Publishers, we know it’s been a wild ride lately. Between the impending third-party cookie total annihilation and generative AI nibbling away at referral traffic, finding ways to keep your audience — and your revenue — intact is more important than ever.

That’s why, in our new survey, we’re diving into audience amplification strategies. We want to hear from YOU about how you’re reaching audiences beyond your site and where you see the next wave of revenue opportunities.

Take the Amplify Your Audience Survey Now!

Your input will help uncover what’s working, what’s not, and what’s on the horizon for publishers. We’ll explore the balancing act of leveraging first-party data without losing your competitive edge and dive into tactics from retargeting to renting access to segmented data. With your insights, we’ll map out the best strategies to amplify your audience, drive revenue, and keep your content thriving in these ever-shifting digital waters.

The post It’s Time to Unlock Audience Amplification: Share Your Insights Now! appeared first on AdMonsters.

The race to a federal U.S. data privacy law has been a slow trudge to victory, and the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) is no different. While the supporters and detractors of the act  understand the need for a federal privacy law, some of the minute details cause contention. 

If passed, APRA could significantly impact advertising by defining sensitive data as “online activities over time and across third-party websites,” requiring express consent for its collection or sharing. 

While the bill allows opt-out for targeted advertising (excluding measurement, first-party, and contextual advertising), the inclusion of online browsing data as sensitive means targeted advertising data can’t be used without consent. Publishers focusing on first-party data will benefit if ARPA passes, but the shift from opt-out to opt-in will be disruptive.

If a data privacy law like APRA passes, small businesses may face significant challenges in digital advertising. As you all know, personalized ads play a crucial role in helping SMBs compete with larger brands, reach targeted audiences, and measure campaign success. Still, concerns about data privacy and its impact on small businesses’ data collection and attractiveness to advertisers remain. The federal government and publishers want to craft a law promoting strategic advertising that balances personalization and consumer privacy protection.

Advertiser Perceptions, in collaboration with the Connected Commerce Council and Google, recently released a survey highlighting the impact of personalized digital ads on small to medium-sized businesses in the US. At a virtual press conference some SMBs shared their experiences with data-driven advertising and discussed concerns about APRA. Here’s what they had to say. 

APRA Could Potentially Kill Personalized Advertising, and Ultimately, Publisher Revenue

Advertiser Perceptions, a research firm specializing in advertising, regularly engages with top agencies and brands to gauge market insights. They conducted the survey to understand how the use of personalized digital ads impacts the success of advertisers and publishers.

The study surveyed a wide range of advertisers, including SMBs with fewer than 500 employees and large national advertisers, to understand their current use of personalized digital advertising and the potential effects of not utilizing these ads. The results reveal that 82% of respondents attributed 2023 revenue growth to customized ads. Without these ads, one in five businesses would face closure or layoffs, and nearly half would need to raise prices. 

The results for publishers are even more dire. Data shows that 37% of publishers will face layoffs or closures, 45% might implement paywalls, and two-thirds will increase ad volume. If you read the news, it’s evident that many publishers are already dealing with these issues. These ads are crucial for small businesses to compete with larger brands and measure ad effectiveness.

Personalized digital advertising enables small businesses to reach target audiences and measure the success of their campaigns. According to Advertiser Perceptions, seven in ten businesses use these ads to find new customers, and three in five use them to reach local customers, significantly extending their reach beyond traditional methods. 

Simply Lakita: Will Smaller Publishers Suffer if APRA Passes? 

Lakita Anderson, an online food blogger based in Panama City Beach, Florida, runs a recipe website called Simply Lakita, where she shares modern comfort food recipes with a twist. Since starting her blog in 2013 and turning it into a full-time business in 2016, she has built a significant following with over 700,000 readers and 15,000 Instagram followers. Initially partnering with brands through influencer campaigns, she found the process exhausting and shifted her focus to monetizing her blog through digital ads.

Transitioning to digital ads allowed Anderson to streamline her operations and focus on content creation, significantly reducing the burnout she experienced with brand partnerships. Her blog’s success is closely tied to the ability to show relevant ads to her readers, which is made possible by collecting anonymous data about their preferences and behavior. 

This data is essential for attracting advertisers who want assurance that their marketing efforts reach the right audience. As a result, Anderson’s revenue model relies heavily on effectively using this data to maintain and grow her income.

Recently, Anderson participated in a hill briefing with staff from Representative Neal Dunn and Representative Craig’s offices to discuss the potential impacts of APRA on her business. She argues that APRA could severely hinder her ability to collect the necessary data to attract advertisers, which is crucial for her revenue. 

“While consumer privacy is important, APRA fails to strike a balance that also considers the needs of small businesses,” said Anderson. “Access to this data is necessary to prove the value of ad placements on her website to advertisers, potentially jeopardizing my primary source of income. This legislative change could force me to reconsider my entire business model, threatening the viability of my blog and the livelihood I have built around it.” 

Implementing Privacy-Conscious Advertising Practices

Experts recommend strategies to help small businesses deal with potential data privacy law changes while leveraging personalized digital advertising. 

It starts with educating lawmakers on the crucial role of personalized ads for small businesses and the risks of overly strict privacy laws. Publishers should push for legislation that protects consumer privacy without stifling their ability to target customers effectively. However, if this does happen, businesses should diversify their advertising approaches and explore alternative revenue models, such as subscriptions or paywalls, in case personalized ads face restrictions. 

Still, privacy compliance is of the utmost importance. Data experts like Advertiser Perceptions and publishers like Anderson believe there needs to be guidance around using personalized advertising in a privacy-sensitive manner, like employing aggregated data and anonymized profiles. Additionally, it promotes technological solutions that enable personalized ads without extensive user data, such as contextual advertising or machine learning. 

This is especially important for smaller publishers who do not have the same resources, and possibly even education, about the ins and outs of privacy and personalized advertising. It’s up to everyone in the industry to advocate for small businesses in the data privacy policy discussions to ensure their interests are met and that new regulations balance privacy concerns with business needs.

