As Editorial Director, Sarah oversees AdExchanger's news and feature coverage and event content. Sarah has written extensively about publishers, sell-side technology and Google. Understanding and explaining the business implications of technically complex topics is her forte. Over her years at AdExchanger, she's documented the rise and maturity of programmatic tech, as data-driven advertising has spread far and wide in its marketing applications.
When the Flashpocalypse comes in July, CNN aims to offer advertisers space in its fallout shelter. The video-heavy publisher moved early to transition its video platform from Flash to HTML5 during Q1 of this year. CNN averages over 464 million video starts a month, so it knew it needed to get in front of the […]
SheKnows built its own header bidding wrapper, which is now used by the 1,500 blogger sites it represents as well as its flagship property, SheKnows.com. Most publishers don’t build their own tech, instead using wrappers built and maintained by their ad tech partners. But Phil Bohn, VP of programmatic sales at SheKnows Media, said having […]
Forrester’s 2017 DSP Wave ranking placed six platforms as market “leaders”: MediaMath, DataXu, Trade Desk, Turn, Adobe and Rocket Fuel. Three others straddled the line between “leaders” and “strong performers”: Google, AppNexus and AOL. AdForm fell into the “strong performers” category. Time Inc.-owned Viant, including Adelphic, trailed the rest of the group with a placement […]
Not so long ago, Dose operated like a typical viral publisher, running tests to create the most clickable headlines and raking in revenue from banner ads. But last year, Dose cut off all of its programmatic ads and bet its future on branded content. Dose founder Emerson Spartz shifted strategy because he says the viral […]
With the dynamics of header bidding changing, Criteo created a new version of its header bidding product Direct Bidder with more controls and added transparency and flexibility. Direct Bidder, which Criteo first started developing in October, can be plugged directly into the ad server, or work within header bidding wrappers from Prebid or Index Exchange. […]
While header bidding can increase publisher CPMs and revenue, the growing complexity of the implementations makes it harder to differentiate vendor partners. Ancient History Encyclopedia, for instance, saw CPMs rise 75% after adding header bidding a year ago. The online encyclopedia operates as a nonprofit and relies on advertising for the majority of its revenue. […]
Even with the best audience targeting, it can be tough for advertisers to find adventurous consumers in need of bear spray for their next hike or specialized biking, hiking or skiing gear for weekend treks. Because it serves as an online watering hole for outdoor enthusiasts, Outside magazine enjoys steady growth in its digital business […]
Programmatic buyers on the open exchange who think they’re purchasing inventory from ESPN or The New York Times often end up buying from imposter sites instead. At times, the amount of misrepresented inventory in the marketplace can dwarf the legitimate inventory sold by brand-name publishers. The practice, domain spoofing, will become much harder to carry […]
Promoting reviews and content featuring Brooklinen’s bed sheets drives results for the direct-to-consumer brand. “We’ve struck a nerve with the consumer that does research,” said Justin Lapidus, general manager of Brooklinen. The company has grown by a factor of 10 during the past two years, and it raised $10 million in Series A financing in […]
Google wants to clean up where it places ads, but it also doesn’t want to hurt its publishers’ revenue. So instead of kicking out an entire site that violates a Google policy, Google will remove individual pages from a publisher’s site that violate Google policies. AdSense publishers will receive emails when content violates Google policies, […]
Demand-side platforms (DSPs) are putting pressure on supply-side platforms (SSPs) to improve inventory quality and cut out the games that pad the second-price auction. Ad tech insiders have told AdExchanger DSPs are being more aggressive in blocking supply sources until they clean up. The pressure could force the ecosystem to grow up. While DSPs aren’t […]
Time Inc. had a lousy Q1 as print revenue plunged 21% and the company struggled with a sales reorganization. Total advertising revenue declined 8% to $360 million. The stock declined 14% in the wake of the earnings, putting its share price well below the $18 a share three different buyers offered. The bright spot is […]
European broadcaster RTL Group is creating a unified auction where direct video deals must bid to compete with programmatic video buys. And to do so, it’s changing how it incentivizes the sales team to focus less on the size of the deals and more on the true value of the inventory. Because RTL Group puts […]
Retailers like Miles Kimball usually focus on two tried-and-true digital advertising tactics to drive purchases. Bottom-of-funnel retargeting is efficient, but requires a visitor to go to the brand’s website. Top-of-funnel user acquisition marketing brings in new customers, but often at a high cost. The home decor and gift catalog, one of a half-dozen catalogs owned […]
Rubicon Project posted another quarter of significant declines as new CEO Michael Barrett attempts to turn around the business. Revenue declined 34% YoY to $46 million in the first quarter. Advertising spend declined 23%, to $191.5 million. Though the revenue slightly beat expectations, the stock slid a few percentage points in after-hours trading. Take rates […]
