Things just ain’t the same for mobile. Times are changing, and signals are disappearing.

We recently outlined what mobile marketers need to know about the Android Privacy Sandbox. Now, we turn our lens toward publishers.

Google’s Android Privacy Sandbox isn’t just another update — it’s a fundamental overhaul of mobile ad infrastructure enhancing user privacy, and impacting how ads are served and measured. But as with any ad tech update, every overhaul comes with both opportunity and complexity. This guide aims to break down these changes, offering a balanced view of what publishers can expect — and what they should watch out for along the way.

What’s Really Going On Inside the Android Privacy Sandbox?

Android Privacy Sandbox is Google’s response to the increasing demand for user privacy. It’s designed to create a delicate balancing act of protecting personal data while still enabling effective advertising.

For publishers, the transition requires rethinking how ads are targeted and measured. While Google presents the Sandbox as a solution to the privacy dilemma, it’s critical to assess whether it meets publishers’ needs without introducing new challenges.

Can it live up to the mobile IDs of the past? Is this really the silver bullet it claims to be?

Core Objectives:

Protecting User Privacy: While this is crucial, what happens to data granularity and advertiser effectiveness when third-party access is restricted?

Balancing Personalization with Privacy: Can the Sandbox deliver personalized ad experiences without compromising user privacy? This is the tightrope that the Sandbox attempts to walk — relevance without invasiveness.

Redefining Measurement Tools: The new APIs promise precise metrics, but the transition might come with trade-offs in data richness and complex implementation.

Showdown: Android Privacy Sandbox vs. SKAdNetwork vs. Ad Attribution Kit

Why pit the Android Privacy Sandbox against Apple’s SKAdNetwork and Ad Attribution Kit? Because they all address balancing privacy with effective advertising — but in distinct ways. By understanding these differences, publishers can make smarter choices about which strategies to adopt as they navigate mobile privacy.

The Publisher’s Playbook: Opportunities and Potential Pitfalls

1. Cross-App Tracking: The End of an Era?

The decline of cross-app tracking is more than a simple shift. It forces data collection strategies that could either unlock new opportunities or leave gaps in your data.

2. Ad Targeting and Measurement: New Tools, New Complexities

The new Sandbox APIs promise a lot but also require a leap of faith. Will these tools deliver the precision they claim, or will they leave publishers with a diluted version of what was once possible?

3. Revenue Implications: Walking a Tightrope

The impact on revenue streams is real. While contextual ads and first-party data are touted as solutions, the practical implications could be more nuanced.

Real-World Experiences: Insights from Early Adopters

1. Gameloft’s Strategic Leap: Testing the Limits of Privacy-First Ad Measurement

Gameloft, a mobile gaming titan, has been at the forefront of adopting the Android Privacy Sandbox. Partnering with Singular, they tested the Attribution Reporting API, balancing effective ad measurement with the demands of user privacy. Their journey highlights both the promise and the challenges of adapting to these evolving standards, particularly in maintaining data accuracy and targeting precision.

2. Verve Group’s Bold Move: Redefining On-Device Bidding with Privacy Sandbox

Ad tech innovator, Verve Group, is pioneering on-device bidding through the Android Privacy Sandbox, focusing on the Protected Audiences API. By moving auctions to the user’s device, Verve reduced data transfers, aligning with privacy goals. But not without running into significant hurdles. Their collaborative work with partners like Remerge has been essential in overcoming these technical challenges, from latency issues to complex implementation requirements.

The Realities of Implementation: What Publishers Need to Know

1. Implementation Complexities: The Devil’s in the Details

Implementing these new APIs requires more than a simple update — it’s an extensive reworking of infrastructure. Publishers should invest significant resources into testing and development to ensure these systems work effectively. Expect compatibility issues.

2. Latency: The Hidden Cost of Privacy

On-device processing is a cornerstone of the Android Privacy Sandbox, but latency can become a significant issue, impacting ad delivery, viewability, speed, and efficiency.

3. Data Accuracy: A Double-Edged Sword

Privacy-preserving methods often result in less data granularity. While this protects users, it can also undermine ad targeting precision and measurement, leaving publishers questioning whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Will we still be able to hit KPIs?

Game Plan For Sailing Mobile’s Privacy-Preserving Seas

1. Hoist Your Sails, But Chart Your Course Wisely

Early adoption is key to catching wind and gaining momentum but plot your journey carefully. Don’t drink the Kool-Aid just yet. Thorough testing and validation are necessary before full-scale implementation, ensuring you’re prepared for the uncharted waters.

2. Steer Your Ship with Trusted Crew

Partnering with reliable DSPs, SSPs, and MMPs is crucial for steering the complex waters. Ensure these alliances are aligned, guiding you towards your specific goals — not just drifting the tide of broad industry trends.

3. Keep a Steady Hand on the Helm: Embrace New Standards, But Stay Informed

As you sail through the shifting currents of the Android Privacy Sandbox, keep a watchful eye on the horizon. While the new Attribution Reporting API offers potential, it’s vital to understand what’s being gained — and what might be lost. Stay informed and ready to adjust strategies as the seascape evolves.

Looking Forward: A Cautious Path to the Future

1. Stay Critical, Stay Agile

As the Android Privacy Sandbox develops, keep a close eye on updates. While it promises much, the reality may require agile adjustments to strategies and expectations.

2. Evolve with the Technology, But Manage Expectations

This shift isn’t a survival strategy — it’s about evolving. But evolution is complex and often slower than anticipated. Prepare for a marathon rather than a sprint.

The Android Privacy Sandbox is not a cure-all, publishers need to navigate these changes carefully, balancing new opportunities with potential pitfalls. By staying informed, skeptical, and proactive, you can make the most of this transition — without falling victim to the hype.

Additional Resources:

– Google Privacy Sandbox Documentation

– AppsFlyer’s Guide to Privacy Sandbox 

The post Dissecting the Android Privacy Sandbox: A Critical Guide for Publishers appeared first on AdMonsters.

As Google’s Android Privacy Sandbox gears up for its anticipated 2025 launch, mobile marketers need to stay ahead of the curve. Remerge, a leading Demand Side Platform (DSP), is at the forefront of this transition, collaborating  with Google and other ad tech partners, such as Verve, AppsFlyer, Adjust, and Singular, to ensure a seamless shift. Luckey Harpley, Staff Product Manager at Remerge, sheds light on what this means for the future of mobile marketing and how to navigate this new landscape.

Why Is Mobile Marketing Shifting to Privacy-First Advertising?

The rise of AI and sophisticated machine learning algorithms showcases the benefits of new technologies, but it also highlights the dangers of these advancements. People want more control over how big tech businesses manage their data. The advertising world is moving towards a privacy-centric future and marketers must adapt.

Apple made the first privacy move on mobile with the launch of its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework in 2021. Google’s answer is the Privacy Sandbox, a set of APIs to facilitate the selling, buying, and targeting of in-app ad placements, without requiring third-party cookies in Chrome or cross-app identifiers on Android. For Android, this will provide tracking and reporting via its Attribution API, targeting through Topics and Protected Audiences APIs, and data collection and handling via the SDK Run Time.

