Welcome To AdTech Weekly
Exit Rubicon Side Stage?
What was once considered an ad tech powerhouse in the industry has quickly devolved into a hot mess. All indications point towards Rubicon pulling a Rocket Fuel. Considering the recent news that the company will be sunsetting its ShinyAds platform and the way it yanked the rug out from underneath their clients who relied on the platform, and considering the company's statements regarding its complete whiff on header-bidding, it probably shouldn't really be much of a surprise now that the company is exploring "strategic options" and looking into its sale options.
The great ad tech shake-up continues. 2017 is going to get bloody. Ads are here to stay, but increasingly publishers are waking up to the realities that they need to own control of their advertising technology stack. Heck, even agencies are challenging the status quo and buying up publishers for themselves. Premium content providers hold all the monetization cards and the moment they realize it things will change for this industry in a hurry.
The industry is starting to wake up, and here are a few links to illustrate the point:
- Agency Veterans Are Predicting A Programmatic Downward Spiral
- Fraud Could Account For Up To 30% Of All Ad Spending Online
- Ad Tech Is Playing Fast And Loose With The Truth
Strap yourselves in, 2017 should be... interesting. My advice to publishers and advertisers? Start working together. No one likes an intermediary, and the only thing they're currently doing is taking a massive cut of your hard earned revenue.
AdTech News And Editorial
Subtle Changes Can Impact The Success Of Your Digital And Media Content
In the digital world we are bombarded with messaging and our attention is stretched. We all understand that the quality of our content makes a difference, but we completely underestimate the impact of tiny changes in experience.
Ad Targeting Is Failing Users
A well-targeted online ad can be a delightful moment – that instant you find the exact gift or concert you were looking for. Sadly, these moments are rare. Despite a decade of innovation, ad tech still fails to consistently deliver delightfully targeted ads.
Publishers love newsletters, but grapple with the underlying tech
Publishers are embracing newsletters as they try to drive people directly to their sites.
Confessions of a media agency veteran on programmatic: 'A downward spiral'
Pressure from holding companies and clients has lead media agencies in a “downward spiral” to prioritize cost above all else, this person tells us. In response to these undisclosed fees, some clients are asking agencies for sweeteners of their own, while others are hiring internal and external talent to bring greater transparency to their programmatic trading.
How decentralizing trade desks created a new set of problems
Although the decentralization of trading desks by holding companies may have reduced opaque fees and increased transparency, it has also created new problems. Sources told Digiday that since the decentralization of trading desks, buyers in charge of large automated buys are now more likely to be inexperienced with programmatic — especially troublesome in that holding companies have experienced an exodus of programmatic talent.
The 4 Native Ad Mistakes Publishers Keep Making — And How to Avoid Them
Even good publishers make bad choices when it comes to native ads. We analyzed four common mistakes and provided fixes to help publishers, advertisers, and readers get the most out of native advertising.
Platforms
Facebook is going to start showing ads in the middle of its videos and sharing the money with publishers
Industry sources say the social network is going to start testing a new “mid-roll” ad format, which will give video publishers the chance to insert ads into their clips after people have watched them for at least 20 seconds.
The Facebook Audience Network Now Serves Ads to 1 Billion People Each Month
The company announced that more than 1 billion people see an ad thorough its Facebook Audience Network every month. The company says the total—which is primarily a mobile audience—allows advertisers who opt into the network to reach 16 percent more than they can on Facebook's flagship project.