How do digital publishers navigate programmatic ad tech’s “flight to quality” while also dealing with their search traffic flying out the window?
That’s the challenge and opportunity facing publisher monetization networks like Freestar, says CEO Kurt Donnell on this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks.
While Donnell acknowledges that “it’s freaking tough for publishers right now,” he believes the industry is coalescing around a push for greater transparency on all sides of the programmatic ecosystem – and that this transparency will “drive better outcomes for everybody,” particularly publishers that aren’t gaming ad auctions.
For instance, Donnell says the industry’s bickering over universal transaction IDs (TIDs) last year helped both the buy side and sell side understand the other’s gripes when it comes to information asymmetry in programmatic auctions.
And if that TID bickering prompted The Trade Desk to go to market with a suite of new publisher-facing products that give pubs a better idea of what the buy side wants, then it’s in everybody’s best interest, he says.
Plus, with the explosion of media quality measurement and analytics providers – Jounce Media, DeepSee and the newcomer Gamera, to name a few – pubs have more tools to demonstrate the quality of their content programmatically. And these tools are already bringing more demand to Freestar’s publisher network, Donnell says.
Donnell is also encouraged by new initiatives like the MRC’s auction transparency certification. “I can only win a game when I know what the rules are,” he says.
But, of course, no discussion of publisher challenges would be complete without addressing the threat of generative AI search.
Donnell highlighted a few ways publishers have adapted to AI-driven traffic, such as optimizing their own ad experience for different audiences or integrating answer engines into their own sites to keep audiences that are sent there by AI chatbots engaged in a similar conversational exchange.
Also in this episode: Donnell offers a few tips for online publishers that have seen a traffic dip and are hoping for a turnaround. He also shares his love for grilling and smoking on his Big Green Egg – when he isn’t too busy schlepping the kids to practice, that is.
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