In a polarized media landscape, American readers seek unbiased news sources. That’s where The  Independent is gaining ground, with its unique blend of neutrality and fresh perspectives.

During a conversation with Ruth Mortimer, Global President, Advertising Week, at Advertising Week NY, The Independent’s CEO, Christian Broughton, highlighted how the publication’s ethos and commitment to independent journalism resonates across the Atlantic.

The UK-based Independent is making significant strides in the U.S., striking a chord with audiences eager for straightforward news coverage.

By staying true to its independence and rigorous journalism values, The Independent experienced a 120% increase in reader engagement this year – making its model a blueprint for U.S.-based publishers.

Much of the media outlet’s success is rooted in capturing readers “at a moment of curiosity,” says Broughton. That’s true whether they’re seeking clarity on a political decision or looking for recommendations on lifestyle choices. With a mix of hard news and non-news content, the publication has mastered attracting both readers and advertisers looking for a trusted environment to reach audiences.

A Different Kind of News: Why Independence Matters

The Independent’s core philosophy is to deliver unbiased, factual news without aligning with political parties. This neutral approach is a brand promise driving everything the publication does, from investigative reporting to analyzing key political events.

This is why it’s working for American readers. They want news that doesn’t push an agenda in one direction or the other. As one subscriber from Illinois shared, “I really appreciate the way The Independent has an outsider view because it’s not Democrat, it’s not Republican. It just reports the news.” 

US Readers Are Flocking to The Independent 

In the past year, along with the publisher’s engagement skyrocketing, they also realized an impressive 50% increase in U.S. readership. “If you multiply those two things together, the pages we’re getting now are more than triple what we had in December last year,” Broughton explained. The 2024 election cycle, and global news events, accelerated demand for The Independent’s unbiased coverage.

This surge in U.S. traffic is changing the publication’s landscape. “In the UK, we’ve overtaken competitors like The Guardian in unique users. In the U.S., we’re now within 5% to 8% of where Mail Online is,” Broughton shared. The Independent is appealing to American readers,  not by leveraging its Britishness but by offering a fresh, direct perspective on news that resonates with an audience seeking trustworthy journalism.

Beyond the Headlines: Elevating Lifestyle and Video Content

Traditionally known for its news coverage, more than half of The Independent’s content focuses on lifestyle and entertainment, which keeps readers engaged and connected. Bougton explained that the publication’s audience appreciates its news coverage as much as its optimistic, fun, and entertaining approach to non-news content.

The Independent is capitalizing on this insight with plans for scaling lifestyle offerings in the U.S., especially video. “We did like 80 million video views last month,” Broughton noted. This success is attributed to Independent TV and documentary content, like a recent documentary about reproductive rights in the U.S. 

Beyond serious topics, the publication focuses on lighter content like travel and wellness. “Travel Smart is a series that we’re going to launch across America very soon,” Broughton teased. Expanding into lifestyle programming, especially on social platforms and YouTube, provides advertisers with new opportunities to connect with this highly engaged audience.

Values-Driven Journalism: Social Justice and Climate Awareness

The Independent’s commitment to progressive values, in areas like social justice and climate awareness also deeply connects with audiences. 

“We were pushing for social justice and climate action long before it was fashionable,” Broughton shared. “People don’t really feel strongly about social justice until they see how it’s been disregarded — until they read the stories of people being downtrodden. That’s what gives those values meaning.”

This values-driven journalism has been crucial in maintaining the publication’s credibility and building trust with readers. For advertisers, it provides a space to align with socially conscious content.

“You don’t have to advertise on news brands but think about the context, and the state of mind people are in when they see your ads on other platforms. Are they seeking information, making decisions, and trusting the source? That’s what The Independent creates — a trusted, curious audience at the right moment,” Broughton explained.

Scaling Up and Diversifying Revenue Streams

As The Independent continues its growth trajectory in the U.S., plans are mounting to further diversify revenue through ecommerce, branded content, and retail media. “We’ve heavily diversified our business beyond the usual news brand expectations,” Broughton said.

The publication is also getting a new address in the U.S.

That’s right. One major upcoming change is a move to a new URL — the-independent.com — away from the UK-centric, co.uk domain. Broughton believes this will help the brand feel more at home in the U.S. market. “It always felt like we were carrying around a little Union Jack rucksack,” he quipped.

It’s safe to say that The Independent has found the winning formula, and is poised to become an even more significant player in the U.S.

The post From Across the Pond: How The Independent Is Capturing U.S. Readers  appeared first on AdMonsters.

Are advertisers afraid of the news? That’s the question Jana Meron, VP of Revenue Operations and Data at The Washington Post, asked at Programmatic IO. 

For many brands, the answer seems to be a resounding “yes,” especially during politically charged election cycles. But Meron had a different take. She argued that this fear-driven approach is outdated and costs advertisers big opportunities.

Just a few months earlier, she spoke to publishers at AdMonsters Publisher Forum in Boston, focusing on how publishers can balance brand safety with revenue using smarter, more nuanced solutions that respect journalistic integrity. 

Both advertisers and publishers should rethink what it means to be “brand safe” in the fast-evolving news world. So what lessons did we learn from Meron about why it’s high time to move beyond fear? 

A Tale of Two Audiences: Advertisers and Publishers
At Programmatic IO, Meron talked directly to advertisers, addressing their fears of placing ads near news content, especially political coverage. Armed with data, she made a compelling case for why this fear is misguided. 

For instance, she revealed that ads next to political and opinion pieces on The Washington Post see a 55% higher click-through rate than other parts of the site. That’s right—people are paying attention, and these are the valuable, engaged audiences that brands dream of reaching.

At AdMonsters Publisher Forum, Meron spoke to publishers about how they can proactively address brand safety concerns without sacrificing high-quality news content. She explained how The Washington Post uses AI and machine learning to analyze context, sentiment, and risk level of news content — creating a nuanced taxonomy allowing advertisers to set their omfort levels.

This move away from the old “sledgehammer” approach, towards a data-driven strategy, opens up more ad inventory without sacrificing journalistic integrity.

Why Are Advertisers Still Afraid?

Let’s get into the numbers. According to the 2024 Madison and Wall Ad Spend Forecast, 83% of US marketing executives expressed concern about advertising during elections. In fact, some advertisers blocked more than 40% of WaPo’s inventory this year to avoid “risky” content. This, Meron argues, is a shortsighted move.

