The Header Bidding Trends That Will Impact Publishers Most

For publishers, Header Bidding is a cost effective and advantageous opportunity to maximize their revenue. Buyers and sellers can expect to see more developments.

Since last year Header Bidding has been a hot topic of conversation among digital marketers and publishers worldwide.

For publishers, Header Bidding is a cost effective and advantageous opportunity for publishers to maximize their revenue simply by making the programmatic buying process more efficient. If you’re not sure how Header Bidding works, read our article which explains how it works.

Or watch this video:

But the question we’re asking today is what the biggest trends in header bidding will be next? Expect to see these trends in Header Bidding unfold this year:

1. Video Header Bidding

Considering the explosive demand for video content among audiences, it’s no wonder publishers would look for ways to streamline and scale up their video revenue stream. Video Header Bidding is a natural next step for publishers looking to capitalize on video and maximize yield.

Many argue that video advertising still requires a great deal of cleaning up and organisation due to the fragmented nature of the new frontier. Video Header Bidding may be a part of this solution. Video Header Bidding no doubt increases competition, but it functions differently from regular display.

Technically, there is no “header” code in a video player. Video players functions as a mediating technology between the website and demand side platforms. But there is significant potential for Video Header Bidding to help add efficiency and transparency into the confusing video landscape, while putting more control back into the hands of publishers as far as partner selection goes.

However, not everyone agrees that Video Header Bidding will work and even argue that the solution can lead to data leakage. More on the other side of the argument, here.

2. Header Bidding Partner Optimization

As we know by now, many vendors are jumping on the Header Bidding band wagon. And while more competition often means more options are made available to publishers, it also means that the landscape becomes more fragmented.  its important for publishers to understand and choose the right partners.

That means asking the right questions. Are the partners providing more or less value to your stack? Will your partner be willing to take on the challenge of integration, and if there are technical on-boarding issues is there a client services team who can service you on demand? Optimizing header bidding partners and separating the winners from the losers will no doubt be on the agenda for publishers the world over and publishers will need to do their due diligence.

3. Server to Server Integration

Header Bidding is going to evolve, this is a given with any technology. The next natural development for Header Bidding is going to be in the form of server-to-server connections. Digiday gives a really great definition of what server-to-server connections are here.

In a nutshell, server-to-server allows for the bidding process to happen on partner ad servers rather than on the publisher’s browser. The result? Publishers can pass along the heavy lifting to a third party. There are benefits like reducing latency and page load times, increase efficiency and allow for more partners to plug in.

Want to learn more? Connect with our team at sales@clearpier.com


Why Publishers Need to Prioritize User Experience in 2017

A new mantra has taken over the publishing world and it goes by the name of “user experience.”

A new year has dawned on us and with it, a new set of priorities. A couple years ago, we were shouting “content is king” at the top of our lungs. But a new mantra is here to dominate the publishing world in 2017, and it goes by the name “user experience.”

It’s all well and good of publishers who are producing amazing, enthralling, and interesting content, trying to earn the loyalty of their readership. But how can your content even reach your audience, if your user experience is driving them to click away?

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We’ve all been on the other side as readers. You visit a website and suddenly you’re bombarded with way too many ads for products you’re not even close to interested in, all crammed on a page that took forever to load. Then suddenly an intrusive pop up interrupts your reading. You can’t find the navigation bar, there are too many “recommended readings” that seem a little sketchy, and something about the page’s aesthetic is just not pretty.

What do you do next? You click away! Chances are if you’re doing it, your readers are doing it too.

Poor user experience has a number of cumulative problems.

  1. Slow Load Times
  2. Increased Bounce Rates
  3. Reduced Engagement
  4. Incentivized Ad Blocking
  5. Poor Viewability
  6. Weakened Revenue Generation

Each are a result of major challenges all publishers face. If you’re not filling your site and inventory to its maximum, then you’re losing out on opportunities to capitalize. You need maximum fill to happen, but too many complicated ads can slow your load times which drives away potentially loyal readers who.

