping to drive digital subscriptions, you will need more robust data, but at some point, there are diminishing returns. He advises striving for balance. 

Howard says that TIME recently decided not to put any of its content behind a paywall, which makes collecting first-party data more difficult but is ultimately in line with TIME’s overall goals. 

Sullivan adds, “We need to determine what data we make available through an open auction RTB environment versus what we want to share into trade marketplaces? That’s the future.”

Attention metrics are also gaining traction as the latest way to track behavior, which Howard says will be the jumping off point to even greater metrics. These can be more directly attributable and will help direct sales outcomes. He says, “Attention is just the next step in the progression of data sophistication and what we can provide. And I think it’s the gateway into a whole new ecosystem.”

No one has all the answers, but industry experts will increasingly need to band together and share best practices to ensure continued success and growth.

The post The New Publisher Playbook: Understanding Challenges & How To Overcome Them appeared first on AdMonsters.

“Welcome to the world of advertising technology and the people behind it. I’m your host,” proclaimed AdTechGod, the mysterious ad tech memeographer, who has fast become an industry favorite.

It was the introduction to the third episode of his self-named podcast, where he continued to introduce his guest, “Today, I get the pleasure of speaking with Lynne d Johnson, Content Director of AdMonsters.  In this conversation, we get to meet Lynne to better understand her career growth and challenges, and some of her milestones. We’ll also explore the ever-changing landscape of ad tech and the direction we are heading in over the coming few months and years.”

Check Lynne d Johnson’s highlights below the player…

On ad ops & ad tech: Johnson reflected on her career, realizing that she had played a role in ad ops, product and even sales, despite not having a traditional background in the field. She also highlighted her Web 1.0 experience with putting ad code and tags on web pages, trafficking ads, and working with sales teams, demonstrating her versatility in the industry.

On the evolution of SSPs: Johnson expressed concern about some publishers’ concerns about the lack of data transparency in the ad tech ecosystem and their struggle with practical workflow solutions and what role SSPs could play in mitigating some of those challenges.

On the adoption of the Privacy Sandbox: Johnson talked about some publishers’ disbelief that cookies are even going away and how that might impact their decision to do the wait-and-see dance before playing around in the Privacy Sandbox.

On the evolution of CTV: They both discussed the industry trend for consolidation and how FAST was growing as a primary business model. There was also a consensus that measurement standards need to evolve sooner rather than later.

On growing a career in the industry: Johnson extolled the importance of networking and building relationships in the industry, as well as developing soft skills like communication, flexibility and resilience.

Plus so much more!!

Check out more episodes of AdTechGod Pod to learn more about the people behind ad tech.

The post AdTechGod Pod: Episode 3 With Special Guest Lynne d Johnson, AdMonsters appeared first on AdMonsters.

Alyson Williams’s career in advertising started long before she became the Senior Vice President, Digital Operations & Strategy at Forbes. Growing up, Williams’s father founded and ran an advertising and marketing company, and she worked there starting in her early teenage years. 

Williams would manage the company’s basic admin functions and, as she got older, write promotional copy. Williams got a front-row seat to watching an ad CEO in his day-to-day, and the lessons she learned have stayed with her throughout her career. 

“My father taught me to lead with compassion and that personal relationships are critical to a successful career,” said Williams. “He taught me that no task is too small, even for the highest-level employee, and that picking up the phone and having a real conversation will almost always be the most effective way to get what you want.”

The industry has changed since Williams’s first job in advertising, but much of her father’s advice about connecting with people still holds. Williams will bring insights about how Forbes connects with 140 million+ people with ForbesOne, Forbes’ first-party data platform, during her keynote, “One Publisher, One Brand: United By First-Party Data,” at the upcoming AdMonsters Publisher Forum. Williams will share how ForbesOne is revolutionizing how the publisher uses AI and machine learning to provide unique, personalized, and community-oriented experiences.

An Ad Ops Career Evolves with the Industry

Williams was drawn to a career in media and publishing because she has always loved language, reading, and writing, which attracted her to magazines at a very young age.  

“I would have piles and piles of magazines in my room growing up. I was in school at a time when the media was romanticizing careers in publishing – think Devil Wears Prada, Thirteen Going on Thirty, Sex and the City – and that drew me even more into the world of media,” reminisced Williams.

