TripleLift https://triplelift.com Programmatic Advertising Platform Reinvented Fri, 21 Aug 2020 14:16:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.2 https://triplelift.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/cropped-PIXEL-PERFECT-TL-ALLorange-1-32x32.png TripleLift https://triplelift.com 32 32 Directness Test Reveals the Perils of Resold Impressions https://triplelift.com/blog/directness-test-reveals-perils-resold-inventory/ Wed, 19 Aug 2020 14:07:00 +0000 https://triplelift.com/?p=25714 Buying Direct Inventory Increases Win Rates, Impressions & Clicks Per Dollar Spent IntroductionThe programmatic ecosystem is rife with duplication and redundancy, resulting in operational and financial inefficiencies for both the...

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Buying Direct Inventory Increases Win Rates, Impressions & Clicks Per Dollar Spent

Introduction
The programmatic ecosystem is rife with duplication and redundancy, resulting in operational and financial inefficiencies for both the buy and sell-sides. In fact, many articles have been written searching for “the lost 15%” of programmatic spend that often seems unaccounted for. We went searching for that delta and revealed compelling insights.

At TripleLift, we believe that following the most direct path to an impression yields the greatest benefit to both marketers and publishers. In order to test this theory, we conducted an A/B test to measure performance across different buying channels – one direct, and one through an intermediary exchange – to demonstrate the quantitative impact of removing intermediaries from the supply chain.

The Test
This analysis evaluated the same campaigns, launched by the same brands, bidding on the same publisher inventory, with the same bidding strategies, on the same DSP. The only difference between path A vs. B was the inclusion of an intermediary exchange, adding a hop to the transaction, and taking a nominal fee (5-10%). In this case, the intermediary exchange was reselling the same publisher inventory available in the original exchange. Our test looked at over $680,000 in live media spend, representing 385M impressions that ran over a 30-day time period. 

Executive Summary

Buying inventory directly – with no intermediary exchanges or resellers – improves your campaign performance, auction performance, and bottom line.

The Results
The test yielded significant differences in performance across path A vs. B, and a variety of key programmatic metrics:

  • Win rates are 3.8x higher when buying directly (vs. through an intermediary exchange). In a competitive ecosystem dominated by header bidding, downstream win rate is directly linked to improving a marketer’s access to premium inventory and ability to deliver a campaign.  
  • CPMs: Clearing CPMs are 28% lower when buying directly. Removing a financial intermediary from the transaction allows lower bids to win more often in auction. 
  • CPC: Cost-per-click (CPC) is 220% lower when buying directly. This metric is a direct function of media cost, which was lower on average via the direct path. 
  • Auction performance: Bids beat competitor’s bids 40% more often when buying directly. Outbidding competitive bids from other DSPs improves a marketer’s access to the most highly coveted inventory and users.

What It Means for Buyers

At the end of the day, being an effective buyer of media means two things: having transparency into the inventory and maximizing performance. Checking sellers.json and ads.txt files helps with the former and this test shows that performance is optimized through the most direct paths to inventory. Taking a sample $100k media budget, buying programmatic media directly – without the presence of resellers – directly delivers 14m more impressions on 2.2b fewer bids, leading to more clicks and other performance KPIs.

For more information on directness and this study in particular, reach out to us….directly.

Download the case study results.

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Rooting Out the 3 Biggest Problems in Programmatic Advertising https://triplelift.com/blog/rooting-out-the-3-biggest-problems-in-programmatic-advertising/ Tue, 18 Aug 2020 13:23:02 +0000 https://triplelift.com/?p=25698 As the old expression goes: ‘ad tech giveth and ad tech taketh away.’ Ok…that might not be an actual expression, but we all know it’s true. Programmatic media has given...

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As the old expression goes: ‘ad tech giveth and ad tech taketh away.’ Ok…that might not be an actual expression, but we all know it’s true. Programmatic media has given us scaled impressions, data targeting, publisher monetization and so much more. But, along with each of these innovations has come some unintended – and undesired – consequences.