Why are DSPs Like Remerge Already Working on Solutions for the Android Privacy Sandbox?

It’s important to avoid a situation like the ATT rollout, where advertisers and publishers were left in the dark before its launch and struggled to understand how to run campaigns after it came into effect.

We want to ensure everything is ready for mobile marketers to run privacy-compliant advertising campaigns on Android without experiencing a drastic decline in performance. Android maintained its position as the leading mobile operating system worldwide in the first quarter of 2024, with a market share of 70.7% so this transitional period is crucial for the well-being of the mobile marketing ecosystem.

Does Google’s Decision to Keep Third-Party Cookies on Chrome Change Anything?

Google recently announced that they no longer plan to deprecate third-party cookies on Chrome and emphasized giving users the choice to opt-in to tracking. This update is unrelated to mobile. A similar approach is likely to happen on Android, where the GAID remains intact, and users can choose whether to share this with advertisers. In this scenario, nothing would change for mobile DSPs and their investment into Google’s APIs – the Android Privacy Sandbox would remain an essential framework for privacy-preserving advertising campaigns.

What Has Remerge Tested and Why Should Mobile Marketers Take Notice?

Remerge’s Research and Development team has been working on the Sandbox for over 1.5 years. They’ve focused on testing the Protected Audience API, which will allow advertisers to run retargeting campaigns on Android.

Tests have been completed with Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs) like Adjust, AppsFlyer, and Singular. This includes developing a proof-of-concept for Custom Audience Delegation, a mechanism required for remarketing in Sandbox. This allows an MMP SDK to add users to custom audiences on behalf of advertisers based on their in-app behavior. Additionally, the first DSP/SSP on-device bidding test was conducted with Verve. These are small steps but important milestones for Sandbox testing, demonstrating that the Protected Audience API and custom audiences mechanisms are working as planned and validating product capabilities.

How Will a Mobile Marketing Manager’s Life Change When the Sandbox Rolls Out?

Advertisers won’t experience a considerable change in the buying process. At Remerge, marketers will continue to share their user data, desired campaign segmentation, and budget with the Account Management team as usual. Remerge will still be able to target users according to activity within an advertiser’s app and run creatives such as static and video. There’ll be no changes to CTR and CPX reporting, and for ROAS reporting, the data will likely have limited dimensionality, focusing on campaign and country-level reporting.

Google and its partners are doing the heavy lifting on the technical setup. Compared to ATT, the Android Privacy Sandbox is not only far more powerful with its targeting capabilities but also much more complex. This is a completely new tech stack with privacy-preserving mechanisms, and while we might see some performance dips initially, the long-term benefits are expected to be significant.

What About User Acquisition (UA) Campaigns?

While the focus has been on retargeting and the Protected Audience API, the Protected App Signals is supporting UA on Android. Although no industry players have made proposals on the Protected App Signals API yet, advertisers should reach out to their UA partners to discuss their plans.

What Can Mobile Marketers Do Right Now?

Advertisers should start finding a partner equipped to run mobile marketing campaigns on Android. Early adopters like Remerge, who have helped shape components of the Privacy Sandbox framework, will be well-positioned to hit the ground running when it launches.

The post What Should Mobile Marketers Know About the Android Privacy Sandbox Launch? appeared first on AdMonsters.

Political advertisers are forecasted to spend over $12 billion across all channels during the 2024 election cycle, marking the highest spend in U.S. history, according to eMarketer. While a significant portion of that budget will go to linear TV, digital advertising remains a critical battleground. 

Election campaigns are turning to advanced techniques like bid shading to stretch their dollars in this high-stakes environment. But what does bid shading mean for publishers? Let’s dig into how this tactic impacts publishers, the challenges it presents, and how to navigate these waters during this unprecedented election cycle.

What is Bid Shading?

Bid shading might sound like some covert operation, but it’s actually a savvy strategy media buyers use in digital ad auctions. Imagine you’re at an auction, but instead of bidding wildly, you have an algorithm whispering the optimal bid in your ear. 

This algorithm analyzes historical pricing data, current market conditions, and the value of the impression to tweak bids just enough to win ad impressions without overpaying. The method is especially crucial in situations like political advertising where budgets, although large, need to be spent efficiently.

Example:

Picture a political campaign aiming to secure an ad slot. Without bid shading, they bid $10 and pay the full amount. But, with bid shading, the algorithm suggests $7.50 based on past data, saving $2.50 while still winning the spot and potentially saving the advertiser 25% on that impression.

The Impact of High Political Budgets on Publishers

With political budgets hitting an all-time high, this influx of ad spend can be both a golden opportunity and a potential headache for publishers. 

The Upside:

1. Increased Demand: More political dollars chasing your inventory means heightened competition, which typically drives up demand and fill rates.
2. Revenue Boost: Those previously unsold ad slots? They’re now hot commodities, filling up quickly and boosting your bottom line.

The Downside:

1. Revenue Volatility: While demand surges, bid shading introduces a layer of unpredictability as bids are adjusted downward, making revenue streams less predictable.
2. Inventory Devaluation: As campaigns use bid shading to cut costs, the perceived value of your ad impressions might take a hit, impacting long-term revenue strategies.

Navigating the Risks of Bid Shading

Bid shading isn’t just a double-edged sword — it’s a whole cutlery set. Here are the risks you need to watch out for and how to handle them:

Lower CPMs:

Bid shading typically results in lower cost-per-thousand impressions (CPMs). Some publishers have reported CPM drops of up to 20% due to bid shading. This is a direct hit to your revenue as bids are systematically adjusted to lower amounts.

What to Do:

Consider implementing dynamic price floors that adapt to market conditions in real time. This ensures bids won’t drop below a certain level, protecting your revenue.

Inconsistent Revenue Streams:

The dynamic nature of bid shading means your revenue from political ads can fluctuate wildly, complicating forecasting and planning.

What to Do: 

Leverage advanced yield management tools to analyze historical data and market trends. This helps you understand and anticipate the effects of bid shading, optimizing your inventory pricing and placement.

Competitive Pressure:

With multiple campaigns vying for ad space, the pressure to lower prices further increases, risking a race to the bottom.

What to Do:

Enhance your auction strategies with techniques like header bidding. By involving multiple demand sources, you can drive up competition for your inventory, balancing out the downward pressure from bid shading.

Making Bid Shading Work for You

Bid shading isn’t all doom and gloom—there’s a silver lining if you play your cards right. Here’s how to turn bid shading into an advantage:

Leverage Advanced Analytics: 

Investing in tools that provide deep insights into bidding patterns can help publishers adjust their strategies in real time and identify opportunities to maximize revenue.

Enhance First-Party Data: 

Rich, accurate data about audience segments can command premium prices, even in a bid-shaded environment. Investing in data collection and analysis can increase the value proposition for advertisers.

Dynamic Price Floors:

Setting smart, dynamic price floors can help you maintain control over your inventory pricing. Adjust these floors based on real-time market conditions, like time of day, user demographics, and current events to prevent your CPMs from dropping too low.

Auction Strategies:

Don’t just rely on traditional auction setups. Incorporate header bidding to get multiple demand sources competing for your ad space. Increase competition for inventory and mitigate the impact of bid shading from any single source by relying on multiple SSPs and ad exchanges. This improves the likelihood of higher bids, even with bid shading in play. 