The Washington Post reaches 10.9 million election-specific readers, 43% of whom are retail investors and many are decision-makers. These news consumers — particularly those engaging with political content — are some of the most valuable readers out there. These aren’t casual readers; they’re engaged, informed, and don’t mind ads.

The Brand Safety Double Standard

So, what’s the problem? Meron says it’s the old-school brand safety rules treating all news content the same way. The brand safety tools that once acted as a necessary shield against fraudulent or harmful content have morphed into blunt instruments, blocking swathes of legitimate news inventory.

The fear is that ads appearing next to controversial topics will hurt the brand’s image. But Meron pointed out that these worries don’t hold up. Most news consumers understand that ads don’t endorse the story next to them. In fact, they often see brands in news as more trustworthy.

Meron calls for a smarter approach. Instead of broad keyword blocklists, we need tech that can differentiate between high, medium, and low-risk content. The Washington Post uses AI to do just that, unlocking 15-25% more ad reach for advertisers. It’s proof that you don’t need to sacrifice quality for safety.

Tech Has the Answers—If We Use It Right

What’s the big takeaway from both of Meron’s talks? The tech is here to help us handle brand safety better. AI and machine learning can understand the context of news, including sentiment and bias. That means we can stop treating all news as risky and start making more informed choices.

“The fear that news is too risky is understandable but doesn’t make sense,” she said at Programmatic IO, emphasizing that modern tech can identify sentiment, bias, and context in ways that past tools could not.

At AdMonsters Publisher Forum, she pushed publishers to educate advertisers on this new reality. “It’s not the year of mobile or whatever,” she said. “It’s time to actually do something.” Publishers can use these tools to show advertisers that news content isn’t something to fear — it’s an opportunity.

Facing the Fear: Time to Rethink Brand Safety

It’s time for both advertisers and publishers to face facts and stop letting fear dictate brand safety strategies. Meron made it clear: advertisers are missing out by avoiding news content. Ads next to quality journalism have higher engagement and reach valuable audiences. Meanwhile, publishers should embrace advanced tools to offer nuanced brand safety solutions that align with their content’s integrity.

News Is Good News for Your Business

Brand safety in 2024 doesn’t mean avoiding news and risk entirely — it’s about understanding, navigating, and harnessing it to capture highly engaged, valuable audiences. And, publishers, for their part, must continue to advocate for smarter, more nuanced brand safety measures that respect the integrity of news.

The tools and strategies are there; it’s time for the industry to use them. The audience is waiting. As Meron said, “News is good news for your business.” The sooner we face the facts and acknowledge that, the better off the entire ad tech ecosystem will be.

The post Rethinking Brand Safety: Lessons from Jana Meron on News Advertising in 2024 appeared first on AdMonsters.

Political advertisers are forecasted to spend over $12 billion across all channels during the 2024 election cycle, marking the highest spend in U.S. history, according to eMarketer. While a significant portion of that budget will go to linear TV, digital advertising remains a critical battleground. 

Election campaigns are turning to advanced techniques like bid shading to stretch their dollars in this high-stakes environment. But what does bid shading mean for publishers? Let’s dig into how this tactic impacts publishers, the challenges it presents, and how to navigate these waters during this unprecedented election cycle.

What is Bid Shading?

Bid shading might sound like some covert operation, but it’s actually a savvy strategy media buyers use in digital ad auctions. Imagine you’re at an auction, but instead of bidding wildly, you have an algorithm whispering the optimal bid in your ear. 

This algorithm analyzes historical pricing data, current market conditions, and the value of the impression to tweak bids just enough to win ad impressions without overpaying. The method is especially crucial in situations like political advertising where budgets, although large, need to be spent efficiently.

Example:

Picture a political campaign aiming to secure an ad slot. Without bid shading, they bid $10 and pay the full amount. But, with bid shading, the algorithm suggests $7.50 based on past data, saving $2.50 while still winning the spot and potentially saving the advertiser 25% on that impression.

The Impact of High Political Budgets on Publishers

With political budgets hitting an all-time high, this influx of ad spend can be both a golden opportunity and a potential headache for publishers. 

The Upside:

1. Increased Demand: More political dollars chasing your inventory means heightened competition, which typically drives up demand and fill rates.
2. Revenue Boost: Those previously unsold ad slots? They’re now hot commodities, filling up quickly and boosting your bottom line.

The Downside:

1. Revenue Volatility: While demand surges, bid shading introduces a layer of unpredictability as bids are adjusted downward, making revenue streams less predictable.
2. Inventory Devaluation: As campaigns use bid shading to cut costs, the perceived value of your ad impressions might take a hit, impacting long-term revenue strategies.

Navigating the Risks of Bid Shading

Bid shading isn’t just a double-edged sword — it’s a whole cutlery set. Here are the risks you need to watch out for and how to handle them:

Lower CPMs:

Bid shading typically results in lower cost-per-thousand impressions (CPMs). Some publishers have reported CPM drops of up to 20% due to bid shading. This is a direct hit to your revenue as bids are systematically adjusted to lower amounts.

What to Do:

Consider implementing dynamic price floors that adapt to market conditions in real time. This ensures bids won’t drop below a certain level, protecting your revenue.

Inconsistent Revenue Streams:

The dynamic nature of bid shading means your revenue from political ads can fluctuate wildly, complicating forecasting and planning.

What to Do: 

Leverage advanced yield management tools to analyze historical data and market trends. This helps you understand and anticipate the effects of bid shading, optimizing your inventory pricing and placement.

Competitive Pressure:

With multiple campaigns vying for ad space, the pressure to lower prices further increases, risking a race to the bottom.

What to Do:

Enhance your auction strategies with techniques like header bidding. By involving multiple demand sources, you can drive up competition for your inventory, balancing out the downward pressure from bid shading.

Making Bid Shading Work for You

Bid shading isn’t all doom and gloom—there’s a silver lining if you play your cards right. Here’s how to turn bid shading into an advantage:

Leverage Advanced Analytics: 

Investing in tools that provide deep insights into bidding patterns can help publishers adjust their strategies in real time and identify opportunities to maximize revenue.

Enhance First-Party Data: 

Rich, accurate data about audience segments can command premium prices, even in a bid-shaded environment. Investing in data collection and analysis can increase the value proposition for advertisers.

Dynamic Price Floors:

Setting smart, dynamic price floors can help you maintain control over your inventory pricing. Adjust these floors based on real-time market conditions, like time of day, user demographics, and current events to prevent your CPMs from dropping too low.

