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Advertising | Supporter Spotlight

How automation harmonizes tech-enabled creatives and ad ops

Digital media has always been marked by the intersection of creativity and technology. Unfortunately, in many cases that intersection has been a bumpy one. Today, however, there are automation solutions that can allow these two sides of the media business to work together and do better work as a result.

The digital publishing business is at a pivotal crossroads. On one hand, an explosion of creative possibilities facilitated by technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) are enabling personalized, dynamic content at scale. On the other hand, lies the intricate realm of ad operations, where complexity remains consistent, and efficiency and precision are paramount. The gap between creative potential and operational capability must be closed if digital media firms are to compete and scale effectively in today’s market.

The path to a solution starts with an exploration of the relationship between tech-enabled creatives and ad ops and ends with a question: How can organizations strategically synchronize right-brain creativity with left-brain operational efficiency in publishing? The answer is to level the playing field with the power of automation. Bringing both sides of publishing into perfect, tech-powered harmony does more than just streamline workflows. It empowers media firms to navigate the rapid pace of market changes, paving the way for maximum efficiency and operational excellence.

AI’s impact on the publishing business

Reaching the right customer at the right time with the right message is becoming a critical component of advertising success. So critical, it’s driving publishing companies to embrace advanced technologies, particularly AI technologies, to create content at scale like never before. The surge in tech-enabled content combined with the end of third-party cookies is forcing ad ops teams to re-evaluate their operations to keep up. Here’s a closer look at the impact of AI on content creation.

AI enhanced content production and customization at scale

By harnessing AI’s power to analyze data and recognize patterns, publishers can turbocharge content creation, crafting high-quality texts and visuals that are deeply engaging. This tech-enabled approach enhances content production and enables precise audience segmentation. It delivers hyper-personalized content at an unparalleled scale across various formats. All of which substantially boosts efficiency and the impact of content strategies.

How AI affects brand engagement

The creative advancements powered by AI are also profoundly influencing consumer interactions with brands. Relevant, engaging content that aligns with audience preferences and values can substantially boost brand engagement. Engagement which can potentially turn into revenue for brands. The downside is, it creates even more operational challenges for ad ops teams trying to keep up. 

Operational challenges with tech-enabled creatives

To reap the benefits of tech-enabled creatives, publishers must fully grasp the challenges they pose to ad ops teams. This understanding is crucial for implementing effective solutions and maximizing the value of creative content in digital media.

Pressure to scale

Traditional manual processes in ad ops (campaign setup, trafficking, performance tracking), become bottlenecks when faced with the scale and speed of AI-driven content production. The pressure to scale operations to match the pace of content generation increases, requiring an equally robust systems in ad ops.

Complexity management

The complexity of content tailored for different audience segments requires meticulous management throughout its lifecycle. Automated systems capable of managing the detailed workflows and large datasets of ad ops are essential for keeping pace with production, and achieving maximum ROI.

Risk of siloed functions

Another significant challenge is the risk of siloed functions within organizations. When advanced creative tools operate independently from operational capabilities, it can create gaps that lead to inefficiencies and missed opportunities.

Creative outputs must seamlessly integrate with ad ops systems to prevent campaign delays, performance tracking issues, and scaling challenges. Such disconnects hinder adaptability, affecting competitiveness and growth. Robust automation reduces friction between sales and ops teams translating to improved morale, higher productivity, fewer fire drills, and ultimately – happier clients.

Clearly, there is a critical need for automation. Without integrating automated systems, ad ops teams face delays, increased make-goods, and ultimately a failure to capitalize on the content’s potential.

An Integrated approach nets tangible benefits

As the digital media landscape evolves, integrating advanced automation tools with creative production capabilities becomes increasingly critical. It not only enhances operational efficiencies but also serves as a key driver of revenue growth and scalability. Let’s take a look at the tangible benefits automation can deliver.

Quickly adapting to market changes

With AI’s rise, and content production dramatically increasing, ad ops teams struggle to quickly adapt to market changes. However, according to Theorem’s research, 79% of ad ops professionals think their tools need improvement, and 69% feel digital advertising processes need enhancement. Implementing advanced, automated systems can empower ad ops teams to meet the needs of a constantly evolving market more effectively.

Enhancing data flow

Automation also significantly improves the flow of information between creative teams and ad ops. Centralizing information, as noted by 59% of ad professionals, ensures that data from campaign performances is quickly available to refine ongoing and future campaigns.

Automation drives revenue through operational excellence

Automation not only streamlines operations in ad ops, it significantly enhances ROI. 55% of ad pros in our research noted time-consuming processes as a major pain point. Another 36% reported complex processes slowed their pace of work. By automating tasks such as campaign setup, monitoring, and optimization, businesses can minimize costly mistakes and make-goods that are directly impacting bottom line revenue.

There is also the tangible reward of time saved as a direct result of automation. 56% of ad pros believe implementing automation saves valuable time. Time that can be redirected towards creative and strategic initiatives.

Navigating innovation with automation: the strategic advantage

Media organizations need to remain competitive and responsive in an industry driven by rapid technological advancements. Embracing the symbiotic integration of tech-enabled creatives with automated ad ops can lead to marked improvements in campaign outcomes and overall business performance. Implementing automation isn’t merely about keeping pace. It’s about setting the pace in the journey towards more synchronized, efficient, and responsive operations in publishing. Now is the time to act, to innovate. This will empower your team and your organization to lead now –  and well into the future.

Advertising | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

How publishers can use predictive audiences to grow revenue

Publishers have faced intense headwinds in recent years when it comes to protecting and growing revenue streams. However, there are some equally powerful tailwinds that the industry needs to acknowledge and embrace to put publishers on a viable path forward. Perhaps the most significant one is predictive audiences. 

