One of the biggest changes in this area is that first-party data is given freely by online users, often in exchange for some sort of direct user benefit like a better experience online. 

As advertisers and publishers ask more users for their information online, a crucial part of the exchange is trust; consumers want to know that the data they are offering will only be used in the way they have authorized.

During AdMonsters’ March 29 webinar, “Consent-Based Advertising: How You Can Automatically Build Audience Trust,” OneTrust’s Strategic Solutions Engineer, Arshdeep Sood, explained why trust is crucial to building a relationship with your audience, how to keep abreast of the changes in privacy regulations, and why first-party data is nothing to be concerned about. 

Trust in the Digital Age

As the digital world evolves, concerns surrounding privacy are oftentimes the most stressful. To go beyond third-party cookies and understand your audience so that you can provide the best value data output, it all boils down to trust. 

“The last decade was all about transformation,” says Sood. The fast-paced world of data has required innovation in ways that sometimes seemed impossible, with the aim of providing better customer experiences, improving efficiencies, creating sustainable practices, and of course, staying in business. 

Sood asks, “What are we doing to protect the data that we have access to? Are we ensuring equity and inclusivity and even diversity across our business practices? And are we truly creating a culture of high ethical standards across the board?” All of these questions are about creating trust. 

Customers have trust expectations for companies they spend money with. Sood notes Adobe reported in 2022 that 69 percent of consumers stated they would stop doing business with a company that uses their data without permission. 

Add to this rules and regulations that vary from state to state and it can be difficult to navigate the changing landscape while maintaining and building upon user trust. This requires a change in mindset, Sood explains. 

[To view the full webinar, watch the video above.]

Building Trust Does Matter 

Users who trust a company are more likely to allow their data to be used in innovative ways, pay a premium for that company’s products and services, and maintain purchasing loyalty over time. Since it impacts your bottom line, trust is something you need to maintain a competitive advantage. 

Apple is working on building this trust with its latest update to iOS, which notifies the user of apps on their phone that are collecting data and tracking the user. This “App Tracking Transparency” prompt prohibits apps access to this data without first notifying the user. 

Sood notes that for these apps, building trust with the user can look like getting consent and even possibly discussing the value exchange and why access to this data is important. Also, use your Apple Privacy Nutrition Labels wisely. Employees working in compliance should collaborate with team members across development and marketing and advertising to ensure that you have the right strategy in place, she says. 

Competitive Advantage: Keeping up with Privacy Regulations

“In the face of new regulations, agility is going to be your competitive advantage to build that trust with the customer,” notes Sood. Rather than responding to new privacy law changes at the moment, she advises what will set programs apart is their ability to anticipate requirements of upcoming legislation and avoid the pain of last-minute changes. 

It is expected that by the end of 2023, 75 percent of the world will be affected by one of the recent privacy regulations, and more privacy regulations are actively coming down the pipeline all over the United States. Sood recommends working toward a strategy to deal with these changes in regulations as soon as possible. 

She adds that the job should be a team effort. “The privacy team is responsible to help you build business continuity to really enable marketing to have a very compliant risk-mitigated experience, but at the same time marketing and data teams are responsible for the end user journey.”

Last, Sood explains that privacy risk is a brand risk. The penalty for not adhering to privacy standards will not only be monetary, it will also affect your brand’s reputation because anything that happens within your company to affect consumer rights will be publicly accessible. 

Just like in personal relationships, you need to be clear about how you are using a person’s data, and if the use changes, you are responsible for informing them. You want this relationship to last long term, so make your users feel valued and like they own the data, she advises. 

Some Acronyms You Need to Know

TCF & GDPR: When we think about this process, several acronyms come to mind, says Sood, one of which is TCF, Transparency and Consent Framework. A TCF banner is concerned with providing the right notification and collecting the right type of consent and an affirmative opt-in from users to align with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) requirements. However, these regulations are evolving and there is currently legislation surrounding these privacy measures and how they will ultimately be used. 

Sood explains it is crucial to keep abreast of these rulings to be prepared for any necessary changes that are on the horizon. OneTrust keeps a log of these changes to help its partners know of important updates. 

GPP & MSPA: Another big piece of the puzzle is the GPP, Global Privacy Platform. This aligns with the MSPA, which is the Multi-state Privacy Agreement across all the different states, Sood notes. To simplify all these varying rules and regulations, she says, “With the GPP, the idea is you can make sure that one singular signal directs a specific consent model and data point to the ad text providers downstream to ensure that you’re aligning with regulations and also [doing so] in the best possible fashion.”

The MSPA assumes a user is a resident of each state, which means it defaults to the highest possible national standard for privacy. 