Williams’s first few media jobs were in editorial, but she found herself more drawn to the business side. For 16 years, Williams’s tenure with Forbes has played out in various digital advertising positions. Her roles have grown and evolved with the changes in the advertising industry and advertising operations.

“When I started at Forbes, the way the world consumed media was completely different. To put it into context, the first-ever iPhone had just been released. That’s obviously had an enormous impact on the industry as a whole as well as the ad operations function,” said Williams. “Ad ops isn’t just back-end anymore. We’re diving into the data, developing products, recommending targeting, presenting to sales and clients, and more. There is way more strategy in the role now, and I’ve loved growing my team with that in mind.” 

In her current role as Senior Vice President, Digital Operations & Strategy, Williams leads Forbes’ advertising operations, ad product, pricing and inventory management, and sales operations and analytics teams. Her team is working on much more than what the traditional ad ops role encompassed when she first started. 

“We’re data-driven storytellers. I don’t think anyone would have associated storytelling with ad ops back then, but now using data to tell a compelling story is such a crucial piece of our day-to-day,” she explained.

ForbesOne Takes First-party Data to the Next Level

ForbesOne fuels audience insights into every facet of the business, including revenue, editorial, product, marketing, and more, to connect marketing partners with the right segments and help them achieve their business objectives.

During her keynote, Williams will discuss how ForbesOne enables the B2B publisher to leverage first-party to build a stronger, cohesive brand. Williams often hears about the goals of one team being up against the goals of another, such as ad ops versus sales or business versus edit.  

“When you build a product like ForbesOne that is truly cross-functional across an organization, it breaks down the barriers that may seem to exist between teams. Thinking in silos will rarely move the full business forward, and cross-team collaboration and thinking outside of your own roles and responsibilities will drive real results,” she shared. 

Williams says she loves that ForbesOne is built not just as a targeting platform but with a full suite of analytics tied to it as well. The platform allows Forbes to understand how to reach audiences, gain insights about them, and feed those back to its marketing partners, editorial partners, and readers. 

“We can provide a robust, first-party powered story about specific audiences to understand how to better serve our readers with the most engaging and relevant content and to allow our editorial team to understand who’s consuming their content and why,” explained Williams.

Publishers Should Find Their Unique First-party Solution

Forbes started thinking about first-party solutions in 2018, long before the impending cookiepocalypse was even a buzzword, because of the unique audiences and communities it was organically building.

“It was more basic back then and primarily based on simple contextual targets, but it gave us an early idea of what may work and what we needed to rethink,” said Williams. “Part of that rethinking is to look at our business as a whole, not the ad business as a silo.”

Williams says that diversifying Forbes’ revenue has been top-of-mind for years, and the global publisher is prioritizing making its ad business work in tandem with the other platforms or revenue streams being offered. This approach has led to enormous growth for Forbes in other sectors, including events and subscription/membership, while continuing to grow its media business. 

Williams points out that a first-party solution is not going to be one-size-fits-all. Publishers should consider what differentiates them and how they can utilize that differentiation to create a first-party product that stands out from the pack. 

“It’s key to hone in on what makes you as a publisher unique, what makes your audience unique, and how that comes to life on your properties,” said Williams. “Think beyond targeting; is it a specific product or ad unit, is it a complementary event, newsletter, or subscription? Spend your time focused on creating something that truly represents your brand.”

The post PubForum Keynote Alyson Williams: Revolutionizing Forbes’ First-Party Data Platform appeared first on AdMonsters.

To get a sense of publishers’ plans, for a life without third-party cookies AdMonsters surveyed a mix of national and small, web and mobile publishers about a range of issues.

To see the results and gain insights from The Attention Playbook, created in partnership with Emodo, please enter your business email to download your free copy of The Targeting and Metrics Evolution: Are Publishers Ready for Attention’s Dominance? below!

[download-link]Click Here to Download your copy of The Targeting and Metrics Evolution: Are Publishers Ready for Attention’s Dominance? Playbook now![/download-link]

The post The Targeting and Metrics Evolution: Are Publishers Ready for Attention’s Dominance? appeared first on AdMonsters.

Staying ahead of the curve has become more challenging than ever in the ad tech industry. The traditional ad industry was already grappling with losing cookies and other identifiers, striving to compete with the formidable triopoly of Google, Facebook, and Amazon. As it was gearing up for this transformative shift, the digital advertising landscape experienced a significant downturn. 