Predictive audiences, supercharged by growing AI capabilities, offer publishers multiple paths to increased revenue. Even more importantly: sustainable revenue. Let’s explore why that is, and the ways in which publishers can incorporate these capabilities into their monetization plans. 

A sustainable path within a landscape of crumbling identifiers

When Google announced its latest stay of execution for third-party cookies, some publishers breathed a(nother) sigh of relief. Third-party cookies have long been seen as an understood path to revenue thanks to their role in enabling cross-site ad targeting. However, this capability has been in decline for years. In fact, the reach and accuracy of third-party cookies has become increasingly limited. 

Publishers don’t need a replacement for third-party cookies. They need something altogether better. And that’s where predictive audiences come in. By fueling growth based on the strength of a publisher’s first-party data, predictive audiences offer a path to revenue that’s both in a publisher’s control and can be strengthened over time. 

The premise behind predictive audiences for publishers is fairly simple: By taking a publisher’s first-party data (i.e., everything the publisher knows about its audience), the publisher can build models capable of predicting likely behavior in current and potential new users. These predictions can be used to create better user experiences while simultaneously opening more and deeper monetization opportunities.

Here are a few areas where predictive audiences’s power to help publishers drive revenue has become most evident. 

Growing ad dollars

For many publishers, the fastest path to revenue growth is to look beyond their sites to find additional high-value inventory for their advertisers. By using their audience data as seed data, publishers can leverage predictive audiences to identify users beyond their own walls who are likely to behave like their known audiences. Working with external partners, a publisher can make these models and their resulting segments available for advertisers on demand as an extension of their audience. 

Growing Yield

Predictive audiences can also be leveraged to greatly help publishers make more from their inventory within their walls. By combining first-party data with contextual and engagement signals, publishers can fuel robust data models that predict which ads will perform best when served to a given audience. Such an approach tends to deliver far more relevant results than can be achieved with third-party data, enabling publishers to improve the yield on their inventory. Such models can also fuel ad personalization that drives better results for advertisers and higher premiums for publishers.

Growing Audience

Beyond direct revenue, publishers can also tap into predictive audiences to grow their user base. Such growth helps expand their first-party data assets and inventory, driving greater revenue downstream. The mechanisms for fueling audience growth are similar to those for driving more ad dollars: Publishers can model their data to help them predict the behavior of unknown users. By activating that data, they can drive interested audiences in hopes of converting them to loyal visitors. 

A bright future paved with predictions

The ability of these predictive audience strategies to drive publisher revenue has a lot to do with the level of first-party data the individual publisher brings. Of course, not all publishers are on equal footing when it comes to first-party data assets. Some have been capturing and building their first-party data practices for years, enabling them to fuel strong predictive models and broader identity graphs that can reach across their properties. Others—publishers that have not invested nearly as heavily in their first-party disciplines—are looking for off-the-shelf solutions that can help them take advantage of predictive audiences’s power all the same. 

The AI-driven future will favor publishers that prioritize robust first-party data practices, but the race is far from over. Regardless of where an individual publisher stands with its first-party data assets, there’s still time to build out the needed strategies that can fuel growth through predictive audiences. By doing so to capture the right data and signals to fuel the strongest models, publishers can chart a more sustainable (and monetizable) path forward.

Advertising

The resurgence of rich media ad products

Let’s travel back in time to the digital publishing world of 2014 when programmatic was just beginning its march to ascendancy. At that time, it accounted for just 52% of display-related advertising revenues. Flash video ads still had two years of life left! And digital media consumers were enamored with interactive rich media ads.

High-impact, creative ad formats from a decade ago peacefully coexisted alongside premium publishers’ content (remember the corner peel?). But as the open programmatic marketplace took off, many of those compelling ad units died out as publishers sought to fill pages with easily transacted, low-yield static banners. 

It’s time for a rich media revival in advertising

Publishers and advertisers are beginning to question the value they get from OMP. As more advertisers limit their programmatic spend and more publishers shift strategies toward direct sold ads, flexibility and customization of ad formats becomes paramount. 

Here’s why high-impact rich media creatives are poised for a comeback:

Rich media ads engage users who are primed to tap, swipe, and scroll

TikTok, Tinder and countless other apps have shaped how users behave online. While static ads can lead to banner blindness, compelling interactive rich media executions that give users something to do can increase dwell time and brand engagement. Top ad features that drive engagement include:

It’s easier than ever to run rich media ads without being disruptive

High-impact units once thought to be disruptive – such as wallpapers, immersive page takeovers, floaters – seem less so now. Today’s web viewers battle pop-up video players, cookie banners, adhesion units, and multiple ads in viewport at once. A new generation of high-impact rich media units can reset the balance between user experience and ad revenue. 

When done well, these ad executions command top CPMs and allow publishers to reduce ad clutter… and they’re actually creative! We’ve worked with partners to develop formats for numerous ad campaigns that showcase premium creative that’s truly one-of-a-kind. For example, last July we helped Vulture create a high-impact homepage takeover for Starz announcing the new show “Minx.” 

A super billboard ad with video appeared atop the page and triggered an overlay of a champagne bottle bursting through the main story image. The “tear apart” of the homepage revealed an animated poster for the show, before reverting to the homepage again. The ad performed 6x better on a key metric versus a standard ad. Though bold, a single high-impact execution like this one, instead of a page cluttered with ads, can be more memorable and generate far more revenue. 

High-impact immersive ads combat banner blindness.

First party data and dynamic rich media creative are a powerful match

Savvy publishers are incorporating first party data not just into audience targeting but also into the actual creative being served. Rich media ads can turn data into powerful, personalized ad executions. Data-driven creative and optimization capabilities enable publishers to combine first party data with advertiser data feeds for real-time ad customizations. 

Imagine selling an airline a campaign that can dynamically show available frequent flier miles and flights this weekend from a viewer’s closest airport, and videos of that destination. Combining relevant data plus arresting creative assets like video or animations, and executing it via a single ad tag, lets publishers sell high impact ads at higher CPMs, without creating complexity for ad engineering or operations teams internally.