Yield Management:

Invest in robust yield management tools and expertise. These tools help you make data-driven decisions about your ad inventory, optimizing pricing and placement to counteract the effects of bid shading.

Collaboration with Buyers:

Build strong relationships with your advertisers. Educate them about the value of your premium inventory and work together to establish fair pricing and bidding practices. This collaborative approach can lead to more stable and beneficial outcomes for both parties.

When in Rome Leverage Bid Shading to Your Advantage

Bid shading is here to stay, especially in high-budget political advertising cycles. Publishers who adapt and strategically manage their ad inventory can thrive, capturing the full potential of these high-budget opportunities.

While bid shading presents both opportunities and challenges, strategic measures can mitigate risks and maximize revenue. Implementing dynamic pricing, enhancing auction strategies, optimizing yield management, and fostering collaboration with buyers is key to navigating bid shading complexities and staying competitive.

Not all of the predicted $12 billion election cycle budgets will be subject to bid shading. Direct deals, bypassing programmatic auctions, will also play a significant role. Publishers offering unique value propositions, like highly engaged audiences or brand-safe environments, can command premium prices despite bid shading tactics.

The post How Bid Shading and the $12 Billion Political Ad Boom Could Impact Publishers appeared first on AdMonsters.

No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, it’s hard not to watch the Supreme Court since it established its conservative majority. When SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade — there was major backlash from some and celebratory cheers from others — the country knew we were at a major political turning point. 

Now, the dominoes just keep on falling. With the 1984 Chevron Deference precedent overturning, power has shifted away from the executive branch to the judiciary, potentially transforming federal government operations.  

Consequently, the court’s conservative majority has made many regulations vulnerable to legal challenges. This ruling affects executive actions, including plans to install Wi-Fi on school buses, ban non-compete clauses, implement health care coverage rules under Obamacare, and forgive student loan debt. Plus, the advertising industry will have its blowbacks. 

As no industry remains untouched by this, what does it mean for the advertising industry? The consensus is that it will infringe on regulatory efforts and cause publishers and advertisers to challenge government agency regulations that affect their businesses more fervently. 

A Look Into Chevron

Chevron deference was a legal principle established by the Supreme Court in the 1984 case Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. It required courts to follow administrative agencies’ interpretations of unclear laws, as long as those interpretations were reasonable and Congress had not explicitly resolved the issue.”

For 40 years, Chevron deference played a crucial role in administrative law. However, in June 2024, the Supreme Court overturned this doctrine in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. The Court ruled that the Administrative Procedure Act requires courts to independently judge whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority without deferring to the agency’s interpretation of ambiguous laws.

Previously, Chevron deference allowed agencies to interpret statutes they administered as long as their interpretations were rational and not explicitly contradicted by Congress. This deference did not extend to agencies interpreting their own jurisdiction or statutes they did not administer. 

The overturning of Chevron deference in 2024 reduced the power of administrative agencies and increased the judiciary’s role in interpreting laws. This change will likely impact various sectors, including advertising, by altering how regulatory guidelines are enforced and interpreted.

Chevron Looms Over Advertising

These regulatory changes will compel the advertising industry to become more adaptable and cautious. As regulations, particularly the ones related to privacy, become increasingly complex, companies must remain agile in their compliance efforts. Publishers and advertisers must be flexible and quickly adjust to new rules and interpretations.

The reversal of Chevron could further incentivize brands to challenge FTC decisions through outside agencies, potentially altering incentive structures within the industry. On the other hand, federal agencies may now adopt slower, more cautious rulemaking, and Congress may need to draft clearer legislation related to privacy.

But not everyone sees this as a negative. Ken Nahigian, co-founder of the Balancing Act Project, sees potential benefits for the advertising industry following Chevron’s repeal. Publishers and advertisers may now be able to challenge industry regulations they believe negatively affect them, a feat Nahigian believed impossible before the repeal. 

“After today, the company will be able to challenge the rule and the courts will decide whether the agency had or didn’t have the authority. This will lead to a more thoughtful and collaborative process for regulating the industries,” said Nahgian. 

The Impact On Ad Tech’s Privacy Detox 

Publishers and advertisers will still face heightened legal scrutiny. Legal challenges to regulations, such as the FTC’s privacy crusade, will have substantial implications for the industry.  Additionally, challenges related to using AI in marketing and various consumer protection regulations could generate ripple effects throughout advertising and digital media.

With increased inspection of privacy compliance in ad tech, the Chevron appeal could add to the already stressful privacy detox ad tech is experiencing right now. Especially with the uphill battle of creating a Federal Privacy Law in the U.S. 

Major privacy-related efforts that may be impacted include the FTC’s Commercial Surveillance and Data Security Rulemaking, updates to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and inter-agency efforts to prevent discriminatory automated systems in housing and employment.

This will require publishers and advertisers to stay ahead of regulatory developments and adapt their strategies accordingly. But this industry is no stranger to adapting to new regulations at a fast pace. It’s the name of the game.

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When Apple introduced App Tracking Transparency (ATT), it sent ripples through the digital ad world. Now, Apple is back with another major update: AdAttributionKit (AAK) — the sequel no one saw coming. Announced at WWDC 2024, AAK is set to redefine ad attribution, offering more flexibility, better insights, and a robust privacy-first approach. It’s like SKAdNetwork (SKAN) got a Tony Stark upgrade, complete with a nanotech Mark 50 suit of armor.

The framework will be available from iOS 17.4 onwards, with some features still in beta and slated for release in iOS 18. While AAK builds on SKAN’s foundation, it brings new tricks to the card table, like re-engagement capabilities and a developer mode that makes testing a breeze. Just keep in mind some features are still cooking in the beta oven, and with alternative app marketplaces still finding their feet, AAK’s full impact might take a hot minute to materialize.

Is it the holy grail we’ve all been missing? Let’s dive in and discover how this new framework revolutionizes ad attribution for app publishers, comparing it to SKAN, exploring its key features, and examining its impact on privacy compliance and ad performance.

What is Apple AdAttributionKit?

AdAttributionKit is Apple’s latest framework for measuring ad-driven app installs and user actions. Building on the foundations of SKAN, AAK brings significant enhancements to improve the attribution process. AAK works across both the App Store and alternative app marketplaces, making it a true cross-platform player. It supports multiple advertising formats, including static images, videos, audio, and interactive ads, all while preserving user privacy by limiting the data included in attribution postbacks.

Key Features: AAK’s Superpowers Unveiled

1. Multi-Store Support: AAK isn’t playing favorites. It supports alternative app marketplaces, making it a must-have for regions like the EU where app diversity is the name of the game.

2. Re-engagement Campaigns: Remember that user who ghosted your app? AAK lets you track and woo them back for up to 35 days after they re-engage. It’s like having a second chance at digital love.

3. Enhanced Creative Support: From static images to videos and interactive ads, AAK’s got you covered. It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet of ad formats.

4. Universal Links: Deep linking just got deeper. AAK can send users to specific in-app locations faster than you can say “user experience.”

