These days, every dollar counts for publishers.
And the comments section offers one more way for publishers to monetize their engagement.
Kelly Andresen, the former president of national sales at USA Today, recently jumped to the ad tech side. Since September, she’s served as EVP of demand sales for publisher monetization platform OpenWeb.
OpenWeb specializes in building, moderating and monetizing website comment sections and email newsletters. It places ad inventory inside emails and comment threads, sells that inventory through its SSP and shares the revenue with publishers. Publishers can also hire OpenWeb to drive community engagement under a SaaS model, a revenue-sharing model or a combination of both.
While publishers are aware of the monetization potential of newsletters, comment sections remain an untapped gold mine of intent-based data, according to Andresen. She pointed to platforms like Reddit that are gaining traction with advertisers because they feature conversations between real people about the topics that matter to them. Comment sections feature real dialogue, although these sections are not without brand safety concerns, she acknowledged.
OpenWeb added Andresen as part of its push to expand in the US market, beyond its traditional focus on the UK and France. It’s spinning up a direct sales team with Andresen at the helm. It also launched Community Exchange, an ad targeting platform powered by anonymized discussion data sourced from more than 100 million logged-in users who comment on posts across its network. OpenWeb gets access to this data from a tracking pixel integrated into partner sites.
Andresen spoke to AdExchanger about how she’s guiding OpenWeb’s direct sales push with her publishing experience in mind.
AdExchanger: What’s stood out to you so far about making the transition from the publisher side to the tech side?
KELLY ANDRESEN: The biggest change has been that OpenWeb doesn’t own all of our ad inventory. That changes things when it comes to day-to-day operations, the value we provide advertisers and how we manage the waterfall.
The huge value in working for a tech company, as someone who oversees direct demand, is now I have a closer relationship to the product. When I get feedback on what advertisers need, there is a direct channel into the product, and I have a much stronger voice.
Like you said, you’re working for a company that doesn’t own the inventory. The largest independent DSP, The Trade Desk, says it’s more efficient for buyers, publishers and DSPs to have a direct supply path rather than working with ad networks and SSPs. How is OpenWeb responding to the aggressive stance DSPs are taking against intermediaries?
We’re creating a direct sales team that works with publisher direct teams, rather than working against each other. It’s the reason I’m here.
There is some ad inventory that appears within comment sections that only OpenWeb can sell. Which means it’s a direct path for us to bring in demand, even if it’s monetized programmatically. That kind of direct business doesn’t have to only run through large DSPs. But I also see DSPs as partners, especially as we bring OpenWeb to the US market for the first time.
Another part of your remit is establishing an SSP business. How are you thinking about standing out in an increasingly commoditized SSP marketplace?
Prior to my joining OpenWeb, it purchased an SSP called ADYOULIKE that’s primarily operating in the UK and Europe, and Jeeng, an email business that’s primarily operating in the US. We also have exclusive inventory through our publisher partners, but never had a direct sales team selling that. Now we’re bringing all of that together to pitch advertisers on being their full-service marketing partner.
Coming from a news publisher, you know advertisers are sensitive about brand safety. OpenWeb monetizes website comment sections. But haven’t publishers been removing comment sections from their sites because of toxicity? How do you convince advertisers those environments are brand safe?
When commenting first came out, you saw so much authentic engagement. Then it turned into inappropriate comments and fake links. It became a full-time job to moderate the comments, and a lot of publishers just shut it down. Which is sad, because people want to engage with the content and each other.
OpenWeb has more than five layers of moderation, including our AI we built in-house that handles 90% of the moderation, and then humans handling that final layer. We also work with third parties to verify the ads appear in brand-safe environments.
And comment sections are more valuable today for independent publishers looking for ways to engage people. How do you get someone to give you one more page view or register an email address? Giving them a place to engage in a healthy way is a huge driver.
What are your immediate priorities going forward?
Number one is introducing OpenWeb to the advertising marketplace. There’s very little awareness of us as an ad partner outside of publishers. Second is continuing to drive home the value of engaged audiences. If you can prove that a person made a comment about a given product, topic or service, that’s closely aligned with intent. And intent is something that’s difficult for content companies to prove.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
For more articles featuring Kelly Andresen, click here.
