As the ad tech ecosystem evolves and the need for an omnichannel approach becomes ever more pressing, both advertisers and publishers are becoming more thoughtful about which platforms they work with and how.
Publishers, in particular, have been decreasing their number of SSP partners over the past few quarters. Findings show that Google ad manager (72%), Amazon publisher services (46%), and Verizon Media – now known as Yahoo ad platform (44%) all lead the way for SSPs that publishers are using.
For Yahoo, it has been the best of both worlds. The media company has been a go-to destination for both consumer experiences as well as ad tech.
You’ve probably crossed paths with Yahoo at some point in your career or your personal life (looking at all those with a Yahoo Mail address!). It has been many things to many people over the years. But with all that evolution, you may be unaware of what Yahoo is up to these days.
Yahoo has developed into a family of owned and operated brands and publishers. It is the largest digital media company in the U.S, second only to Google.
At the heart of Yahoo’s strategy for ad and publisher growth lies consumer trust.
Trust Makes the Ad World Go-’round
Trust is a central component of the premium advertising environment. Elements such as media reputation and scale all play into consumer perceptions of the advertising they are viewing.
Yahoo’s research confirms that consumers care deeply about trust in the publishing environment and in the properties that they interact with. Patrick McCormack, Yahoo’s Head of Business Development and Global Partnerships, noted, “We have hundreds of millions of trusted connections with our consumers and that trust extends to our advertising community.”
Trust is cited as the most important factor to consumers as it relates to premium digital content. 61% of consumers value trust the most in terms of trusted sites and brands, and validated facts (source: Yahoo, May 2021).
Professionally-generated content (PGC) is the clear winner for building consumer trust in digital content. Three times as many consumers prefer PGC over user-generated content (UGC). Brands are on board with PGC with 88% agreeing that advertising next to premium content is safer than UGC (source: Yahoo May 2021, Yahoo Halo study, Nov 2019).
The Three Ps: People, Partnerships, Performance
Providing premium ad experiences is not a new concept. And while the “definition” of premium may evolve along with shifting consumer and advertiser demands, certain tenets remain all the more important.
It all starts with the People consuming the content. And at the end of the day, premium inventory needs to translate into Performance for advertisers. For Yahoo, it has also been about cultivating the right Partnerships.
The company’s answer to delivering superior content and ad experiences: their growing ecosystem of premium supply, encompassing properties owned and operated by the company, like Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, and TechCrunch, plus strategic relationships with a string of leading publishers such as Microsoft, Apple News, and BuzzFeed.
Yahoo’s network of premium third-party suppliers provides a valuable opportunity for ad tech, according to McCormack.
“We use the unofficial tagline ‘built for publishers by a publisher.’ We deliver an effective way for third-party publishers to take advantage of all that data that Yahoo has built up over the years and serve it up on a first-party basis,” McCormack said.
With demand for top-tier inventory across every digital channel, Yahoo is uniquely positioned to help publishers maximize the value of their premium supply.
McCormack pointed out, “The major advantage of Yahoo’s publisher-built SSP is that you get the benefits of a walled garden, like a unified stack and unique data, but also the neutrality and transparency of an independent SSP. Our publishing partners live at this intersection to deliver premium and trusted ad experiences.”
With premium inventory in high demand among advertisers, quality ad experiences ultimately translate to stronger yields for publishers – but there is another reason pubs need to pay attention. In an environment where a publisher’s success depends on their ability to establish and keep consumers’ trust, a premium ad experience can go a long way towards building trusted audience connections at scale.