What this all boils down to essentially is that from an advertiser’s perspective, it is imperative to look out for the GPP signals. Explains Sood, “You want to sign up for MSP and prepare yourselves to honor the signals, because you’re going to expect it coming downstream, and you will want to decode it and decide how you operate.” This is similar for publishers – these signals will ensure the regulations are being met, and pass along this information to vendor partners. 

“That’s why publishers, advertisers, and vendors, you really need to work in tandem to ensure that everybody’s listening to the same things, and CMP providers like OneTrust, we’re the ones who will be helping you generate that GPP and sending it downstream,” Sood shares. In fact, Sood says, the GPP platform is already in use, helping OneTrust’s customers.

Don’t Be Intimidated by First-Party Data

The future of data will phase out third-party cookies in favor of first-party data capture, meaning companies will need to build a first-party data capture focusing on consent. To do this effectively, Sood says companies need to evolve from a tick box compliance system into a powerful consent strategy that will transform the user’s experience holistically. 

Many consumers are looking for value in their online experience, meaning that rather than being something to worry about, the dissolution of third-party cookies should be seen as an opportunity to build a relationship with consumers. You will want to advertise to them, but also re-target and re-market to keep them coming back. 

“To do that you want to deliver timely offers, have customer service available to the user, if they bought your product and you want them as a returning user. You want to target new relevant content to the user and also provide any customer recommendations,” such as content that is on theme with what they previously bought, Sood says. 

Consent, says Sood, is here to help your marketing strategies. It’s a way to give users unique choices and the opportunity to tell you about what they want so you can make sure you are offering that to them. It allows you to truly personalize the user experience. 

When you give users content that is relevant to who they are, they are more likely to want to know more. You can build this into your interface, so they can offer this information to you directly. This information can be fed downstream, to relevant places like apps, data warehouses, and email marketing systems. 

“And this really circles everything together for us in this webinar today. We started out by discussing how technology, privacy, and consumers are dictating this change … It’s important for you to understand that until the user gives you consent, you will not be able to process the best possible dataset or build new datasets for yourself. And so, complying with these [regulations and] getting the right interfaces out there and leveraging that for users opt-in to activate your ecosystem and help you retarget is going to be instrumental,” Sood explains.

The post Webinar Replay: Consumer Consent & Trust Are Competitive Advantages appeared first on AdMonsters.

First-party data is helpful for advertisers because the more you know about an online user, the more accurately you can pinpoint their interests and tailor advertisements to each user’s preferences. Today more than ever, however, consumers want to share data on their terms – that is where consent-based advertising comes into play. 

Ahead of our upcoming webinar led by Strategic Solutions Engineer for OneTrust, Arshdeep Sood, “Consent-based Advertising: How You Can Automatically Build Audience Trust,” on March 29, 2023, at 1:00 PM EST, we chatted with Sood about ever-changing privacy regulations, consent-based advertising, and what publishers need to know to stay ahead of the game.

Kacey Perinelli: How does first-party data work to create a more personalized user experience online?

Arshdeep Sood: First-party data is data (including user behavior, preferences, demographics, and purchase history) that a company collects directly from its customers or users, usually through interactions on its website, mobile app, or other digital platforms. Companies can create a more personalized user experience online by analyzing and utilizing this data.

For example, suppose a user frequently searches for a particular type of product on a company’s website. In that case, the company can use that data to recommend similar products the user might be interested in. Similarly, if a user previously purchased a product from the company, the company can use that information to personalize future marketing messages or promotions to that user. It helps increase the likelihood of the user making a repeat purchase. 

First-party data can be a powerful tool for companies to create a more personalized and relevant user experience online. Still, companies must also be transparent about their data collection practices and ensure that they follow appropriate data privacy regulations to maintain user trust.

Forging Strong Relationships using Consent-based Advertising 

KP: What is the definition of “consent-based advertising,” and what should publishers know about this type of marketing?

AS: Consent-based marketing requires explicit consent from users before their data can be collected and used for marketing purposes. This approach puts the consumer in control of their data and requires organizations to be transparent about their data collection and use practices. 

In consent-based marketing, publishers and advertisers provide consumers with clear information about how their data is collected, used, and shared. Purpose-based consent is crucial in building trust with users, which explains the “why” behind data collection. Will it be used for analytics? To improve website performance? In targeted advertising? Personalized campaigns? Users must then actively opt in or consent before their data can be collected and used in marketing campaigns. 

Publishers, who rely heavily on user data for advertising revenue, should be aware of consent-based marketing and take steps to implement it in their operations. This may include using cookie banners and consent and preference management, with forms that clearly explain data collection and use practices, giving users control over their data preferences. 

