Direct-Sold Ad Revenue Declines With The Rise Of Programmatic
According to research conducted by marketing platform LiveIntent, direct-sold ad income has declined for publishers over the last year in favor of programmatic.
In the automobile industry, programmatic revenue augmented by more than 105 per cent as demand for private cars was pushed by a fall in public transit use.
Education newsletters also grew by 75%, which is an indication of parents’ struggles to deal with school closures and full-time care from home.
Let us elucidate with an example and take the case of Likemind, an email and web publisher focused on learning. The CRO of Likemind, Peter Chang states –
“ Email revenue has traditionally been driven primarily by 1:1 relationships with advertisers and will continue to be a primary focus for us, as advertisers have leaned into their CRM databases, we have seen an increase in email revenue driven by programmatic buys as part of larger campaigns by smart advertisers that understand performance and measurement.”
Overall, food-and-drink newsletters experienced a 60% YoY rise in gross revenue, owing primarily to increased home ordering during the pandemic and a shift in ad spending to inventory in this category.
According to the report, more market dollars flowed to direct to consumer (DTC) items during the last year since the epidemic drove individuals to stay at home.
This also explains the 4.42 per cent increase in arts-and-entertainment newsletters.
LiveIntent CEO, Kerel Cooper, said that it was not surprising to see publishers enjoy the programmatic outcomes. He says –
“ Advertisers want campaigns that are measurable, targetable and have incremental reach outside of the walled gardens. That is the email newsletter ecosystem to a tee.”
Cooper also adds that with the demise of third-party cookies, logged-in and measurable targeting has become more scarce and hence, the value of ads will continue to grow in the future.
This study by LiveIntent is based upon the company’s 2,500 publishing and advertising clients.
LiveIntent and Rubicon Project Invest on a Non-Cookie Based Identifier
LiveIntent and Rubicon Project have agreed to help publishers and media to do business on a non-cookie-based identifier.
The idea is to bring the Liveintent Authenticated Bridge framework to the header to help marketers and publishers reap the benefits of the ecosystem. The framework will be delivered via the bidstream of the Rubicon Project. The Liveintent Authenticated Bridge – a unique, privacy-safe identifier known as nonID will connect advertisers to publishers using hashed email addresses – to support media buying and selling without dependence on third-party cookies.
The key to Liveintent’s addressability framework, Authenticated Bridge for publishers and marketers is powered by email. Additionally, it allows media traders to understand the primary email associated with the particular browser or device by connecting it to the first-party data signals.
Prior to the pandemic and civil rights protests, ad tech 2020 was looking for options to replace cookies after the largest internet browser Google Chrome announced a gradual phase-out of tech by 2022.
Google is yet to implement the planned updates like other web browsers. The market share of Google Chrome is almost 50% of all installed internet browsers which means it can have a huge impact on the industry and can lead to a closedown of many independent ad tech players.
In the interim, efforts are made to find a way forward for the $130 billion industry where online technologies are being monitored by privacy regulators. Liveintent powers marketing and advertising technology that is cross-device and cross-browser compatible and does not require the use of third-party cookies. CEO Matt Keiser described Authenticated Bridge solution as nonID which means open to all – anyone can adopt it. Liveintent works with around 2000 publishers and 1000 advertisers.
As reported in Adweek, Matt Keiser said,
So, we haven’t made it something you need to sign a contract in order to adopt. Additionally, our ID is 1:1 with an email address.
This means the days of closed solutions are over for publishers and brands as Liveintent does not encrypt its identifier per user, unlike other proprietary solutions. Publishers had to struggle to monetize the web traffic when Apple and Mozilla restricted third-party cookies. This is where the Bridge solution can help to offset such issues. Liveintent’s first-party solution is powered by its Identity Graph whose insights are directly connected with validated and active emails.
CEO Matt Keiser said,
This framework works with established vendors’ proprietary IDs but is also pen to any publisher or brand that has their own email data. LiveIntent and Rubicon Project believe in the power of open source technology and have built solutions designed for easy integration and adoption, all while adhering to data compliance.
Garrett McGrath, Vice President of Product Management, at Rubicon Project said,
We continue to work with industry partners to develop community-driven identity solutions that simplify and enhance the advertising experience for publishers, advertisers and consumers, all the while respecting data privacy. LiveIntent’s Authenticated Bridge framework provides an identity solution that is reliable, transparent, and streamlined.
He further added,
In addition to helping publishers make their inventory more accessible and useful to advertisers, people-based identifiers improve the end user’s digital media experience.
Meanwhile, many independent players like AT&T, Live Ramp, and the Trade Desk have built different IDs in the replacement of cookies and are eager to offer their offerings. Google has also built its own ID tech and solutions under Privacy Sandbox but the industry is calling for governance with rising concerns of continued dominance from the duopoly Google and Facebook.
