Having addressed issues and solutions with transparencyMore Than A Buzzword is now focusing on issues with control in regards to programmatic advertising.

Programmatic isn’t just technology, it’s a business solution to Jagdish Narigara, ClearPier’s director of Product Management.

“It gives immense opportunity to define, implement and execute innovative business strategies — enabling innovative business models to tap into hidden potentials in media buying and selling,” says Narigara, “As with every business avenue, there comes issues with control.”

Both publishers and advertisers want control — but there are concerns from each side when opting for programmatic.  Let’s take a look at some of the issues that may arise.

From the publishers perspective

For publishers who are looking to restructure and re-strategize their premium, exclusive and guaranteed sales channels, programmatic can help tap into that with high potential.

“Programmatic can bring synergies to enable holistic impression monetization strategy across different tiers of inventory,” says Narigara.

But there are still challenges in terms of control that publishers may face when operating programmatic.

There are concerns surrounding the possibility of machines eroding value — value being channel, content, audience or inventory, according a survey of AOL Platform Clients. This survey also revealed that 54% of publisher executives still have concerns/ambiguity over control provided by programmatic platforms.

“Publishers with strong brands, quality environments and great content are often frustrated with programmatic because it tries to treat their differentiated product as a commodity! It is the same as treating a Styrofoam tomato from a fast food chain as if it was an heirloom tomato from Whole Foods,” says Pam Horan, president of Online Publishing Association, “Ad environments are not a commodity! Great media brands frame the marketer’s ad within a strong consumer relationship. Publishers need control over managing the entry point, inventory and price.”

Publishers also want control over which types of ad creatives that are allowed to run on their sites. With stringent creative guidelines, publishers want to be confident in machine-based decision-making platforms when it comes to what, where and how ads are being placed.

Then, there are some publishers who are dubious when it comes to relinquishing control over their data. “They fear that if this data is exposed to programmatic decision making and ad serving algorithms, they will have no control over other parties obtaining the data in the lengthy value-chain,” explains Narigara.

Advertisers are also being held back from fully embracing the programmatic approach.

With 33% of advertiser panelists stating that brand safety issues are actively inhibiting the adoption of programmatic approaches because of decreased control over where their advertising may be viewed, according to the IAB and Winterberry Group survey — control issues with programmatic are also of concern from the advertisers front.

Advertising spend risks include: ad-stacking, bots and un-viewable placements.

Due to the lack of audit measures when it comes to inventory running through programmatic platforms, confidence in the inventory and its source end up in question.

“There is still a gap between the owner of the impression and seller of the impression,” says Narigara, “Because of this, advertisers may suffer.” Metrics may be impressive, but the actual impact may be mediocre.

With Internet users getting more savvy, there are growing concerns when it comes to reach. “Out of 5.3 trillion display ads served in 2013, only 2 out of 20 web users clicked on the ads. Moreover, annoyed with the distracting animations and sounds of ads, people are responding by blocking ads altogether,” A Shopparity survey reported, “22.7% of web surfers have already installed ad blockers and the use of ad blockers is growing over 40% year over year.”

This leaves us with a couple big questions: can we restore the interest of consumers and can programmatic revive the advertising industry?

In our final installment of More than a buzzword, we’ll explore programmatic control solutions.


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