Working with Google can feel like an arms race.
Header bidding threw Google for a loop, since it took away its priority in the waterfall auction. But Google rebounded when it released a product called exchange bidding more than a year ago. Since then, it has continuously tweaked its auctions to accommodate – or control – the new normal.
Over the past year, Google gave up its last-look advantage, switched to a first-price auction and most recently instituted a bevy of changes under the umbrella of “unified pricing.”
This last change was extremely contentious among online publishers, who are concerned these changes, enacted without their input, will take away their control over their inventory.
None were more vocal than News Corp., a publisher that admittedly has always been quick to clap back at Google. Stephanie Layser, News Corp.’s VP of advertising tech and operations, wrote a scathing column this week questioning Google’s motives for enacting those changes.
This week on The Big Story, Layser joins the AdExchanger team to discuss why publishers are still irritated with Google, and what the tech giant might be able to do about it.
