Home Ad Exchange News Roku’s Powerful Ad Biz; Twitter Pitches Publishers On ‘Timeline Ads’ Network

Roku’s Powerful Ad Biz; Twitter Pitches Publishers On ‘Timeline Ads’ Network

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CTV Scrapper

Roku has maintained a leading position in the streaming device market in spite of heated competition from Google’s Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV, according to eMarketer data. And that’s despite Roku’s shift from pure hardware sales to a business model fueled primarily by advertising dollars, a maneuver many companies fail to execute. By 2020, Roku is projected to earn more ad revenue than Hulu and IAC, the video and web publishing company. And Roku is leaning into media with the Roku Channel, a network of syndicated content the company licenses and advertises against, which is the third most-watched, ad-supported channel for the OTT platform, Axios reports. More.

Feathering The Nest

Twitter wants to make money off-platform, so it’s launching an ad network pilot for Twitter Timeline Ads, similar to Google Display Network and Facebook Audience Network, Lauren Johnson reports for Business Insider. The program would let Twitter serve ads to publisher pages and expand its programmatic capabilities beyond the MoPub exchange. It’s launching the ad network at an opportune time, as publishers are fed up with Facebook’s constant algorithm changes and are wary of its bad press. “You already enjoy the power of real-time Tweets on your webpage through embedded Timelines,” according to Twitter’s Timeline Ads announcement. “Now, let it generate revenue for your site.” More.

At Your Self-Service

Conversant launched a self-serve version of its platform called Mesobase that uses the company’s ID graph to roll up non-PII data for identity resolution and measurement. The self-serve aspect gives marketers more transparency and control over audience modeling and attribution. Mesobase is also decoupled from Conversant’s media business, so customers don’t have to buy through Conversant to use the tool. “Clients want access to that data and that full transparency because they’re seeing walls go up all around the ecosystem,” Conversant product management SVP David Scrim tells AdExchanger. “They’re getting more sophisticated and comfortable with it.” Read the release.

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