The Sell Sider

Google’s decision to delay third-party cookie deprecation until 2023 came the day before Salon CRO Justin Wohl’s wedding. Salon had converted its ad business to an open-web programmatic model a few years earlier, so the brief reprieve from signal loss came as a huge relief and another reason to pop some champagne. Since then, Wohl has been laying the groundwork for effective post-cookie monetization on the open web.

As console gaming evolves, mobile provides a blueprint for solving the challenges around attribution, formatting, targeting and integration in free-to-play (F2P) games. To thrive, subscription-based gaming businesses need other means of monetization, and the F2P model is a viable alternative simply because it opens up many other opportunities for revenue besides in-app purchases.

Foundry, formerly known as IDG Communications, wants to shed its old identity and build a new reputation not as a digital publisher but as a provider of data and marketing tech, according to Foundry President Kumaran Ramanathan. Ramanathan spoke to AdExchanger about why Foundry walked away from open-web programmatic, how it’s fusing its first-party data with a marketing and data tech stack and its M&A ambitions.

The Trade Desk’s OpenPath gives advertisers a direct link with premium publishers, collapsing the supply chain from the DSP directly to the publisher’s inventory. While a win under the guise of supply path optimization, it also spells danger for SSPs, the traditional guardians of publisher inventory who now risk being squeezed out entirely, writes Joseph Lospalluto, US Country Manager of ShowHeroes Group.

Google’s new “reject all” cookies button is about to disrupt the entire ad tech ecosystem even more. The next era of ad tech is about user consent, not cookies, writes Joe Root, CEO of Permutive. And the age of opt-outs means publishers and advertisers need solutions to serve an ad without processing user data – and some are already making mistakes.

As an advertising vehicle, podcasts have yet to reach their full potential due to a limited array of formats and a relatively small amount of inventory. To take full advantage of ad monetization, the podcasting industry will need to “rip up its playbook,” writes Paul Kelly, Chief Revenue Officer of A Million Ads. But there are ways the industry can bring podcasting revenue to its full potential.

Google announced it will add the Optimized Pricing feature to its current ad inventory pricing model, Unified Pricing Rules (UPR), for all publishers. The idea is to protect the value of publisher inventory by preventing buyers from purchasing it for less than what it’s worth, writes Kean Wang, VP of product and strategy at Intowow. But how will Google determine inventory worth when it provides services for both publishers and buyers?

Go to any SSP or DSP website and you’re likely to see a mention of programmatic “premium.” But programmatic premium shouldn’t stop at inventory – ad tech companies should also be supplying premium service to make sure advertisers can actually optimize their buys by maximizing the value of that premium inventory, writes Steve Pelletier, SVP of strategic partnerships & corp development at FatTail.

The erosion of third-party cookies and the fragmentation of identity have compelled publishers to rebuild their first-party data strategies. And the IAB Tech Lab’s Self-Defined Audiences (SDA) might be one of the most significant standards building toward a set of post-cookie digital advertising solutions that aggregate and normalize audience data points across publishers’ domains, writes Vlad Stesin, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Optable.

The programmatic market continues to boom as marketers shift more of their budgets to digital channels. But despite the incredible scale of this ecosystem, the market is still maturing – and true price discovery and price setting at a level of granularity that reflects true marketplace dynamics can help fill some of those gaps, writes Andrew Casale, president and CEO of Index Exchange.

In the affiliate marketing world, publishers pursued the same goal retailers are pursuing today: to convert online intent into a shopper journey. Affiliate nets work with performance marketers, so retailers should branch out to digital-native marketers, writes Michael Jacobi, co-founder and CEO of Button.

Without the email address of the person you’re targeting, your digital ad isn’t working as hard as it should. But consumers are getting wary. The advertising industry needs to give consumers back control over communication before machine-generated emails threaten inventory monetization just like ad blockers, writes Keith Petri, CEO & Founder of lockr.

It’s been a brutal few years for advertisers trying to drive lift while remaining sensitive to real issues and staying true to the brand. One area that has provided a respite from this noise was confidence in their measurement and verification tactics – but that sense of comfort may be coming to an end, writes Mark Zagorski, CEO of DoubleVerify.

Ad tech companies are looking to expand beyond the content recommendation box to run display ads across the open web. Taboola and Outbrain have been closing acquisitions to make it happen – but other public companies like Google, Apple and Amazon are financially poised to compete, writes Alon Rosenthal, CEO & Founder of WhizzCo.