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated changes in consumer behavior, causing the market to soften as pandemic restrictions eased. The growth in digital ad spend, which had been on a double-digit trajectory, slowed to just 8.6% in 2022, leaving media giants and digital platforms with no choice but to reevaluate their strategies.

The pandemic forced major players like Disney, Roku, Spotify, and Warner Bros. Discovery to make difficult decisions, including staff layoffs. The year 2023 brought challenges, with industry titans like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon handing out pink slips to 50,000 employees in January alone. While advertisers are still spending, the expenditure isn’t as high as previously predicted, and scrutiny over ad investments has intensified.

Despite these challenges, experts expect the ad market to reach a record high of $326 billion in 2023, thanks to the explosive growth of streaming and short-form video ads on platforms like TikTok. Optable’s Data Collaboration for Media Owners latest white paper predicts growth in e-commerce, travel, and entertainment advertising, presenting opportunities amidst uncertainty.

Adapting to Change

Several key strategies are emerging as the advertising industry navigates these turbulent waters. Media companies focus on scaling programmatic and data-driven advertiser engagements to capture more revenue share from the advertising triopoly. Simultaneously, they enhance traditionally non-data-driven aspects of their ad businesses, such as sponsorships, to remain competitive and appeal to advertising partners.

However, the successful execution of these strategies requires the right technology. Over the past decade, the industry has witnessed a proliferation of adtech and data management solutions. Media executives now question whether these investments have met their expectations and can adapt to the industry’s constant churn. New consumer privacy regulations further complicate matters, limiting digital identifiers and forcing marketers to rethink how they use data for digital advertising.

The Data Management Landscape

Before delving into the intricacies of data collaboration, it’s essential to understand the data management technologies adopted by media companies:

1. Data Warehouses: Companies like Snowflake and Databricks have taken the lead, with a market size of $27.93 billion in 2022.
2. Customer Data Platforms (CDP): MParticle and Segment.io are notable players, with a market size of $2 billion in 2022.
3. Data Management Platforms (DMP): Adobe and Oracle have made their mark, with a market size of $2.46 billion in 2022.

These technologies have enabled media companies to leverage their first-party audience data effectively. However, they face challenges in securing data collaboration with their advertising partners

The Need for Secure Data Collaboration

Digital marketers, who rely heavily on data for planning and executing ad campaigns, are increasingly concerned about data privacy, particularly in light of regulations like GDPR. A survey by GetApp revealed that 82% of marketers are worried about data privacy in their activities. Consequently, digital marketers are eager to collaborate directly with media partners in a secure environment to enhance campaign targeting and measurement.

Data clean rooms have emerged as a solution to this need for secure data collaboration. These rooms allow companies to share and analyze first-party consumer data while safeguarding individual identities. Giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon have already adopted this approach with their advertisers, paving the way for private data clean rooms to gain momentum.

Benefits of Data Collaboration for Media Owners

Media companies that can accommodate advertisers’ demands for private data collaboration stand to gain a significant market advantage. Data collaboration can boost revenues by attracting new advertisers, securing larger commitments from agencies and advertisers, and commanding premiums on ad products that leverage shared data.

However, media companies face a dilemma: scaling data collaboration initiatives while simplifying their technology stacks and reducing costs. In a rapidly growing economy, complexity often takes a back seat to immediate growth opportunities. However, when the focus shifts to efficient growth and profitability with limited resources, complexity becomes costly and hinders operations and innovation.

Successful publishers must enhance their standard products and create differentiated offerings to compete with dominant platforms like Google and Amazon. Achieving this requires data collaboration solutions that can harness various types of data, seamlessly integrate with existing tech stacks, and offer ease of use.

Challenges in Data Collaboration

Implementing data collaboration, especially when relying on a mix of data management technologies, introduces several challenges:

Lack of Interoperability: Data clean room solutions often lack true interoperability, requiring collaborators to use the same system. This becomes a barrier when key advertising partners use different systems. Some media owners resort to multiple solutions, which can be costly and time-consuming.

Fragmented Data: Data fragmentation poses a challenge in combining audience data and advertising campaign data to provide holistic insights. The multitude of technologies available for this purpose may not be optimized for advertising use cases, leading to complexity and delays in responding to advertiser requests.