Auction Strategies:

Don’t just rely on traditional auction setups. Incorporate header bidding to get multiple demand sources competing for your ad space. Increase competition for inventory and mitigate the impact of bid shading from any single source by relying on multiple SSPs and ad exchanges. This improves the likelihood of higher bids, even with bid shading in play. 

Yield Management:

Invest in robust yield management tools and expertise. These tools help you make data-driven decisions about your ad inventory, optimizing pricing and placement to counteract the effects of bid shading.

Collaboration with Buyers:

Build strong relationships with your advertisers. Educate them about the value of your premium inventory and work together to establish fair pricing and bidding practices. This collaborative approach can lead to more stable and beneficial outcomes for both parties.

When in Rome Leverage Bid Shading to Your Advantage

Bid shading is here to stay, especially in high-budget political advertising cycles. Publishers who adapt and strategically manage their ad inventory can thrive, capturing the full potential of these high-budget opportunities.

While bid shading presents both opportunities and challenges, strategic measures can mitigate risks and maximize revenue. Implementing dynamic pricing, enhancing auction strategies, optimizing yield management, and fostering collaboration with buyers is key to navigating bid shading complexities and staying competitive.

Not all of the predicted $12 billion election cycle budgets will be subject to bid shading. Direct deals, bypassing programmatic auctions, will also play a significant role. Publishers offering unique value propositions, like highly engaged audiences or brand-safe environments, can command premium prices despite bid shading tactics.

The post How Bid Shading and the $12 Billion Political Ad Boom Could Impact Publishers appeared first on AdMonsters.

Transitioning into a new role can be daunting, especially at a prestigious institution like The Washington Post. But Jana Meron, now the VP of Revenue Operations and Data, embraced this challenge head-on. In a recent LinkedIn Live session, hosted by yours truly, Lynne d Johnson, Content Director at AdMonsters, Meron opened up about her transition, the state of the digital advertising industry, and her vision for The Washington Post’s future.

In this lively session, Meron spills the beans on her career journey and the challenges of the ad tech ecosystem. Discover how she plans to tackle brand safety issues, harness first-party data, and drive innovation at one of the world’s most respected news outlets.

Plus, don’t miss her pearls of wisdom on mentorship, career growth, and the ever-evolving landscape of digital advertising. Tune in to gain invaluable perspectives on the intersection of ad tech and journalism.

Rekindling Connections: From Coronado to LinkedIn Live

It’s always a blast reconnecting with industry peers, and this LinkedIn Live was no different. The last time Meron and I crossed paths was at AdMonsters PubForum Coronado in 2023.  That encounter was unforgettable, filled with intense discussions about the bloated advertising ecosystem, and even a few well-deserved F-bombs were dropped on stage. Meron’s passion for the industry and her desire to see publishers win shone through every word.

Check out the video below and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn so that you can stay up-to-date on more conversations like these.

“As long as we’re focusing on our readers… we’ll be able to do better for our advertisers.” – Jana Meron 7/25/2024

The Washington Post: A New Chapter

During our chat, Meron radiated excitement about her new role at The Washington Post. The day she announced her new gig on LinkedIn as VP of Revenue Operations and Data, we knew we had to bring her into our AdMonsters community discussions.

Mark your calendars. She’ll be one of our keynotes at AdMonsters PubForum Boston, discussing: Boosting Revenue through Brand Suitability. With her vast experience in ad tech and a keen understanding of the advertising landscape, Meron is an invaluable asset to the Post. Her journey to this role is steeped in her passion for news and media, representing a chance to make meaningful changes in an industry she loves.

“Twenty-five years of experience, and this role gives me the ability to do it all in one place,” she shared. 

Jana Meron’s Background and Motivation

Meron’s career kicked off as a media buyer in the early days of digital advertising when it was still considered an added value to traditional platforms like TV and print. Her diverse experience spans TV, digital display, print, programmatic, and data strategy. This new role allows her to channel her 25 years of expertise into a brand she is deeply passionate about. Her mission is clear: to combat the bloated ad tech ecosystem and ensure the news survives and thrives.

Challenges in the News Industry

Brand safety measures significantly impact news, Meron explained. She cited instances where crucial articles were blocked from receiving ads, limiting their reach and impact. To explain further, she highlighted how ad networks often penalize articles covering the elections. 

“Why would you avoid reaching them when they’re most engaged?” she emphasized, noting that news is a vital part of daily life and that should be supported by advertisers, not shunned.

Ad Tech and Privacy Concerns

“The media has always been ad-funded,” Meron affirmed. “We wanted information to be available, but we forgot to tell people that the exchange for that was going to be seeing ads.”

She underscored the complexities of the ad tech ecosystem and rising privacy concerns. Recalling an interaction with an ad tech company admitting to being the ad tech tax, she stressed the need for a balanced approach that prioritizes both advertisers’ needs and user privacy.

Strategies for Success

Meron champions the importance of first-party data and user engagement as strategies for tackling these issues and improving the news advertising ecosystem. “I’m always excited about first-party data and what we can do with it,” she stated. She sees it as a way to innovate and improve the relationship between publishers, advertisers, and audiences.

She also advocates for better advertiser education and an updated approach to ad tech practices that align with the evolving landscape.

Mentorship and Career Development

The discussion also touched on the significance of mentorship and career development. Having learned the industry mostly on her own and later through collaborative efforts with peers, Meron stressed the importance of curiosity, asking questions, and voicing opinions. For her, mentorship is about guiding the next generation with her wealth of knowledge and experience.

Work-Life Balance

Balancing a demanding career with a personal life is no small feat, and Meron candidly spoke about her approach. She prioritized her children’s needs at different stages of their lives, adjusting her professional commitments accordingly. This flexibility allowed her to maintain a balance that worked for her and her family.

Her drive comes from a deep curiosity about how things work and the satisfaction of solving complex problems. Meron thrives on making ad tech work efficiently while enhancing user experiences. Her inquisitive nature pushes her to seek better solutions and improve industry practices.

Future Trends in Digital Media and Ad Tech

Looking ahead, Meron is particularly excited about the potential of first-party data to model better user experiences. With the digital media landscape and ad tech constantly evolving, she’s keen to see how new technologies and strategies will shape the future.

The post Jana Meron on Her New Role as VP of Revenue Operations at The Washington Post appeared first on AdMonsters.

The detrimental impact of third-party cookies on consumer privacy has been a hot industry topic for some time now, and with the deadline for cookie depreciation continuously being pushed back, more and more publishers are shrugging their shoulders to the end of cookies. Not surprisingly, only 32% of publishers are actively preparing for this change, according to a recent Teads survey.