5. Developer Mode: Testing made easy? It’s not a myth anymore. AAK cuts the BS from testing by removing time randomization and shortening conversion windows. It’s like having a time machine for your ad campaigns.

6. Privacy-First Design: AAK keeps user data locked down tighter than a submarine hatch. It’s all about crowd anonymity and aggregated data.

7. Fraud Prevention on Steroids: AAK is not messing around with ad fraud. It demands ads display front and center in the foreground, ensuring those impressions are as real as it gets.

AAK in Action: A Mobile Game Publisher’s Journey

Imagine you’re running a mobile game. With AAK, you could:

1. Track a user who clicks an ad on a third-party app store.
2. Measure their in-game purchases over 35 days.
3. Re-engage them with a targeted ad if they become inactive.
4. Analyze the entire journey with privacy-compliant data.

SKAdNetwork vs. AdAttributionKit: The Showdown

Think of SKAdNetwork as Thor’s trusty hammer Mjolnir, and AdAttributionKit as his upgraded axe Stormbreaker.  They’re both powerful tools, but AAK brings some new tricks to the battlefield.

Key differences include:

Scope and Reach: SKAN was exclusive to the App Store, whereas AAK extends to multiple app marketplaces, future-proofing your attribution strategy.
Re-engagement: AAK brings the ability to re-engage lapsed users, critical for maintaining user base continuity.
Creative Flexibility: AAK offers a broader array of ad formats, providing more creative freedom to let your creative flag fly.
Privacy: Both prioritize user privacy, but AAK enhances privacy controls with stricter features cranking it up to 11.
Performance Measurement: AAK provides more granular data to help fine-tune campaigns to perfection.

AAK and SKAN: Working Together

The good news is that AAK and SKAN can work together seamlessly. Here’s how:

1. Dual Implementation: Developers can implement both AAK and SKAN simultaneously, allowing for a smooth transition and leveraging the strengths of both systems.

2. Attribution Determination: When both AAK and SKAN impressions are present, the system considers all impressions together. It sorts them based on:

• Click-through vs. view-through (click-through takes precedence)
• Timestamp (most recent impressions prioritized)
• A maximum of six impressions are considered for any conversion.

3. Single Winner: Only one impression can win for a conversion, regardless of whether it came from AAK or SKAN.

4. Consistency in Privacy: Both AAK and SKAN maintain Apple’s commitment to user privacy, ensuring that the combined use doesn’t compromise data protection.

Is SKAdNetwork Dead?

Not quite. Like Vision transforming into White Vision, SKAN isn’t gone – it’s just evolving. Think of it as a gradual transition rather than an abrupt switch. Publishers should begin integrating AAK while continuing to use SKAN, ensuring a seamless shift as AAK becomes the standard.

Show Me the Money: AAK’s Monetization Magic

With AAK, you’re giving advertisers front-row seats to their campaign performance. The re-engagement feature alone is like capturing the brass ring for many advertisers. Add the improved creative support and more granular attribution data, and you’ve got a recipe for happier advertisers and potentially fatter checks for publishers.

AAK’s features translate directly to improved monetization potential:

• Higher ROAS through more accurate attribution.
• Targeted re-engagement to bring back valuable users.
• Cross-store insights to optimize campaigns across multiple app marketplaces.

But, AAK’s impact might hit differently for various app publishers. Game devs might be doing a happy dance over the re-engagement features, perfect for bringing back those high-value players like Ant-Man shrinking into the Quantum Realm and emerging right when you need him. Meanwhile, utility app publishers could be eyeing those cross-store insights, ready to optimize their campaigns across multiple marketplaces. It’s like the Avengers assembling, with each publisher getting to pick their favorite hero’s power to supercharge their ad game.

Privacy in the Spotlight: How AAK Addresses ATT Challenges

While AAK doesn’t entirely eliminate the hurdles posed by ATT, it offers new solutions — like Doctor Strange opening a portal to bypass obstacles. AAK provides privacy-compliant ways to measure ad effectiveness and re-engage users, addressing some of the data granularity and retargeting challenges introduced by ATT.

Key privacy features include:

• Privacy-First Design: Maintains user anonymity while providing valuable insights.
• Aggregated Data: Offers campaign performance metrics without individual user tracking.

Tech Setup: Your AAK Implementation Roadmap

Getting AAK up and running isn’t rocket science, but it’s not exactly a walk in the park either. Here’s a quick guide:

1. Update iOS: Ensure your app supports iOS 17.4 or later.
2. Integrate the Framework: Add the AdAttributionKit framework to your app.
3. Configure Ad Networks: Align your ad networks to work with AAK for accurate attribution.
4. Set Up Postback Endpoints: Establish endpoints to receive attribution data.
5. Leverage Developer Mode: Use it for rigorous testing and fine-tuning.
6. Opt-in for Winning Postbacks: Developers can receive copies of winning postbacks by adding the ‘AttributionCopyEndpoint’ key to their app’s Info.plist file. This enables receiving the same postback data that ad networks receive for winning attributions, providing valuable insights into your app’s performance.

The Infinity Stones: What Publishers Need to Know About AdAttibution Kit

• Privacy First: AAK continues Apple’s user privacy crusade. Embrace it or risk being left behind in the digital dust.
• Flexibility is Key: With support for multiple app stores, AAK future-proofs your attribution strategy.
• Re-engagement is Gold: Don’t underestimate the power to bring back lapsed users. It’s like finding money in your old coat pockets.
• Creative Freedom: More ad format support means more opportunities to shine.
• Gradual Transition: Start planning for AAK now, but don’t pull the plug on SKAN overnight. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Preparing for the Future

AdAttributionKit isn’t just an improvement over SKAdNetwork – it’s a significant leap forward in mobile ad attribution. It offers publishers and app developers a powerful blend of enhanced insights, improved monetization potential, and advanced tools for privacy-preserving ad attribution, addressing many of the pain points brought on by ATT.

Embracing AAK will be crucial for staying competitive and maximizing ad revenue in the evolving mobile advertising marketplace. As Nick Fury might put it, “You’ve got the tools. Now, show them what you’re made of.” AAK is the next phase in the attribution endgame—time to take charge.

The post What Is AdAttributionKit (AAK): Apple’s Next-Gen Tool for Smarter, Privacy-Focused Ad Attribution? appeared first on AdMonsters.

Floor pricing optimization is making waves again in the publishing world, but have we been overthinking it?

Kean Wang, VP of Product and Strategy at Intowow, dives into the evolution of floor pricing strategies and unveils a refreshing shift from complex mathematical models to the practical realm of behavioral economics. By understanding bidder behaviors and leveraging the strengths of Header Bidding and Google Ad Manager, publishers can streamline their approach and boost revenue without getting lost in the computational weeds.

Floor pricing optimization has regained popularity among publishers. Over the past five years, we have perfected our dynamic floor pricing algorithms. However, it wasn’t until a year ago, as we gained access to more data from major publishers around the world, that I realized we might have been approaching this problem unnecessarily.