At TripleLift, we see three main challenges to a clean, programmatic media:

  • Resold impressions
  • Ad fraud
  • Misinformation sites

Taken together, these three problems create waste, reduce the performance of your buys and make for brand safety challenges that are a stain on the ecosystem.

The burden should not fall on advertisers to police the industry, so at TripleLift, we have taken it upon ourselves to be the solution. It’s all part of something we call our Triple Lock Promise. 

We promise 3 things:

  • Zero resold impressions
  • Lowest ad fraud rates in the industry
  • No misinformation sites on your buys

Let us tell you how we do it and what it means for you.

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Success Stories From Women at the Top: CafeMedia’s Shobha Doshi https://triplelift.com/blog/success-stories-women-cafemedia/ Tue, 11 Aug 2020 10:00:00 +0000 https://triplelift.com/?p=25681 Welcome to TripleLift’s Publisher Spotlight Series! Every month we’ll share an interview with one of our premium publishers, highlighting unique stories and uncovering valuable insights. This week we’re speaking with...

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Welcome to TripleLift’s Publisher Spotlight Series! Every month we’ll share an interview with one of our premium publishers, highlighting unique stories and uncovering valuable insights. This week we’re speaking with Shobha Doshi, VP, Programmatic Strategy & Operations at CafeMedia. Read on to learn about how Shobha became an important piece of the CafeMedia puzzle and her advice on maximizing your potential.

Thanks for joining us Shobha! To kick things off, can you tell us about your early career? What do you think was key to getting your foot in the door?

My very first job out of college, where I studied marketing and psychology, was on the Marketing team at Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Right after that came my first foray into the digital advertising world as a Media Planner at The New York Times. At that point, I took a break from working to get my MBA. Having some real-world business experience really helped me to apply a lot of what I was learning in the graduate program and set the path for my next step. Once I graduated, I joined up with CafeMedia (then CafeMom!). I’ve been at CafeMedia for almost nine years, which is a lifetime in our industry. 

When did you know that Programmatic advertising was an area you wanted to focus on? 

I’ve always been interested in marketing in some form or another, but originally fell into digital by chance at NYT. When I continued to pursue it at CafeMedia, there were a small handful of us who kicked off programmatic advertising as a kind of second job. And it took off like wildfire. I find it such an interesting space because it’s always evolving. You can count on coming across something new frequently and that has continued to challenge and educate me.   

What intrigued you the most about CafeMedia and what keeps you engaged? 

After working at two large companies, I wanted to get the experience of a smaller company. Everyone I met there was smart and savvy, and it felt like a scrappy company where I could learn so much and grow as they grew. And that’s exactly what’s happened — I went from being a Sales Development Manager to helping build the Programmatic team from the ground up. Our goal is to help our publishers do what they love best and excel at, which is creating amazing content for their users and not having to worry about managing their ad revenue. CafeMedia is a leader in the programmatic ecosystem, and I want to make sure we continue to push forward and innovate with our partners alongside us. 

What advice would you give to women who are interested in a career in ad tech? 

As with many industries, women are underrepresented in ad tech, and that’s even more true for women of color. I would encourage women to fight for themselves — speak up, ask for what you deserve, and keep on pushing until you get it. It has been and will be a long road, but we are our own best advocates and can continue to set a good example for the next generation of women coming into the workforce. I would also add that for those who have already found some success, we should take up the responsibility to pay it forward and help up-and-coming women to succeed. 

What tips do you have for achieving the ever elusive work/life balance?

First of all, acknowledge that it’s hard. You don’t have to “have it all” — you have to do what works for you and your situation. There may be weeks that are more work, but make sure that there are weeks that are more life and family too. Get help, in whatever form that takes, and don’t be afraid to ask for it. Find a company that cares about YOU and will help with creating that balance.

How have you been handling the Covid-19 pandemic from a work perspective? 

Our HQ is in New York City so, similar to many other businesses there, the office has been closed since March. The majority of us were actually remote before the pandemic, so we were in a good spot to make the virtual transition relatively smoothly. We had already heavily embraced Zoom, but now we’ve added in virtual happy hours and more frequent check-ins. I’ve been encouraging my team to remember to take time off, even if it’s to do nothing, since it’s been easier than ever to forget that everyone still needs recharge and reset time.  