The study surveyed 555 publishers across 58 countries, revealing an urgent need for the industry to adapt quickly. At Cannes, we met with Natalie Bastian, CMO of Teads, and were pleasantly surprised to be joined by Simon Klein, Global Head of Publishing. Onboard a yacht with a crisp blue aesthetic; we chatted about a future without cookies; the challenges publishers face, and Teads’ current initiatives to support them. 

As we navigate this complex environment, even a blind man could see that there are too many different types of ID solutions on top of Google’s Privacy Sandbox.

“One minute cookieless is here, the next it’s delayed, then it’s happening again, but we don’t know when,” Klein explained. “We are trying to educate publishers as much as possible on what’s available. At Teads, we are cookieless by default since 2018.We are willing to work with every solution that we believe could actually help publishers generate more revenue.”

Teads and Publishers: A Partnership Driving Mutual Success

In digital media there is a ton of trial and error. Now more than ever, publishers need to ensure their SSP partners are resourceful. One aspect of Teads that is a major resource to publishers is its tech and engineering team. With about 400 team members, both teams do a lot of the leg work when it comes to investigating and understanding the best solutions. 

According to Teads’ Publisher Preparedness study, 53% of publishers feel completely overwhelmed by the plethora of solutions. There are just too many. Through Teads’ Publisher Lab, the SSP hosts off-the-record conversations with publishers where they can all work together to derive roadmaps. 

Think of it as a therapy session for publishers. As a major player focusing on the buy and sell sides, Teads is in a unique position giving them a responsibility to share all of the trends and traction that they see happening on the buy side with their publishers and vice versa. 

“We are the connective tissue between all these publishers, but many aren’t necessarily talking to each other,” Bastian said. “Our workshops are cross-functional; we host the Publisher Lab quarterly on average, and we curate the conversation, but the publishers are the ones doing the talking.”

Keeping Publishers A Part of the Conversation 

This year is significant, with 64 elections worldwide involving 49% of the global population. For voters to be informed, they need to have access to news. News publications need ads to survive. Quality publishers and news journalists need the support of brands and if ads continue to fund journalism, then it makes news more widely accessible. Many news outlets are going to a paywall, only to find out that subscriptions can be a struggle. 

These outlets are turning on paywalls because they either need more funding to support their content or increase their first-party data set. Some of that is login-based, but even when logging in, it could still be free for readers.

“Many publishers are trying subscription or hybrid models to increase revenue,” Bastian explained. “We sit in a very unique position that is good for the consumer because we give them access to quality content. To keep this access open for everyone, it must be properly funded through quality ads and quality journalism.”

As Klein put it, at Teads, they are “making their pipes as efficient as possible.” That entails making their player a little quicker, and faster across every single environment, and making sure they have the critical pieces of their roadmap. When it comes to buyer partners, nearly 80% of Teads campaigns do not use a cookie-based solution. The need for urgent adoption is right in front of our faces, and while some are actively moving towards the cookiepocolypse, some are not moving as swiftly.

The post Wake Up and Smell the Coffee; The Cookieless Future Will Be Here Before We Know it appeared first on AdMonsters.

With the move away from direct sales to a mostly programmatic ecosystem, it’s been a hard road for premium news publishers these past few years. From pandemic revenue and personnel losses, to big tech devaluing news, to brand safety blocklists and the MFA site reformation blocking revenue, to hedge funds gutting local newsrooms, to copyright battles with generative AI, it hasn’t been an easy journey.

News is important. It provides education to the public about the world and local events. Brands aligned with quality and responsible news outlets are viewed positively by the public. That audience is highly educated, affluent, and influential. And yet, news publishers receive less and less ad spend. Why is that happening and what can the industry do about it?

Prohaska Consulting is bringing together leading publishers, including The E.W. Scripps Company, Magnite, Newsbreak, Outbrain, and The Daily Voice, along with technology partners, media buyers, and advertisers to identify and solve challenges associated with advertising on news properties. The “Rebranding of News Initiative,” seeks to demonstrate “the unique value that independent news brings to the advertising ecosystem and the vital quality of news audiences.”

As a first step, Prohaska teamed up with Advertiser Perceptions and surveyed 110 US advertisers, publishers and ad tech professionals in November 2023 to learn more about industry practices behind supporting quality news advertising while also fighting disinformation. The Supporting Quality News Content:A Look at Advertisers, Publishers and Ad Tech Professionals revealed some eye-opening findings.

While 76% of the industry agrees it is brand-safe to advertise in legitimate news environments, 1 in 3 U.S. advertisers have blocked news entirely. Let’s look at the study to gain a better understanding of this issue.

Why Aren’t Premium Publishers Receiving Their Fair Share of Ad Spend?

Last year, publishers estimated that due to brand safety blocking, 30% of their advertising inventory went unfunded or undersold. This matter has worsened over the past five years as advertisers become more discerning about the type of content they align with. Advertisers are also concerned about funding disinformation and MFA sites.

As a result, the news category has often been blocked entirely. One in three agencies or marketing professionals was given the directive not to spend ad dollars on news for a while, resulting in 97% of publishers saying that their businesses have been impacted by such bans. Forty percent of those publishers reported that the impact was moderate or extreme.

What Are Pubs Doing About Being Defunded?

The weaponization of keyword blocking has been a thorn in the publisher’s side. But news publishers aren’t idly sitting by twiddling their thumbs, they are playing an active role in ensuring their inventory is easier and safer to buy.

Nearly three and five pubs are automating contextual filters with AI tools to determine the sentiment of a page as an alternative to the blunt force of keyword-blocking rules. Half of the reputable publishers surveyed are also increasing sales calls to educate buyers about best practices to make sure they are on inclusion lists and that their inventory is being prioritized.

Publishers are doing the necessary work to make their inventory more advertising-friendly. “Two in five are reworking editorial policies to avoid using heavily blocked keywords and sensitive terms, and three in 10 are manually labeling all published stories with additional brand suitability descriptors,” according to the study.

Unfortunately, filtering ad tech isn’t the only automation that publishers need to worry about. Performance-driven, programmatic optimization practices also disadvantage premium publishers when set to optimize toward metrics like CPMs. The algorithms end up prioritizing cheaper Made For Advertising (MFA) sites that are made to deliver massive eyeballs at bargain basement prices.

Legit pubs must also contend with disinformation and fraudulent sites that are optimized to attract advertiser spend. Overall, these practices highlight the fact that media buyers are not doing enough to strike these illegitimate sellers from their media plans.