Nearly five years ago, Quartz publisher Jay Lauf set out to create “the business news brand of our century.” Lauf sees Quartz well on its way to reaching that goal. At launch, the company aimed to provide readers with a mobile, social-focused alternative to current high-quality business news sites. Most, like The Economist, required a […]
As brands flee the open marketplace, publishers like The New York Times are positioned to scoop up their programmatic spend. The Times’ programmatic strategy has long catered to marketers who value its context. It views programmatic as a way to transact, not a way to secure inventory inexpensively. And more marketers want to use its […]
Header bidding has been great for nToggle. The startup uses machine learning to shape the bidstream for buying platforms. Instead of looking at every potential impression, nToggle filters out ones it thinks the DSP is unlikely to bid on, reducing the amount of queries by an average of 90%. Fewer queries to look at translates […]
Alphabet beat its earnings forecast in the first quarter, sending the stock up 5% in after-hours trading. Revenue increased 22% year over year to $24.75 billion. The positive earnings report, however, was overshadowed by investor questions about the YouTube brand safety crisis. Since January, brands and agencies have withdrawn spend, leading Google to improve controls […]
An advertiser looking to boost response rates for a mobile offer can employ a simple solution: Target commuters on crowded trains. And if there’s a delay or disruption, response rates rise further. The reason? The more crowded the subway car, the more consumers immerse themselves in their phones to avoid contact with the strangers next […]
As header bidding grows, ad exchanges are sending more ad impressions per second and DSPs must evaluate more impressions than ever. The massive uptick in volume, which far outpaces programmatic revenue growth, is straining ad tech infrastructure. With more queries to sift through, it costs more to buy the same ads. And as a result, […]
Most of the 2 million couples who get married each year in the United States visit XO Group’s The Knot website when planning their big event. So how does a company that’s already cornered the wedding-planning market grow? XO Group wants to move from inspiring brides to helping them coordinate their weddings. It hopes to […]
Scale gets digital publishers noticed by advertisers, but audiences increasingly want content addressing niche interests, not broad ones. Some digital pubs, like Vox Media, build out a portfolio of completely separate brands, while others develop sub-brands, like BuzzFeed’s food-focused Tasty. Mic, which raised $21 million in Series C funding in April to fuel expansion, launched […]
Chocolate eggs are big business for Hershey’s, the company behind Reese’s peanut butter cups and Cadbury eggs. The candymaker generates $550 million in sales of Easter candies, making it the second-biggest holiday after Halloween. The beloved Reese’s Eggs fill up Easter baskets everywhere. But this year, the Easter candy market became more competitive as other […]
Black Angus Steakhouse operates 45 restaurants in six states. And it’s just hired its first chief marketing officer, Liz Geavaras, to bring a fresh approach to the 53-year-old restaurant group’s marketing. Geavaras will dial back Black Angus’ heavy print expenditures, replacing them with digital. She also plans to segment customers and customize messages to address […]
Craft beer has wooed away upscale beer drinkers away from imported beers, including 600-year-old beer brand Hacker-Pschorr. The German beer has been popular among German expats in Chicago and Minneapolis for the past few decades. But with the core demographic aging and dialing down its beer consumption, Hacker-Pschorr needed to look at a younger generation […]
The Weinstein Co.’s Oscar-nominated tearjerker “Lion” was a big hit in markets where the distributor expected to see more modest results – including Salt Lake City, Boise, Kentucky, Dallas, Houston, Nebraska, Minneapolis and Las Vegas. Native content created by values-oriented publisher FamilyShare and distributed on Facebook improved the box office receipts in those markets. The […]
In 2015, Gannett started using a free tool from ShareThis to optimize Facebook posts by testing more than one headline or image at a time. Since then the tool has significantly supported two goals: improving Gannett’s engagement on Facebook and driving audiences to USA Today sites such as sports property FTW. “This allows us to […]
PopSugar’s young female readers are turning into young female viewers. What started out a decade ago as a celebrity news site has used its foothold to expand into a dozen verticals, including food, fitness and moms. And PopSugar increasingly tells its stories via video. PopSugar Fitness is the standout, with more than 1 million followers […]
Like other platform-focused media companies, Vice produces lots of data. Its sources include an ad server, programmatic ad exchange, data management platform, site analytics, viewability analytics, order-management software, Facebook and YouTube. As the media brand increased its data team from one to three data scientists, Vice knew it needed to collate its sources and automate […]