The post Does APRA Do More Harm Than Good For Personalized Advertising? appeared first on AdMonsters.

Generative AI is rapidly infiltrating and, in many cases, dominating the consumer’s online experience. Is this enhancing the consumer experience? Will publishers benefit from greater engagement with ads on their sites? Or are we simply drinking our own KoolAid, like we did in the data-driven days of Web 2.0? 

Research shows that consumers might not be as keen to see AI-generated ads as many assume.

The Generative AI Ad Funnel

Search is the first place people go when they have a question or are interested in a product, and for many publishers, it can represent up to 40% of the users who arrive on their site. However, Google SGE allows consumers to skip that step and get quick answers without bothering them by visiting the site that produced the content. 

While Google SGE hurts publishers by cutting off a vital source of referral traffic, generative AI can, in theory, help them improve the monetization of users who find their way to their sites. Tools like Scale.ai, Jasper.ai, and others allow for myriad combinations of ad copy and images using a range of data about the individual, prompting higher levels of engagement and, ultimately, CPMs.  

Personalization is Good for Consumers, Right?

Our industry believes the fact that generative AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data and generate ad content personalized to individual users is a good thing. But how do consumers feel about all of these AI-powered experiences?

New research shows that consumers have mixed opinions. Last Thursday, Intango released the results of a study designed to measure consumer perceptions of generative AI in advertising. The ad-tech company surveyed over 1,000 consumers in the US and found opinions divided on critical issues that the industry believes are beneficial.

Take using search history for ad personalization. Forty-three percent of respondents viewed this positively or somewhat positively, indicating an appreciation for more tailored advertising experiences. Yet, this enthusiasm is tempered by privacy considerations, with 37% expressing reservations about their search history used to shape ad content.

As tools like Soro and Google Performance Max proliferate, consumers are on the fence about all that personalization. When asked about their receptivity to AI-driven personalized ad content, 45% of participants acknowledged the benefits of such personalization, either finding it beneficial or somewhat beneficial for ensuring ad relevance. However, skepticism remains, as 27% /preferred non-AI personalized ads, highlighting the industry’s challenge in balancing technological advancement with consumer comfort and trust.

And while Google touts Search SGE, the survey revealed that 27% of consumers adjust their search behaviors with a shift toward these new platforms. A majority (51%) reported no change in their use of traditional search engines. According to Intango, this indicates a gradual but noticeable shift in consumer search habits influenced by AI innovations. 

These findings confirm earlier research by Publicis Media and Yahoo!, which served 1,200 consumers about their attitudes towards AI-generated content. According to that poll, 72% of consumers found that AI makes distinguishing between authentic and fake content difficult. 

The Importance of Navigating Carefully

“It is evident that while there’s an appreciation for and curiosity about the enhanced experiences that AI-driven personalization can offer, consumers do have privacy concerns,” Uri Lichter, CEO of Intango, said in a press release. “It’s crucial for us in the ad tech industry to navigate these concerns thoughtfully. We need to take a careful approach when advancing AI in search to ensure we are respecting consumer privacy while delivering the personalized experiences that many users value.”

Navigating those concerns can be tough for our industry because we tend to get excited about the hype. The mid-aughts were all about data-driven advertising and capturing the “data exhaust” consumers generate as they go about their digital lives. We tracked their every move, packaging up signals into audience segments sold at scale, leading to what Harvard Business School professor Shoshana Zuboff calls surveillance capitalism.

It was a heady time within the industry, with ad-tech companies promising highly personalized advertising that makes the whole online experience better for the consumer. However, they didn’t quite agree. Blowback came from the GDPR, CCPA, and an increasingly complex regulatory environment. 

There’s no doubt that personalized advertising increases relevance and efficiency and promotes discovery. But consumers have made it clear that they’re uncomfortable with companies knowing so much about their online behavior and, worse, using it to manipulate their behavior to get them to buy things they don’t need or want.

We learned some valuable lessons in Web 2.0. This research reminds us that we need to apply those lessons as we dive into generative AI.

Besides, we might be getting our hopes up that generative AI will be the panacea for increased ad engagement. In his book Filterworld, Kyle Chayka warns, “With new technology, the miraculous quickly becomes mundane, any glitch in its function is felt as bothersome, and finally it becomes ignorable, the miracle forsaken.” In other words, the video ads created by Soro may seem super cool at first, but if we see them enough, we’ll grow bored.

How Generative AI Can Help AdOps

This is not to say that generative AI won’t have a huge and positive impact on publisher revenues because it will. Last week, NBCUniversal announced at One24 that it is testing generative AI to analyze TV and social content to better understand the emotions and motivations felt by consumers. Advertisers can then use that insight to target audiences for ads, increasing ad revenue for NBCUniversal content. Early tests show that this insight can improve performance by as much as 49%.

The soon-to-be-released AdMonsters Publisher Pulse found that AdOps teams effectively use generative AI to improve monetization in myriad ways, such as implementing infinite feedback loops that collect, analyze, and optimize campaigns automatically and continuously.

The post Generative AI Pushes Deeper into the Consumer’s Online Experience appeared first on AdMonsters.

The IAB releases its State of Data Report every year to understand how the industry is tackling data evolution. This year’s study reveals that the digital advertising industry has acknowledged the lasting impact of data privacy changes and signal loss, but these have magnified measurement and addressability issues.

Consequently, the current state of data has made significant organizational changes, including hiring experts, training staff, forming specialized teams, enhancing legal and technological capabilities, and revising advertising strategies to adapt to the altered addressability, measurement, and overall landscape of digital advertising.

While beneficial, the industry’s shift to a privacy-first approach has reduced the availability of high-quality, usable data. This does not necessarily mean that aligning consumers’ needs with advertising goals is crippling the industry. It just means that as the industry changes, there are going to be growing pains.  