In addition to being a legal requirement under regulations like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018), consent-based marketing also increases user trust and loyalty, as users are more likely to engage with companies that are transparent and respectful of their privacy while delivering valuable, personalized experiences. Through this type of marketing, publishers can build stronger relationships with their users and improve the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.

Building Trust with Consumers Drives Sales

KP: What steps can publishers take to help build trust with their audiences?

AS: Building trust with audiences is crucial for publishers who rely on user data for advertising revenue, particularly in a privacy-centric world where users are increasingly concerned about data privacy and security. Some steps publishers can take include:

• Be transparent: Publishers should be open and transparent about their data collection and use practices. They should clearly explain to users how data is collected and used. It includes being clear about the types of data collected, the third-party partners involved, and how long they store the data.
• Provide options: Publishers should allow users to choose whether or not their data is collected and used and enable users to modify their preferences at any time. This means implementing a consent and preference management solution to offer an opt-in or opt-out mechanism (depending on legal requirements) and a clear and easy way for users to manage their data preferences.
• Orchestrate consent downstream: When users consent to their data usage for specific purposes and opt out of others, publishers need to communicate this data downstream to all systems in the marketing tech stack, to email databases, sales databases, analytics tools, and others to ensure that their preferences are being honored not only for specific systems but across your organization. 
• Respect user rights: As an example, OneTrust’s Consent & Preference Management provides publishers with the solution they need to respect user rights, such as the right to access, correct, and delete personal data. It allows users to view and edit their data and provides a straightforward process for requesting the deletion of their data.
• Stay up-to-date with regulations: Our solution ensures publishers remain current with data privacy regulations and comply with relevant laws, such as GDPR and CCPA. This eliminates publishers’ burden of regularly reviewing and updating privacy policies and data processing practices – our platform automatically ensures compliance and updates.

By implementing these steps, publishers can help build trust with their audiences and establish themselves as responsible stewards of user data in a privacy-centric world.

KP: How can building trust with consumers and empowering them to choose what information to share online help publishers increase advertising revenue?

AS: Empowering users to make their own decisions about what data to share online leads to many significant advantages, such as:

• Increased user engagement: When users trust a publisher to respect their privacy, they are likelier to engage with their content and offerings. It can lead to increased form submissions, page views, longer time spent on the site, and higher click-through rates on ads, all of which can help boost revenue.
• Improved targeting: The collected data will likely be more accurate and relevant when users are empowered to choose what information to share. This can help improve ad targeting, making ads more relevant to users and increasing the likelihood of a click or conversion.
• Compliance with regulations: Data privacy regulations require organizations to obtain user consent before collecting and using personal data for advertising. By prioritizing user privacy, publishers can ensure that they comply with these regulations, which can help prevent costly fines and legal issues.

First-Party Data & Consumer Consent Lead to Overall Improvements 

KP: What other advantages exist with having a first-party and consent-based data strategy?

AS: There are several other benefits to having a first-party and consent-based data strategy beyond building trust with consumers and increasing advertising revenue, including:

• Improved data quality: Consent-based data is typically more accurate and reliable, as it is provided directly by consumers who actively engage with a publisher’s content. This can improve the quality of data-driven decisions and increase the effectiveness of marketing efforts.
• Increased customer loyalty: When consumers feel that publishers respect their privacy and they have control over their data in exchange for valuable personalized experiences from a brand, they are more likely to develop a sense of loyalty and trust toward a publisher. It can lead to increased customer lifetime value and repeat business.
• Greater agility and adaptability: First-party data is owned and controlled by a publisher, giving them greater flexibility and adaptability when responding to changing market conditions and consumer preferences. This can help publishers stay ahead of the curve, design innovative marketing campaigns, and remain competitive in a fast-changing digital landscape.
• Improved brand reputation: Prioritizing consumer privacy and implementing a consent-based data strategy can help improve a publisher’s brand reputation, particularly in an environment where consumer privacy is increasingly top-of-mind. This can lead to positive word-of-mouth, increased brand recognition, and improved customer acquisition.

Ultimately, creating an online environment where users feel empowered can give publishers access to high-quality data and help them build strong, trust-based relationships with consumers, increasing advertising revenue and consumer loyalty over time.

Register for our free webinar, Consent-based Advertising: How You Can Automatically Build Audience Trust, on March 29, 2023, at 1:00 PM EST.

The post The Many Benefits of First-party, Consent-based Advertising: Q&A with Arshdeep Sood, OneTrust’s Strategic Solutions Engineer appeared first on AdMonsters.