From a publisher perspective, what are the challenges that programmatic is facing right now that keep you up at night?

Similar to a lot of others in the industry, I’m constantly thinking about identity, privacy, and third-party cookies going away. We’ve been planning for this for a long time and are always testing solutions and partnerships that will help to mitigate a lot of these issues. We’ve also leaned into context and our advertiser partnerships in a big way. CafeMedia has been very vocal in the industry to make sure that independent publishers have a strong advocate and are encouraging other partners and publishers to do the same. It will be a landmark time for our industry, and I think we’ll come out of it with some really innovative and groundbreaking ideas.

What is one lesson you wish you had learned earlier in your career?

Imposter syndrome is real, most commonly for women — I wish I had realized earlier what I was feeling and how to address it. I believe it held me back from pushing forward in certain situations and points in my career, though I was fully capable. It has been a process to fight it, and it still rears its head sometimes, but I continue to remind myself and encourage other women to be aware, be confident, and know yourself.

When you’re not making things happen at CafeMedia, what do you like to do for fun?

Spend time with my two boys and husband — we’ve had to be more creative these days to find activities to keep us busy and get out of the house safely, so we end up in our backyard a lot running around. I also love to read, so whenever I can, I’ll have my nose in a book. Pre-COVID, I really enjoyed traveling and hope we can get back to a new normal where that’s possible again. In the meantime, I’ve been exploring local hiking spots to get outdoors for a change of scenery.

For more information about TripleLift, our publishers, or how to be featured in a publisher spotlight, please contact us here.

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TripleLift Triple Lock Promise https://triplelift.com/blog/triple-lock-promise/ Wed, 05 Aug 2020 08:00:00 +0000 https://triplelift.com/?p=25612 Securing Your Media…and Your Brand You’ve set your strategy, planned your media and designed the perfect creative. The last thing you should have to worry about is the quality and...

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Securing Your Media…and Your Brand

You’ve set your strategy, planned your media and designed the perfect creative. The last thing you should have to worry about is the quality and safety of your media placements. But depending on who you’re buying from, that’s likely your biggest concern.  At TripleLift, we hold our media to higher standards, so we created the Triple Lock Promise.

Zero Resold Impressions

Media dollars should go to media, not resellers. Bidding on directly sourced inventory increases your win rate by 4x while decreasing your CPM by at least 25%.  That is why our 36 Billion daily impressions are sourced directly from publishers.

Lowest Industry Fraud Rate

Because we scan for fraud before the bid, our inventory is 99.6% pure. While we know that there are super savvy criminals that stay one step ahead of the industry, we humbly brag that we have the lowest fraud rate in the industry (0.4% according to White Ops).

No Misinformation Sites

We believe in the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so we’ve partnered with NewsGuard to ensure your media dollars only go to credible sources. By removing sites from our platform that have been flagged for misinformation, hate speech and other malicious content we don’t fund bad actors…and neither will you.Since we built our inventory from the ground up, we don’t need any of the gimmicks that help other exchanges get their scale. Our inventory is clean and our aim is true.

To learn more about TripleLift and our Triple Lock Promise, ping us at partners@triplelift.com

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TripleLift is the Direct Exchange [Infographic] https://triplelift.com/blog/direct-exchange/ Mon, 03 Aug 2020 08:00:00 +0000 https://triplelift.com/?p=25598 What does it mean to be the No Waste, Brand Safe, Lowest Fraud, Omni-Channel, High Performance, Direct Exchange?  To us, it means building relationships directly with publishers, investing in respected...

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What does it mean to be the No Waste, Brand Safe, Lowest Fraud, Omni-Channel, High Performance, Direct Exchange?  To us, it means building relationships directly with publishers, investing in respected partners and technologies and offering only the purest inventory. For our advertisers directness delivers so much more.

Reach out to us to see for yourself how much your campaigns can benefit from the world’s: No Waste, Brand Safe, Lowest Fraud, Omni-Channel, High Performance, Direct Exchange.