For quite some time, we adopted a purely mathematical approach to floor pricing optimization, focusing on determining each price P that maximizes the RequestRPM according to the function 

RequestRPM(P) = SellThroughRate(P) × eCPM(P)

for each infinitesimally meaningful inventory segment. If demand is static, the calculations are straightforward and manageable. However, randomness introduces uncertainty in a more realistic scenario where hundreds of thousands of campaigns run concurrently and complete at different times. This uncertainty significantly complicates the computational process and requires intensive predictive modeling to find an optimal solution.

It turns out that an easy way out is to approach the problem from a completely different discipline – behavioral economics.

A Simple and Elegant Approach

In the real world, campaigns are managed by DSPs who bid for impression opportunities in auctions. These DSPs vary widely in their technical capabilities and operational strategies. So, if we could target the behaviors of different types of bidders and provide the right incentives and signals to facilitate communication and competition among them, we could reach an alternative solution that is more elegant. This approach allows the market to optimize by itself to maximize publishers’ benefits without too much interference and the need for excessive calculations.

Generally speaking, bidders buy through two open auction channels: Header Bidding and Google Ad Manager (GAM), both of which are extensively integrated by most publishers. By analyzing bidding behaviors across these channels, we have consolidated the following best practices:

1. For Header Bidding, set up floor prices low enough on SSPs to encourage bid tendencies but high enough to filter out low-quality ads.
2. On Google Ad Manager, use the winning Header Bidding bid prices and dynamically trigger Unified Pricing Rules (UPRs) to provide competitive price signals through Google Ad Exchange and Open Bidding.
3. Ensure that Header Bidding line items are correctly priced on GAM with your net earnings to facilitate an efficient unified auction.

These best practices take advantage of a key behavioral distinction between these two channels of bidders: 

Google Ad Manager bidders, predominantly Google Ads and DV360, primarily adjust their bids based on floor price signals, whereas Header Bidding bidders make extensive adjustments in response to changes in win rates.

Excessive floor prices do not stimulate Header Bidding bidders; instead, they block their bids and reduce competition. By allowing more Header Bidders to participate in auctions, we maximize the competitive bid signals sent to GAM. On GAM, triggering these signals with UPRs can restore the “last look” advantage for Google bidders, encouraging higher bids that benefit publishers. (Google’s decision to cancel this feature was due to pressure from other SSPs, but this move also negatively impacted publisher revenue.)

With more competitive bids from Google bidders taking over some winning opportunities from Header Bidders and driving down their win rates, Header Bidders are incentivized to adjust their bid prices, which in turn encourages more competitive bids from Google. This fosters a perpetual cycle of healthy competition across these two channels.

For publishers with extensive Header Bidding coverage, these best practices are generally sufficient. Beyond this, additional efforts would likely yield only marginal benefits unless you are determined to invest intensive R&D to further optimize price ranges specifically for Google bidders across each traffic segment, where the benefits could add up to be significant.

More About the Behavioral Distinction

Upon further research and some reverse engineering, we were able to gain a clearer understanding of the factors contributing to such a behavioral difference.

For DSPs, floor prices are one of the pre-auction signals useful for optimizing bid decisions to maximize campaign ROIs. However, for floor prices to serve as reliable indicators, the environment must meet three criteria:

1. Floor prices, along with the associated traffic metadata, should be consistently supported across all stakeholders.
2. Floor prices must maintain their integrity during transmission and should not be lost, overridden, or manipulated down the supply path.
3. To benefit from these signals, bidders must possess powerful predictive capabilities with the technical bandwidth to perform cost-efficient real-time calculations.

Only Google, with its unified and streamlined programmatic ad supply path, meets these criteria across all stages. Information from publisher web pages is collected by the standardized Google Publisher Tag (GPT) library, consistently formatted as ad requests, and transmitted to the centralized Google Ad Manager. From there, bid requests are uniformly assembled and sent to DSPs via a robust server-to-server connection using the Authorized Buyer Real-Time Bidding Protocol.

On the buy-side, Google Ads and DV360, operating with powerful predictive capabilities leveraging Google’s highly integrated cloud infrastructure, can accurately estimate ad performance using real-time client-side signals and determine reasonable bid prices for each impression opportunity before an auction occurs. 

In contrast, for Header Bidding, every bid request is processed by at least two entirely separate parties (e.g., publisher-hosted Prebid.js, vendor wrappers, or SSPs) before reaching DSPs. Even for large DSPs with strong predictive capabilities, such a fragmented supply path makes it difficult to ensure the integrity of information, forcing them to downplay the option of adjusting bid decisions based on real-time sell-side signals. A rather reliable source of information is win rate data, which each bidder processes post-auction but is often delayed and lacks granularity.

These disadvantages of Header Bidders are particularly evident when we compared bid CPM trends from early to subsequent ad refresh instances or across different ad position series. For example, for the same inventory, when comparing the CPM of the first ad to the fifth ad refresh, average bid prices from Google bidders can drop by over 50%.

However, for Header Bidders, the average win bid CPM only decreased by 3%, which falls within the margin of statistical error. Such inability to perform per-impression bid adjustments from Header Bidders can also be highlighted by the fact that, on average, they purchase the same inventory with the same level of CTR and viewability performance at approximately a 35% premium compared to Google bidders.

To further pinpoint the issue, we took the same Header Bidding bidder and compared its bidding behaviors across two different channels: Header Bidding and Open Bidding (a unified server-to-server bidding solution provided by Google).

Under the same floor pricing strategy for the same bidder, through Open Bidding RequestRPM could be improved by 8 to 10%, compared to only a marginal 2% improvement through Header Bidding. This suggests that a fragmented supply path is the primary factor preventing per-impression bid adjustments for Header Bidders, forcing bidders through this channel to forgo floor prices and focus on win rate signals instead.

Future Outlook for Floor Pricing Strategies

Floor prices, like other real-time client-side signals, provide valuable information that encourages bidders to recognize the fine nuances in publisher inventory. However, these signals can only be effective when information integrity can also be guaranteed across the entire supply path.

The above behavioral distinctions between Google bidders and Header Bidders underscore the importance of Supply Path Optimization (SPO) and demonstrate how a more streamlined supply path can encourage bidders to utilize more sell-side signals, ultimately improving efficiency across the industry.

But for now, with these simple yet elegant best practices, publisher ad inventory is effectively categorized into two groups: one with extensive competition from both Header Bidders and Google bidders, and the other with only Google bidders. Publishers with more inventory in the first category can significantly benefit from the competitive cycle facilitated by these simple steps.

However, for publishers whose inventory primarily falls into the latter category, an active floor pricing strategy using a traditional mathematical approach is still necessary to realize the huge growth potential from Google demand.

The post Are We Overcomplicating Floor Pricing Optimization? appeared first on AdMonsters.

Unfortunately, the buy side and sell sides are at odds again – what else is new in ad tech? The buy side called out publishers and their tech partners for using deceptive practices to identify audiences. The practice in question is a technique called ID bridging. ID bridging has become a contentious issue as digital advertising grapples with the deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome. 

As Paul Bannister, CSO and co-founder of Raptive said, “The rise of ID Bridging over the last year is almost directly correlated to cookies going away. This technology could have appeared five years ago, but there wasn’t a pressing need. Now, with 3PC going away, buyers and sellers are looking for more ways to reach addressable audiences and bridging definitely can work for that.”