Programmatic ad containers with low quality fill hurt your site’s brand (and revenue)

If you’re a premium publisher, the ad experience on your sites should also be premium. But overreliance on programmatic fill can litter your site with Temu carousels. Publishers that are investing in direct sold ad programs can’t treat creative as an afterthought. Make impressions more valuable by offering interactive, rich media ad products that engage users and give your advertisers options for delivering their message in a compelling way.

Versus open programmatic fill, direct-sold rich media ads give publishers more control over their inventory, command higher CPMs from advertisers, and offer more compelling features and creative that resonates with users.

The rich media revival will lead to improved ad quality and revenue

Advertising is still the major revenue lever for media executives. Shifting focus to direct sold ads requires a thoughtful rebalancing of the ad products portfolio to ensure publishers are offering effective, compelling ad experiences that connect with users and meet the goals of advertisers. High-impact, rich media formats offer the flexibility, customization, and performance that will command higher CPMs. And, unlike a decade ago, they’re easier than ever to efficiently execute.  

About the author

Shawn Pokorny is an ad operations veteran with 15+ years of experience designing and managing display ad campaigns for major publishers including Paramount, Yahoo!, PGA Tour, Dotdash Meredith, The Guardian, and more. He leads Clipcentric’s campaign services team.

Advertising | Supporter Spotlight

TikTok’s troubles are an opportunity for media companies 

As the digital landscape faces the potential U.S. ban of TikTok, media companies are presented with a unique opportunity. TikTok has rapidly emerged as a dominant player in the advertising market, even rivaling giants like Meta, Amazon, and Google. Needless to say, open web publishers have felt the competition as well. However, TikTok’s uncertain future offers an opening for media companies to attract brands that are currently spending on TikTok and are seeking more stable alternatives.

With that in mind, my company, MediaRadar, conducted a comprehensive analysis of ad trends on TikTok to better understand patterns that could help media companies strategically position themselves during this transitional period. We found some useful openings in the ad market as well as some tactical tips for publishers positioning themselves to offer digital advertising alternatives. 

Overview of the digital ad spend

Before we get into TikTok, let’s table set the digital advertising marketplace: since January 2023, total media spending overall in the U.S. has reached $184 billion, with $150 billion spent in 2023 and an additional $33.5 billion in the first quarter of 2024. The primary sectors driving this investment are Retail, Technology, Media & Entertainment, Medical & Pharma, and Finance. They accounted for 49% of the total, contributing over $55.8 billion. This represents 56% of the $100 billion invested during this period.

Advertising expenditure on TikTok

On TikTok, advertising expenditure reached $3.8 billion in 2023, with nearly $909 million added in the first quarter of 2024. This brings TikTok’s total ad spend since January 2023 to $4.7 billion, which makes up just under 3% of all U.S. media ad revenue during this period. 

Yes, TikTok’s market share is modest. However, its impact is significant, especially in engaging dynamic and visually-oriented industries such as Media & Entertainment, Retail, Technology, Beauty, and Professional Services. Brands in these sectors alone have spent over $2.4 billion on the platform, representing 51% of TikTok’s total ad buys.

TikTok experienced significant growth in the first quarter of 2024, with spending increasing 13% from $805 million in the same quarter of 2023. Monthly increases were 18% in January, 4% in February, and 19% in March.

The top 1,000 advertisers in 2023 significantly increased their investment, spending $340 million on TikTok—up 47% year-over-year. These advertisers accounted for 37% of the $909 million spent on TikTok in the quarter. For comparison, the top 1,000 brands in digital media overall spent nearly $6.4 billion in Q1 2024, marking a 20% decrease from the previous year.

Advertising opportunity for digital media companies

In April 2024, President Joe Biden signed a law that put restrictions on TikTok in the U.S. Even though it may take a while to play out, the uncertainty alone is likely to create opportunity for digital publishers to woo advertisers seeking alternatives to the platform. The challenge is not just to capture ad dollars but also to prevent them from flowing into platforms like Meta (Instagram and Facebook) and Snapchat, which are poised to benefit from any shifts in the digital landscape. 

Here are three key takeaways for publishers to help win those migrating dollars. 

1. Embrace and promote snackable, short-form video content

TikTok’s success is largely built on its short, engaging video formats that appeal to younger audiences. Publishers should develop and showcase their own versions of these video formats that are optimized for quick consumption and designed to keep the audience coming back for more. By demonstrating the ability to produce compelling short-form content, publishers can attract brands interested in engaging the digitally native audience that thrives on quick, impactful visuals and storytelling.

2. Emphasize the advantage of brand safety

In a digital advertising landscape where brand safety continues to be a major concern, publishers have a distinct advantage over platforms like TikTok, known for their UGC which can often veer into controversial territory. Publishers should highlight their controlled environments and rigorous content standards, presenting themselves as a safer alternative for brands that want to ensure their ads are displayed in a reputable context. This is particularly persuasive for TikTok’s largest advertisers, who are likely larger brands who deeply care about their brand and its equity. 

3. Highlight the direct link between content and consumer action

TikTok has proven effective at driving sales and conversions through innovative ad formats and integrated shopping features, like TikTok Shop. Media companies should also capitalize on this trend by promoting how their content can drive consumer action. This involves showcasing success stories and case studies where advertising with them has led to measurable increases in sales or conversions. By articulating how their platforms facilitate a seamless journey from content engagement to purchase, publishers can appeal to advertisers looking for clear ROI on their ad spend.

By focusing on these strategies—leveraging formats that appeal to the TikTok audience, ensuring brand safety, and demonstrating a direct path to consumer action—publishers can effectively redirect advertising dollars to their platforms as they become available.