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TripleLift Forges Partnership with NewsGuard as Ad Industry Confronts the Funding of Misinformation Sites https://triplelift.com/blog/triplelift-forges-partnership-with-newsguard/ Tue, 21 Jul 2020 21:00:00 +0000 https://triplelift.com/?p=25560 TripleLift will use NewsGuard’s ratings of news sources to root out low credibility sites and remove sources of funding TripleLift, one of the fastest-growing ad tech companies in the world...

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TripleLift will use NewsGuard’s ratings of news sources to root out low credibility sites and remove sources of funding

TripleLift, one of the fastest-growing ad tech companies in the world announced an agreement to work with NewsGuard, the company that fights misinformation by rating and reviewing thousands of news and information websites for credibility and transparency. TripleLift will use NewsGuard’s rating system to remove sites from its roster that do not meet acceptable standards of credibility. The agreement was made as a response to the increasing number of websites positioning themselves as news but instead operating in misinformation.

The monetization of these sites has become a flashpoint in the advertising industry. The properties – sometimes referred to as fake news sites – have proliferated over the last few years, publishing opinion and conspiracy theories that are often confused by consumers as fact.  Consumer advocacy groups have demanded brands stop advertising on sites due to their potentially harmful or hurtful content. The recent boycott by brands of Facebook has received a great deal of attention, but content shared on its platform actually originates from standalone properties on both sides of the political spectrum. TripleLift, which prides itself on offering premium inventory to its agency and brand customers, is actively working to rid its platform of these questionable properties.

NewsGuard has worked with agencies and publishers, but this is the first time a programmatic ad exchange – or Supply Side Platform (SSP) – has struck a relationship. “In service of offering brand safe environments for buyers, we have been manually removing websites from our roster that we believe to be in conflict with appropriate news standards,” said Max Dowaliby, Director of Product Management at TripleLift. “But our core competency is building ad products, so at some point our decisions become subjective. NewsGuard gives us the ability to use a respected third-party system, managed by experts.”

“As a Supply-Side Exchange, TripleLift cuts checks to 3,500 properties every month,” said Jordan Bitterman, CMO of TripleLift. “We’re proud of our scale and how we help fund such a large number of premium publishers. Our partnership with NewsGuard is important to help ensure we do not monetize misinformation or hate speech, which is bad business, inconsistent with our company values, and in conflict with how our advertisers want to spend their dollars.”

NewsGuard assesses websites based on nine criteria including: does not repeatedly publish false information, gathers information responsibly, regularly corrects or clarifies errors, avoids deceptive headlines and reveals conflicts of interest. The company employs a team of trained journalists and experienced editors to review and assign ratings. It was founded by Co-CEOs Steven Brill, who also founded The American Lawyer, Court TV and the Yale Journalism Initiative, and Gordon Crovitz, former publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

“The plague of misinformation that our society faces today–from health and medical hoaxes to toxic propaganda–is often unknowingly funded by programmatic advertisers,” Brill  explained. “We’re pleased to see Triple Lift taking the lead among SSPs in ensuring that ad dollars spent on news content are directed toward trustworthy sources instead–using our transparent, humanly curated data about source reliability to do so with fairness, accuracy and transparency.”

TripleLift will address their publisher roster each month based on NewsGuard’s regularly updated rankings. This partnership comes on the heels of TripleLift’s “Help Journalism” programmatic media initiative designed to boost the struggling news publishing industry which has been hit hard during the pandemic with sharply declining revenue in part due to a rise in advertisers’ excluding news and news sites from their buys. 

About TripleLift

TripleLift, one of the fastest-growing ad tech companies in the world, is a technology company rooted at the intersection of creative and media. Its mission is to make advertising better for everyone— content owners, advertisers and consumers—by reinventing ad placement one medium at a time. With direct inventory sources, diverse product lines, and creative designed for scale using our Computer Vision technology, TripleLift is driving the next generation of programmatic advertising from desktop to television. As of January 2020, TripleLift has recorded four years of consecutive growth of greater than 70 percent, and in 2019 added employees and locations in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. TripleLift is a Business Insider Hottest AdTech Company, Inc. Magazine 5000, Crain’s New York Fast 50, and Deloitte Technology Fast 500. Find more information about how TripleLift is shaping the future of advertising at triplelift.com.

