Overview
Advertisers gain an unprecedented advantage in media buying by using 1st party data to make real-time decisions on every impression. Traditionally dependent on publisher-supplied information on audiences, advertisers increasingly leverage tools such as DSPs and DMPs to choose exactly the impressions they want to buy. Using these tools, advertisers shift away from buying on older demo-based or contextual site-section models and towards audience behavior segments.
Audience Behavior at the Center
Unifying data points across user cookies in DSPs & DMP, client CRM, email, and offline preferences will create a truly targetable audience. Advertiser-built audiences with these data signals will become the standard in the near future, and used to match against publisher inventories.
Page view inventory on publishers’ sites is just a proxy or substitute for their true audience. A publisher’s declared audience will become less relevant (such as demos or survey based studies) to advertisers. Publishers no longer hold the power in deciding how much an advertiser will buy; they now must play on the advertisers’ terms, as they do not have access to the advertisers’ first party data on customers.
Advertisers, who previously relied solely on the publisher’s word on their audience composition, can take their first party data and buy only against the audience they want. This is a clear shift from the reserved, direct insertion order typically blanketing the entire publisher site. Audience matching in an auction environment will increasingly determine the value of impressions. Publishers resist moving towards this auction model as it may significantly lower their CPM floors. The increasing use of 1st party data technologies and Brand-side DMPs shifts the digital media landscape in the advertisers’ advantage.
Audience forecasting against advertisers’ first party data segments (as opposed to impression counts or section availability) will become future of publisher inventories. As such – advertiser move towards an “Always On Private Market Place” auction deal with multiple publishers – retaining association with a premium publishers’ brand, but with the flexibility to bid only on their 1st party audience.
Mobile Prime Time
We view and engage with our smartphones on average ~100 different sessions per day, eclipsing TV as the most attention-sucking screen (it’s always on!).
Within the industry as a whole, mobile inventory is shifting away from standard IAB ad formats (300×250, 320×50) towards: Video/Rich Media ~ 40%; Native (such as Facebook) ~ 40%; and Other (such as custom or standard IAB) ~20%.
The decline in standard mobile IAB sizes is due to a traditionally poor user experience, with ads often covering the entire page. The key for mobile is to develop a better ad experience. This field is traditionally pioneered by the mobile gaming industry, offering a reward, coupon, or free trial to the advertised product for completing a video view or engagement. These formats drive 6-8x higher engagement than standard IAB units.
Formats such as native (think Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat) keep the “flow” of mobile and have a much better user experience, resulting in varying ranges of higher engagement (as compared to standard mobile display) and better results for our clients.
With smartphone usage now completely integral to our lives, designing an ad experience demands additional thought beyond simply recycling desktop creative into standard mobile units. While this is not a turnkey solution for many clients, our expertise as digital marketers creates opportunities to drive greater value for our brands.
Programmatic Video
Digital video is likely to evolve into a more “episodic”, TV-like format, with interspersed pre, mid, and post-roll videos. Video inventory from premium publishers will be sold at first in guaranteed, programmatic direct deals due to the amount of limited content, much like guaranteed Broadcast upfronts, with the remnant inventory going to Private Market Place auction.
However, as advertisers want the flexibility to only bid and buy inventory against their first party audiences, the upfront guaranteed format is not preferred. From the publishers’ perspective: they want their advertisers to be Partner Sponsors, complete with native integrations and other forms of sponsorship, as opposed to commoditizing their content into pre/mid/post rolls.
How it plays out will be an economics question: if there is limited video content to surround, then it will definitely go towards the upfront model, with advertiser demand outpacing video supply.
Improving Consumer Trust
The proliferation of too many ads, 4th party pixels has leading to slow page loads, resulting in a poor consumer experience and ultimately people using adblock. It’s not just a publisher problem; without solving this issue, adblock hurts the entire industry.
Adblock is still on the rise, and creating anti-adblocks is not a solution since it’ll just lead to anti-anti-adblock, so on so forth. The biggest difficulty with adblockers is that both publishers and advertisers are unable to track precisely how many valuable impressions are lost – the adcalls from all adservers are blocked completely. Publishers need to establish a clear line of communication with their audience, be honest, and to ask them to be whitelisted in their adblock.
Getting publishers whitelisted on users’ adblocks is just a temporary solution; the long term goal is to make less detrimental ad formats and decreased frequency in messaging. This responsibility falls on the advertiser, to think through optimal frequencies, where the ads are placed, and always keep in mind how your brand will be perceived and associated with every ad experience.