Advertising | Supporter Spotlight

Cloudy with a chance of innovation: reinvent the future of advertising



Google’s timeline for phasing out third-party cookies has had more push-backs than delayed flights at a snowbound airport. After several postponements became a running joke within the industry, Google made a move earlier this year to deprecate the first 1%, signaling that this time, they might actually achieve liftoff. Alas, they have announced yet another delay. 

As we navigate these changing winds, it’s critical for those of us in digital advertising to not just sit in the departure lounge. We need to take the pilot’s seat. We must steer towards innovative and sustainable cloud-based analytics solutions that ensure our industry’s longevity and compliance with ever-tightening privacy regulations.

As we ready ourselves for the final boarding call on third-party cookies, the data-driven digital advertising landscape is like an airport bustling with opportunities and challenges. Signal loss, stringent privacy laws, and changing regulations are the headwinds we face. It’s time to pilot innovative cloud-based analytics solutions that ensure profitability and compliance. Like skilled pilots, we must navigate these skies with precision and foresight, because in the digital age, stalling in the air is not an option.

Harnessing cloud infrastructure for enhanced data management

For publishers, having a deep and comprehensive understanding of their audience is crucial: It’s the jet fuel for our campaigns. Achieving this in the current digital ecosystem requires managing from a control tower approach: overseeing a vast array of data across multiple SaaS partners and vendors. 

Cloud-based analytics solutions provide scalability, flexibility, and security needed to handle any situation, allowing publishers to navigate the complexities of digital media operations smoothly. By integrating with SaaS vendors that operate within the same cloud infrastructure, publishers can enjoy streamlined processes and seamless data management across platforms. Such integrations facilitate data sharing without compromising privacy, enhancing collaborative efforts to deliver personalized and relevant advertising experiences. 

Case study: leveraging cloud-based analytics for audience insights

Consider a publisher who manages several properties and monetization strategies, from subscription-based models to ad-supported formats. By partnering with a cloud-based SaaS vendor, publishers dive into the value of their users by accessing sophisticated analytics tools that provide deep insights into behavior and preferences. This allows publishers to precisely adjust their advertising campaigns and content strategies, optimizing engagement and maximizing revenue opportunities. Effective use of these analytics can enhance user experience and drive profitability, demonstrating the substantial value of integrated, data-driven decision-making in digital publishing.

Customer 360 strategies: integrating insights for tailored offerings

In today’s fast-moving digital environment, understanding and anticipating customer preferences is crucial. It’s like predicting weather patterns for smooth flights. Implementing integrated marketing strategies that consolidate audience insights on a unified platform allows publishers to tailor their offerings more effectively. Such data-driven strategies enable publishers to not only meet the diverse needs of their audience but also attract and retain advertisers by demonstrating superior audience engagement and conversion potential. 

Embrace the cloud for future success

The digital advertising industry has some turbulence ahead, faced with significant technological and regulatory changes. By embracing cloud solutions and leveraging the expertise of integrated SaaS vendors, publishers can position themselves for success in a post-cookie world. The time to act is now—by innovating proactively, you can turn these challenges into opportunities for growth and continued success.

It’s often said that having your head in the clouds is a bad thing. However, in digital advertising, it’s exactly where you need to be. Let’s get together, and maybe find some silver linings along the way.

About the author

Manny Balbin, a seasoned veteran with over 15 years in digital media and advertising, currently shapes vision and strategy for BI products at Switchboard Software. Switchboard’s data engineering automation platform aggregates disparate data at scale in real-time for better business decisions. Prior to Switchboard, Manny led Product, Ad Technology, and Revenue Operations at Freestar, PMC, and Quantcast.

Advertising | Revenue

Election coverage for better engagement, retention and revenue 

More than half of the global population will vote in 2024, marking a massive year for politicians, voters, and the media. However, trust in the news is waning, news avoidance and news fatigue are on the rise, and brands express reluctance to advertise around election coverage. Connecting with audiences and deriving value from election coverage is becoming harder. But by reframing and augmenting how news organizations already approach political reporting, we can meet audience and advertiser requirements in a way that benefits all. 

Traditional horse race reporting does, of course, continue to have a role, but it has limitations. If the reader does not understand a candidate’s policies and their relevance, will they care if they win or lose? Election reporting needs to meet audiences where they are. It must provide them information and analysis of the issues that matter to voters to impact reader engagement and subscription conversion and bring advertiser revenue back. 

Moving beyond horse race journalism

With their digestible format, social media-friendly user experience, and great SEO, liveblogs have increasingly become an established means of covering developing stories like elections because they meet the “update me” audience need. Yes, liveblogs are still a useful medium for horse race coverage. However, they have evolved to enable much more.  

With the Citizen’s Agenda model also trending away from politician-led election coverage in favor of the issues and topics that voters want to hear about, there’s real potential for publishers to go beyond typical horse race liveblog styles by integrating other types of coverage. By harnessing liveblogs’ multimedia nature, publishers can leverage audience-first direct interaction strategies that drive better results. It’s all about creating a wider narrative.

Enhanced storytelling with liveblogs

Liveblogs can be used to build an array of election coverage that strengthens the narrative, ensures relevance, and drives engagement. While they have become synonymous with real-time updates, it’s good to remember that liveblogs can take different formats to help tell the broader election story.

For example, the German title Zeit Online used interviews with 49 individuals representative of German society in the run-up to the 2021 national elections to build a picture of citizens’ concerns about everyday and election issues. By sharing interview excerpts, video clips, and imagery, the publication harnessed a wide range of electorate voices to build trust and engagement with its audience. 

User-generated content, from user polls to comment functionality and information requests, can also foster a sense of community and inclusion. Including the readers’ voice helps them feel socially connected and keeps them coming back for more.