Not Intuitive for Business Users: Bridging the gap between technology and business teams in ad-supported media organizations is challenging. Ad Sales and AdOps teams lack the expertise to generate custom queries, relying on data scientists from other departments. This results in time-consuming back-and-forth interactions and lost revenue opportunities.

Gaps in Data Privacy and Security: The complexity of data collaboration involving multiple systems, users, and regions makes it difficult to maintain robust privacy and security standards. Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) have progressed, but the plethora of options and regional considerations add to the complexity.

The Path Forward

To thrive in this ever-changing landscape, media companies need holistic solutions that can harness the power of data, integrate seamlessly with existing tech stacks, and cater to business users. The industry is realizing that the key to success lies in simplifying complexity and reducing friction in data collaboration.

Cloud-based data collaboration applications offer a promising path forward. These applications facilitate interoperability, ease of use for business users, and enhanced privacy and security. They enable media companies to streamline their operations, reduce technology costs, and innovate more efficiently.

As data collaboration continues to evolve, proving value remains a top challenge. Media owners must demonstrate the ROI of their data collaboration efforts. While challenges persist, the potential for increased revenue, reduced technology costs, and improved operational efficiency positions data collaboration as a crucial component of the future of advertising.

The post The Crucial Role of Data Collaboration in the Future of Advertising appeared first on AdMonsters.

Leaders in the publishing space face a variety of challenges, some of which are universal regardless of which industry they hail from. At Publisher Forum Coronado Island, we gathered a group of these leaders to learn more about what opportunities they are looking forward to and what challenges they are anticipating in the upcoming months.

Cookies Continue to Cause Concern

We kicked things off by asking publishers about their top priorities going into Q4. Unsurprisingly, the conversation immediately veered toward cookies, and growing privacy concerns and regulations. One publisher noted that their company has identity solutions in place, making cookies less of a worry.

Another ops professional said that most of their traffic is app-driven, which doesn’t require a user login to access. They are already seeing the effect of cookie loss, and they are looking for updated ID solutions to ensure functionality as the industry moves completely away from third-party cookie usage.

The multitude of identity solutions can be a challenge to navigate, said one publisher who is working on improving the addressability percentage of their audience. “We are working really closely with the product team, who works in close partnership with our ad team. We are trying to change our metering settings so we can push as many people as possible from anonymous to logged in and eventually to paid,” they shared.

As first-party data takes over, an attendee whose messaging is delivered across multiple brands via both print and digital said they are working on presenting a cohesive message. They explained, “We are seeing how we can leverage some of our advertising relationships, specifically on the direct side, and how we can push some of those dollars back over and across.”

First-party data can help diversify revenue streams, another discussion participant added. “If you spend X amount of a threshold amount, we will license your first-party data to you, which you can then transact outside however you want,” they shared.

Overall, it seems there is no one-size-fits-all solution for publishers facing the cookie conundrum. It really depends on the publisher’s business, vertical, and audience. The best path forward is a portfolio solution that leverages first-party data, ID solutions, SDAs, Google’s Privacy Sandbox, and for GAM users even PPID. Some publishers are also trialing bringing their data together with advertisers in Data Clean Rooms. The best advice is to test, test test, and test early and test often to find the best approaches for your organization.

The WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strikes Could Impact Publishers

One publisher who has been using first-party data for a while is experiencing a different challenge — the impact of the WGA-SAG-AFTRA strikes. The WGA (Writers Guild of America) has been on strike since May. In July, when the SAG-AFTRA (the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) contract with the American Motion Pictures and Television Producers contract expired, they too joined the picket lines. This has resulted in huge economic consequences for the Hollywood machine and therefore any publishers that are a part of that machine or connected to that machine.

There is still plenty of content to be written that is receiving traffic because people want to know about the strikes, the publisher explained, but ultimately the postponement of major events like the Emmy Awards will impact revenue if the strike isn’t resolved soon. This is particularly true for direct sales numbers.

Another entertainment-focused participant said, “I’m trying to make sure that we are making up for that revenue in other places. A lot of the media entertainment business went to custom ads, necessitating readjustment for that as well as some things that were in production and needed to be postponed for now. It’s important to be aware of what’s happening and understand some teams need to pivot to make money through different verticals.”

A conference guest posed the question, “Will this affect the streaming operators in some manner, for example, will it drive prices down? Or it could drive prices up, which has affected CPMs in the marketplace. There is a potential for increased scarcity.”