What Are Advertisers Doing About Funding Reputable Publishers?

While 3 in 4 agencies and brand marketers say they are adapting brand safety approaches to support credible journalism while also combatting disinformation, less than a quarter actually have executive-level mandates in place. And, less than half are taking other measures like using advanced brand suitability filters or actively blocking known disinformation channels.

“Without taking a more nuanced approach, advertisers and ad tech partners cannot discern quality news placements and invest accordingly,” according to the study.

Advertisers understand the importance of funding premium news publishers, but their talk has yet to catch up to their walk. For the benefit of an informed society and a healthy digital advertising ecosystem, sellers, buyers, and their ad tech partners must come together to find solutions that prioritize premium news publishers while also defunding disinformation, fraud, and MFA sites.

Download the full report for more info.

The post Prohaska Study Says 1 in 3 U.S. Advertisers Blocked News Entirely appeared first on AdMonsters.

“2024 is shaping up to be a crazy year for the advertising industry. Who knows what will come out of cookie deprecation and greater focus on generative AI.” — Terry Guyton-Bradley, Senior Director, Advertising Technology, Fortune.

2023 was a trying year for the programmatic supply chain, at least from a PR point of view.

It began with Bloomberg News saying it had enough of the open markets and to improve its user experience it would eliminate the channel entirely. Then Digiday published a series of articles, saying open programmatic markets are in a tough spot as the “lowest quality” publishers flooded the auctions. Publishers who continued to rely on them saw a decline in CPMs.  

But the real bashing came in June when the ANA released its Programmatic Supply Chain Transparency Study, claiming that inventory from MFA sites comprised 21% of the open markets.  

Transparency, a perennial issue for the open markets, continued to be a concern, and publishers sought to form direct relationships with SSPs to create a better, more privacy-centric, seamless user experience. 

But despite the challenges, the open markets are still a vital lifeline for publishers that can’t afford to maintain a dedicated sales force, and its revenue is still predicted to grow.

What will the next 12 months look like for the programmatic supply chain? To find out, we asked 4 experts about the issues — good and bad — that the sector will face. They are:

• Terry Guyton-Bradley, Senior Director, Advertising Technology, Fortune
• Justin Wohl, Chief Revenue Officer at Snopes.com and TVTropes.org
• Scott Messer, Principal & Founder, Messer Media 
• Chao Liao, SVP, Insider Advertising

Let’s dig in.

MFA Conversations Continue in 2024

Trend #1: Made For Advertising sites (MFAs) will continue to spark conversations, particularly around how trading desks spend advertiser’s budgets. Despite efforts in the second half of 2023, there is still a lot of confusion around what an MFA site is and whether they’re inherently bad. In 2024, both the buy-side and sell-side will need to work at articulating what they like and don’t like about MFA sites.

“MFA is the newest catchphrase in the industry. Sites stacked with ad slots have been around since the beginning of programmatic. All it goes to show is that more effort is needed by trading desks to ensure they are landing on reputable properties. There is nothing automatic about programmatic, and throwing your entire spend into the open markets to achieve scale isn’t going to cut it.” — Terry Guyton-Bradley

“In the 2023 MFA analysis and discussion, I never quite heard enough about the actual content itself, on the MFA sites, just the methods of traffic acquisition and the inventory representation to the buy-side. For further MFA scrutiny and cleanup, I implore the industry to start looking at the difference between buying traffic to sponsored/branded content, for example, versus misleading clickbait MFA.” — Justin Wohl

“There will certainly be more discourse, and more people (not me) complaining that Made For Advertising is a misnomer. Yes SSPs will continue to tout their MFA-free supply and DSPs will announce their ability to anti-target MFAs, but that’s just a lot of smoke and sledgehammers.  MFA is such a complex issue, that I think the Industry will only be able to trim the most egregious edges of MFA.  I encourage buyers to define precisely what they want to avoid, without using the amorphous term of MFA.” — Scott Messer

More Industry Consolidation on the Horizon

Trend #2: Industry consolidation in 2024 seems inevitable, driven by ongoing concerns about inventory quality, the deprecation of third-party cookies, and a demand for greater transparency.

“We’ll continue to see consolidation because it takes money to build the technology needed to be more transparent. Smaller shops are putting themselves on the sales block in order to raise money to continue to innovate.” — Terry Guyton-Bradley 

“Surely [consolidation] will be the case with the cookie-alternative providers, the identity vendors who have been jockeying for superiority since 2020. TTD’s UID2 and LiveRamp’s RampID hold the most promise.” — Justin Wohl

Digital Advertising Will Survive Cookie Deprecation

Trend #3: Despite the fret, the digital advertising ecosystem will survive the deprecation of third-party cookies. What will change is rather than one approach (i.e. cookies) to targeting and measurement, many will be deployed. Google will benefit (naturally), as will Amazon TAM in certain scenarios. Meanwhile, publishers may spend 2024 reorganizing their partnerships and shifting some advertising-related processes to server-side environments for better results.

“I venture to say that the advertising industry is one of those industries that is too big to fail. No one has consolidated around a replacement solution. Agencies are continuing as status quo and publishers are working to find individual solutions that will work for their data environments.  Although Google has hypothetically drawn a line in the sand, they are doing it in a way that will allow them to pull back if the results are not acceptable.  We won’t crash and burn.” — Terry Guyton-Bradley 

“Walled gardens will get stronger and money will depart the open web overall. Cookie deprecation will have its own slow-death effects in many areas, but solutions like Protected Audiences API (PAAPI) are poised to make tectonic shifts that will reshape supply chain topography entirely.” — Scott Messer

“The current distribution of buyers that publishers are familiar with is going to change with third-party cookie loss in Chrome, and the introduction of the Protected Audience API audience. I fully expect Google’s own Ad Exchange to be the emergent winner in Chrome, with AdX taking a much larger share (50%+) of inventory, in that browser, in 2024.” 

“If other SSPs don’t take their demand elsewhere, and start winning larger volumes than they did in 2023 in Safari and Firefox, I expect publishers will begin to lighten their prebid participants, or move more client-side bidders that aren’t driving meaningful contribution into server-only environments like prebid server and/or Amazon TAM.” — Justin Wohl

Programmatic Transaction Models Are Expanding

Trend #4: Programmatic transaction models are expanding, as The Trade Desk’s Open Path illustrates. This transformation is driven by dissatisfaction with the traditional programmatic exchange. As a result, buyers and sellers are looking for new ways to transact. 