Companies not dependent on third-party cookies are at an advantage right now. They are less worried about the regulations coming down the pipeline in the future and are focused on building direct relationships with users visiting their sites. 

In AdMonsters’ Jan. 25, 2023 webinar, “How PMC Drives Value for Advertisers,” we spoke with  Brett Goverman, Head of Data Strategy, PMC, and Brendan Farrell, Manager, Customer Success, North America, Permutive. We discussed making the most of your first-party data, why campaigns using first-party data perform better, and how to uncover revenue insights to power more strategic partnerships with buyers.

[To view the full webinar, watch the video above.]

Having a First-Party Data Strategy

Goverman revealed that PMC recently launched ATLAS Data Studio, a first-party data strategy built to deliver unique insights to PMC’s brand partners. Unlike third-party data, Goverman notes, “With the development of a first-party data strategy, we sort of hold the keys to our own destiny, regardless of what regulators or browsers do.” 

ATLAS Data Studio has four pillars:

• Contextual Analysis: Publishers need to understand which content is most impactful to their audiences. To assist with this, PMC partners with Permutive and IBM Watson to analyze web traffic across the company’s properties, to gain perspective on the most meaningful content to its audiences. 
• Behavioral Signals: This helps separate the most engaged users from those who are not. In addition to tracking frequency and recency, this includes drilling down into ad clicks, video plays, video ad clicks, time on page, and other activities that truly represent how engaged a user is with a site. 
• Proprietary Data Collection: This looks different for each publisher based on their strengths, but for PMC, it is about building relationships across brands through media such as newsletters, paid subscriptions, live events, digital events, and site surveys. 
• Data Enrichment: This pillar appends and enriches partners’ data. For example, the studio includes data modeling or tools like cleanrooms where information is fed into ATLAS Data Studio and runs an analysis based on known facts about the audiences. 

This data is valuable to advertising partners, and in a company as large as PMC, it raises awareness of overlapping demographics and custom audiences. For example, someone interested in parenting articles can also be interested in rock music. This data helps zero in on the target audience for specific products or content. 

And for PMC, one of the most important elements of ATLAS Data Studio is that it allows advertising partners to extend their engagement to a cookie-blocked environment, leading to more effective campaigns. 

Why First-party Is the Future of Data

Farrell shared that in the current environment where cookie blocking is already happening on browsers like Firefox and Safari, relying on third-party cookies means  advertisers are potentially missing out on 70 percent of a publisher’s audience. Farrell said cookie data relies on demographic data or other data that functions outside of a direct relationship with the consumer and is overall very limiting. 

Privacy is still a huge concern, however, when you talk about leveraging precise, granular data that users give to target them for specific products or events. PMC does its data collection in an anonymous, aggregate way rather than on an individual user basis to help partners understand key demographics they are missing out on. 

And while companies like PMC are not collecting passive data on individuals, they ask for consent and data offered in exchange for some value to the user. That’s how first-party data relationships are really built.

This data is also useful for buyers. Goverman estimated that half the audience a buyer targets needs to be more effectively captured. Buyers must purchase twice the number of impressions to see the desired results.  First-party data cuts out the middleman and leads to increased efficiency in campaigns. 

PMC’s first-party data from 2022 led to the following:

• 5x better CTR than any other campaign
• 5x improvement in cost per acquisition
• Over 70% of impressions were from first-party data
• 46% increase in first-party data revenue year over year

These statistics highlight the value of first-party, authenticated data. First-party data increases engagement, provides the end user with a more valuable experience, saves money, and increases the quality of interaction for advertisers. 

“This positions PMC as a far more strategic partner and makes it so our advertisers get full access and usability of our data. And that’s really the intent; how do we make our first party data as valuable and as sort of ‘interactional’ as possible? How do we make it so that advertisers can truly analyze and ingest this information in a way that fundamentally changes how they run their campaigns?” asserted Goverman.

The post Webinar Replay: Why First-Party Is the Future of Data appeared first on AdMonsters.

Penske Media Corporation gets that. That’s why they worked with Permutive to develop ATLAS Data Studio, a first-party data platform that identifies datasets to help the publisher differentiate its inventory in the marketplace. Now they can activate buyers’ target audiences with precision.

Leading up to our webinar, How PMC Drives Value For Advertisers with First-Party Data on January 25, 2023 at 1:00 PM EST, I caught up with Brendan Farrell, Manager, Customer Success, North America, Permutive, to discuss how user-choice is driving privacy-first solutions, how pubs can solve for “reject all,” how PMC’s ATLAS Data Studio helped the publisher move from a vertical to a portfolio strategy, and how Permutive can help pubs with a GTM strategy for a first-party data platform.