Deterministic data is a marker of the past. Now publishers and advertisers are focusing on AI-based probabilistic techniques and embracing contextual advertising and advanced attribution methods. Advertising budgets now favor channels like CTV, retail media, and social media, allowing for personalized use of first-party data, yet interoperability challenges persist. 

Where does that leave us? 

The Signal Loss Blues 

According to the IAB’s data report, the melancholic strum of signal loss will persist in 2024. Ninety-five percent of decision-makers in advertising and data at brands, agencies, and publishers anticipate ongoing signal loss.

This is further exacerbated by the fact that many industry stakeholders know that privacy laws coming this year will make it harder to create personalized advertising in those specific states. 

Despite the challenges, the industry is demonstrating remarkable resilience in adapting to the privacy-focused ecosystem. The data reveals that they are making strategic decisions to navigate this new normal, instilling confidence in the industry’s ability to evolve. 

Legislation and signal loss have affected the makeup and structure of organizations for 82% of respondents. Nearly 80% are currently training or planning to train their staff in data and privacy-related topics, while half of companies (49%) are establishing or planning to establish dedicated teams and departments and hiring or planning to hire external subject matter experts (48%).

Will the Cookie Crumble in 2024? 

If you ask the industry stakeholders in the IAB’s State of Data Report, the cookie will crumble, but most think it won’t happen in 2024. 

Google’s Privacy Sandbox has been preparing for Chrome’s cookie deprecation for quite some time. But after they started deprecating 1% of third-party cookies, critics came out of the woodworks to say the industry is not quite ready. Plus concerns from the CMA may delay Chrome’s timeline. It seems those surveyed in the report agree. 

As written in the report, “though nine-in-ten expect Google Chrome to deprecate third-party cookies at some point, far less expect that to occur in 2024.” While the majority of surveyed participants agree that Chrome cookie deprecation will happen someday, only 42% believe it will happen in 2024. 

But are publishers and advertisers testing the Privacy Sandbox? The survey says about 57% of participants are currently testing or planning to test it in 2024. Awareness of individual Privacy Sandbox APIs closely follows the overall initiative. The Attribution Reporting API is expected to be the most recognized, reflecting advertisers’ keen interest in assessing campaign performance and ROAS.

Diminished Data Quality

Brands, agencies, and publishers acknowledge significant constraints in data collection, leading to lower quality insights into crucial consumer data like behaviors, PII, location, and preferences, and causing delays in data acquisition. 

An SVP from an agency noted a decline in performance due to data signal loss, resulting in reduced audience quality and increased cost per conversion. Seventy-two percent anticipate decreased access to browser history, real-time signals, PII, and location data, while 61% foresee challenges in gathering demographic, user preferences, and behavioral information from third-party sources. 

Lower data quality and accuracy are hindering measurement effectiveness. Nearly three-quarters of companies are facing and anticipating increased obstacles in measurement, crucial for comprehending performance and ROI. This trend is driving ad investment toward walled gardens, where personalized messaging and conversion signals merge to facilitate closed-loop measurement. 

Seventy-three percent anticipate a decrease in their ability to attribute campaign and channel performance, measure ROI, track conversions (including post-view), and optimize campaigns. Regarding data quality, 57% of companies expect it to be more challenging to capture reach and frequency. 

To remedy this concern, brands, agencies, and publishers enhance data quality by leveraging first-party data and enrichment tools. Additionally, they embrace analytical techniques such as AI, machine learning, and media mix modeling, which rely less on tracking signals and third-party cookies.

What Does the IAB Recommend? 

It’s crucial to adopt privacy-by-design not only for compliance but also as a strategic imperative to prioritize consumers’ interests and reinforce our responsibility as industry leaders. By embedding privacy into operations, businesses can address data collection concerns, enhancing consumer trust and loyalty—essential for economic success.

Ignoring privacy risks can result in regulatory fines and damage public trust, harming consumer engagement and economic performance. Companies thoughtfully integrating privacy into operations mitigate backlash and positively influence public attitudes toward advertising.

More specifically the report details four areas of focus: 

1. Embed privacy principles into all aspects of your business
2. Invest in specialist talent and expertise
3. Implement data practices that mitigate quality challenges 
4. Innovate via new tools and technologies 

Read the full report here. 

The post A Privacy-Focused Ecosystem With Diminished Data Quality: Insights From IAB State of Data Report 2024 appeared first on AdMonsters.

On one side of the ring, we had Terry Guyton-Bradley, Senior Director of Advertising Technology at Fortune, representing the sell side. Conversely, Justin Scarborough, AdTech & Programmatic Media Buying Consultant at U of Digital, represented the buy-side. 

I got to referee both of these formidable fighters in this highly anticipated programmatic match-up — there were heavy blows from both sides, mentions of cartels, and several rounds of healthy supply chain competition — but the smackdown was not a title fight or a chance at endless glory. They were both duking it out to create a healthy supply chain. 

Has there ever been a fight for a more worthy cause? 

At PubForum New Orleans, we hosted a session, Digital Media Smackdown: Buy-Side V. Sell-Side Programmatic Data Gap, inspired by an article that argued the industry is supply-side dominated because of information asymmetry. We discussed how sellers and buyers can improve their practices, how the ad tech industry will look with fewer intermediaries, and how to maneuver the complex programmatic supply chain. 

Is the Industry Supply-Side Dominated? 

According to the initial study, ANA Programmatic Media Supply Chain Transparency Study, publishers tend to have better information about the quality of media inventory sold in auctions. Neither one of our fighters had much contention to this opinion. Guyton-Bradley vehemently agreed that we’re currently in a supply-side dominant industry. 

“While collaborating with various tech providers, they prioritize bringing their data onto our platform rather than us sharing our data or data points. It’s already a supply-side scenario,” said Guyton-Bradley. 