About NewsGuard

NewsGuard was launched in September 2018 by award winning journalist and media entrepreneur Steven Brill and former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz. The company provides credibility ratings and detailed “Nutrition Labels” for thousands of news and information websites. NewsGuard rates all the news and information websites that account for 95% of online engagement across the US, UK, Germany, France, and Italy. NewsGuard rates each site based on nine apolitical criteria of journalistic practice, including whether a site repeatedly publishes false content, whether it regularly corrects or clarifies errors, and whether it avoids deceptive headlines. It awards weighted points for each criterion and sums them up; a score of less than 60 earns a “Red” rating, while 60 and above earns a “Green” rating, which indicates it is generally reliable. For more information, including to download the browser extension and review the ratings process, visit newsguardtech.com/get-newsguard/

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Programmatic Video Buyers Playbook [Download] https://triplelift.com/blog/programmatic-video-buyers-playbook/ Fri, 17 Jul 2020 00:50:17 +0000 https://triplelift.com/?p=25532 Programmatic digital video is one of the fastest growing channels for ad spend, and is continuing to take on a larger share of overall spend. Today, it seemingly consumes every...

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Programmatic digital video is one of the fastest growing channels for ad spend, and is continuing to take on a larger share of overall spend. Today, it seemingly consumes every second of our day as it continues to proliferate new verticals, channels, platforms, and places and provide advertisers with more ways than ever to connect with people.

As a buyer, having an agile video strategy will help deliver return on ad spend, drive legitimate conversions, and help you stay relevant no matter what trends emerge. We’ve put together the Programmatic Video Buyers Playbook for advertisers looking to create an agile video strategy that not only connects with their audience but can also withstand the test of time.

Our playbook will help you identify:

  • What you can actually do about fragmented viewership
  • How you can switch from linear to OTT including best practices
  • What to look for when consolidating video vendors

It’s time to solidify a winning video strategy. Download the playbook now.

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Weathering Covid-19: How IBM Watson Advertising Navigated the Year’s Most Surprising Curveball https://triplelift.com/blog/weathering-covid-19-ibm-watson-advertising/ Tue, 14 Jul 2020 14:38:23 +0000 https://triplelift.com/blog/weathering-covid-19-ibm-watson-advertising-copy/ Welcome to TripleLift’s Publisher Spotlight Series! Every month, we’ll share an interview with one of our premium publishers that highlights unique stories and uncovers valuable insights. In our first series...

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Welcome to TripleLift’s Publisher Spotlight Series! Every month, we’ll share an interview with one of our premium publishers that highlights unique stories and uncovers valuable insights. In our first series post, we’re speaking with Amanda Dean, Head of Programmatic Partnerships and Strategies for IBM Watson Advertising. Read on to learn about how Amanda and IBM are dealing with Covid-19 and how Watson is doing its part to help!

Thanks for joining us Amanda! First, we’d love to get to know you a bit. Can you tell our readers a little bit about yourself – your role and what you like to do for fun?

I have been at IBM Watson Advertising since April of 2016. I lead our major demand partnerships with SSPs, providers like TripleLift, re-marketers, and programmatic tech platforms. I work with Product and Compliance to ensure we are providing a premium user experience and new ad formats all while striving to monetize our inventory in a privacy safe manner. 

I bought my first house last Summer and am learning to garden. I am hoping I have inherited my mom’s green thumb. So far so good! I love the outdoors and travel! Spending time at the beach on Fire Island, hiking, skiing, and scuba diving are all things I love to get out and do. For relaxation, I love to watch stand up comedians, anything HGTV, and read trashy romance novels. It’s great escapism – especially these days on lock down. 

We’re sure that like everyone else, you had no idea this pandemic was coming. What was the moment when you realized that this was a big deal? Did you encounter any specific, significant work-related issues that you had to overcome when the pandemic started?