Lynne d Johnson: Many publishers are still in a wait-and-see mode when it comes to getting their first-party data strategy fortified. They’re waiting to see what Google will do, and they’re waiting to follow advertisers’ lead. Why is delaying your first-party data strategy a bad idea for publishers, especially when Safari and Firefox have long ago turned off cookie tracking?

Brendan Farrell: There’s something bigger than third-parties cookies at play – user choice. What we’re seeing is that in addition to cookie-blocking browsers, regulators and tech platforms are giving users the tools, awareness and choice to protect their data, and when given that choice, they are opting out of data sharing. It’s resulted in just 30% of the open web being addressable today. It’s not just on the web either, the effect of user choice is rippling through the entire ecosystem, whether it’s emails, cookies or other IDs. 

While this decimates advertisers’ audience addressability, publishers hold the key to solving it via direct relationships with their users. Therefore, publishers should focus on building a first-party data strategy with technology that enables them to reach 100% of users while respecting their data choices. 

LDJ: We’re hearing about the impact of “reject all” and users opting out of sharing their data on publisher revenues. How can publishers solve for this challenge?

BF: It’s about being responsible with data and building trust. We recently ran a user consent session where the data protection regulator, the ICO, stated that consumers hitting “reject all” cookies in Chrome “doesn’t mean you can’t serve advertising,” but “means you haven’t convinced those customers that the way you’re handling their data is something that they want to have happen.” 

Publishers are perfectly positioned to lead the charge to restore consumer trust. Publishers have a 121 relationship with their users and can communicate clearly how they handle data and what value it provides. It results in publishers having consented, privacy-compliant, first-party data acquired through trusted relationships. Advertising can continue to be relevant to audiences and build on a foundation of user consent and choice – something that third-party data strategies lack. 

LDJ: You guys worked with PMC to build out a first-party data project called ATLAS Data Studio, what has that enabled PMC to do, and why was that important for the publisher?

BF: Investing in an Audience Platform built on first-party data encouraged PMC to reimagine what content and audiences make it unique to advertisers. Publishers like PMC can fill a growing data gap in the market and have unique and scalable data, data that advertisers may not know about their audience. 

Via Permutive, PMC now has access to more of their own audience data to help them sell across the portfolio and can deliver pre- and post-campaign insights. PMC also moved from a vertical to a portfolio strategy to better compete on scale. 

LDJ: Getting buy-in for a massive first-party data project like PMC’s ATLAS Data Studio requires buy-in from the C Suite, as well as dev and product’s prioritizing such a project. Are you guys often consulting an ad ops or rev ops team on how to get that buy-in and what is the process like? As well, what about internal education for sales’ teams?

BF: We support our publishers, from their go-to-market to making the most of the platform features. For example, Permutive can support a publisher’s go-to-market efforts via sales training on everything from what first-party data is available to why it drives value for advertisers. 

We find that publishers’ needs change further into the first-party data strategy they are. Initially, it may be that we support with buy-in internally and help various teams understand the platform, but then it turns into a strategic partnership where industry trends prompt the need for alternative use cases and features.  

The post How to Strengthen Your First-Party Data Strategy: Q&A with Brendan Farrell of Permutive appeared first on AdMonsters.

Reflections on 2022 and Holidays Ahead As we wrap up 2022, we wanted to take a minute to reflect on the year as an AdMonsters community.    It’s the time of year when many of us will pause and take stock. Personally, I like to evaluate the things in my life that move me forward, expand my horizons, or simply bring me joy. To me, that is the heart of professional education that AdMonsters strives to create: content that propels your career forward, connections that expand your professional circle, and (for all our event-goers), a good dose of actual fun!    Thank you for joining the conversation in 2022 in a variety of virtual and live learning events (and take a look back on our Best of AdMonsters series for a full rewind of 2022):  AdMonsters will be back in 2023 with more events, webinars, playbooks, awards, and networking opportunities to champion the mission-critical importance of Ad Ops and Revenue Operations within the media organization, and to bring people together for that purpose.   Here’s to you. Here’s to your work. Here’s to growth. And here’s to community!  We hope to get stronger and smarter together in 2023 and beyond.    Best wishes and happy holidays!  Lynne d Johnson Content Director

The post Take a Look Back on 2022 With Us appeared first on AdMonsters.

Whether you’re craving a rewatch or want to catch up on some much-needed viewing, AdMonsters’ webinars are available at your leisure. This year, our webinar series dealt with the future of monetization, malvertising schemes, and how publishers use data to close deals. 