On the other side, Scarborough asserted that it’s daunting from a buyer’s standpoint, yet it brings a sense of relief. Historically, intermediaries, especially in programmatic and automated trading, have dominated, providing a buffer from direct publisher interactions. 

“The challenge lies in our lack of insight into what truly works. We seek meaningful audiences, yet we lack clarity on their performance and market value,” said Scarborough. “The gap persists between my need for scale and willingness to pay and the sell-side’s desire to maximize returns on the audiences you offer. Unfortunately, this middle ground remains elusive.” 

The Battle With Intermediaries

From the sell-side perspective, there needs to be a discrepancy between what they want – scale and willingness to pay for it – and what they see in terms of the value you attribute to that information or data. 

Intermediaries, the infamous middleman, create complications, requesting desired data at a significantly lower cost than its actual worth, based on Guyton-Bradley’s experience. The effort and price involved in comprehending their audience, gathering and packaging data, and integrating it into the system are substantial. The challenge emerges when a buyer demands an audience at a low cost, whereas the price is significantly higher for them to provide that audience.

In a surprise turn, Scarborough dropped a truth bomb that shook the room: “I’ll reveal a hidden truth: while I might bid $1.25, the platforms I collaborate with push for the lowest CPM possible from you.”

He elaborates further that even if they reveal their margins, which is rare, they manipulate algorithms to decrease bidding, aiming for the lowest clearing price and marking up these savings to sell to buyers. On the other side, buyers are willing to pay more, but intermediaries conceal the actual costs, fostering a misleading perception of savings.

In colloquial terms, shots fired!

Shifting Power Dynamics and Walled Gardens

According to Guyton-Bradley, historically, publishers have been powerless, accepting anything thrown at them without much benefit. He emphasized collaborating more closely with tech providers to create a better alternative to Google’s dominance. 

“Collectively, if we had worked together, we would have wielded more power than we do now,” said Guyton-Bradley. “The issue is the segmentation – they hold relationships on the buy side, we hold them on the sell side, and a colossal barrier divides us because we’ve failed to cultivate these connections. Unfortunately, we lack awareness of each other, leading to unanswered calls and emails lost in an abyss.” 

Scarborough had two perspectives on this. Firstly, addressing communication: from the buy side, they face the same pressure on margins. Their clients constantly demand reduced agency rates, making it challenging to allocate time for thorough responses or evaluations of intermediaries’ margins and engage more effectively with publisher partners. This side of the scenario is severely broken on the buy side.

“The other aspect is pricing. While many focus on Google’s monopoly, the reality is that both Google and Facebook dominate over 70% of the ad tech market,” said Scarborough. “Media plans rarely exclude them, and their recent colossal earnings demonstrate their control over pricing, resembling the structure of industries like oil controlled by entities like OPEC. They’ve created an opaque market, dictating pricing across the board. To engage buyers effectively, addressing this cartel-like structure is crucial.”

Common Ground

The programmatic supply chain is a complex ecosystem. With many fighters in the ring scrapping for ad spend, audience targeting, and fair CPMs, the industry must find a way to create a sense of common ground and community. 

Whether that means cutting out some unnecessary intermediaries, opening transparency on both sides, or knocking down some of these walled gardens, the programmatic supply chain needs a deep cleaning. 

To help ease some of the tension in the programmatic supply chain, Scarborough suggests, “I believe the focus should be on automating the essential campaign tasks effectively, such as building, running, and reporting, as well as hosting data warehouses. This prevents us from allowing astronomical margins disguised as automation and performance enhancements. Building deeper relationships with publishers and embracing genuine automation can redirect attention from funneling money into certain systems, creating a more efficient and productive operational landscape.”

The post PubForum NOLA Digital Media Smackdown: Can the Buy-Side and Sell-Side Find Common Ground? appeared first on AdMonsters.

“I always jokingly attribute my easy going personality to my island upbringing. It’s a bit of a stereotype, but I feel it rings true,” says Boodram. “The calm through the storm approach is helpful in many capacities when your  work is centered around managing partners and their success.” 

Alongside her role at FatTail, Boodram is a mentor and coach. She has always intentionally created time and space to coach others in and outside the workplace. Two years ago, Boodram was honored in the mentorship category at AdMonsters’ Top Women in Ad Tech and Digital Media Awards. 

Recently hired as CRO at FatTail, she has entered a new era in her career. An era where she redefines the role of CRO as more than just a sales leadership role. But more as a role equally focused and driven around understanding how successful marketing and sales work together to affect revenue outcomes. 

In honor of Women’s History Month, we spoke with Laura Boodram, CRO, FatTail, about how she started in ad tech, her experience being a women executive, and how her new role as CRO has allowed her to grow. 

The Start of a Promising Career in Ad Tech

Andrew Byrd: How did you start your career in ad tech, and how did it develop to where you are now?

Laura Boodram: The core of my professional expertise is all about helping companies grow and scale. Think people (roles, user experience), process (org capability), and platforms (cost and speed) – I bring all of that together. And I’ve done so across multiple industries over the past 25 years; startups in hyper-growth mode to established companies going through digital transformation. Before FatTail, I led publisher and technology operations for ten years, tackling complex platform development, integration, and automation projects. When the opportunity presented itself, I jumped at the chance to move to the Ad Tech side. It’s exciting and rewarding to solve publisher revenue challenges at scale.

AB: FatTail recently promoted you to CRO. Can you walk me through the experience of your recent promotion? What did this mean for your career and the goals you set for yourself? 

LB: It’s an interesting point of reflection for me. I previously targeted a COO or GM-type role when I think about my core skills, background, and comfort zone. My experience so far at FatTail has pushed me into new territory. I started out focused on Client Success and Operations, grew my focus to include Marketing, and now as CRO, Sales. I’m exactly where I aspire to be at any given time – learning and developing new skills and experiences.

AB: It must be challenging to be the Chief Revenue Officer during the ad spend slowdown or the “ad recession.” What has been your strategy, and what advice would you give to the ad tech ecosystem to thrive during this time? 

