Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Maxxed Out
Google will temporarily allow opt-outs for its search partner network, GSP, which serves ads for searches on non-Google sites, Adweek reports.
Google is responding to a report last week by Adalytics, an ad tech auditing outfit. Adalytics demonstrated how Google advertisers that didn’t opt out of GSP or who used Performance Max could be prompted to serve ads in egregious placements.
Google is responding to advertisers’ all-caps complaints about visibility for GSP, plus a wave of GSP opt-outs from search advertisers – PMax buyers couldn’t opt out before.
But publishers are also sending all-caps emails because the vast majority of GSP inventory is legitimate searches on good faith sites. And PMax itself could find great value in the network if it bids more intelligently than the Google default, which incorporates no contextual logic (so, for instance, a cosmetics brand can’t target searches on makeup and fashion blogs).
This temporary concession doesn’t change Google’s trajectory an inch. That trajectory is to consolidate supply and demand inside machine learning-based black boxes.
This year, Google stopped offering Smart Shopping campaigns, and Google’s Waze Ads ceased to exist. Those products just got folded in, joining Gmail ads, Google Maps ads and other former channels that are now PMax exclusive supply.
Band-Wagoning Fans
Many different media platforms are trying to make their identity backbone into an ID-for-this, as advertisers glom onto first-party data platforms.
For example, Microsoft frames its advertising identity around owning the workplace and the business consumer. But at a much smaller scale, a platform like Nextdoor wants to be the ID for local businesses, or Foursquare for location data.
But where’s the ID for sports fans?
Genius Sports, which operates data and live video feeds for sports and sports gambling companies – the NFL and DraftKings, for instance, use Genius to incorporate real-time stats into video streams and APIs – is taking its shot. On Wednesday, Genius announced FanHub ID, a marketer identity solution that offers a way to programmatically target audiences based on known sports fan personas.
Genius was also a bankruptcy auction bidder for MediaMath, and its new ad business is now led by former MediaMath CTO Manny Puentes.
Quick To Catch Your Eye
Many people are quick to skip video ads. And sticking to the default video ad delivery mode of autoloading ads with no user choice isn’t doing marketers any favors.
Ad choice can decrease ad skip rate and improve attention on the ad, according to a forthcoming Management Science paper. A research team led by MIT Sloan School of Management marketing professor Catherine Tucker found that when users choose to view an ad or select which ad they see, they’re more likely to pay attention to the ad and remember it.
The researchers conducted a series of experiments, two online and four eye-tracking studies in the lab, to study how ad choice affects the efficacy of video ads. They focused on pre-roll video ads, which are common on platforms like YouTube and Hulu. They offered viewers choices between three ads and gave degrees of specific information about the ads in the lineup.
A few tips from their results: Show users new ads, as unfamiliar content increases attention rate. Give users choices for ads, even if they are going to be served an ad regardless. And think beyond pre-roll ads, giving users a choice of which ad to see for banner and overlay online video ads.
But Wait, There’s More!
Google is finally launching its generative AI model, Gemini. [The Wall Street Journal]
Generative AI and radical product personalization. [Mobile Dev Memo]
VideoAmp releases a new identity solution to underpin its measurement and currency products. [Digiday]
Looking back at Netflix’s first year with ads. [Ad Age]
Media companies covet games but are ill-suited to run them. [The Information]
You’re Hired!
Dentsu Americas appoints Annette Warring as chief client officer, Ryan McHardy as chief strategy officer and Sean Reardon as CEO, media practice. [release]
Morning Brew hires Sara Badler as chief commercial officer, advertising. [Axios]