Here is the replay of our Top 3 webinars in 2022. 

How Publishers Use Data to Close More Deals With Advertisers

More than ever, data ethics and transparency are essential to data gathering. Overtime, consumers grew skeptical of how publishers and advertisers use their data but now evolving privacy regulations address those concerns. 

The industry has a long road to rectify past mistakes, but progress is afoot. There is a plausible future that balances ethical data collection and revenue efficiency. Not only does this webinar delve into that notion, but also how finding the right cadence is beneficial for publishers and advertisers to continue to drive revenue.

First-party data will build a sustainable advertising ecosystem that is fully future-proofed. Need an example? 

Watch Stephanie Mazzamaro, VP of data product & operations, Trusted Media Brands (TMB) and Thomas Baart, customer success manager, EMEA, at Permutive to learn how they used their partnership. The collaboration  helps TMB increase audience size by 22X, increase RFP win rate by 31%, and use first-party data to drive 94% of their direct-sold campaigns. 

2023 Malvertising Preview

Trends such as iframe sandboxing, vendor adoption, and better threat sharing all contributed to decreases in forced redirects. Thanks to the due diligence of ad quality vendors, tools are available to ward off malvertising and bad actors. 

While these tools are helpful, they, unfortunately, do not fully solve the issue. Bad actors only get better at the games they play. Secret holes in the open web allow malicious schemers to find innovative ways to attack both publishers and consumers.

Now, this isn’t the time to become complacent. You should ask yourselves: 

• How can I identify a malvertising scheme? 
• What are the malvertising trends for the upcoming year? 
• How can I play a role to help decrease the prevalence of these schemes? 

AdMonsters chatted with senior executives at Confiant about the different types of malvertising scams, trends to look out for in 2023, and industry collaboration. 

The Future of Monetization

Are you contemplating the future of your monetization goals? Here’s what you should consider: 

• Privacy regulations shifted how the entire industry runs its businesses. 
• The power dynamic between the consumer, publisher, and advertiser are changing. 
• Tech innovations made app publishers reevaluate their ARPDAU. 

Don’t fret. You can reach your monetization goals, but it’s time to shed your old practices and evolve. While ad revenue is vital to any thriving business, it must not outweigh the needs of your audience. 

“Monetization is important, but it is a secondary metric,” said Ram “TK” Krishnamurthy, General Manager (Meson) and VP of strategic partnerships, InMobi. “It is something that has to be done, but in a way that helps you retain the user.” 

In an ad spend slowdown, “The Future of Monetization” is an essential viewing. TK and Adam Sadur, head of programmatic, SmartNews, spoke about how publishers are taking control of their monetization destiny, what to expect in 2023, and more. 

The post AdMonsters 2022 Rewind: The Great Webinar Replay appeared first on AdMonsters.

When you are looking at the future of your monetization goals, there are several things to consider. 

Privacy regulations have shifted how the entire industry runs their businesses, the power dynamic between the consumer and the publisher and advertiser is changing, and tech innovations are making app publishers reevaluate their ARPDAU. That does not mean your monetization goals cannot be met. It means that the practices you have used to achieve those goals in the past need to change. 

The essential component now is the consumer and the user experience. While ad revenue is important to any thriving business, it must not outweigh the needs of your audience. 

“Monetization is important, but it is a secondary metric,” said Ram “TK” Krishnamurthy General Manager (Meson) and VP of Strategic Partnerships, InMobi. “It is something that has to be done, but in a way that helps you retain the user.” 

During our Dec. 7, 2022, Webinar, “The Future of Monetization,” AdMonsters spoke with TK and Adam Sadur, Head of Programmatic, SmartNews. We chatted with them about the top monetization challenges facing mobile apps, how publishers are taking control of their monetization destiny, what to expect in 2023 and more. (Watch the video-on-demand below.)

The post Webinar Replay: The Future of Monetization appeared first on AdMonsters.

The ecosystem is ever-evolving. Shifting user expectations, privacy considerations, and tech innovations (and consolidations) are forcing app publishers to re-evaluate how they drive ad ARPDAU.

In this new mobile economy, publishers should focus on privacy-first strategies and seek out partners who can best help them optimize for both revenue and retention.

In preparation for our upcoming webinar, The Future of Monetization — on Wednesday, December 7, 2022, at 1 PM EST — with InMobi and SmartNews, we reached out to Ram “TK” Krishnamurthy, General Manager (Meson) and VP of Strategic Partnerships, InMobi, to learn more about the challenges publishers face, how they’re adapting to elevate their ad revenue and the importance of unifying auctions across multiple demand sources.