LB: FatTail grew revenue by 47% in 2022 while maintaining a negative churn rate. As a company scales, it needs to ensure that it’s not just adding new business but helping existing customers get the most out of its solutions. As the head of sales, customer success, and marketing, I’ll have a complete view of the FatTail customer experience. I can work toward our customers’ vision of getting the maximum possible value from FatTail’s various products. For example, we’ve offered OMS solutions for decades, but we’ve also recently rolled out new creative management capabilities via AdBookPORTAL and an automated direct deals marketplace called Deals Marketplace. I will focus on helping customers benefit from the total components of the FatTail platform rather than relying on one individual element of it as a point solution. 

While we have been impacted by softening in revenues and reduced spend on ad tech, our new products were directly informed and influenced through our Publisher and other tech partnerships. There is an incredible level of community and collaboration in our industry. I suggest leveraging that and developing partnerships that directly support publishing.

Navigating the Industry as a Woman

AB: You have held many executive positions in your career. Can you walk me through your experience as a woman executive in the ad tech industry? What has been your experience as a woman in the workplace? Do you see a more positive workplace environment for women than at the start of your career? Is there any room for improvement? 

LB: Most of my life, I’ve been the ‘only’ in the room as a person of color, a woman, a female executive, and now a female CRO. My executive experiences in ad tech versus other industries have not necessarily felt different. I’m encouraged by the growing awareness and focus on the importance of diversity in the workplace and the boardroom, but there’s a lot of work still to be done as an industry and as a society. The most scalable thing we can all do is to continue to build more understanding and awareness of all the existing inequities and biases and challenge each other to do better. Align your values with the actions you take, and you’ll be surprised at the type of influence you can achieve.

AB: What is your hope for the next generation of women in ad tech? What advice would you give them? 

I hope to see more women founders, owners, and executives in the space. My top pieces of advice are:

1. Grow your network in every possible way. Find opportunities to connect with others like you and mentors who can help provide feedback and perspectives. This is a critical way to help discover your strengths and how to use them to overcome your weaknesses. Networking also equips you to advocate for your goals and needs.
2. Never stop learning. Read intentionally. Approach every situation with a growth mindset, and learn to listen!
3. Exercise humility. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t claim and own your victories, but sustain focus on solving problems and supporting others. Life is not a competition, and there’s little we can achieve independently. It’s uplifting to uplift, and I’ve always felt most rewarded when others succeed — no matter how small or large the victory. 
4. Do what you say you will do; and where possible, do more than you’re asked. Work with integrity and hustle, and worry about the reward later.

Carving Out Time for Growth

AB: Anything exciting you are working on or coming up in your career that you want to share? 

LB: Not sure how exciting it is for anyone else, but I’m jazzed about the progress I’m making this year against a personal goal I set to grow my technical and leadership skills and the benefit I’m seeing to my overall focus and productivity. I’ve devoted 5 hours a week to intentional learning – it could be reading, taking a class, striking up a conversation with someone in a coffee shop – really anything that helps me develop a new skill or idea. When I set that target, it felt unattainable while navigating an action-packed set of family and professional commitments. By creating the headspace for learning, I’m better at applying myself to everything else and (so far) not losing ground in other areas. Hopefully, that inspires someone to take the necessary brain breaks to grow productivity and creativity.

The post A Calm Through the Storm: Women’s History Month Q&A With Laura Boodram, CRO, FatTail appeared first on AdMonsters.

Crystal Foote, an award-winning marketing professional and entrepreneur, learned that two decades into her career. 

Foote recently launched two businesses, Digital Culture Group and ThePartyStarter, to target and uplift diverse audiences within the advertising and digital media industry. After years of trying to push DEI initiatives for others, she found the power to blaze her own path.

Both a creative and analytical thinker, Foote sustained a diversified advertising career working with a wide range of clients, from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses. Take a journey with me to the beginning, where Foote was inspired to start her career after watching Vivica A. Fox in Two Can Play That Game. 

Life Imitates Art: The Start of Her Career

Andrew Byrd: Can you tell me how you started your career in ad tech?

Crystal Foote: Although it might sound unusual, my interest in advertising began after watching Two Can Play That Game featuring Vivica A. Fox, who played a character in advertising. Similarly, I watched What Women Want with Mel Gibson and had the same reaction. I found the profession to be very creative and analytical, appealing because it allows me to utilize both sides of my brain.

These movies acted as a catalyst for me to explore marketing and advertising degrees in college. I eventually secured internships that paved the way for my career in advertising. After graduating, I started my career at MEC Global, now known as WaveMaker. While there, I worked across various accounts and rapidly gained expertise in advertising.

AB: I love your inspiration for wanting to start a career in advertising and digital media, especially since a Black woman in a film inspired you. I’m sure that starting in your career in real life, you were an outlier as a Black woman in advertising. How was that experience? 

CF: Yeah, that’s an interesting question because I come from a diverse area of California, and my family is interracial. When I arrived in New York, one of the country’s largest and most diverse cities, I was surprised by the lack of people who looked like me in the advertising industry or at the agency where I worked.

Despite the challenges, I was a quick learner and determined to make a difference. To succeed, I had to feel comfortable in my own skin and embrace the challenge. At times, it felt like I represented an entire demographic, which could be overwhelming. However, I learned to navigate through it by being strategic and allowing my work to speak for itself. Ultimately, I stood on my own and proved myself through hard work and dedication.

Blazing Her Own Path: The Launch of Digital Culture Group and ThePartyStarter

AB: After years of experience in advertising and digital media, you are now launching two businesses. What led you to take that leap? 

CF: I launched my own companies because I realized I couldn’t rely solely on my former employers to share my vision and passion for promoting DEI in the digital ecosystem. The social unrest of 2020 only strengthened my sense of urgency to take action and make a difference.

