PubMatic

An introduction to “The New Economics and Revenue Opportunities of Data” panel at Ad Revenue 2009, October 8th, NYC. http://www.AdRevenueConference.com

Nearly all premium publishers are talking about data these days — not because it is new, but because there is now so much data available it is making heads spin and many premium publishers don’t know where to start in order to make it a true revenue generator. There are a lot of players in the data space, ranging from data exchanges and providers, ad networks, analytics companies, advertisers, agencies, the publishers themselves, and yield optimizers like PubMatic. As the industry moves more towards buying audiences rather than context, it is critical that premium publishers have a better understanding of how to consolidate data from multiple sources in order to realize the revenue potential.

While there is no near term panacea for premium publishers to completely solve the complexity around harnessing data for maximum value, the progress made towards that goal is significant, and there are near term solutions that can help premium publishers start profiting more from the data resources available today. But what is needed is a clear and actionable plan.

The data panel at Ad Revenue 2009 is one of the most anticipated topics of the entire conference. Attendees will hear from several players in the space, including:

The Premium Publisher: Eric Hippeau, CEO, Huffington Post
The Audience Network: Jeff Hirsch, President & CEO, Audience Science
The Data Exchange: Mark Zagorski, CRO, eXelate
The Yield Optimizer: Jeanne Houweling, VP Ad Network Solutions Group, PubMatic
The Ad Exchange: Bill Wise GM, Global Exchange, Yahoo!

Moderated by an expert on data and online advertising: Greg Stuart, Former CEO of the IAB, and digital media advisor to many companies in the online advertising space.

Every segment represented on this panel plays an important role in the online data and advertising revenue ecosystem. What is unique about this panel, and the Ad Revenue conference in general, is that we’re focused on discussing the issues for the benefit of the premium publisher, as opposed to an advertiser, which is the case for most conferences.

Premium publisher attendees will walk away from this panel with actual next steps for creating a data strategy that is comprehensive and actionable in the near term.

Premium publishers that have questions that you would like addressed, and are specific to this panel, are encouraged to email AdRevenue@PubMatic.com . The questions will be given to the moderator in advance.

We hope to see you at Ad Revenue 2009 for this panel and several others listed on the conference website listed at the top of this post.

Original Post Appeared in Advertising Age, August 14th.

The Online Publishers Association released a study that showed that advertising placed by ad networks — some of which runs on premium publisher websites, some of which does not — is not as effective for branding as ads that are sold through those same publishers’ direct sales forces. While the conclusion of the study makes sense with respect to marketers with branding objectives, most campaigns purchased through ad networks have fundamentally different objectives.

First, my company, PubMatic, and many others operating in digital media support the OPA, and I do not dispute the findings of its report. It makes perfect sense for brand advertisers to place their advertisements in the surroundings of premium content when it is economically feasible. Moreover, branding campaigns purchased directly on premium websites often have the added advantage of customized ad products such as roadblocks, different ad units or immersive environments.

However, for performance-driven campaigns in which the marketer is seeking specific ROI metrics based on clicks or conversions, purchasing inventory from a premium publisher’s sales force may not provide the best bang for the marketer’s buck. Branding campaigns and performance-driven campaigns have different success metrics, and therefore require different solutions with respect to being placed directly on a premium website or via an ad network.

While publishers prefer that all of their ad space is filled with higher-CPM branding campaigns, the reality is that very few publishers can fill all their ad space with those. Similarly, advertisers don’t always want to pay the higher CPMs for certain campaigns.

Generally speaking, premium publishers — the type of publishers that are OPA members and are referenced in the study — have two ad-sales channels. The first channel consists of guaranteed-delivery ad inventory sold directly by the publisher’s sales force. The second channel, which is sold through intermediaries such as ad networks, consists of non-guaranteed-delivery ad inventory often sold at lower price points.

The campaigns the OPA refers to in its report are branding campaigns sold from the first channel, with guaranteed delivery around premium content. The ads that performed poorly were not in the same environment and may not have been purchased for the purpose of providing brand lift. If direct-response ROI metrics had been part of the study, the results likely would have been better for ad networks. More importantly, premium publishers cannot ignore the fact that more and more of their revenue is coming from the second channel, as inventory continues to grow and audience targeting improves.

Regardless, it is not as black and white as it may seem. Branding campaigns should not just be for directly sold premium publishers alone. For instance, the recent campaign promoting Microsoft’s Bing search engine used direct-sold campaigns for brand lift and recall reinforced by a massive campaign with reach and performance metrics that only ad networks can provide.

The silver lining: Publishers can earn money from both Microsoft objectives. Had Microsoft purchased all of the impressions through direct sales forces instead of a combination of both premium campaigns and ad-network campaigns, it likely would have spent less money advertising Bing online and would have achieved far fewer benefits.