I was on vacation in Mexico and they started to issue State Department warnings on the Hotel TVs. That’s when I knew this was very, very serious. We flew home March 20th and spent the next 3 months in quarantine. 

Luckily, we didn’t encounter many work issues. Our main challenge was to ensure our team was safe and healthy and stayed that way. We started working from home and have been sailing fairly smoothly since. We are being more flexible on work hours and when someone’s kid or pet shows up on a call- it’s embraced and enjoyed instead of seen as a hindrance. I’ve particularly enjoyed seeing my colleagues’ home life and have some major home office envy.

Once you knew that Covid-19 would impact your business, what steps did you take to ensure that IBM Watson Advertising stayed successful? 

I am so proud of the steps IBM took. The Product team pulled together a knowledge hub of all things Covid. Using AI and the Watson Ads platform, we were able to produce a section on the sites and apps that provide local infection rates and trends in real time for every county in the US. The Watson ad provided crucial information on the pandemic, guides on sanitizing, staying safe and even offering ideas of things to do. We have been staying in touch with our clients to ensure we share the info we are producing. 

I felt it was important to take care of our staff and ensure they were doing ok through all this – we became more flexible, checked in regularly and began reinforcing the importance of self-care. We also reached out to partners to make sure they knew we were here for them, provided any optimization opportunities and any forecast data we could, given it was Spring storm season. 

We went back to basics. We are constantly optimizing our mix of units, floors, and partners to ensure we provide a strong demand mix and quality ad experiences for our readers. When demand took a major hit in mid-March, we took a look at our ad footprint and reduced our capacity so we didn’t flood the market. We leaned in with partners to gauge where demand was still strong (like Video) and worked to provide them a path to that inventory. Having strong, mutually beneficial partnerships is key. Regular calls and updates with partners help ensure we can weather the economic storm together by capitalizing on opportunities.  

How are you keeping your team engaged and do you have any tips for other leaders like you?

We are hosting video happy hours where we do more than just talk business. Recently, we asked the team to share a few photos of a trip they took and talk about what they learned or enjoyed. It was so fun to see all the places folks have been. You get to really know your team by sharing these kinds of personal experiences. Having that personal connection is key in times like these. It has been a great team building exercise. 

Clear deadlines and expectations of what needs to be done are important. Using Tools like Slack and text messages make it easy to facilitate individual check-ins and ensure everyone is doing ok, adjusting, and able to accomplish what they need. As I mentioned before, we are being flexible with work hours and encouraging colleagues to take time off to decompress. My best piece of advice is to be supportive of the employee’s whole life. Offer flexibility, support, understanding, and empathy. 

What consumer trends are you seeing on your site that have surprised you over the last few months? What industry shifts did you anticipate and which did you find surprising?  

Everyone loves the Sinkhole videos!! There’s not been one major trend that’s really surprised us. We were incredibly happy to see demand returning as early as it did in June as areas started reopening in certain parts of the country. 

We all expected the downturn in demand as businesses closed. For me the surprising part has been the number of companies that are surviving and innovating through all this. We’ve all heard that the Lumascape companies would merge and purge. We’ve seen some companies go, but I’m encouraged by those that are evolving and staying relevant. With challenges come opportunities. I’m excited to see what opportunities emerge in our industry for marketers and publishers as we move forward. 

And finally, it’s 11pm and Netflix is shaming you with their “are you still watching?” popup. What show have you been binging?

I tend to binge watch shows like Below Deck or Say Yes to the Dress as my guilty pleasures! I also love nature documentaries: BBC Nature, Nova, Nat Geo, and Animal Planet have heavy rotation in my channel selections. I’m a big Nature nerd! 

**For more information about TripleLift, our publishers, or how to be featured in a publisher spotlight, please contact us here.

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How Agile is Your Video Strategy? Part 2 https://triplelift.com/blog/how-agile-is-your-video-strategy-part-2/ Wed, 08 Jul 2020 09:00:00 +0000 https://triplelift.com/?p=25366 In our last post, we provided a series of tips for advertisers looking to create an agile video strategy. In this post, we continue to help you with more ways to...

