Dan Shering’s Post

You hear about them a lot lately, but what are “premium publishers” exactly? 🤔 Our latest article unpacks: 📰 how to identify premium publishers 🍪🚫 why they’re especially attractive in the post-cookie landscape 💰 how your brand can get the most from the budget you commit to advertising with them Read it here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eGYfTpDK

Another great exclusive from Catherine Perloff showcasing The Trade Desk focus on premium publisher environments on the #openweb, especially the continued rise of #ctv per the below: "Typically, connected TV commands higher rates than open web advertising. In the second half of 2023, marketers paid 78% more for CTV ad impressions than for publishers outside the DSP’s top 500 list. But for web publishers, marketers only paid 11% more for those on the list during that same period, according to the report."

Exclusive: The Trade Desk published a list of the top 100 publishers, as part of its pitch that it is a purveyor of the premium Internet. To make the list, TTD used the same criteria it's using for its ad buying product SP500+, which has not launched yet. This tool will let buyers buy from a group of more than 500 top publishers (though this list won't be publicized in the same way). "Lists are a practical way to get some attention,” said Will Doherty, vp of inventory development. “We hope that it creates more conversation over these publishers. A little debate is not a bad thing.” For more details & to see the list: https://lnkd.in/eVBSDm6Y

Really interesting piece by Jack Benjamin at The Media Leader on the challenges facing publishers as new AdTech tools emerge to identify Made For Advertising (MFA) sites. (For those unsure what is meant by MFA sites, IAS’s head of fraud protection broadly defines them as platforms conducting ad arbitrage aka “Made For Arbitrage”) Travis Lusk, group director for digital media and adtech, highlights a significant concern which is that reputable publishers could also find themselves on and off MFA block lists, “because of actions they take to ‘juice’ their monetisation or traffic numbers in order to fulfil demand”. I strongly recommend reading the article, especially the comments from Ozone’s COO, Danny Spears who points out that categorising high-ad-load publishers as MFA would likely exacerbate user experience issues on publisher websites… Also, if you share my passion for topics like the above, or if you're just intrigued by the evolving media and AdTech landscape, I highly recommend checking out the Media Leader Podcast. The guests are fascinating and I always learn something valuable from each episode. To save you a search, I’ve shared a link below to an episode I particularly enjoyed with Havas Media’s Laura Kell. She talks about the relaunch of Havas’ Converged platform, life after cookies, data privacy, and her view on the current media agency model. Really insightful interview! https://lnkd.in/dZ_mnHxB

The Trade Desk Desk's release of the top 100 premium publishers list offers valuable insights into which publishers are considered high-quality in terms of ad experience, content quality, and transparency. This information can help in making more informed decisions. Having access to a curated list of premium publishers streamlines the process of campaign planning and execution, with the added bonus of optimizing performance with publishers that have been vetted and recognized for their excellence.

"The open web is not an immeasurable place. Therefore, we need to endeavor to find an agreed-upon measurement framework to keep advertising dollars supporting content creation while meeting brand expectations." Mediavine SVP of Monetization and Business Strategy, Amanda Martin, shares how the buy- and sell-side can come together to advance the open internet in her latest article for The Current. https://lnkd.in/e2t97jQ7

Should you create an ad-free tier? Great article from Thomas on general advertising approach for your publication. We are definitely seeing success with ad-free tiers for local news sites. https://lnkd.in/eGw2HP3G #publishing #advertising #subscriptions

I feel seen.... https://lnkd.in/gJDk6jRB "I wish in retrospect I had had a more nuanced approach to thinking about paid traffic...I think there was an industrywide...movement to sort of villainized paid traffic, like Publishers who buy paid traffic are in some way bad. And I regret doing that and I think the industry made a real misstep by...framing things that way. I think paid traffic is is essential for the viability at least of the web...I think every web publisher is going to have to figure out how to buy paid traffic in an effective way." -Chris Kane I have said very loudly in many forums, we could see a not so distant future where most traffic is paid traffic. It's an increasingly pay to play world. More recently I called out that digital publishing (specifically web) is the only industry penalized for marketing their products with the expectation of growing their business. Unfortunately, digital monetization has been so picked apart by margin grabs through out the programmatic transactional landscape that it is not possible to successfully monetize paid traffic through display/video alone. The best sources of traffic are expensive and competitive. These sources have preserved their value and in fact consistently drive up the cost to participate in their walled garden. Quality traffic acquisition is expensive compared to the value of display and video advertising. I'm sad to say, I think programmatic has lost the war. Social and search are low margin channels for agencies. Those margins get made up through programmatic by trying to find the lowest possible cost placements. There is no model where display and video alone can reasonably compete with the value preservation of search and social. I'm not sure the value of display can be recovered without taking a blow torch to the industry... 🤔 🧨 😎 Kudos to Chris for researching, listening, learning and changing position. This is the exact example of leadership we need more of in our industry.

In her keynote at AdMonsters Publisher Forum Boston, Claire Atkin Co-founder and CEO of Check my ads, called for increased transparency in digital advertising to combat disinformation and restore trust in the industry. “If advertisers are given the opportunity to have control over their ads, we will actually have a media system that works for you,” Atkin said. Are you looking for ways to bolster your revenue? Read how Claire suggests increased transparency in the supply chain can help your monetization goals below. #DigitalTransparency #Disinformation #CheckMyAds https://bit.ly/3MbeSt1

More adtech transparency: 🙅♀️ prevents disinformation 🕵♀️ supports quality journalism 📈 helps boost revenue.