“There are three trends that are closely related. The first is the SSPs going directly to buyers, the second is DSPs going directly to publishers, like The Trade Desk and Open Path. The third is publishers offering completely self-serve access to their inventory. We can look at these as three separate trends, but really, they’re tied together. What we’re seeing is that certain sectors of the industry are not happy with the game of programmatic exchange or the current types of setup with programmatic transactions. So they’re trying to create new ways to transact by cutting out intermediaries that may not be adding value.” — Chao Liao

Curated Marketplaces Equal Brand Suitability

Trend #5: With heightened concern over inventory quality, curated marketplaces will be seen as a strategy for ensuring brand suitability. But it’s not a panacea as the Programmatic Media Supply Chain Transparency Study makes clear. While 19% of ad spend in the open markets goes to MFA inventory, private marketplaces aren’t far behind at 15%. PMPs still have an element of “buyers beware” that will need to be addressed in 2024.

“Curation is certainly a major theme of 2024, but we won’t see any standards emerge here. Sellers can do a better job providing meaningful curation and measurement, but it’s unreasonable to think that there will be any standards for PMPs developed.” — Scott Messer

Sustainability as a Differentiator

Trend #6: More brands will start to ask about sustainability and the carbon footprint of campaigns in their RFIs in 2024, and the prevalence of MFA inventory will complicate those discussions. According to research by Ebiquity and Scope3, MFA sites generate around 26% more carbon waste than non-MFA sites due to the constant refreshing of ads, and numerous connections to various SSPs and resellers. 

“MFA sites are maximizing ad requests per page view as well as arbitraging traffic and cookies, which generate a lot of carbon. Brands that have set a goal of improving sustainability will be very keen to avoid them as a low-hanging fruit. I don’t necessarily see it as solely the SSP’s job to streamline the supply chain. This needs to be done in collaboration between the sell side and buy side.” — Chao Liao 

SSPs Reduce Scope1, 2, and 3 Emissions

Trend #7: More SSPs will follow OpenX’s lead by looking at their internal operations to see where they can reduce their Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions. 

“This year, people will ask, what does sustainability mean for me as an operator, and how do I improve my operations in terms of efficiency and sustainability? I think a lot of SSPs will look at OpenX as an example in the different ways they improved their sustainability and bottom line.” — Chao Liao

Final Words of Advice

“My advice is for publishers to heed the Ghost of Cookies Past.  Publishers must keep an eye on when and how to switch their deterministic identifiers into private marketplaces. For the past two years, publishers opened the floodgates of IDs in the bid stream, which was great for adoption and testing but is now a growing threat to the balance of seller power. Publishers cannot allow vendors to commoditize deterministic identifiers. These are coveted components of the digital supply chain–and ID owners should be rightly compensated for their investments and relationship with readers.” — Scott Messer

The post What Will the Next 12 Months Look Like for the Programmatic Supply Chain? appeared first on AdMonsters.

With hints of arbitrage, a dash of low-quality inventory, and a sprinkle of a bad user experience, digital media companies are working to rid the ecosystem of MFA sites like the bubonic plague. The issue is that the industry is still trying to nail down the exact definition of an MFA site. But are they all bad news? 

According to Sharethrough, MFA sites make up one-fifth of global programmatic ad spend because advertisers are under a lot of pressure to maximize their ad spend, and publishers are under pressure to reach their impression goals. This is why some believe that Black-owned sites are unfairly labeled MFA sites, but the industry is working to nail down a standard definition and how to move forward. 

After we published our article about Black-owned publishers’ concerns about being designated MFA sites, we spoke to some of these industry experts to understand how they define them, how to distinguish a bad site from a benign one, and to see if the industry’s standards label Black-owned publishers as MFA sites unfairly. There are some mixed opinions and some overlap in classification, but the industry has one goal—creating a sustainable ecosystem. 

What is an MFA Site? Industry Experts Weigh In

We’ve established mixed definitions for MFA sites, but what is the industry saying? 

“The term ‘Made for Advertising’ has created significant confusion within the industry,” said Jack Smith, CPO at DoubleVerify. Smith further asserts that while of course, MFA sites with misinformation and poor content are problematic, there are some ad-heavy sites that may attract the audiences some advertisers want to reach.

According to Scott Pierce, Sr. Director for Product and Fraud at Integral Ad Science, MFA sites have varied definitions, dating back to the early days of programmatic advertising. While they’ve been called spam sites or ad farms, MFA has recently gained popularity.

“MFA sites offer a low-quality ad experience, often performing well on vanity metrics but delivering minimal value to marketers,” said Pierce. “Our findings, in line with research by Jounce Media and the ANA, indicate that advertising on MFA sites lacks meaningful campaign results, such as conversions and brand lift, making it a wasteful use of ad spend.” 

On the other hand, Jounce Media’s MFA Evaluation page defines MFAs as “inventory that achieves superficial KPIs like viewability by creating a user-hostile advertising experience.” However, Jounce Media specifies that a “user-hostile advertising experience” is subjective. Sometimes, it’s unclear where they draw the line for which RTB-traded websites meet MFA standards. 

How Do You Flag an MFA Site? 

IAS’s Approach: The media quality company’s approach focuses solely on performance, tying site characteristics to meaningful outcomes like conversions and brand lift. MFA sites are highly optimized to perform well against traditional campaign metrics such as click-through and viewability rates, but they don’t deliver actual value. 

“At IAS, we leverage AI to identify MFA sites. The model assesses various characteristics, including traffic sources, network associations, templating, and AI-generated content,” said Pierce. “Key focus areas involve ad clutter, evaluating factors like the ad-to-content ratio, total ads on a page, presence of auto-refreshing ads, refresh rates, autoplay video ads, and pop-ups.” 

Jounce Media’s Approach: Jounce performs a daily battery of tests across every RTB-traded website to evaluate three hallmarks of MFA supply: 

• Paid Traffic: MFA publishers heavily depend on clickbait ads from social networks and content recommendation platforms, making paid traffic their main cost driver.
• Aggressive Monetization: They manage these costs using aggressive monetization tactics like high ad frequency and rapid auto-refreshing placements, creating a user-hostile advertising experience while seeking arbitrage opportunities.
• Superficial KPIs: Despite achieving high viewability and video completion rates, our research shows that MFA publishers’ products do not influence consumer purchase decisions.

In addition, Jounce is now working with the DSP, Basis Technologies, to identify MFAs and steer ad dollars away from them.