While many on the sell side rely on these techniques to monetize audiences that would otherwise be inaccessible, some warn that DSPs should be aware of and prepared for such methods because of the potential lack of transparency. 

Despite ongoing discussions within industry bodies like the IAB Tech Lab, transparency around ID bridging practices remains a significant concern. The legitimacy of these methods varies widely, with some using ethical approaches while others border on deceptive practices. 

As discrepancies between bid requests and actual ad delivery become more apparent, DSPs find tracking conversions and managing ad frequency increasingly difficult. Some platforms, such as Quantcast, had detected these issues, but many others only became aware through recent industry conversations.

ID Bridging: Deterministic and Probabilistic Matching 

ID bridging allows publishers to package and target segments of their audience in a privacy-conscious manner, making their inventory more attractive to advertisers even in a cookieless environment. Essentially, ID bridging connects the dots between different user identities without relying entirely on third-party cookies. By leveraging first-party data, such as email addresses obtained with user consent or login information, publishers can create a valuable dataset that serves as the foundation for their targeting strategies.

There are two primary methods of ID bridging: deterministic and probabilistic matching. Deterministic matching is the most accurate, relying on direct, persistent identifiers like a hashed email address that remains consistent across devices. This method requires users to log in on multiple browsers, ensuring higher accuracy. 

On the other hand, probabilistic matching is more common in ID bridging. It involves using complex algorithms to analyze signals, such as IP address, device type, and browsing behavior. While it offers a wider scale, it is less precise than deterministic methods, relying on smart guesswork to link different browsing profiles to the same individual.

The Potential Publisher Benefit

First and foremost, ID Bridging can help publishers keep their inventory valuable without third-party cookies, allowing them to maintain addressable audience segments and preserve the value of their ad impressions. Additionally, some argue that by adopting ID bridging, publishers can attract top-tier advertisers who are increasingly hesitant about cookie-based targeting and are reassured by privacy-conscious solutions. 

As Yang Han, CTO and cofounder of StackAdapt said, “If publishers can reliably indicate that it’s the same user across different devices, it’s a valuable signal. However, there must be consistency and standardization. It’s not useful for a DSP to know if it’s the same user within a single publisher; we need to identify the same user across multiple publishers.” 

Han warns that to achieve this at scale, publishers need to use a Universal ID. A publisher can assign their user ID, even without cookies, and share it with the DSP. However, different publishers generate different IDs for the same user, creating a fragmented and sparse data pool. To make the data useful, a universal user ID across all publishers is necessary.

This approach also supposedly ensures compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA, demonstrating a commitment to respecting user choices while safeguarding your business. Moreover, some ID bridging solutions open access to unique demand pools, potentially expanding publisher revenue opportunities beyond traditional cookie-based advertising. 

The Not So Great Side of ID Bridging

After a year+ of talking to dozens of companies about ID bridging, I can confidently say that all ID bridging conversations are a series of miscommunications and misunderstandings.

— Paul Bannister (@pbannist) June 5, 2024

Not all that glitters is gold, and the same is true for ID Bridging. One of the primary concerns with ID Bridging is its potential to exacerbate the digital divide that already exists between the sell and buy sides. Advertisers who have long relied on third-party cookies may find the transition to ID bridging daunting and resource-intensive. These advertisers might be skeptical of new solutions, perceiving them as risky or unproven. The shift requires a significant change in infrastructure and a rethinking of strategies that have been developed and optimized over the years. 

The reliance on ID bridging demands robust first-party data, which can be challenging for smaller publishers or those who have not built strong direct user relationships. This transition phase can cause friction, with some advertisers potentially experiencing a decline in campaign performance during the adaptation period.

Moreover, privacy concerns remain a significant issue. While ID bridging aims to enhance transparency and compliance with data protection regulations, the method of using hashed or anonymized identifiers might raise alarms among privacy advocates and users. The challenge is ensuring that these measures are sufficiently robust to protect user privacy without compromising the effectiveness of targeted advertising.

In addition, Bannister warns about the ease of taking advantage of ID Bridging. Shady publishers or ad tech firms can bridge IDs that don’t represent the user, so buyers waste their budgets. He adds,  “Even for cases where the buyer has consented to the use of Bridging, it can be challenging to ensure that it is being done correctly. ID Bridging can be a good thing but has to be done responsibly.” 

The scale and reach of ID bridging solutions also have limitations. These solutions generally have a smaller reach compared to cookie-based systems. This reduced reach can limit advertisers’ ability to deliver personalized ads at scale, potentially impacting campaign outcomes. 

There is still plenty of headway before the industry reaches a consensus on ID Bridging. But this is a vast industry with many intermediaries in between, and there’s a chance the industry may never agree. Yet, if the conversations around ID Bridging are, as Bannister characterized them, “A series of miscommunications and misunderstandings,” then we won’t get anywhere.

The post ID Bridging Explained: Benefits, Controversies, and the Battle for Transparency in Digital Advertising appeared first on AdMonsters.

The proliferation of low-quality, Made for Advertising (MFA) sites has been one of digital advertising’s biggest talking points over the past 12 months. It recently rose to the top of the agenda when Forbes — one of the world’s most respected publications — was accused of running ads on a secret subdomain.

The rise of MFA does bring up an old question: at what point will the industry stamp out these bad behaviors?

For the sake of a sustainable ad ecosystem, this clean-up needs to happen sooner rather than later. While change will come from multiple directions, a real driving force will result from all industry contributors adhering to and enforcing the guardrails. Specifically, those standards set by the Media Rating Council (MRC) and the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), ensure digital advertising practices remain above board.

The certifications and accreditations awarded by these organizations are not easily secured. Indeed, being independently audited by some of the highest authorities around, they provide concrete assurances about quality, care, and trust. If the industry can unite and back these initiatives to the hilt, it can focus on its most important task: delivering game-changing ads to consumers.

Setting the Standard

Founded in the 1960s as the Broadcast Rating Council, the MRC audits and accredits media measurement and data products across the entirety of the media space. It grants accreditation to those who, based on an independent audit, meet its set standards and guidelines around measurement. Notably, accredited services are reaudited every year to ensure standards are maintained.

Receiving MRC accreditation is a costly and lengthy process, and requires a significant allocation of resources. This is a testament to a business’s commitment to promoting trust and transparency internally and externally.

Meanwhile, TAG focuses on ad fraud, brand safety, transparency, and malware. The cost of TAG may be less than that needed for MRC, but certifications are still awarded based on an auditing process. Compulsory independent audits are specifically carried out for brand safety and ad fraud, but compliance with TAG’s other programs defaults to self-attested, although you can choose to be externally evaluated. If the industry is to clean up its act, having compulsory third-party reviews apply to all TAG’s programs would be beneficial.

In addition, the industry and bodies should continue to set new standards that address the evolving challenges and opportunities facing the industry. This includes signal loss, which the MRC recently issued guidance on, emerging types of fraud, such as low-quality MFA sites,  as well as growing technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI). Moreover, if the associated costs of these processes can be kept down, so as not to be prohibitive, more businesses would feel empowered to be accredited.

