Traffic-starved digital publishers will do anything to make ad revenue these days – even go to therapy.
Hence why sell-side experts and independent consultants Jana Meron and Scott Messer launched their new joint venture, AdTech Therapy, earlier this year.
Meron and Messer join this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks – which, by the way, happens to be our 500th episode! – to weigh in on the biggest challenges keeping publishers up at night.
First, we break down the implications of Judge Leonie Brinkema’s decision not to break up Google Ad Manager (GAM) – and why Google might be deprioritizing its ad tech business anyway in favor of shinier objects like AI.
Speaking of AI, there’s no bigger threat to publishers’ bottom lines than AI chatbots gobbling up engagement and keeping users from clicking through to websites. Add on the raft of monetization challenges media owners faced even before the AI era, and publishers are desperate for advice on how to keep their heads above water.
But, sometimes, Meron says, they just need reassurance that they’re all in the same (slowly sinking) boat.
Still, while there’s plenty of doom and gloom out there in the publisher community, Messer says, there’s plenty to be positive about, too.
Publishers are finding ways to turn AI to their advantage. They’re integrating chatbots into their properties to boost engagement. They’re using AI agents to find in-demand audiences that are currently underserved by their content. And they’re building new email-based businesses and getting more active on touch points that haven’t been taken over by the chatbots – yet.
Plus, new media quality measurement tools that have hit the market in recent years are helping publishers understand what the buy side wants better than ever before, according to Meron and Messer.
And, they point out, there are still opportunities for publishers to take advantage of programmatic’s deal curation craze – without relying on middlemen to curate their audiences for them.
“There is a really promising world where publishers can lead curation efforts,” Messer says. “Don’t just give all your toys away and wonder why you have nothing left to play with. Start pulling things back from the auction.”
Also in this episode: Comparing GAM’s new data co-op to publisher-led data collectives, the intricacies of Google’s recent impression-counting change and what the ad tech industry can learn from Meron’s and Messer’s experiences following the Grateful Dead and attending Burning Man.
For more articles featuring Jana Meron, click here.
