It’s not that publishers aren’t keen to do their part to reduce media-related carbon emissions; they just don’t want to make changes without understanding the impact on their revenue.
That was the vibe at Sharethrough’s Green Media Summit in New York City last week, where publishers frankly discussed what they need from their ad tech partners.
And what they want won’t surprise you: access to way more data.
For many publishers, the desire to reduce the number of auctions is there, but the data to support implementing that change is not.
“We are missing so much data in the ecosystem,” said Bridget Williams, chief commercial officer and SVP of digital publishing for Hearst Newspapers.
Data is king
Despite the persistent belief that more bid requests translates into more revenue, the reality is that running too many auctions is wasteful.
But with access to log-level data, publishers can see the raw data associated with every ad impression and, at least in theory, make smarter, more efficient decisions that lead to better viewability and outcomes for advertisers.
Put it like that, and sustainability sells itself.
But publishers can also cut down on carbon and create a foundation to grow their business by analyzing their own internal data, including revenue data, on-site engagement metrics, subscription data and ad performance data, said Stephanie Layser, global head of publisher ad tech at AWS.
This way, a publisher isn’t “always chasing different KPIs in different silos of [their] business,” said Layser. “You’re actually starting to decision holistically.”
Mo’ money, mo’ problems
But publishers are still holding back from going all in on reducing the number of auctions they participate in for fear of losing revenue.
Yet it is possible to reduce bid volume without taking a financial hit.
Take casual gaming publisher Unwind Media, which successfully reduced its ad requests to SSPs by more than 50%. It did so by bundling multiple requests and throttling or outright blocking buyers from an auction if they aren’t likely to result in a bid, according to Emry Downinghall, SVP of programmatic revenue and strategy.
This also saves SSPs money since they don’t have to run as many auctions.
Similarly, ad management and monetization platform Mediavine has seen speed and viewability benefits among its publishers, without compromising on revenue, from running fewer auctions, said Julia Li, director of social impact and sustainability at Mediavine.
But there’s still a limit to how far Mediavine will go, she said.
Despite constantly monitoring the performance of its SSP partners and cutting the low performers, “at the end of the day,” Li said, “if we don’t work with these 25 SSPs, that means we would take a very significant revenue hit.”
Look on the bright side
Clearly, sustainable digital advertising isn’t as simple as asking publishers to stop overdoing it on bid requests.
So where do we go from here?
It’s time to focus less on “what’s wrong,” said Downinghall, and start recognizing publishers that are creating value as an incentive for doing the right thing. At that point, the industry will start to see greater adoption of sustainability solutions.
Meanwhile, publishers will eventually realize, thanks to “the right analytics,” that more isn’t necessarily better, Layser said.
It’s not the best financial decision to “stuff as many partners in” as possible to try and maximize revenue, she said.