Creating a Cleaner Industry

These genuine indicators around the reliability of players within the digital advertising ecosystem are one of the first things brands should review when exploring partnerships. Moreover, with AI and increasingly sophisticated AI-driven scams and schemes, having safeguards in place ensures that these instances of non-compliance and bad practices are the exception.

Because of this, brands should see these certifications and accreditations as an essential hygiene factor when choosing partners. They should also pressure their existing partners to meet these levels of quality and care and threaten to seek more reliable and trustworthy partners if these standards aren’t met. Transparency should be the bare minimum that any advertiser expects from their partners.

By the same token, it’s up to legitimate vendors to evangelize for these certifications and accreditations, or the industry will never be able to leave behind its past and move toward a more sustainable, trustworthy, and profitable future.

Creating this trust can only be beneficial for the industry. It will lead to stronger partnerships between advertisers and vendors, more effective use of ad spend, and a better quality digital advertising ecosystem overall. This is especially pertinent for the Open Web, as without action advertisers will only be increasingly drawn toward spending in the relatively safe confines of the walled gardens.

Digital advertising’s next chapter should be one built on quality, care, trust, and transparency, and the standards set by not-for-profit organizations should be placed at the center of the story’s continuation. Advertisers need to create an environment where they only work with partners who are adhering to these standards, forcing the hands of vendors to fix up or lose out on business. It’s going to require every stakeholder to begin putting more emphasis on the importance of living up to certain standards.

The post Why Advertising Standards and Certifications Matter in 2024 appeared first on AdMonsters.

Reaching the right audience at the right moment is critical to business success. However, if the company’s budget is limited, this is not easy. Modern technologies, such as programmatic buying, may come to the rescue, allowing small and medium enterprises to advertise cost-efficiently and reach their marketing goals faster.

Why Programmatic (and What’s That, Really)?

Traditional advertising was mainly manual: it required finding a website where you’d like to place your banners and communicating with its owners. It was a time-consuming and suboptimal solution, plus often, it was expensive. Today, there’s a modern alternative called programmatic advertising. The word “programmatic” refers to how it operates: instead of people, the algorithms buy and sell ad space.

But it’s not just automation that makes programmatic so enticing – it’s also relevance. This technology can ensure your ads will be seen by the right audience in the right context. For instance, you’ve seen programmatic ads when shopping on Amazon. This company shows customized ads to visitors based on their purchasing and browsing history. 

Programmatic advertising revolutionizes the industry, making it easier for global companies and small and medium businesses to access large target groups.

Let’s look at some data to prove this point. According to Statista, in 2023, global spending on programmatic advertising reached $558 billion. By 2026, this number will likely grow to $700 billion. Also, the share of programmatic advertising in digital spending worldwide has increased since 2020. In 2020, it constituted 77.04%, in 2023 – 81.06%, and in 2029, it’s projected to reach 84.92%.

In 2021, 45% of small business respondents in the USA said they paid for digital advertising. They spent $534 monthly on average, and 93% of small companies planned to increase this amount.

So, programmatic advertising is undoubtedly the future. And it’s worth delving deeper into the subject. 

A Closer Look at Programmatic Advertising and Its Benefits 

Basically, the programmatic advertising process looks like this:

• A company creates an ad campaign, describes the audience (demographics, location, etc.), and decides on a budget.
• The ad is downloaded to the programmatic exchange via a dedicated platform. The exchange conducts auctions for ad space: who’s willing to pay more for showing their ad wins.
• A user visits a website participating in the exchange and sees the winning ad. 

Companies can use various types of programmatic ads, such as video ads, audio ads, and out-of-home (OOH) ads on billboards and displays. Today, video format is the most popular option, although OOH usage is growing in retail and other industries.

Every business, regardless of size, can experience the advantages of programmatic buying. But what are the benefits, exactly?

1. Cost-Effectiveness – Programmatic buying allows SMEs to control their budget and spend exactly as much as they are ready. Moreover, you can always be sure your ad will reach the right audience, so your money won’t go to waste. Companies often spend a significant share of their marketing budgets on traditional ads, like in magazines or on TV. Sure, many people will see this campaign, but how many belong to your target audience? With programmatic buying, every time your ad is displayed, counts.

According to Google News Initiative, direct ads cost two to four times more than programmatic ads. The numbers are $10-20 per thousand impressions for direct ads and $1-5 for programmatic ads.

For example, capturing the right audience’s attention was challenging for the Canadian clinic Whistler Medical Aesthetics. They tried traditional advertising channels like radio and magazine ads but weren’t satisfied with the cost-efficiency ratio. The company wanted to attract new customers, but the conversion rates were low. 

Eventually, with the help of consultants, they changed the strategy and focused on several types of programmatic ads. After the first month, traffic to their website grew by 60%. The clinic spent 50% less but got 25% more in return.

2. Advanced Targeting – Programmatic buying helps small and medium businesses identify and reach the right target groups, which is challenging with traditional advertising. The secret behind it is the approach’s core: focus on the audience, not the website. After all, for a company, it doesn’t really matter where the potential customer sees its ad. What matters more is what happens next. The programmatic approach suggests delegating the choice of websites to algorithms. 

So, to run an efficient campaign, a company needs to target the audience appropriately. It can choose among multiple targeting options and combine several in one campaign. The most popular criteria are demographics, interests, and online behavior. The better you describe the audience, the higher the engagement and conversion rates.

For example, a non-profit organization, The Amanda Foundation, wanted to speed up the process of adopting homeless cats and dogs. They decided to try programmatic advertising to reach people interested in hosting pets. Advanced targeting helped the organization identify the right audience and create a profile for potential pet owners. For instance, young people prefer more active dogs, while older people would likely adopt a calmer animal. The campaign’s results exceeded expectations: all the pets found new homes.

3. Real-Time Optimization – Programmatic campaigns are more flexible than traditional advertising. Moreover, the ad’s performance is measured in real-time, and the campaign can be adjusted on the go to get better results. Data on total views, conversions, impressions, etc., is recorded all the time while the campaign is running.

Here are the mechanisms enabling real-time optimization:

• Bid adjustments allow changing the frequency of ad showings depending on the device, location, time of day, etc. There’s also an option to adjust bids based on performance metrics. This helps a company maximize its return on investment in advertising.
• Ad placement optimization. Programmatic buying allows placing ads in the best possible location on the web pages and changing it if performance metrics aren’t good enough.
• Audience retargeting. Programmatic advertising aims to increase conversion rates. Hence, it can reach people who have already interacted with a company. It helps to engage non-customers and offer something new to existing clients.

4. Flexible budgeting – Programmatic advertising allows companies to set a spending limit, and they can decide whether it will be per day or for the whole campaign. Small and medium businesses often can’t afford pricey advertising, so it’s crucial to keep the budget under control. Luckily, programmatic buying helps prevent overspending.

As you can see, the benefits of programmatic advertising are convincing. Now, let’s determine how to achieve the best results using this technology.

Better Targeting for Better Outcomes

Programmatic buying isn’t a magic wand. Companies still need to do their homework to make it work, i.e., get to know their customers. With demographics, it’s not hard; you just need to analyze the data you already have. But if you aim for advanced targeting, you’ll have to discover more: what are your customers’ interests? What do they do in their spare time? What do they value the most? Consider conducting an online survey or interviewing your customers to collect this data.