While I spearheaded my former employer’s Multicultural and diversity initiatives for three years, I decided to live by my words of empowerment and launch my own companies. With these companies, I wanted to promote DEI from a culture-first perspective. I wanted to tell this story without any limitations, so I decided to launch my own two companies.

AB: The first company you started was Digital Culture Group. Can you tell me about the business? 

CF: I founded Digital Culture Group to address the lack of focus on diverse and multicultural audiences in advertising and to create authentic and data-driven campaign strategies for them.

From what I’ve observed in the market, some advertisers and agencies assign a team to create campaigns targeting specific multicultural groups but often struggle to understand how to reach these segments effectively. They tend to rely on selecting publications that they think will align with the intended audience based on factors such as language or ethnicity in the title.

However, assuming that a campaign will be successful because it targets, for example, African American audiences on a publication with “Black” in its title is often ineffective, as the audience, they aim to reach may not be present in those publications. This approach can lead to frustration when the campaigns fail to perform well and discouragement for future Multicultural and diverse campaigns.

At Digital Culture Group, we offer omnichannel media activations, creative production, measurement analytics, and data solutions. This allows us to deliver innovative and effective digital campaigns that authentically engage diverse audiences and drive tangible business results. As a partner to advertisers and agencies, we are dedicated to creating meaningful, inclusive, and successful advertising campaigns.

Our data strategy involves exploring machine learning, AI, audience taxonomies, and datasets, as well as partnering with different data providers to reach our intended audience deterministically.

AB: I love that ideology as the foundation of creating campaigns, and I want to dig deeper into that. What is your data strategy to target these audiences and build out the campaigns? 

CF: Our data strategy involves exploring machine learning, AI, audience taxonomies, and datasets, as well as partnering with different data providers to reach our intended audience deterministically. Additionally, we created a Multicultural and inclusive data repository by utilizing various data sources, including voter registration, census, and geolocation data.

By utilizing this data, we can craft and understand our audience segment while ensuring privacy compliance for each individual we aim to reach. We can then layer other taxonomies, such as psychographic or behavioral purchase data, on top of demographics to gain further insights into each individual’s attributes. For instance, we can determine if a person is African American, has a household income of XYZ, listens to podcasts daily, and frequently shops at ABC retailers.

AB: The other company you launched was ThePartyStarter which is more event-based. How did this idea come about? Does it work in conjunction with Digital Culture Group, or is it a separate entity?

CF: ThePartyStarter was a passion project for me, born out of my experiences in the ad tech space. As someone who attends numerous conferences and events, I noticed a significant lack of minority-owned event businesses involved in event planning or services. This was consistent across various locations, such as the south of France, New York, and Atlanta.

After conducting some research, I discovered that there is bias in the events industry, where even some critically acclaimed and well-known minority-owned event businesses are not included in high-end directories for venues and planners. To increase awareness of diversity and Multiculturalism, I created an events marketplace platform called ThePartyStarter. It allows people planning a professional or personal event to select from a diverse group of event vendors catering to their needs. This platform ensures that people from different backgrounds can have equitable opportunities in the events industry. 

“We Aren’t Saving Lives”: The Power to Change Societal Perceptions

AB: I see you putting your beliefs into practice and ensuring that direct action comes from that. Is there any advice you want to give to the ad tech community to follow in your footsteps? 

CF: This is a loaded question because there is so much that I want to say to the advertising world. Don’t underestimate the power of authenticity when connecting with diverse audiences.

There is an adage that I’ve heard since I started my advertising career, “we aren’t saving lives’. While it’s true that advertising may not save lives like doctors or first responders do, it’s important to recognize that our work has the power to shape people’s perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors.

By striving to authentically represent and connect with diverse audiences, we can help create a more inclusive and equitable society. To truly connect with our audience, it’s important to take the time to listen and understand their unique perspectives and experiences. And above all, be willing to learn, grow, and adapt as we work to create more authentic connections with our audience.

Make an effort to partner with diverse creators, content producers, minority-owned businesses, and diverse interns who can bring new ideas and fresh perspectives to the table.

So keep pushing forward and always strive to make a positive impact on the world around you.

The post Blazing Her Own Path in Ad Tech: Crystal Foote, CEO and Founder, Digital Culture Group and ThePartyStarter appeared first on AdMonsters.

While having a mass amount of data to pull from can be useful to any publisher, making sure you have data that is relevant to your customer base is much more important. 

DeLu Jackson, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at ADT, will speak to this point of view during his Fireside Chat at Publisher Forum Nashville. Entitled, “Reach Is Dead, Long Live Relevance: How Buyers and Sellers Use Triggers to Reach and Engage Audiences,” the discussion will highlight “how buyers and sellers can work better together to focus on the dynamic nature of data that’s available to them to actually reach the right consumer at the right time.”  

DeLu has over two decades of experience working as a marketer for brands such as Conagra, Kellogg Company, McDonald’s, Nissan, and now ADT as the SVP and Chief Marketing Officer. With his experience in many different industries–automotive, retail, food–he has been able to market and cater to audiences searching for a variety of essential and desired products. 

“I have learned alot from the diversity of brands I got to work with, from financial services, automotive, startups, apparel and retail,” said DeLu. “Even thinking back to my time working as a consultant with an amazing company like Prophet, I learned how to think about the practical application of all the insight and knowledge to help these businesses become successful. It became a way for me to think about applying that knowledge to any business in any circumstance.” 

DeLu’s Epiphany: “We Are All Serving the Same Customer”

Through his lived career experience and meteoric rise, DeLu Jackson reminisced about landing on a profound “aha moment” that completely changed his perspective about his career. He saw a common thread through all of the industries that he was working with–the customer. At the beginning of his career, DeLu was trained to think that his audience was only specific to his brand. Further wisdom changed his preconceived notion. 

“The difference is that you start to understand that it’s the same customer, the same family or the same household, but those brands serve different needs for them,” said DeLu. “Each new industry I moved across, I kept coming to the realization that this is the same customer. You have to figure out how the brand fits into their basket of goods.” 