Stuff New Zealand invited readers to have their say on how the Government handled the cost of living crisis. It also flagged another article and included a poll and further comment opportunities. This approach keeps readers on the site for longer by allowing them to participate in relevant conversations. And, by including clear UGC and comment terms and conditions, it builds transparency and trust. 

Providing context for better information delivery

A core issue in election news avoidance and fatigue is also related to the complex nature of the topics. If readers are not already conversant with the landscape and issues, they can easily switch off. Liveblogs can counter this by providing contextual information that complements core election coverage. On their politics liveblog, Stuff includes a “what you need to know” section that helps readers make sense of events. It also links to related articles on the site, which increases session duration. Other publishers, such as Spiegel and Stern use a highlight feature to spotlight the most important updates. 

Graphs, diagrams, and maps add helpful visual aids to illustrate concepts that are harder to convey in words. Live Q&As with third-party experts can also deliver helpful information in response to reader questions, as used by mdr during the Covid-19 pandemic. By providing readers with the chance to directly ask a medical expert questions, they were able to help dispel some of the myths and disinformation contributing to panic. 

The same tactic can help explain and simplify complicated election concepts and policies to make them more accessible. Gaining direct insight from readers on what they want to hear about by using live Q&As also aligns with the Citizen’s Agenda model. While it suggests journalists go out and ask in person, liveblogs’ comment functionality enables this to also be done online. Publications can then tailor content to suit audience needs and expectations. This, in turn, shows that a media brand values its readers and is invested in building a trusting, two-way relationship. 

Engaging liveblog features to enrich revenue opportunities

By harnessing liveblogs’ full potential to effectively engage readers, publications can also change the perspective of advertisers who have been reluctant to put budgets alongside political reporting. With the integration of contextual adverts at custom rates between posts, and the opportunity to advertise in an even less intrusive way through sponsorships, liveblogs represent a win-win for publishers, readers, and advertisers alike. 

In today’s media landscape of news fatigue, avoidance, and short attention spans, election coverage can be a hard nut to crack. To be successful, editorial teams need to make reporting more dynamic, meeting audiences where they are with tailored content, easy-to-consume formats, and true two-way interaction. Liveblogs provide a solution to this challenge, enhancing the reader experience, building greater engagement over political reporting, and demonstrating to advertisers that there is value in spending money around election season.

Advertising | Supporter Spotlight

How streamers can optimize viewer experience through ad podding 

Today’s viewers are used to watching their favorite content across a variety of platforms and services. And an increasing number of these are ad supported. Ad-supported environments are a win-win for all parties: audiences enjoy content at a lower price, brands connect with highly-engaged viewers, and content providers keep improving the value of their inventory while boosting revenues. However, in order to reap these benefits, it’s vital to ensure that ads augment, rather than detract from, the viewer experience.  

Ad podding technology enables media companies to balance quality viewing with brand results. This article will explore how digital publishers can best design their ad pods in order to craft optimal experiences for viewers. We’ll focus on three areas: pod length, structure and ad frequency. 

On ad pod length: less is more, but there is a sweet spot 

It’s crucial that ads do not feel like a disruption to the viewing experience because this can create a poor environment for brands to connect with viewers. With this in mind, digital publishers will do well to limit length when ad podding.

Consumers perceived one and two-minute ad pods as less intrusive than longer pods, according to FreeWheel’s report, Designing A Better Ad Pod. When an ad pod hit three minutes, the number of viewers citing the ads as intrusive doubled. Ad recall was specifically impacted, dropping by half when viewers watched three- rather than two-minute pods. 

Despite the overall impression that limiting ad pod length pleases audiences, there may in fact be a sweet spot. Just under two-thirds (62%) of viewers said that two minutes of ads met their expectations and almost half (45%) of participants who viewed one-minute ad breaks reported that they were shorter than they had anticipated, according to the same report. 

Digital publishers should also keep in mind the importance of aligning ad pod durations with content length. The report additionally found long pods in the middle of shorter-form content to be less tolerated than pods that were proportionate to content length. And, according to another FreeWheel report, The State of TV Advertising Viewer Experience, a correlation between ad and content length was a preference for almost 72% of respondents. 

Building brand recall with ad architecture – consistency is key 

It’s not only ad pod length that impacts viewer experience; digital publishers need to turn finer attention to the length of each ad within the pod. Our Designing A Better Ad Pod report found that consistent duration of single spots enhances the overall ad experience. Over half (56%) of respondents felt that pods with a combination of 15-second and 30-second ads seemed longer than expected. Meanwhile, when ads were the same length within pods, this figure dropped to 41% for pods containing only 15-second ads, and to 21% for pods with only 30-second ads. 

Varying ad length is sometimes necessary to meet brands’ needs and budgets. However, our  findings suggest that publishers stand to create a better platform for audiences to engage with ads by prioritizing consistent ad lengths within a pod. 

Viewers’ preferences even extend to what qualities they see in an ad. When ads were placed with others of the same length, participants were 7% more likely to see them as cutting-edge and innovative, and 5% were more likely to say they liked the ads. This data is likely grounded in predictability being pleasing to audiences – viewers are more able to relax and immerse themselves in the content rather than being distracted by elements of surprise in ad format. 

Ad podding uses ad frequency to surprising effect 

In an era where publishers and advertisers alike are wary of the impact of over-exposure to ads, frequency is top of the agenda. Viewers have low tolerance of excessive ad repetition. A full 67% say they are irritated by seeing the same ad more than once within the same ad pod and visual attention plummeting when they are exposed to the same ad within two minutes. 

To mitigate this issue, publishers can use frequency capping to control how often an ad is seen. The frequency can be set the length of content or for a defined amount of time such as one impression per 30 minutes. In fact, capping was applied to over half (54%) of all streaming ad placements in the first quarter of 2023. 