There is no argument that in a perfect world premium publishers would have a 100% sell-through rate from their sales forces. However, in a world where sell-through rates are lower, ad networks can provide incremental revenue to publishers by selling a different objective to marketers. Premium publishers should always keep in mind what is best for the advertiser as well as themselves so that both sides can meet their objectives. In this rapidly changing economic environment, publishers need to focus on improving revenue from their first and second ad-sales channels.

I’m happy to say that we’ve got some very encouraging news to share:  The online advertising prices that PubMatic regularly tracks have been going up every month consecutively since January of this year.   Does this mean that the worst days for online ad pricing are behind us?   It is impossible to say that for sure, but the indicators lead us to believe it is a strong possibility.

We’ve published a brief today on the current trends in online ad pricing in which the data is discussed.  It can be downloaded here.

Announcing the 2nd Generation of PubMatic’s Real-Time Ad Revenue Optimization: Ad Price Prediction

Today we launched our third technology white paper in 2009, this time it’s on the cornerstone of our technology: Ad Price Prediction. Ad Price Prediction is the 2nd Generation of our optimization platform. It decides in real-time which ad network or ad exchange is best able to monetize each ad impression on behalf of the publisher.

PubMatic pioneered the ad optimization category in 2006, and since then we’ve consistently released real-time technologies that provide a long-term solution for publishers as the amount of non-guaranteed impressions continues to grow in volume and revenue opportunity.

If you’re interested in learning more about how publishers benefit from real-time Ad Price Prediction, download the white paper here.

Efficiency is more than a feel-good buzzword.  Lack of efficiency has been the cause of problems ranging from slowing the shift of dollars from traditional media into online media to fragmentation of advertising demand across hundreds or thousands of players in the industry.  At the same time, advertising effectiveness has been hampered by a lack of visibility into targetable, actionable data about every ad impression.  After all, every ad impression is unique and represents a unique value to advertisers.

Today, we’ve crossed a major milestone towards helping ad networks and publishers improve efficiency and effectiveness with the official launch of our real-time monetization API (application programming interface).  The API will enable ad networks to connect instantly to transparent publisher inventory and perhaps more importantly, it gives them greater control over the pricing and timing of their campaigns.  Ad networks can target based on standard and advanced parameters.  Publishers enjoy seamless access to a new set of buyers for their ad inventory.  The end result is better monetization for publishers (higher ad rates) and improved control for ad networks and their clients.

The official launch of our API comes after a successful closed beta period involving multiple ad network partners and millions of ad impressions per day.  The benefits for ad networks and publishers are clear -

Benefits for Ad Networks:

• Increased Reach: Access to over 125 million unique users and thousands of websites

• Improved Targeting: Ad networks can leverage expanded targeting options including geography, frequency, user re-targeting, ad tag type, and much more

• Campaign Control: Ad networks have total control over pricing and timing for campaigns

Benefits for Publishers:

• Increased Monetization: Allowing more ad networks to instantly access publisher inventory increases publisher ad rates and sell through rates

• Increased Visibility: Dozens of new ad networks can get instant and transparent access to publisher inventory

• Better User Experience: More premium campaigns and better targeting result in users seeing higher quality and more relevant advertising

• Zero Integration: PubMatic publishers have instant access to premium campaigns and ad networks via the API, with zero integration effort

We’re very excited to bring our real-time API to you.  This is just the start of many new innovation announcements we’ll have in 2009, so stay tuned.  If you’re a publisher or ad network, and want to learn more, you know where to find us.

In September of last year, we launched AdFlex, the first entirely transparent campaign fulfillment service designed to provide ad networks with on-demand publisher inventory.  Since that time, we’ve connected dozens of ad networks to hundreds of publishers in order to fulfill high CPM campaigns, and we’ve increased revenue for both along the way.  Now we’re expanding AdFlex to offer AdFlex International.

We’ve seen that as much as 30-40% of a typical U.S. publisher’s traffic is international, so introducing AdFlex International is a natural extension of our service that will help both our ad network partners and publisher partners alike.

With AdFlex International, ad networks can target qualified international inventory based on specific targeting requirements including geography, frequency, or user re-targeting.  There are no long-term contracts required to give ad networks the flexibility to access highly transparent inventory, and ad networks can use AdFlex International for repeated and single campaigns.

Since ad networks are leveraging certified inventory provided by online publishers using PubMatic’s ad optimization platform, our publishers are also able to see significant lifts in their revenue by participating in premium-priced AdFlex campaigns.

We’ve worked with some great partners on AdFlex International before rolling it out, and they’ve seen the same level of success as ad networks that have been using AdFlex for months.  So we look forward to the opportunity to continue helping our partners better monetize international traffic.