The more you know about your audience, the more targeting options you can use. Among them:

• Behavioral Targeting – This option focuses on customers’ online activity, such as visited websites, cart abandonments, purchases, etc. A simple example is ads with a particular product you start seeing after visiting an online store and looking at similar products. If implemented correctly, behavioral targeting helps companies increase sales and conversion rates. For example, the children’s clothes brand Sunuva couldn’t afford a big sales team but needed a sales boost. Behavioral targeting was the answer: the company focused on cart abandonments and offered visitors relevant product recommendations. It helped increase turnover by 8.9% since the first day.

• Contextual Targeting – This option allows ads with relevant content to be placed on websites. For example, watching an interview with a famous athlete on YouTube and seeing the ad for a brand-new sneakers model results from contextual targeting. Marketers discovered that such advertising increases conversion (and irritates the audience less). Some more examples are knife ads on the website with recipes and sports equipment ads next to the article about the exercise routine.

• Geotargeting –  is a location-based option. Simply put, you reach customers in a certain geographical location and show them your ad. For instance, a restaurant may target people within a 3-block radius. Another popular tactic is to target customers in locations (country, state, city, ZIP code, etc.) that have already shown high conversions. For example, the cider maker Marners launched a campaign in four UK cities to sell tickets to its sponsored events. The company chose the locations where, according to the data, people were the most likely to buy tickets spontaneously. The campaign was a huge success: not only were all the tickets sold, but people also ended up on a waiting list.

For small and medium companies, a wise ad placement strategy requires considering relevance, time, and exposure. This is when targeting options come into play. Any business can choose one of them or combine a few to ensure the best possible result.

Managing Campaigns with Programmatic Platforms

Modern programmatic platforms offer small and medium companies practical solutions to manage their ad creatives effectively. For instance, businesses can:

• Customize Their Digital Ads – If a company has done its homework, it knows much about target groups. So, it can customize ads for different customer segments and channels. After all, the “one fits all” approach rarely works; you often need more than one creative option.

• Conduct A/B Testing – A company can test two or more different ad creative options and compare the results. For example, a clothing store can experiment with different images and offers, monitor their performance and draw conclusions. This helps make more informed decisions, reach the right audience with the right message, and, eventually, save money.An impressive example here is Lacoste. A designer brand decided to boost its summer sales in France, the UK, and Germany and turned to programmatic advertising. First, they conducted audience analysis and defined customer profiles. Then, they harnessed the power of A/B testing: they ran various versions of creatives, adjusted them, and tested new ads. The process continued until the company reached the best results. The campaign resulted in 19,749,380 impressions and 2,290 new sales.Sure, small and medium companies’ budgets are much more humble than Lacoste’s, but they still can analyze data and experiment with A/B testing.

• Use Dynamic Creative Optimization –  Since the programmatic approach includes permanent performance tracking and users’ behavior, it allows companies to adjust creatives, such as images and messages, in real time to ensure their ads are as relevant as possible for viewers. How does it work? A company must create a flexible template with elements that may change, such as calls to action (CTAs), images, etc. Then, track the metrics of each option, if necessary, eliminate inefficient versions, and add new ones.

Creatives play a vital role in engaging customers and increasing conversions. So, one of the company’s primary tasks is to ensure they deliver the message to the right audience in the best possible way. 

Customer segmentation is essential to achieving outstanding results. Dynamic creative optimization will be the most efficient if you’ve identified critical segments of potential clients. You can divide them by demographics, interests, or online behavior. Later, it will help you connect to each segment with the most relevant version of the ad. 

Last but not least, programmatic platforms measure ad performance and create sophisticated reports that companies can use to improve their decisions. The typical set of metrics includes clicks, impressions, conversions, and return on ad spend (ROAS). This data is enough to evaluate the campaign results and compare your expectations with reality.

Today, programmatic buying is changing the market rules. With its cost efficiency, budget allocation flexibility, advanced targeting, and real-time optimization features, small and medium businesses can achieve the success they could only dream about, reach a wide new audience, and learn much more about existing clients. So, why not try it as part of your marketing strategy?

The post Smarter Advertising: How Small and Medium Businesses Can Harness the Potential of Programmatic Buying appeared first on AdMonsters.

Upon proposing the bill, California Assembly member Buffy Hicks said, “The CJPA provides a lifeline for news outlets – large, small, and ethnic – by directing a portion of the ad dollars back to the print, digital, and broadcast media that bear the entire cost of gathering and reporting local news while Big Tech bears none.” 

As digital media evolves, it has become increasingly harder for news publishers to monetize their content. Many are hustling and finding ways to broaden their content and revenue opportunities. It also has not helped that big tech has monopolized news content, according to industry experts. Wicks asserted that big tech was lining their pockets from local news content and emphasized that the bill aimed to compensate the publications generating that revenue fairly. 

Not surprisingly, big tech reacted strongly to this accusation. In 2021, Google and Facebook already threatened to block news content in response to a similar legislative proposal in Australia. Now, Google is adopting a similar stance with California Legislators. 

A Deeper Dive into the CJPA

The CJPA aims to shake up online big tech operations. Under current regulations, these platforms are only required to submit terms of service reports occasionally. But if this bill passes, they’ll have to cough up monthly or quarterly cash to digital journalism providers proportional to how much advertising money they rake in. 

To receive payment, news publishers must verify their eligibility—a process that platforms can challenge. The bill also prevents platforms from punishing news providers who stand up for their rights under the new rules. It stipulates how news publishers should use the funds to invest in news journalists and their support staff.

Additionally, the bill demands accountability. News publishers must publish annual reports detailing their fees, sources, and spending. This transparency applies to both the publishers receiving the funds and the platforms footing the bill. 

Google v. CJPA

On Friday, Google announced that it has begun blocking access to news for certain individuals in California. As a result, an unspecified number of California residents will be unable to access local news through Google searches. While opinions on this bill vary, some liken the Big G’s tactics to blackmail. 

The bill’s supporters argue that while this measure would provide much-needed support to the state’s struggling news organizations, which are experiencing significant job losses, Google contends that being obligated to pay a “link tax” for facilitating access to news articles for California residents is not feasible.

Jaffer Zaidi VP, Global News Partnerships at Google argues that since the search giant assists people in discovering news stories, publishers of all sizes can expand their audiences without any expense. CJPA would disrupt this model. 

The bill would prioritize media conglomerates and hedge funds advocating for its passage. In addition, he asserts that the funds from the CJPA could be used to continue purchasing local California newspapers, depleting them of journalists, and creating additional ghost papers that function with minimal staff to generate predominantly inexpensive and subpar content. 

“To be clear, we believe CJPA undermines news in California,” said Zaidi. “We don’t take these decisions lightly and want to be transparent with California publishers, lawmakers, and our users. To avoid an outcome where all parties lose, and the California news industry is left worse off, we urge lawmakers to take a different approach.”

The post What is the CJPA, and How Will it Affect News Publishers? appeared first on AdMonsters.