Lynne d Johnson: With the launch of Apple’s ATT in 2020, the launch of SKAN 4.0 in October, and testing for Google’s Privacy Sandbox expected soon, what’s most important for publishers to consider about user privacy and addressability in 2023?

Ram “TK” Krishnamurthy: Publishers who are deprioritizing cookie dependency and focusing on privacy-first unified identity solutions are the best poised for optimized ad fill and revenue in 2023. We’ve also seen increased interest in seller-defined audiences (SDAs), which necessitate tools that provide publishers with more granular control over user cohorts.

With the release of SKAN 4.0, there is renewed optimism for the future of iOS app growth with greater insights into campaign performance and more powerful optimization and measurement capabilities than previous iterations.

LdJ: Time and again, studies reveal that users prefer free apps over those that require subscriptions. Given the often precarious balance between user retention and monetization, what overarching trends are you seeing across publishers you work with?

TK: Mobile app publishers are seeking more flexibility and control over their monetization settings. This can take shape in multiple ways, such as flexible ad format placements, heavier use of native ads, and more robust user segmentation.

To achieve the monetization flexibility they need to optimize for both revenue and retention, many publishers are seeking ways to augment their existing tech stack — without necessarily developing it all in-house.

LdJ: You have mediation technology that unifies auctions across multiple demand sources. This tech promises to give publishers more control and greater ability to maximize their in-app revenue. How so?

TK: Meson serves as in-house mediation for mobile apps, empowering publishers with reliable and scalable tools to take control of their monetization, without the headache of building it themselves.

For instance, we provide mobile app publishers with complete control over their open auction dynamics, giving them the tools they need to manage demand for each waterfall, between ad lines, and across different types of networks. As the bid dynamics are unbiased and fully transparent — including log-level data for all auctions — publishers can make informed decisions about what’s best for their app and monetization goals.

Additionally, we provide robust tools to help publishers cohort their users so that they can choose the best monetization strategy for their various user segments. They are also able to use this data for user acquisition.

Don’t forget to register for our upcoming webinar — The Future of Monetization  — on Wednesday, December 7, 2022, at 1 PM EST — with InMobi and SmartNews where you’ll learn how publishers are taking control of their monetization destiny. Register now!

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However, that did not hinder bad actors from evolving new practices to keep up their schemes. There’s still a lot more work to be done before publisher sites are scam free. Lurking under secret holes in the open web, bad actors are finding innovative ways to attack both publishers and consumers. 

Now isn’t the time to become complacent. The industry as a whole should be on the lookout for these scams. You should be asking yourselves: How can I identify a malvertising scheme? What are the malvertising trends for the upcoming year? How can I play a role to help decrease the prevalence of these schemes? 

During our Nov. 30, 2022 webinar, 2023 Malvertising Preview, AdMonsters chatted with Confiant malvertising experts Jerome Dangu, CTO & Co-Founder, John Murphy, Chief Strategy Officer, and Eliya Stein, Sr. Security Engineer. They discussed the different types of malvertising scams, trends to look out for in 2023 and industry collaboration. (Watch the video below.)

How to Protect Yourself From Malvertising Schemes

• At the core, malvertising scams are attacks on the supply chain. The more publishers are able to understand where these attacks are coming from, the more you can do. This will allow publishers to put better security in place to protect themselves and the consumer. 
• It’s important to have a good strategy to process your consumer complaints.
  • Consumers’ needs are highly essential to the ad tech ecosystem and understanding their plight with scams will increase the overall UX . 
  • Conduct yearly surveys to see how well your site has thwarted advertising scams. Report the good, the bad and the ugly. Where did we do well and where did we go wrong? 
• There’s a lot that publishers can do with partner selection. Work with security firms such as Confiant who have the knowledge and skill sets to help prevent malvertising scams. 

Looking Toward 2023 

Each panelist was asked to give a final takeaway to leave the audience with as they all look toward fighting the good fight against malvertising scams in 2023. Here is what each one had to say: 

Eliya Stein. Publishers should be careful with what they actually put on their page. Stein honed in on the group’s previous point about supply chain attacks, and said this was an issue that  goes beyond ad tech. 

• For example, “If you are updating a blog post or embedding JavaScript from somewhere that adds some kind of widget. All of these broaden the threat surface for publishers. You have to be very careful with what you introduce onto your website, especially if its code comes from an attacker.”

Jerome Dangu. There is a convergence between advertising, privacy compliance and how tracking is leveraged by bad actors. He highlighted a study that was conducted this year in which they found an attack whose sole purpose was to extract consumers’ device fingerprints and geolocations. 