The effect on streaming services will likely be dependent on their existing libraries of content, one speaker noted. It’s an interesting time for the strike, as this is happening just as these streaming giants were finally beginning to turn a profit, they added.

Video Content Captivates Younger Consumers

We also asked the publishers who participated in the Leadership Forum if they were seeing more traction in recent months with PMPs (Private Marketplace deals) and PGs (Programmatic Guaranteed) than in the past. One publisher whose media business has been active since the mid-90s noted that their company is producing video content in both horizontal and vertical formats that are performing very well.

“We’re monetizing this content well. For example, in the first month, it accounted for 18 percent of our revenue. With this high quality, high performing video content, we can offer deals to our partners for preferential pricing, or give them a better CPM for a PMP or PG type scenario.” This publisher noted they prioritize delivering compelling content to brand partners.

Another industry leader added, “We’ve definitely found the fastest growing type of content for us is vertical swipe stories. Consumers find it very engaging. If we’re lucky that we have a product that constantly produces clips because generally swipe stories have been very successful, and are easily sponsored.”

The reason this content is so successful, noted the publisher whose site has been active since the 90s, is that it imitates the other content that younger (Gen Z and Millennial) consumers are engaging with daily on social media. While no one knows what will happen in the future, this publisher predicts short-form video content will continue to drive ad revenue.

From a user experience perspective, studies have shown that vertical videos are inherent to the nature of how people use their phones making that experience more immersive. Also, swiping stories is not only more interactive it makes users feel as if they are getting access to exclusive content, which makes this opportunity prime for advertisers looking to sponsor these experiences. And with video ad spend projected to reach $55.2B in 2023, the time is ripe for publishers to dive into this opportunity.

Talking Through Publisher Pain Points

When we initially brought up workflow and data issues, it seemed that no one really wanted to talk about where the challenges were. Then one publisher mentioned standardization as a huge hurdle for ensuring everything runs smoothly.

“The connections break constantly, maybe because of a change a partner makes. A partner’s column for email reports stops running daily, or they have a comma that wasn’t there before and it’s really frustrating. There’s not a ton of standardization with all the different analytic UIs. Maybe some SSPs are not as sophisticated as others, but now we’re running into the issue of they either don’t prioritize being able to email reports or they simply ‘don’t do’ email reporting. It’s an industry issue, I think it’s a non-standardization issue, and it’s painful,” this publisher explained.

The problems of data breakages today are the same as 10 years ago, noted another publisher. Getting your data isn’t a streamlined process and by the time you get your analytics, it is often too late to make actionable decisions.

Those in attendance agreed that it is important to standardize the way data is presented to make sure everyone is speaking the same language. The majority also agreed it is difficult to get valuable information out of analytical data if there is a ton of data collected because it can lead to information overload.

Differentiation in a Changing World

As the industry continues to evolve, partnerships do too. One participant said it is harder than ever to sell directly because of the ability to procure and manage channels and TV deals. “In direct sales now you have to go in with something unique and differentiated that’s going to stand out. Something that’s maybe even PR worthy.”

Heading into Q4, there are a lot of things that are changing or are uncertain, particularly as first-party data becomes the norm. Looking forward, one advantage we have is the experience of being part of an industry that is always evolving, which makes it easier to roll with these changes as they come.

In today’s landscape, with advertisers tightening their campaign budgets, publishers face the challenge of standing out to attract brands to their platforms. The key to success lies in the ability to provide comprehensive performance data that’s easily accessible to all relevant teams. Without it, opportunities for increased revenue go untapped.

Empowering AdOps with enhanced tools and streamlined workflows to share these valuable insights could revolutionize how client-facing teams engage with advertisers. Armed with data-backed insights, they can foster more meaningful discussions on campaign performance.

The ripple effect? Not only does this foster repeat business but also positions publishers with the data-driven arsenal needed to attract new advertisers within their niche. It’s all about unlocking untapped potential in a changing ad tech landscape.

The post Leading the Way: Ops Leaders Share Predictions and Pain Points at PubForum appeared first on AdMonsters.

In this context, Cornelius Frey, Co-Founder and CEO of Opinary, outlines his company’s approach to collecting and leveraging first-party data through interactive user engagement. That offers not only a solution to the challenges posed by the demise of third-party cookies but also holds the potential to reshape the future of digital advertising. 