However, the risks of frequency might be overestimated, especially when ads are not repeated within the same pod. FreeWheel’s report reveals that when viewers saw the same ad twice in a single 30-minute program, ad recognition and brand purchase intent increased by 22%, and remained at a high level even after three exposures within a 30-minute program. When evaluating measures of engagement – quality and ad liking – the report found that ads were rated similarly even if audiences were exposed to creative up to three times in one program. 

Our research into ad podding has highlighted some instructive and often surprising findings on its impact on viewers engagement and favorability. And it points to the need for digital publishers to carry out careful calibrations across ad pod size, architecture, and frequency in the ads they serve to their audiences. 

Viewers’ habits and preferences are always evolving, but agile and future-facing digital publishers can harness such insights and further optimize the viewer experience while providing brands with the results they need. 

Advertising | Supporter Spotlight

Addressing uncertainty: testing addressability with programmatic curation

In the new reality for digital media, advertisers will require a multifaceted approach to targeting and attribution. This approach includes the use of alternative IDs, first-party data, contextual and Google’s Privacy Sandbox (PSB). However, understanding where to invest time, resources, and money, is proving to be a challenge for many media companies.

Curation: A programmatic advertising multi-tool

Programmatic curation can be an indispensable tool to alleviate some of the issues created by the deprecation of third-party cookies.

But what is curation? Programmatic curation is the process of packaging data and supply from a variety of partners into unique private marketplace-based deals, which can then be activated on the buy side though any DSP.  This process is different from simple deals-based trading, where a publisher packages its own inventory into a deal ID to offer buyers.

Curation creates a more fluid and interoperable supply and data marketplace. A publisher can package its own supply with someone else’s data to satisfy advertiser needs. Or a data owner can package its data with supply from publishers they don’t know to create a data-enriched inventory package to satisfy advertiser interests.

Because curation relies on existing programmatic processes, it’s a quick and straightforward way for both the sell and buy side to transact. In fact, curated deals can be created and activated in a matter of minutes using the same programmatic platforms and pipes which already power thousands of private marketplace (PMP) deals every day.  It also ensures that publishers are on the receiving end of premium media budgets from advertisers without worrying about data leakage.

By bundling premium data—including addressability signals—with media, curation can act as a bridge between ad inventory and audience data, something that becomes increasingly important as third-party cookie deprecation draws closer.

Layering advertising addressability signals

Programmatic curation is being used by advertisers to test out various addressability solutions, as they map their approach to a post-cookie world. Working directly with a single publisher or across a network of preferred publisher partners, advertisers can curate inventory based on the presence (or absence) of specific addressability signals. This allows them to run side-by-side tests to understand the relative impact and scale of each solution. Some of the signals that advertisers are using curation to test are: Alternative IDs, Google’s Privacy Sandbox, and first party data.

Alternative IDs

There are several dozens of Alternative IDs in use today across the programmatic ecosystem, looking to replicate much of the third-party cookie’s functionality in more privacy-preserving ways. These IDs can be free or can come at a cost. They can be deterministic or probabilistic. They can be open sourced, or privately operated. In all cases, though, they require some level of effort by both brands and publishers to implement, maintain, and evaluate for efficacy.

Advertisers can use programmatic curation to test the effectiveness of different ID solutions by creating unique supply packages, executed via a deal ID, based on the isolated presence of a specific ID in the bidstream. Keeping everything else the same, advertisers can see how effective different IDs are at driving specific campaign outcomes. Once they’ve determined what works best for them, they can then work directly with publishers to increase the penetration of those IDs in the bidstream to ensure scale.

Google’s Privacy Sandbox

Like Alternative IDs, addressability signals from Google’s Privacy Sandbox APIs can also be packaged with publisher supply. These signals are currently available on 1% of traffic from the Chrome browser and can be used as a point of comparison with other addressability signals to see which drives better outcomes for the publisher’s demand partners.

Advertisers can leverage Google Topics signals in curated deal IDs to test the scale across multiple publishers within their preferred DSPs. While limited to the signals collected from the Topics API, advertisers can begin building out A/B tests with curation to compare addressability and performance without relying upon their DSP to fully support PSB.

While stable testing has only begun in March 2024, publishers should prioritize analyzing PSB signal impact and assessing performance as the PSB may be a key driver in a publisher’s addressability strategy after the full deprecation of third-party cookies on Chrome. In addition, as PSB testing scales, advertisers should be able to capitalize on using other addressability signals from the Privacy Sandbox APIs.

Publishers’ first party data

The first-party data publishers hold on every visitor to their website(s) is incredibly valuable to advertisers. And their ability to use that audience on other supply go double once third-party cookies disappear for good. Historically, this has been a sticking point with publishers. That’s because to allow advertisers to target their audiences outside of owned and operated environments (aka audience extension), they would traditionally need to relinquish some control of their data—and they won’t necessarily get it back.

With curation, first-party data can be protected. By layering publisher first-party data into curated deals using third-party inventory, or using it as a centralized match key, publishers can drive incremental revenue without the need to give media buyers direct access to their audience data. They’re always in the driving seat.

Addressability testing and timelines

Curation can package these data signals within existing programmatic workflows that media buyers use day in, day out. That means that programmatic curation is a natural fit for publishers looking to monetize their audiences in a low-friction way. 

Future-focused digital advertising solutions

Third-party cookies have already been deprecated on Safari, Firefox, and Edge browsers, as well as on 1% of Chrome traffic. This provides a unique time-limited opportunity for publishers to test out what works best for their inventory, and for media buyers to partner with publishers to activate these strategies closer to supply. 

Nonetheless, there will not be a panacea for addressability: Digital media companies will need to combine different addressability solutions to ensure that they are maximizing the return on their inventory. By using curation, publishers can test different strategies within their existing programmatic workflows to ensure that they are not leaving revenue on the table.