Basis will integrate Jounce’s MFA site block list into its DSP, automatically applying it to all campaigns, but marketers and agencies retain the option to opt out. Ian Trider, Basis’s VP of product, highlighted that using a dynamic definition allows sites to make improvements that could reclassify them positively.

DoubleVerify’s Approach: DV created its exclusive MFA analysis process by combining human and AI auditing. Customers can directly activate this solution within their brand safety and suitability profile for measurement and monitoring.

“With the rise of AI tools that can rapidly spawn MFA sites, DV’s AI tech can assist global brands in identifying, measuring, and avoiding problematic MFA content in real-time and ultimately drive better marketing outcomes,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO of DoubleVerify.

More specifically, they look to see if:

• Ads dominate the page with high density, frequently refreshing to maximize earnings per visit. 
• Monetization relies heavily on paid traffic like social and native ads, lacking organic traffic. 
• The content aims to keep users endlessly engaged within the site, often duplicating verbatim across multiple sites and occasionally generated automatically by AI.

Myth or Fact: Are Some Black-owned Publishers Unfairly Labeled MFA Sites? 

There have been many facets to the MFA site conversation in ad tech, but a prominent concern developed when some Black-owned publishers became labeled as MFA sites. There are some mixed opinions about the validity of this claim. 

There is a history of stigma around traffic buying, but some Black-owned publishers purchase traffic to expand their platforms through SEO and editorial promotions. Of course, some agree that there are better practices outside of arbitrage, encouraging them to grow organic SEO engagement. 

Jounce Media acknowledged that brand safety standards have often suppressed diverse-owned media but stood on the fact that the MFA reformation does not marginalize diverse-owned publishers. “It is 100 times more likely for a non-diverse publisher to be classified as MFA than for a diverse-owned media company,” said Chris Kane, Founder of Jounce Media. 

However, there is still some concern from diverse-owned and small publishers that the MFA scourge will hurt their businesses. Dévon Christopher Johnson, CEO and founder of BleuLife Media Group and co-founder of non-profit organization BOMESI, said that telling Black-owned publishers not to buy traffic is “like telling a developing country ‘Don’t use fossil fuels’ after Americans used fossil fuels for 150 years to grow its economy. It’s kind of a slap in the face to do that.” 

However, just because you buy traffic does not automatically make you an MFA site. 

“I’m aware of concerns about MFA labels impacting black-owned or DEI sites. The industry must not penalize small publishers, including DEI publishers, using content recommendation platforms to build an audience,” said Scott Pierce. “Sourcing traffic from a partner doesn’t inherently make a site MFA. At IAS, we focus solely on how a site performs for marketers, emphasizing the importance of ad clutter and overall performance over traffic sources.” 

Redefining the Stigma Around Paid Traffic

Recently at our PubForum New Orleans conference, Justin Barton, SVP, Digital Strategy & Partnerships at Black Enterprise spoke about how he recently joined the 4A’s MFA Working Group which includes the ANA, IAB Tech Lab, Jounce Media and other publishers. This will allow publishers and parties from all sides of the industry to voice their concerns. 

Barton is focused on highlighting the significance of paid traffic and how that affects publishers being tagged on MFA lists. He believes that marketing through paid means shouldn’t be restricted for publishers, despite certain research organizations associating paid traffic with negative outcomes in native ads.  

“My aim is to normalize paid traffic for publishers by advocating transparency. This means ensuring that publishers engaging in paid traffic disclose their actions properly, refrain from excessive ad loads or aggressive video players on pages, and maintain transparency to avoid being labeled as MFA,” said Barton.

The post Ad Tech Industry Experts Weigh In On the MFA Scourge and Black Publishers’ Concerns appeared first on AdMonsters.

Too many brands have only cast their focus inward when it comes to sustainability, diversity and inclusion, and purpose. 

This hasn’t necessarily been their intention. These areas are broad and multi-faceted; to be successful, they must touch many skill sets. The issue is that the departments that have historically governed programs to increase values-based efforts have been internal-facing ones like human resources. In some cases, there is no determined owner at all. These internal-facing owners might make traction with how employees participate in these efforts, but they fail to tie them to revenue-driving performance. 

And that’s a massive missed opportunity. Purpose-driven organizations grow three times faster, on average, than non-purpose-driven ones, and 82 percent of consumers are making purchase decisions with purpose in mind. Today, tying purpose and profit together is necessary to be competitive in any market. To do that requires shifting ownership of the former to a department responsible for driving the latter: marketing.

Values, Adrift

HR has never been the right home for sustainability, DEI, and purpose.

This team often owns these areas because, historically, companies have looked at them from an employee perspective. And, after all, HR is trained to measure employee satisfaction and retention above all else. But HR doesn’t play a direct role in how much money a business makes.

I’m not here to say this isn’t a valiant effort—organizations should and must engage employees on how to be more ethically responsible and values-driven because it makes for psychologically safer workplaces. But, knowing brands’ sustainability, DEI, and purpose goals coincide with more significant profit means that a team well-versed in engaging external audiences should execute, manage, and measure them. Marketing fits the bill in several ways.

First, marketing owns the overall brand and plays an integral part in creating it. This starts with mission, vision, and values exercises and cascades down to positioning, value propositions, messaging, and tone and voice. Because marketing intimately understands the brand from all angles—what it stands for and sells for—it can translate that language into internal- and external-facing marketing messages.

Second, like any marketing campaign about any product or service, values-based efforts require their own narrative, and marketing is excellent at storytelling. Marketing can share the overarching “why” of a brand’s values in creative and compelling ways to target audiences across channels—including consumers who are now increasingly purchasing with purpose in mind. This ranges from the company website to video snippets on social media to public relations and everything in between, meaning marketing can embed values-driven messaging anywhere and everywhere. And because marketing is across all campaigns, they know the right opportunities for weaving values-based messaging into other topics. For instance, if marketing runs a holiday campaign, it might be an excellent place to talk about the charities the company gives back to.  

Third, marketing gets to choose the imagery and content across all channels, allowing the team the opportunity to represent diversity and inclusivity. Consider, for example, shifting pronouns to non-binary ones in marketing messages and ensuring that stock imagery doesn’t just depict one race. Marketing can incorporate values across everything an organization does. Values are not just a strategy for a couple of programs and should never feel that way – they should be present in everything an organization does. For instance, Patagonia doesn’t just sometimes care about the environment – their climate-friendly values are foundationally associated with their brand because of consistent action and marketing of that action consistently.