By seamlessly integrating polling and voting tools into the online experiences of top publishers, amongst other things, Opinary fosters genuine connections with users, producing high-quality data that is willingly shared. 

Don’t sleep on the power of first-party data—whether you’re thinking about cookieless environments or not—because you cannot underestimate having direct connections with your audience.

Opinary’s First-Party Data Strategies

Andrew Byrd: Can you tell me about Opinary and how your company works with first-party data?

Cornelius Frey: Opinary entirely changes the way, quality, and scale of how first-party data is collected: away from prying on users’ behavior to try and infer who they might be or what they might want – and towards building an open, ongoing dialogue with users that they willingly engage in. 

This dialogue on publishers’ sites creates a triple impact:

• Better page metrics and audience relationships
• Additional high-quality, non-invasive ad inventory
• A key source of scalable first-party data 

AB: Your voting tools are a core part of your business? Why is this an important facet? Does this help with your first-party data assets? 

CF: We use polls that ask pertinent questions in the middle of a publisher like, say, NBC, the FT, the Times of London, or Der Spiegel, and have over a quarter of a billion users interact with these every month. Users engage because they have a view and – a core human trait! – they want to see how they compare to millions of other users. 

For instance, they will want to see precisely why other readers may also be interested in buying that electric vehicle – and will happily compare themselves on socio-demographic dimensions. Any data we ever collect is actively declared by our users, raising both its quality and privacy compliance compared to existing data solutions in the market. 

The Cookieless Concerns

AB: The entire industry is preparing for the complete deprecation of third-party cookies. Why is first-party data critical in preparing for this industry change?                                   

CF: As the pendulum swings away from third-party cookies, publishers have the chance to play a vital role in helping advertisers still run effective, performant campaigns – and regain control and benefit from a more critical position in the value chain, rather than being just the providers of pixels on their page for ad inventory. 

This is because their intimate knowledge of their audience – beyond mere contextual signals – can help deliver campaigns targeted in full privacy compliance even after the end of the free-for-all third-party cookie bonanza, for instance, via premium directly sold seller-defined audiences or by enriching their programmatic offering. Publishers have been doing a great job building the pipes for that transition through upgrading their DMP infrastructure, for instance. They must fill those pipes with first-party insights about their audiences at scale. That’s where Opinary audiences come in. 

The Publisher Benefits

AB: How are you working with publishers like The Times and Yahoo to use first-party data to enhance their advertising strategies?

CF: Integrating our tools helps these publishers increase the scale of first-party data directly collected by a factor of >3x, as well as the quality: it delivers signals of intent that are so strong that they provide an immediate performance uplift in advertising campaigns enriched by them. 

We work with publishers directly and with ecosystem partners like Piano, Adobe, and 1plusX to help lift the potential of first-party data and sell better, more performant campaigns at higher CPMs. Along the way, the engagement we create increases time on site, and we drive newsletter sign-ups and subscription rates by converting highly engaged users post-vote to the publisher’s most relevant offerings. 

AB: Any final advice for publishers and advertisers who want to use their first-party data assets to the fullest? 

CF: The most promising strategy for using first-party data assets goes to the timeless core of good journalism: engage your audience directly, don’t be afraid of asking them questions, and be open and honest about the excellent value exchange that can happen when you build a direct relationship with your readers, rather than relying on an ecosystem of middlemen. Given where industry and regulatory trends are going, for those publishers embracing this, there may be a bright future for digital publishing around the corner, and we’re happy to be a part of it. 

The post Opinary’s First-Party Data Strategies: Building Audience Engagement and Publisher Success Through Meaningful Interactions appeared first on AdMonsters.

From the start, Jon Roberts kicked off PubForum Coronado Island with profound insight giving the event great momentum. Much of the audience left with the lasting idea that sometimes unexpected journeys lead to groundbreaking discoveries. 

Don’t be afraid to take risks and try new things, publishers. We see this through Roberts’ unique career journey and his assistance in shifting Dotdash Meredith to focus on improving user experience instead of bombarding users with ads. The strategies he and his team implemented to increase user engagement and better understand the publisher’s audience helped reshape Dotdash Meredith’s revenue model positively.