Google’s FLEDGE proposal presents an opportunity for a more transparent bidding process. But there are concerns around whether FLEDGE will treat all supply-side platforms (SSPs) equally in programmatic auctions within Google’s marketplace, writes RTB House’s Lukasz Wlodarczyk. Remember Google’s secret Jedi Blue agreement with Meta (formerly known as Facebook)?

There is a ton of fear and hysteria right now on both the buy side and the sell side, as the death of the third-party cookie nears. But there are still plenty of powerful ways to target audiences that don’t involve technology, writes Erik Requidan, Founder and CEO of Media Tradecraft.

The cookieless future is daunting, and publishers who prepare now will have a competitive advantage over those who aren’t ready. But publishers will need more than unified ID initiatives, which could take years, writes Todd Tran, Chief Strategy Officer at Teads. Publishers should start now by prioritizing contextual signals and a content monetization strategy.

88% of advertisers say they’re still using cookies – which is down from 97% in May last year, says Nicole Perrin, VP of Business Intelligence at Advertiser Perceptions. Cookies are eroding well ahead of Google’s “sunset date,” so publishers need contextual and cohort-based alternatives to stay competitive with a “one-to-some” offering.

BDG sees opportunity in the parenting vertical, and its acquisition last year of Some Spider was a major step toward ramping up its focus on parenting. The publisher plans to continue creating an ecommerce-focused experience across its portfolio that allows endemic brands to target users throughout their parenting journey, according to Sharon Mussalli, BDG’s EVP of revenue and operations.

While Topics API is a significant improvement from Google’s initial proposal, FLoC, there’s a more efficient and privacy-compliant window into interest-based advertising, says Stephanie Layser, News Corp’s VP of data, identity and ad tech. The answer? Seller-Defined Audiences (SDA).

There’s an industry-wide scramble to replace third-party cookies – but it’s unreasonable to expect that just one solution will become a silver bullet, writes Garrett McGrath, SVP of product at Magnite. Solving for identity will require a range of solutions and more involvement on the sell side.

Brand advertisers want the chance to engage with consumers in the metaverse. But platforms and publisher reactions are more … “meh.” The media industry should be cleaning up our current digital environments before “mucking up the metaverse,” writes Gavin Dunaway, product marketing lead at The Media Trust.

If you know the brand Ibotta, you’re likely thinking of the popular cash-back app. Users upload receipts of in-store purchases and redeem credit for products listed for promotion in the app. But while that business still exists – and still represents the majority of Ibotta’s revenue – the company is shifting from DTC app to B2B2C performance marketing network.

Over the years, publishers have accused advertisers of prioritizing the wrong metrics. But that’s only one side of the story – as gatekeepers of quality media environments, publishers and media owners have a massive responsibility to focus on quality, too, writes Alessandro De Zanche, audience and data strategy consultant.

To better monetize branded content, the Financial Times is investing more in brand lift measurement. FT is partnering with analytics provider Brand Metrics to implement the firm’s ad exposure algorithms into FT’s multiplatform approach to branded content, said global insight director Enzo Diliberto.

The Weather Company is a large publisher with lots of first-party data and, with investments from IBM Watson Advertising, it’s using AI technology to mitigate bias in advertising. The goal is to use both to monetize quality content above short-term gains in ad revenue, says CEO Sheri Bachstein.

Consolidation is a natural and necessary part of a maturing industry’s life cycle. But not all consolidation yields the same outcomes, particularly when it comes to mobile gaming, writes Itai Cohen, head of marketing and corporate strategy at Digital Turbine.

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Bob Walczak, CEO, MadTech Advisors.  The future is cookieless. This we all know. But the industry faces a long road ahead before cookieless audience targeting becomes the norm. Sure, context and cohort targeting provide […]

The Trade Desk’s OpenPath demonstrates supply path optimization (SPO) is moving from concept to reality. But what does it practically mean for publishers or yield teams tasked with driving business KPIs? The question is to whom SPO is important, writes Emry DowningHall, SVP of programmatic revenue and strategy at Unwind Media.

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Julie Rubash, chief privacy counsel at Sourcepoint.  Dark patterns – or website designs that manipulate users into performing specific actions – are widespread these days. In fact, one recent study from Princeton examined 11,000 shopping […]