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In our last post, we provided a series of tips for advertisers looking to create an agile video strategy. In this post, we continue to help you with more ways to solidify a winning video strategy.

Shifts in consumer behavior that hinge on personalized, always-on access to video, across every screen, have made video the largest pool of online content according to Deloitte. Leading video to become the place where every ad tech provider wants and needs to be. However, too much of anything can be bad for you.

As video consumption continues to expand, the advertising market is beginning to shrink. Once known as the wild west of the industry, video is trying to combat the rise in fraud and change its reputation. Last year 44% of publishers told Digiday that they plan to cut back the number of ad tech providers they work with and will only continue using partners who can show substantial value. Advertisers simultaneously are looking for partnerships that can do more for less. The result has been mergers and acquisitions of companies looking to gain scale or inventory advantages.

The Rise of Header Bidding

The advent of header bidding, gave every buyer access to the same placements at the time. According to Digiday, this led to the commoditization of video supply, and created an opportunity for bad actors, an increased tech tax, and a suboptimal user experience. Now publishers are starting to take back control, cutting out unnecessary vendors as the industry makes way for a new wave of preferred partners. While no one partner can do everything, those that can provide a holistic offering will be better suited for preferred partnerships. 

Know Your Source

For publishers who are still vetting video partners, The Drum recommends accessing quality demand through existing SSP integrations. As discussed in a Deloitte study, video content creators who reduce their product portfolio and work with direct, “no-reseller” partners can expect to see a better experience for the user and greater cost efficiencies, leading to a happier buyer. TripleLift’s direct relationships with partners ensures publishers are getting more revenue for every buyer dollar, across a suite of video products like outstream, in-stream, and OTT. 

The Most Direct Path is often the Most Efficient

For buyers, streamlining vendors is just as important as publisher’s minimizing their partnerships. However, viewer fragmentation makes this a bit more challenging. To keep up with shifts in viewer behaviors, buyers often work with many vendors and publishers, which comes at a cost. Buyers are now looking to these partners to help them navigate a space that is increasingly confusing and convoluted — those who can’t, are being removed. Having a partner that can provide access to a large amount of premium inventory, guarantee transparency, and deliver on multiple video strategies will make for good vetting criteria for the 28% of brand marketers who are looking to cut down on supply partners they work with. 

Without streamlining video supply paths, buyers might find themselves with a hefty bill to pay. The video space has normalized expensive pricing models with CPMs upwards of $40. However, unless buyers are going straight to the publisher, 38% of their buy is eaten by the infamous “tech tax”. Finding an SSP partner who can streamline the supply path will allow buyers to significantly lower their CPMs and will provide publishers with higher revenue, making it easier for both parties to select preferred video partners. 

Less is More

Assessing the quality versus the quantity of vendors available can help provide clarity in an opaque space. Opting for the most direct path to supply is a benefit for both the buyer and the seller, creating operational efficiencies for both sides. When assessing your video strategy, remember that less is more. 

It’s time to solidify a winning video strategy. Download the Programmatic Video Buyers Playbook.

 

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Apple’s Privacy Move Throws a Proprietary Wrench into Advertising’s Collaborative Process https://triplelift.com/blog/apples-privacy-move/ Thu, 02 Jul 2020 14:45:00 +0000 https://triplelift.com/?p=25303 This article is written by Julia Shullman, General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer at TripleLift. It was originally featured in AdAge. This week, Apple announced several new privacy features for devices and...

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This article is written by Julia Shullman, General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer at TripleLift. It was originally featured in AdAge.

This week, Apple announced several new privacy features for devices and apps running on iOS 14, in its latest attempt to demonstrate superiority in privacy, especially in online advertising.

Apple users will now be able to restrict their devices from sending precise location data; control access to their clipboard; see when apps are using cameras or the microphone; see standardized information and have an opportunity to make a choice on app data uses across different apps or involving third parties. These new features also require app developers to declare how they and their vendors use data and to update the existing high-level reporting API made available for attribution and conversion by advertisers and their ad tech vendors.

At first glance, these are all welcome, user-friendly improvements. However, on deeper reflection, the announcements service to highlight Apple’s disconnect from the advertising industry—that its unilateral approach creates consumer confusion and has an anti-competitive impact.