Too many irrelevant ads prompts banner blindness and therefore reduced engagement. Worse yet, they could be what pushes your audience to turn on the ad blockers and empower their user experience themselves.

With viewability increasingly becoming a major KPI for your ad partners, a lack of placement optimization could mean that you’re running ads in placements that either have the wrong traffic or aren’t even seen.

Beyond these issues, publishers also have an added challenge: not knowing who is running ads on their properties. It’s not just a matter of quality either, it’s an issue of brand safety. Not knowing exactly who may end up running ads on your site could result in inappropriate placements that could hurt your own brand.

So how can publishers take control of their user experience without sacrificing their monetization needs?

1. Change your philosophy

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Publishers need to understand that ads are a central part of the user’s experience. Strong UI design that remembers this is what can set a publisher a part and build a loyal following. If you want people to return to your site, you need to make sure their experience is as pleasant as possible.

2. Test regularly

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You should be constantly split testing your design and ad placements to understand the impact it has on your audience. Get your readers to actively provide you with regular feedback as well through polls. Trust in your audience, and in the data, to dictate how you redesign to benefit their experience and then watch both viewability and engagement skyrocket as you learn to better optimize ad placements.

3. Forgo bombardment

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Respecting your audience’s user experience means listening to their grievances. One of the biggest complaints out there? Too many ads! Reducing your placements doesn’t necessarily mean lower fill rates or less revenue. Users are more likely to return to your site if address the issue of clutter, and fewer ads may allow you to command higher rates and offer your inventory at premium. Most audiences in the digital age are open to some form of advertising, but intrusive ads are often the reason why they click away or turn on the ad blocking.

4. Work with a DMP

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The first thought here is why would a publisher need to work with a data manage platform (DMP) anyway? Advertisers require data to target audiences with relevant ads. As publishers, your job is to help facilitate this to protect your audience from irrelevant ads and enhancing their user experience. To do so requires understanding your audience data. Working with a DMP allows you to capture all of your first-party audience data and enrich it with insights for advertisers. The result is more potential to increase your CPMs across direct, performance, and programmatic inventory simply because of accessibility to actionable data insights.

5. Go Private and Premium with PMPs

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Fighting ad fraud and ensuring your own brand safety on the open exchange has always one of the top concerns for publishers. But it’s no doubt a challenge without the technical know-how or the right partners. Working with private marketplaces (PMP) can alleviate any concerns publishers have had about offering their inventory for CPMs on the open market. Private marketplaces offer a more transparent and controlled environment where knowing the brands that will be running on your properties is no longer foggy. While complaints have been logged about ad tech having yet to catch up in the PMP ecosystem, some PMPs, not only drive premium Performance but also safeguards publishers from fraud with multiple defense systems.

At the end of the day, publishers must make user experience a priority. Measuring and managing the impact of ads on user experience should be central part of your philosophy to win and keep audience trust. After all, it’s a loyal and happy audience is what drives your revenue generation.

Want to learn more? Connect with our team at sales@clearpier.com


5 Proven Monetization Tips to Boost Your Ad Revenue

In the digital landscape, publishers must experiment with strategies but keep ad quality top of mind.

So you’re a publisher with amazing content. You’ve got plenty of traffic, loyal followers, and diverse audience demographics. Producing content and ensuring top quality user experience is a labor of love for publishers. But another concern is how to monetize your properties effectively. You know that your ad space is valuable, but how can you get the most out of that revenue stream?

We sat down with ClearPier’s very own Director of Publisher Relations, Megan Sun, and Director of Business Development, Parag Joshi to chat about successful monetization strategies. Sun and Joshi have nearly two decades of experience in the media buying space between them and extensive expertise in publisher business development and ad quality. Here are their top 5 proven ad revenue boosting monetization tips for publishers.