• “Obviously, big security, big privacy concerns. But also you have a broader issue about who is collecting the data. We know that the bid stream is a very sensitive source of chunks of data that’s available to DSPs at large. This group essentially recreated a semblance of a bid stream from JavaScript execution in the ad creative using really sophisticated obfuscation and extracting this fingerprint data through actual consent pipes. So very sophisticated attacks.” 

John Murphy. Publishers, especially premium publishers, shouldn’t forget the leverage they have. They provide access to users. Both SSPs and DSPs need them and they should use that leverage to help to affect change in the industry. 

• For instance, “The top publishers came down and said we really think buyers.json and DemandChain Object are really important for the industry. For increasing transparency and addressing some of these issues. That’s when you get SSPs to move. By proxy, that’s going to get the DSPs to move because they want to maintain access to those premium publishers and their users. Don’t forget the power that you have as a premium publisher.” 

Watch the full webinar in the video player above, or on our AdMonsters Webinars On-Demand Platform.

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Yet, that does not mean a pesky scam does not sneak through the pipes every now and then. In fact, malvertising – the practice of incorporating malware in online advertisements – is still a prominent practice. Bad actors are evolving their scams and they have proved to be more profitable than before.

Malvertising is detrimental not only to publishers’ revenue but also to their reputation. Scams can help spread misinformation, steal consumer data, and affects overall brand safety. It is important that publishers stay vigilant and look out for these scams. Whether that means developing your own tech or partnering with someone else, it is essential that you keep your eyes peeled for any malicious intent lurking around the corner. 

In preparation for our upcoming webinar with Confiant — 2023 Malvertising Preview, Wednesday, November 31, @ 1 PM EST (Register Now!) — we spoke to LD Mangin, CEO & Co-Founder at Confiant. We discussed how malvertising differs from other types of ad scams, the Confiant Malvertising Elite 8 List, malvertising’s impact on consumers and publishers, and more.   

Andrew Byrd: Malvertising and ad fraud are often categorized as two sides of the same coin. Can you tell me how malvertising differs from ad fraud?

LD Mangin: It is important to recognize that ad tech is a circular supply chain. Impressions flow from the user’s browsers to the advertiser, and then creatives flow from the advertiser’s ad server to the user’s browser. Industry insiders think of the former as the demand path and the latter as the supply path. A cyber attacker sees these as two distinct attack vectors that offer different attack opportunities.  

They compromise the supply path using adware (a subset of malware, which the ad industry knows as ad fraud) to steal the brand’s money. They also compromise the demand path using malvertising, which encompasses a myriad of attack types that are oriented to compromise the user or their device (from malware to tech support scams, to investment scams, to phishing attacks — malvertising has it all). So fundamentally malvertising differs from ad fraud because it targets the user, their data, or their device and not the brand’s advertising budget. 

AB: On your website, you include an Elite 8 List of the most prominent malvertising threats. How were you able to identify these bad actors and what advice would you give to publishers to help them identify a malvertising scheme?

LDM: Accurate visibility is a requirement for effective security. Confiant has spent nine years building unique integrations into the ad tech infrastructure to be able to access the bid stream directly. We integrate pre-auction server side with DSPs, in-auction server side with SSPs, and post auction client side with publishers. These integration setups allow us to monitor the bid stream at a level of accuracy so that we can track the bad actors themselves and not just their attacks.  For pubs who want to understand who is hijacking their infrastructure to attack their users, I recommend they call us! 

AB: Major publishers such as The New York Times, Spotify, and the Atlantic have been susceptible to malvertising schemes. How were they able to become the target of these schemes and how would they be able to prevent them in the future?

LDM: They and every other publisher who connects to programmatic are susceptible to this. Malvertising is an infrastructure ad tech – i.e. it is a cyber attack that leverages the ad tech infrastructure, which means it’s important to recognize that those publishers are not the target, they are the path to the victim: the user.

Malvertisers are threat actors who pay to play. I.e. they pay the ad tech industry to let them target people with their attacks. The single biggest thing any publisher can do to mitigate these attacks over the long term is to support buy-side transparency initiatives (Buyers.json, DemandChain Object, and the client-side declaration of creatives) that allow for better attribution of bad creatives to the buyer.

AB: How does malvertising affect consumers? What kinds of problems arise when they are attacked by malware?

LDM: Losing their life savings to an investment scam, having their device hacked by a tech support scammer, having their credentials stolen… all of those are the results of malvertising. 

Register now for our upcoming Webinar: 2023 Malvertising Preview, Wednesday, November 31, @ 1 PM EST.

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