Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
I See You … Tube
DoubleVerify has gained MRC accreditation as a third-party measurement provider of viewability reporting on YouTube.
Specifically, the seal covers DoubleVerify’s access to YouTube site and in-app page-level information via Ads Data Hub, the cloud service that houses Google’s ad server log files and first-party identity data. (It’s a clean room.)
Google got MRC accreditation for its own reporting via ADH last year, according to Ad Age. Although Oracle Moat, a direct DoubleVerify competitor, is applying for Ads Data Hub YouTube accreditation, DV is the first third-party service to get it.
But although third-party measurement is always welcome, this isn’t a crack in Google’s walled garden walls.
The campaigns monitored by DV are only purchased through Google Ads, DV 360 (Google’s DSP) or YouTube’s reserved inventory, and DV can’t track users or access any user-level data to establish the metric.
“We’re not currently tracking individuals or audiences on YouTube,” says Marissa McArdle, DoubleVerify’s senior VP of product management. “But what this is doing is allowing us to report out impressions and viewability for the media.”
Betting On The House
User-level web targeting is evaporating on the open web. What to do? Go all-in on CTV, of course.
As a result, the “household” is starting to replace the user as the atomic unit of programmatic.
Nielsen doesn’t have individual panelists; it has Nielsen households. And this will require a mental shift.
The whole value prop of data-driven programmatic advertising is the ability to reach and understand individual audience targets. And a phone or laptop is an intimate connection, whereas an advertiser doesn’t know if a TV screen is located in the living room, the kitchen or a bedroom – let alone who’s watching.
But household-based targeting is worth a look, Craig Berlingo, MadHive’s product chief, said at a recent Beet.TV conference.
“Household is that next level that’s starting to get baked into some of the newer platforms,” Berlingo noted. “It also helps us to speak the same language as linear, to be able to have something that is comparable in digital.”
And there are lots of examples whereby household targeting can help drive conversions. Auto companies, toy companies and insurance companies, for instance, should be thinking more about targeting the household to influence multiperson purchase decisions.
They Might Be (Slightly Smaller) Giants
Tougher privacy rules and more competitive ad platforms mean less revenue to go around for the online ad giants, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Google, Facebook, Twitter, Snap, Pinterest and Amazon will soon report their Q1 2022 earnings, and analysts predict their combined ad revenue growth will be just 19%. That’s down from a combined revenue growth rate of 28% for Q4 2021 and way down from 40% growth in Q1 2021.
Among this elite group, Google claims more than half the total ad revenue. Its parent, Alphabet, is expected to report $55.1 billion in Q1 ad revenue, good for a 23% growth rate. (Alphabet’s search-based ad business is less susceptible to Apple’s ATT, but its YouTube business has taken a hit as users flock to TikTok.)
Twitter is the only company out of the six projected to report a higher ad revenue growth rate in Q1 2022 compared to Q4 2021, albeit from a much smaller base.
Meanwhile, Facebook seems to be the biggest loser. Its parent, Meta, is expected to report an 8% growth rate and $27.5 billion in ad revenue. To be fair, these numbers are within the range the company forecasted during its earnings report in February, yet analysts lowered their revenue expectations for Meta even further in response.
But Wait, There’s More!
Back to the future of Twitter. [Stratechery]
Alt currencies to make up 15% of Horizon Media’s 2022 Upfront transactions. [Adweek]
Toch AI raised $47 million and rebranded to VideoVerse. [release]
Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green was the top paid S&P 500 CEO of 2021, earning $835 million after hitting goal-based incentives. (Green’s incentives maxed out after quintupling the stock – or he’d have made much more.) [WSJ]
You’re Hired!
CDP mParticle rounds out its exec team with three additions, including a new CMO. [release]
Scibids taps Nadia Gonzalez to run global marketing in a newly created position. [release]