Advertising

How publishers can use taxonomies to maximize monetization

It is not shocking to say that that content is the core value proposition of a publisher. However, it is shocking how frequently publishers fall short in dimensionalizing the full diversity and depth of their own content, which then undermines the potential commercial value to both the advertiser and consumer markets. The content, which could take the form of text, video, audio or even some form of a tool or utility feature, is what ultimately draws users to a publisher’s platforms. It’s what truly defines that publisher in the mind of their audience (for better or for worse).

Analyzing and connecting this content across a publisher’s own footprint offers benefits on both the revenue and expense sides of the business. Yet all too frequently media companies are challenged in establishing a granular, relevant understanding of their content. A longstanding approach to organizing content has been the use of unstructured tagging or by applying a more structured taxonomy. Unfortunately, both internal and external challenges have impacted media companies’ ability to best leverage these organizational approaches.

Internal challenges for publishers when applying a taxonomy

Internally, an effective application of a taxonomy requires connecting systems that span editorial (CMS), advertising (ad server, programmatic stack, DMP) and marketing (CDP and analytics). A level of coordination is required to ensure that all parties are aligned, which is both a technical and functional challenge. It is important that a media company collaboratively decides which kind of contextual taxonomy best addresses multiple use cases. Key questions include: What helps SEO? What helps ad targeting, especially in a post third-party cookie world? What helps provide the richest content insights? What content drives more subscribers?

The other internal challenge is to understand exactly how content is categorized. Is it done in a manual way as content first flows through the editorial process? Or are there levels of automation being applied so categorization is applied at scale in an accurate manner? During this part of the process, it’s critical to know what is being used to apply the metadata. For example, a publisher must figure out the right taxonomy (or taxonomies) to have the most leverage.

Figuring out what taxonomy is best for your media business

Most media companies have access to the IAB Contextual Taxonomy. Currently, version 2.2 is the most typically leveraged, though version 1.0 is still utilized by many parts of the media ecosystem. These offer a starting point for many publishers. However, regardless of which version deployed, the IAB Contextual Taxonomy has its limitations, almost by design. To be a broadly accepted taxonomy, it cannot be overly specific. While it contains three tiers of terms, it doesn’t necessarily offer the granularity that some publishing verticals require.

If a media company requires a more robust or specific taxonomy, there are several paths that can be taken. One option is to develop a taxonomy internally. This option has been undertaken by a number of publishers with the resources to create and manage a taxonomy. The level of effort to maintain a taxonomy can be significant in terms of time and money, especially as it needs to evolve as new terms emerge.

The other option is to work with a vendor who can offer a vertical taxonomy from their library. (These vendors can offer some level of customization aligned with the advertising, marketing and editorial needs of a customer.) These kinds of taxonomies may support a publisher in the gaming vertical, for example, that desires depth and hyper relevancy for its ad targeting (such as going several levels from “video gaming” to draw distinctions between among/across game types such as “MMOG” versus “MMORPG”).

External challenges for publishers applying a taxonomy

The primary external challenge is when some contextual providers make their own assessment of a publisher’s content. These companies do their own analysis of a publisher’s content and apply a taxonomy classification that will likely be limited at best, and inaccurate/damaging at worst.

In advertising, these taxonomy determinations then become the “truth set” on that publisher for others in the programmatic ecosystem, impacting the sell side or the buy side experience. If they do not accurately represent the full breadth and depth of a publisher’s content, this has serious revenue implications. For example, a site may be labeled broadly as “news”, while in reality the content spans “entertainment”, “travel”, “shopping”, etc. These are categories that tend to command higher CPMs than “news”.

While these factors are very real and not easy to overcome, it’s ultimately critical that publishers try to take back control of their content positioning in the market. While they may not be in a position to build or entirely manage their own taxonomy, media companies need to be the “truth set” for their own content instead of a completely disconnected third party.

The end impact of getting the house in order for publishers is operational efficiency, traffic improvements and revenue lift. A publisher just needs to remember these key questions as the review their current state:

  • Confirm which technical systems currently impact contextual tagging and where does that output flow? Who manages those systems internally?
  • How many of the current processes are manual versus how much is automated?
  • How is this contextual output flowing out of the company, whether to support SEO or productized by advertising for behavioral or contextual campaigns? On the advertising side, is the enhanced taxonomy being properly communicated to buyers and helping drive campaigns that meet KPIs?
  • Do current tagging/taxonomy practices have the right level of accuracy and granularity?

It is critical that publishers figure out their current state and then plan on how to rapidly evolve going forward. The industry is not standing still as third-party cookies disappear and AI sits poised to completely transform search. Time is of the essence so to maximize the value of the content you offer, it must be discoverable to the entire ecosystem, from users to advertisers. The growth of your bottom line is dependent on this.

Advertising | Supporter Spotlight

3 Trust signals that help publishers stand out from MFAs

One topic making headlines in the digital media and advertising industry is made-for-advertising websites. The industry has tried to define them. Studies have been developed to determine how much MFAs are costing advertisers (15% of all ad budgets, according to the ANA). Tech providers have tried blocking them from media buys. Though that has caused some pushback from legitimate publishers’ sites, which might resemble MFAs on the surface (but are anything but). Despite all these efforts, a recent report from Adalytics showed that ads are still reaching MFAs.

The industry is starting to realize that a one-size-fits-all approach to weeding out MFAs doesn’t work. Media buyers and tech providers are taking a step back to re-examine their selection of media partners. Instead of automatically blocking publishers that don’t fit specific criteria, they’re looking at media more granularly and adding approved publishers to inclusion lists.

What are advertisers seeking in a publisher partner? Broadly speaking, they’re looking for media brands that have created quality ad environments that are seen by real audiences. But different buyers use different criteria and technologies, which lead to inconsistent and disparate outcomes. So: How can publishers take control of the narrative and demonstrate why they should be rewarded for their quality content?