1. Remember that Content is King

Joshi: This may sound obvious, but I think it’s important to emphasize the role that content plays in how much revenue you can generate. Ensure that you stay clear about your site’s raison d’être because your site’s purpose is precisely why audiences visit in the first place.

The most profitable publishers remember that their first priority is to always produce quality content, because they know this sustains audience engagement. Maintaining quality of content is the basis to driving all of your revenue models across ad inventory, native sponsorships, affiliation, subscriptions, and more.

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“Whether it be conversions for ticket sales or tracking how many users are coming from your site through their landing pages, the better your performance is according to metrics, the higher your fill and CPMs.”

Parag Joshi / Director, Business Development
CLEARPIER

2. Get to Know Your Audience

Sun: Everyone says this but it’s so important to actually exercise this. You need to get to know your audience. Understanding your audience will help publishers realize the brands that will be most likely to purchase your inventory. There are platforms out there like Google Analytics, comScore, and Woopra that can provide insightful analytic data for publishers.

Once you know this, you can cater your content to fit the demographic and drive better performance for advertisers trying to target this specific audience segment. For instance, if you know that the majority of your users are women ages 18 to 34 with children, then you’ll be able to come to the conclusion that brands in the family and parenting categories would be a great fit for your site. With this insight, you can package your inventory appropriately.

3. Be Aware of Important Advertiser Metrics & Test for Optimization

Joshi: When it comes to your ad inventory, keep in mind that advertisers have a goal and to reach these goals they’re constantly optimizing against key metrics. Keep metrics like click-through rate and viewability in mind and test lazy loads (ads that only load upon scroll), or the positioning of your ads in different areas on your pages to see which perform best. Re-examine the data and see which ad unit size receives the best performance so you can weed out the lower performers.

There are also a lot of site optimization tools, like Visual Website Optimizer for example, that show you heat sensors patterns on where your users are most likely viewing your ads or engaging with your content. These tools also show you if your content is too long form and whether or not users are scrolling all the way down the page. If results show that your users do not scroll all the way down, then placing an ad at the bottom of the page will have poor results. Whether it be conversions for ticket sales or tracking how many users are coming from your site through their landing pages, the better your performance is according to metrics, the higher your fill and CPMs.

4. Keep Ad Quality Top of Mind

Sun: Publishers should be experimenting with their ad revenue strategies, but when it comes to their inventory it’s critical to keep ad quality top of mind. In platforms like ClearPier’s, there are features to control the types of ads being shown to the end user.

Publishers should always be making an effort to stay in control of the type of ads that run on their site because negative or inappropriate placements directly affect not only user experience, but also impacts a publisher’s brand reputation. This in turn effects the advertisers that will choose to work with you and could drive prospective clients away.

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“Publishers should always be making an effort to stay in control of the type of ads that run on their site because negative or inappropriate placements directly affect not only user experience, but also impacts a publisher’s brand reputation.”

Megan Sun / Director, Publisher Relations
CLEARPIER

5. Consider Reinvesting Budget with a DMP

Sun: The goal for all publishers is to keep on driving that revenue up. As your ad revenue grows, consider reinvesting some of that budget and working with a DMP (data management platform). This will help you understand your audience at a more granular level and can be extremely attractive to clients.

Why? DMPs can create logical deductions based on a user’s browsing habit. Let’s take from the example we had above. Let’s say the majority of your users are women ages 18 to 34 with children. DMPs allow you to combine your data with theirs to reveal what percentage of these users are reading the sports section of your site. As a result, you discover that this audience segment actually splits into more than just family and parenting. This audience also encompasses a millennial audience interested in sports and health.

Understanding your audience is valuable to advertising partners because it helps advertisers when it comes to targeting. If you are able to offer clients the ability to target specific users and specific content at site-level across article genres, sections, home page, and more, then you’ll be able to scale up your monetization efforts.

Learn how ClearPier can help give your ad revenue a boost. Become a partner.