This specific epiphany came to DeLu at a pivotal transition in his career. He was moving from the automotive industry to take a position as the VP Global Digital at McDonald’s and was asked if moving from two seemingly unrelated industries would be a tough transition for him.

Through this query, DeLu was able to make a connection between the user experience of both Nissan and McDonalds’ customers. For example, when designing a car, he knew that Nissan made big cup holders to allot space for huge drinks that people would buy at the McDonald’s drive through.

On the other side of things, he knew that Mcdonalds only put small amounts of sauce in the middle of a burger because a lot of their customers eat while driving and this prevented them from making a mess. For him, it showcased practical reasons that two separate brands could be serving the same customer.

“This is a customer journey thing,” says DeLu. “That to me is the magic of customer experience. Understanding the role we play for customers and really thinking about that.” 

Using Relevant Data to Determine Audience Needs

At the end of last year, DeLu started his role at ADT. While he was making his own career transition, ADT was also going through a transformation.

ADT began a partnership with Google working towards the goal of bolstering their subscription growth and improving their user experience. The technology and data assets were an important variable to starting this collaboration, but for DeLu, the essential nature of this partnership was leveraging that technology to assist in ADT’s larger mission. ADT’s higher purpose as a brand is to make sure that families, business and communities are safe. 

With the data that ADT and Google were able to accumulate from customer feedback and behavior, they were able to determine how to exactly execute their company’s mission. 

“These companies have a tremendous amount of intelligence and data to help identify what’s most useful to customers,” said DeLu. “From their feedback or behavior, we can begin to understand the things customers want to protect in order to create the best experience for our users. We have the ability to identify those triggers through that data which is key.” 

The Importance of Having a Customer-Focused Brand

With all of the knowledge that DeLu Jackson has accumulated over the span of his career as a marketer, one of the most important lessons he learned was that, no matter the industry, brands need to align with customers’ needs instead of forcing their brand vision to disrupt the consumers’ way of life.  

In hindsight of all of his experiences, DeLu could see the common thread that connected all of the different industries he worked for. Despite the change in technology where digital mediums have allowed brands to accumulate a greater amount of data than ever before, it is essential to hone in on how to properly use that information for the benefit of the customer more than the volume of data that you have. 

“So what I learned along the way is to be more deliberate about what data you need, and what data you can actually use. It’s about the quality and the value of the data to the circumstance in which we can actually utilize it,” said DeLu.

“I always tell people to start with little data, and try to do something valuable with that little data for the customers and for your organization. You’ll find yourself sitting on more data than most of us can manage. So don’t start with volume as the goal, but start with value as the goal. That will allow us to make it a lot more manageable and tangible, including the impact in a positive way.” 

The post Publisher Forum Keynote DeLu Jackson: Leveraging Relevant User Data to Create Customer-Focused Brands appeared first on AdMonsters.

The ad tech ecosystem, especially over the last couple of years, has been surprised by privacy regulations, increased ad fraud, a decrease in ad spending and many other setbacks. Industry experts have been working diligently to create solutions for the new ecosystem, but of course, there is more work to be done on all fronts. 

On September 15, The Federal Trade Commission released a report highlighting how companies are using a deceptive design practice called dark patterns. 

The practice is becoming progressively sophisticated and it aims to trick consumers into buying products or unwillingly giving up their data. There are several categories of dark patterns, but the FTC is actively searching for ways to prevent them. 

Dark patterns are nothing new. Even direct mail and brick-and-mortar retailers have used tactics like “pre-checked boxes, hard-to-find-and read disclosures, and confusing cancellation policies” to manipulate customers for their money and data. Now with the growth of e-commerce, dark patterns have simply evolved to trick customers online. 

Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, released a statement saying, “Our report shows how more and more companies are using digital dark patterns to trick people into buying products and giving away their personal information. This report—and our cases—send a clear message that these traps will not be tolerated.”

Types of Dark Patterns Unveiled

The FTC report, entitled “Bringing Dark Patterns to Light,” asserts that dark patterns are found in a variety of contexts. These include mediums such as ecommerce, cookie consent banners, children’s apps, and subscription sales. Yet, they specifically highlight the four most common dark pattern traps. 

Misleading Consumers and Disguising Ads. These advertisements are designed to appear as independent editorial content, comparison shopping sites that rank companies based on compensation, and timers designed to trick consumers into believing there is a limited time to purchase a product or service. 

• In this instance, the FTC used a case where they took action against a work from home scheme. Allegedly, the company sent unsolicited emails to consumers that falsely claimed they were coming from CNN or Fox News. The email sent consumers to fake news stories that eventually took them to sales websites that advertised the operators work from home scheme. 

Making it Difficult to Cancel Subscriptions or Charges. This pattern entails tricking consumers into paying for goods or services without their permission. The usual tactic involves subscription sellers creating recurring payments for products and services that consumers never wanted to purchase or only wanted for a one-time purchase. 

• The FTC filed a case against ABCmouse that alleged the learning site made it extremely difficult to cancel free trials and subscriptions when they advertised an easy cancellation process. In fact, consumers had to jump through hurdles such as promotions that directed them away from the cancellation link. 

Burying Key Terms and Junk Fees. This specific pattern trap obscures material information from consumers such as hiding the key limitations of products under dense terminology in the terms of service. In addition, companies will only advertise part of the product’s total price to trick customers.

• For example, the loan lender, LendingClub, allegedly used visuals that offered applicants a specific loan amount that included no hidden fees. Yet, they hid the fees behind tooltip buttons and stuffed them in between prominent text. 

Tricking Consumers into Sharing Data. This particular pattern offers consumers an option for privacy settings or sharing data. Instead, they steer them in a way that makes them give up their most personal data. 

• The FTC alleged that smart TV company, Vizio, used default settings that allowed the company to collect and share consumer data with third parties. They only provided a brief notice to customers that was easily missed. 