Proprietary vs. industry-driven standards

Transparency and control over the use of data in digital advertising, and accountability to prove support for them, are particular areas of focus for companies. 

Each of these new Apple privacy features appears aimed at empowering users with greater transparency and control over data collection and use. This is in marked contrast to other approaches, particularly by browsers, such as Apple’s own Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Protection, Firefox’s Enhanced Tracking Protection and Google Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox proposals, which make privacy decisions for users without asking them.

The problem is, Apple is disengaged with the rest of the digital advertising industry, which is generally focused on designing collaborative, standardized solutions that can meet user privacy and data protection needs across different browsers, device makers, operating systems, apps and their vendors.

Collaboration is hard, and it takes time to rethink industry interoperability. Even Google opened Privacy Sandbox to public collaboration and comment for two years, and now supports GDPR standards like IAB Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework. Both decisions are likely motivated by commercial and competitive concerns, but are driving collaboration nonetheless.

Apple receives a lot of public credit for its privacy features. But, its AppTrackingTransparency and additional controls over access to its Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) look and sound a lot like industry’s collaborative, consensus-driven privacy work in aligning standard data-use categories and user choice for GDPR and IAB, TechLab and other industry association work on CCPA, Privacy Sandbox and Project Rearc.

Fragmented solutions

Privacy is a fundamental consumer right, and consumers deserve standardized solutions which meet a range of user choices and data protection needs across all device makers, operating systems, apps and their vendors.

These new Apple features come at a time when the digital advertising ecosystem is attempting to re-architect its systems and data-sharing practices to keep up with fragmented privacy regulations, user expectations and commercial product and strategic changes. Now, instead of devoting time to collaborative technical standards influenced by collaborative policy and legal alignment, the digital advertising ecosystem will need to divert resources to build for yet another proprietary solution—designed without their input or expertise.

Apple’s specification is just different enough from other solutions—like IAB’s Transparency and Consent Framework and CCPA Solution; Google’s Consented Providers solution for GDPR and Restricted Data Processing solution for CCPA; Android’s Limit Ad Tracking solution; MoPub’s GDPR and CCPA solutions; proprietary “cookie” banner controls; and the standards set forth by the Digital Advertising Alliance and the Network Advertising Initiative—that companies have yet another standard to build to, and support.

Consumer experience

The launch of proprietary privacy features don’t just impact the road maps of businesses. Consider the user experience of moving between an increasing list of connected devices, operating systems and apps. Each presents a different (but overlapping) set of data uses and different choices to make, and each handles the transparency and control differently. The picture is fragmented and makes no sense. That experience can only lead to more confusion and demands from the public and, likely, well-intentioned but commercially influenced legislation to “fix” opacity in data collection, uses and choices in digital advertising. And, inevitably, the commercially influenced solution puts control in the hands of a few companies.

A collaborative approach

We need to push the industry to break this cycle of increasing fragmentation before we all lose credibility to do the right thing collaboratively. If not, only a few companies will survive, and publishers and advertisers will lose choice in the vendors they wish to use. The few survivors will be those that are able to build to these fragmented standards and somehow convince their clients, regulators and consumers that their solutions make sense and are legally compliant. We’ve already seen that support for multiple GDPR proprietary and industry standards is nearly impossible for companies and makes little to no sense to users. 

What if, instead of developing its own interpretations and standards which undercut its app publishers, Apple promoted standard-setting work instead? What if, similar to Google, Apple supported technical standards work in privacy through its position as a device, operating system and app maker, to help the digital advertising industry be held accountable to user transparency and choice through an access-controlled identifier—and one which doesn’t just place power in itself or platforms?

What if Apple aligned on standard definitions and taxonomies for data uses, and other major companies’ controlling devices and operating systems followed suit?

User transparency and control over identity, data collection and use are broken, and are influenced by many commercial and strategic factors. It is time for a truly collaborative technical and policy reset.

The post Apple’s Privacy Move Throws a Proprietary Wrench into Advertising’s Collaborative Process appeared first on TripleLift.

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