While his journey from research scientist to a digital media professional might seem far-fetched, this path is more common than one may think. From this crossover of disciplines, we see that data analysis, experimentation, and problem-solving skills from the scientific world are of high value in digital media. 

There’s a science behind increasing revenue and effectively targeting audiences in a cookieless world. According to Jon Roberts, these are your four keys to success:

Take Risk: No Risk, No Reward

If there’s one thing science and data have in common, it’s experimentation. Starting his career focusing on dark matter and cosmic phenomena at prestigious institutions like CERN and NASA, Roberts sees data as the central theme in making a transition from science to digital media. Our industry holds loads of data, and its potential for guiding decision-making and audience targeting is immense. The scale of data available presents a playground for experimentation.

At Dotdash Meredith, Roberts and his team implemented transformative strategies that seemed crazy at first since they challenged the conventional approach. These moves were made when the company was small, so at that time, no risk meant no reward. They took revoked ads from web pages in hopes of enhancing user experience. While this calculated risk initially seemed backward, it paved the way for their innovative revenue model. 

Analyze your practices and closely examine ad placements. This can help you identify bad ads. At one point, Dotdash Meredith had to remove a ton of ads from their webpages. This move initially hurt their revenue but helped shape the advertising landscape overall. 

Unravel the Floor Pricing Strategy

Floor pricing can be very complex, which is why it is important to think strategically. According to Roberts, the first step is to break down the value of all the slots to learn what the market will pay. Different domains have different values. Different content drives a different value and then different slots. 

When you look at those features and floors by grouping your inventory that fallsl into these buckets, you can see valued inventory and then push the price up to see how the market responds. 

“We intentionally let 15% of the ads go to house ads because that actually makes us more money because it pushes up what people pay,” Roberts explained. “If you let people buy that 15% of inventory for what they’ll pay for it you get all the long tail scammy advertisers of the internet buying them for pennies. If you put the floor at $10, for example, the people who would have paid $5 for it end up paying $10.”

Develop a Real Understanding of User Intent 

Understanding user intent in the present moment is far more valuable than relying solely on historical data. It’s time to say goodbye to the cookie-based approach and hello to an intent-based approach.

Roberts encourages publishers to think more keenly about intent-based targeting, as it harnesses real-time users’ behavior on content from their tailored ads to match their behaviors. Users’ interests and actions are in constant flux, so present behavior must be at the forefront. 

When you work with the right advertisers, on the right content, with the right message, you will see your engagement go through the roof. If a consumer is on a page doing one thing and the ad on the page is relevant to what they are doing, they will surely click it. 

Historically, contextual targeting doesn’t scale, so you have to talk about the context on the page and feed the user’s intent. 

Think Outside the Typical Measurement Box

Another thing that Roberts highlights is that targeting is easy, but measurement is hard, and while calling targeting easy may be a stretch, getting the targeting to work is relatively straightforward. Getting it to run through all the pipes is more of a challenge because the businesses are so reliant on cookies at this time.

At DotDash Meredith, they are experimenting with some SSP and DSP partners, and learning just how deep the cookie logic is in the weeds. This is where measurement is critical Roberts says, “If you can run a campaign on a cookieless market but can’t explain to your boss that it worked and you cashed out, what’s the point?” 

“We just have to acknowledge that we could never measure everything. If you go through the list of ways clients are looking to measure the efficacy of campaigns, you’ll see first click attribution, or even 30-day lookbacks,” Roberts explained. “But you also have sales lift, brand lift, foot traffic to store. The industry has told itself that deterministic tracking of Internet ads is the only way to do it. So, therefore, if you can’t track, it doesn’t exist.” 

Work with your Privacy Sandbox teams. Targeting is a piece of that, and much of Privacy Sandbox is about measurement and attribution, PPID for frequency capping, and the attribution API to have anonymous but full attribution. These are all tools that need to exist to solve the measurement problem. 

From being a physicist to transitioning into the media industry, Robert’s story is a testament to the power of multidisciplinary thinking and applying scientific principles to solve complex problems in new domains. He has used his expertise in data analysis, experimentation, and understanding complex systems to pave the way for innovative approaches to user experience, targeting, and measurement in the digital media landscape. 

As the ad tech landscape continues to evolve, the infusion of scientific thinking has the power to drive the industry forward.

The post Identifying the Broken Publisher Revenue Model to Create New Opportunities appeared first on AdMonsters.