CMP’s Manipulation of Publishers 

While data manipulation tactics have been used heavily on consumers, the same traps have been dished out to publishers as well. 

As early as 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) required publishers to gain consumer consent to acquire their data. Since then, publishers have used third-party contractors, Consent Management Providers (CMPs), to create consent pop-ups as a service. 

A study conducted by the PET symposium asserts that CMPs often use their services to manipulate publishers. 

The study claims that “by analyzing CMP services on an empty experimental website, we identified the manipulation of website publishers towards a subscription to the CMPs paid plans and then determined that default consent pop-ups often violate the law. 

We also show that configuration options may lead to non-compliance, while tracking scanners offered by CMPs manipulate publishers.” 

The study does not negate the importance of CMPs when they are used correctly. It simply highlights that CMPs often use their privileged position as an advantage against publishers to increase their revenue. 

For example, research was conducted in 2019, only a year after the development of the GDPR. Five popular CMPs were studied according to UK data provided by Adzerk. It found that almost 90% of consent pop-ups created by those CMPs did not meet the legal requirements and noted the general option of a “refuse” button for full consent. 

Furthermore, CMPs implement “legally problematic dark patterns in the generation process of their consent pop-ups, to influence the publisher in their own interest.” These tactics are used in every step of the CMPs registration process. 

Secret Revealed: What are the Solutions to Dark Patterns? 

Research shows that dark patterns are a parasite that plague both consumers and publishers. 

Many companies use dark patterns because they believe it is an easy way to increase traffic and conversion, but at the end of the day, it is just a hindrance to the user experience. While there is still work to be done to remedy the issue as a whole, some industry experts have offered solutions to maneuver around them. 

The first suggestion is to consider the consumers needs and base ad and pop-up designs on those standards. Stringent design practices should be introduced for designers. It is also important to understand the ethics around designing ads and pop-ups that consider UX. 

According to Dheeraj Khindri, Senior UX Analyst at Net Solutions, transparency is key. Many of the tactics for dark patterns include misleading consumers and publishers with confusing designs and texts. When designing layouts it is important to “ensure that the visitors on your site never feel lost or feel that the information is being hidden or manipulated. Users must be allowed to easily reverse any action like unsubscribing from a newsletter, and so on. All the elements on your website must be clear to the users and have user-friendly navigation.”

The post The Mystery of Dark Patterns: A Publisher’s CMP Nightmare appeared first on AdMonsters.

Their data will give rise to new opportunities for brands, agencies, and publishers to collaborate earlier on in the campaign planning process. Some publishers even argue that they should be included as a brand develops its go-to-market plan for new products.

Is there a case to be made for including them that early?

Publishers Have Unique Data for Campaign Planning and Assessment

When we think of publisher data, we tend to focus on the information they collect at registration. It’s valuable data, as many inquire about household information that would be actionable for brands. For instance, Monique Watford, VP of Operations at Spiceworks Ziff Davis, says her company can supply information related to specific types of software and hardware a company uses, when their licenses will expire and if their hardware is aging.

But even publishers that don’t require registration bring a lot to the table. One such publisher, Love To Know Media, has a trove of contextual data that can offer very interesting options for advertisers.

“Our visitors come to us for an answer to specific questions, which allows us to understand a lot about them. If they land on an article about dog ailments, we know they’re a dog owner, and they are concerned about their dog,” explained Marc Boswell, Love To Know Media’s CRO. “We can understand our readers from multiple angles based on the content and the contextual flags on each one of the pages.”

There’s another often overlooked pool of data: third-party data on engagement such as hover on ad rate and scroll impressions. This type of data goes way beyond CTR or video completion rates. It can help advertisers, and their agencies better understand how well their creatives perform so they can improve their creative strategy. It also sheds insight into which creatives work better on specific publications and why.

Earning That Seat at the Table

While publisher data is undeniably strategic to companies, publishers need to recognize the advertiser’s concerns, beginning with neutrality.

Advertisers, burnt by years of buying pre-packaged audience segments that woefully missed the mark, want assurances of fraud-free, high-quality inventory that a trusted third-party measurement company verifies. They’re wary of publishers grading their own homework. Impartiality, therefore, is key.

That impartiality will benefit the entire ecosystem, enabling buyers and their media agencies to trust a larger portion of the inventory publishers have to offer. And that, in turn, means publisher-defined audiences will be more actionable and will go a long way in easing general fears that digital advertising will lack sufficient data due to privacy regulations. It will also create a scenario where publishers work directly with agencies more efficiently.

A World in Which Publisher Data Is Scalable

What role can publishers (and their data) play in the post-cookie digital advertising world? As Ziff Davis’ Watford points out, publishers have always had a keen interest in seeing their advertisers succeed, as their success leads to repeat business. “The ideal time to engage a publisher is early on when a product is still in development.”

Boswell agrees. “We would love to be involved as early as possible [and to talk] to the agencies to help them understand how all of our data can help them drive value.”

Publishers also see a role for them in helping brands, and their agencies assess campaign performance. As mentioned above, publishers with access to impartial engagement data would like to see it incorporated into the agency’s wrap decks. Scaling will be an issue, of course. The industry will need standards that enable the agency to report on them unified across all publishers.

But let’s assume for a minute that these standards are developed and adopted. That media agencies have the tools they need to compare a deeper level of audience, quality, and engagement metrics across channels. Will agencies welcome the publisher’s earlier involvement in the planning process?

Agencies want the campaigns they launch for their clients to succeed just as much as the brands and publishers do. They have every incentive to incorporate quality and verified data as possible as the third-party cookie deprecates.

Agencies have leaned on cookies rather than engage in these more fruitful relationships with publishers. Brands will likely see sharper alignment between themselves, their agencies, and publishers as we advance.

The post The Rise of Publisher Data and Its Potential for Tighter Collaboration Between Brands, Agencies, and Publishers appeared first on AdMonsters.