Fourth, marketing also owns events, which exact a heavy toll on the environment. They can restructure some of this budget to avoid needing to heavily re-print collateral and signage and produce so much SWAG. Some materials can be reused between events, or landing page links and QR codes can replace printed information.

Measuring the Monetary Value of Meaning

Suppose companies want to tie their purpose to profit. In that case, they must rely on the department trained to set goals, effectively communicate internally and externally and track the benefit of every dollar spent.

Marketing should set values-based goals for the entire organization and understand how they impact every aspect of the business. This enables them to influence where focus and budget are going so that they can help all departments make quick adjustments. For instance, many businesses want to work with partners whose values align with their own and want the data to back it up. Marketing and sales teams must work together to ensure tangible impact and that it’s being conveyed accurately to prospective partners.

Then, marketing can lead the charge of incorporating these values into every aspect of the business. I recommend that marketers test smaller activations around their values vs. waiting for everything to be perfect. Don’t lock your stakeholders in a room for six months to debate your values. Know that you won’t be all things to all people. Move quickly and thoughtfully and optimize from there.

Marketing will measure how internal teams activate against values and how their external audiences engage with them. As marketing already measures external engagements with key audiences such as prospects, press, and partners, they can get a holistic view of how values-based messaging resonates across each. They already have many systems and measurement methodologies necessary for proving the value of, well, values. And they’re in luck because a new suite of solutions is emerging to emphasize company values while achieving and exceeding business goals. Many are designed to be turnkey, easily incorporated in place of historical solutions, and offer additional resources to build a tight societal impact roadmap. Marketers should determine which solutions best align with their unique goals and incorporate these new strategies into their daily operations.

A marketing team can only achieve all of the above with key business leaders’ buy-in, ongoing support, and reinforcement. Marketing is the natural tip of the spear to lead an organization’s values initiatives because they already work across many departments as part of their broader function. Still, they can’t be the only advocate within the walls of an organization. Every executive needs to be an advocate. If not, they’re not paying attention to how business is changing. Marketing is the rallying group but not the sole responsible party.

The marketing team should lead efforts to determine which partners will help them achieve their value-based goals while driving the business forward. They should own the measurement of all values-based initiatives across the company and use their communication skills to broadcast their social impact successfully. By authentically communicating values and utilizing tools to drive action, companies can enhance their earnings and solidify that purpose drives profit. 

The post How Marketing Can Help Brands Tie Purpose to Profit appeared first on AdMonsters.

The advantages of audio are clear: Audiences are expanding, as is the volume of content and convenient avenues to buy inventory at scale. Consumers have shifted dramatically toward streaming audio platforms, and podcasts and audiobooks are essential to the current cultural landscape. 

We’re seeing a generational shift in media habits, as younger audiences are particularly eager to embrace digital audio. Like in CTV, the proliferation of platform options makes ad-supported offerings highly appealing versus paying for more subscriptions. 

Despite the advances we’ve seen in ensuring brand safety in the space, a recent study showed more than 70% of advertisers believed brand risk here would increase as more ad inventory enters the market. Early adopters note industry efforts in ensuring brand suitability, transparency, and fraud prevention. As digital audio matures, stakeholders proactively address risks, making it a vital choice for brands and campaigns. In reality, today, digital audio should be an obvious, even essential, buy for a wide variety of brands and campaigns.

Advertisers Navigate the Unknown and Unexpected

To leading advertisers, the scale and reach of audio have long been enticing, inspiring them to advocate for the measures they need to take advantage of its value. In 2022, 223 million people, or 74% of all internet users in the US, said they listened to digital audio. And more than half of US marketers now say they plan to increase investment in digital audio. 

Digital audio advertising spend reached $4.9 billion in the US in 2020, a 58% year-on-year increase. Spotify, Pandora, YouTube Music, and other high-profile platforms have developed ad-supported products. Now, prominent DPSs like Yahoo and The Trade Desk have launched media-buying capabilities for digital audio. This has opened access to more programmatically-bought inventory, scaling audio ad buying and luring top brands like H&M and Nike. At this rate, late-adapter brands will soon find themselves playing catch-up in the marketplace.

Digital audio content can be unpredictable in terms of subjects, tone, and availability. Podcast content is variable by nature. Some popular recording artists and record labels have stated their preference for one specific platform or another. However, marketers have come to acknowledge this variability and have worked with streaming audio platforms to work with and around their media quality concerns.

There have also been significant improvements in ad fraud prevention. Fraud can be an issue in emerging channels, but marketers that recently addressed challenges in CTV have already applied the lessons they’ve learned to audio. Ad tech companies have jumped into the fray. For example, DoubleVerify recently uncovered the fraud scheme BeatString, helping to prevent fraudsters from continuing to steal ad budgets. 

Long-needed Clarity Is on the Rise in Audio – If You Know Where and How to Look

The potential for reach and engagement in digital audio is too great for marketers to fear any minor brand safety pitfalls and ad fraud in perpetuity. The vital work of building trust among stakeholders throughout the audio space is well underway. As advertisers demand greater transparency and clarity over their digital audio ad investments, the industry has taken steps to address media and inventory quality challenges. 

For example, audio leaders Triton and Spotify collaborate with top third-party verification providers like DoubleVerify and IAS to quickly identify brand safety issues and sophisticated invalid traffic sources or botnets. Industry leaders also advocate for more transparency around metrics and measurement for advertisers, brands, and agencies. As is always the case in digital, brands build trust based on independent auditing. These measures have led to more data-sharing between audio platforms and their advertising partners.

We’re also seeing industry bodies step in to advise and work toward new standards – a welcome move that can embolden advertisers to spend. Last summer, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released its Digital Audio Measurement Guide to support investment in the space and help build more sophisticated data-driven digital audio strategies. These responsible actions are accelerating solutions to ensure advertisers can take advantage of the growing opportunity in audio.

Advertisers Can Make a Meaningful Push Together

In terms of content and audience, digital audio is an exciting space that hasn’t even reached critical mass. Brand safety, fraud prevention, and overall ad tech functions are rising to the occasion and becoming just as nuanced and tailored to advertisers’ needs as in other highly desirable media channels. 

Increased trust enables creators and platforms to monetize their content and for advertisers to unlock the full potential of digital audio. The industry is moving toward its goals of overcoming any lingering media quality roadblocks as they arise. And we’ll be able to overcome them by continuing to push for transparency, verification, and accountability.

The post Building Trust: Booming Digital Audio Ad Industry Meets Media Quality Challenges appeared first on AdMonsters.