The answer: media companies should implement trust signals, especially those developed and backed by the industry. Here are three trust signals designed to help publishers stand out to buyers for their commitment to quality, transparency, and accountability, and earn advertisers’ trust and business.

Trust signal #1: Industry certifications

Several industry groups, including the Media Rating Council, IAB Tech Lab, Trustworthy Accountability Group and the Alliance for Audited Media, have developed compliance programs to recognize publishers for meeting industry standards for ad measurement, brand safety, ad fraud and sustainability. Publishers that complete these programs demonstrate their commitment to transparency. It shows that they have processes and systems in place that deliver accurate and reliable data advertisers can trust.

Many of these industry certification programs require independent validation that a publisher has implemented industry standards and best practices to earn certification. Independent review and validation provide additional assurance for media buyers and publishers.

Trust signal #2: Brand safety tools

With advertisers becoming increasingly concerned about brand safety, solutions have been developed to highlight publishers committed to creating safe content and environments.

The Journalism Trust Initiative was developed by Reporters Without Borders in collaboration with the industry. It provides a blueprint for certifying media outlets for their adherence to industry standards to produce ethical content. JTI’s certification program includes third-party verification and differentiates quality media for their commitment to these standards and best practices.

Trust.txt is an industry framework developed by the non-profit JournalList to help tech platforms and advertisers make associations between publishers and the industry organizations they belong to including Digital Content Next and AAM. Participants in the program add a Trust.txt file to their website directory, which acts as a machine-readable map to help advertisers, tech platforms and search engines connect legitimate publishers with respected industry organizations.

The Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart® rates publishers for their political bias and reliability and lists them on an interactive chart. Publishers verified by a third party tend to be rated among the most reliable. They can use their rating to show media buyers their reliability and trustworthiness. Media outlets rated at the top of the media landscape can take their ratings to the next level and achieve certification from Ad Fontes for consistently providing reliable news and information.

Trust signal #3: Industry memberships

Membership in an industry organization is another signal of trust that differentiates quality publishers from other websites. Industry memberships require investment and often adherence to a code of ethics. Publishers that join and participate in industry associations stand out for their commitment to supporting and advancing the industry.

As digital advertising evolves and becomes more competitive, standing out for your good work becomes even more crucial. Demonstrating your commitment to industry standards and best practices by participating in the industry programs mentioned above is essential for communicating your value to advertisers.

As media buyers become more focused on curating their inclusion lists, it is critical to showcase your commitment to quality and transparency. Adopting these trust signals differentiates premium publishers and valued media brands in a competitive market and fosters a healthier ecosystem for advertisers and audiences alike.

Advertising | Featured Post | Video

Podcasters explore diverse revenue streams in a bid for growth

Advertising and subscriptions are popular podcasting revenue streams. As with all things digital media, revenue diversification is the name of the game. So, it is interesting to see media companies exploring alternative and creative revenue streams for podcasting. 

Deloitte predicts that a growing number of consumers worldwide will engage with audio entertainment overall in 2024—bringing the number of monthly average podcast listeners to more than 1.7 billion. Fueled by this demand, podcast advertising is also on the rise. In fact, it outpaces growth trends for the internet ad market, according to IAB’s U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Study 2023.  Podcast advertising revenues have grown over 115% from 2020 to 2022. And ad revenues grew 26% year-over-year to $1.8 billion.

So, it’s no surprise that for many publishers, networks and individual creators, advertising is still the primary revenue driver. Jenna Weiss-Berman is EVP, Head of Podcasts at Audacy, Inc. and Co-Founder, Pineapple Street Media (an Audacy Company). She believes that, while it is important to explore new revenue opportunities, advertising is too important to neglect.

“We all want to look into alternative models,” Weiss-Berman said. “But I think we are also very focused on the one that we know is working and how do we make that one work better? I think because we are seeing a lot of annual and quarterly growth, we want to make sure that that’s really the priority – focusing on the thing that we know works best.”

Ray Chao, SVP and general manager of audio and digital video at Vox Media, also believes that advertising is still a strong revenue model for podcasts. He points to a combination of new advertisers entering the podcast space as well as existing advertisers allocating increasing budgets to podcasting. “I think what that reflects is a real understanding of the fact that podcasts are one of the most engaging media channels,” he said.

Streaming ad innovations for podcasters

And, the research certainly backs up the level of engagement. Podcast listeners in the U.S. are expected to spend an average of 54 minutes per day tuned into programming in 2024, according to EMarketer’s February 2024 forecast. According to eMarketer, in 2024 digital audio will make up a fifth of all time spent with digital media in the U.S. and in 2023, almost 75% of U.S. internet users listened to digital audio. 

“This growth comes as no surprise to us,” said Emma Vaughn, global head of advertising business development and partnerships at Spotify. Spotify’s advertising revenue climbed 12% to €501 million last year—an all-time high, thanks to double-digit growth across both music and podcasts. With this kind of revenue opportunity on the table, Spotify is focused on evolving the advertising technology for podcasting.

“We’re continuously advancing the ad products we offer,” Vaughn said. The company just launched a music agency called AUX in February. “We’ll use our expertise to counsel brands about how best to use music to enrich their campaigns and leverage our relationships with emerging artists to help them reach new audiences.” 

The company has also been “been modernizing podcast ads in format and in experience through CTA Cards, an interactive, multi-way experience that transformed podcast ads from something that could only be heard, into an experience that you can also see — and, most importantly, click,” she said.

Vaughn also emphasized the need for measurement to mature in the podcast business, citing the global shift in consumption from downloads to streaming which has opened the door for advances in more data-driven podcast advertising measurement. “When we launched Streaming Ad Insertion (SAI), we introduced impression-level insight to podcast advertising for the very first time,” she explained. “Rather than relying on download data, advertisers now had access to standard digital reporting like impressions, unique reach, and frequency, along with unique audience insights and creative performance metrics powered by Spotify’s first-party data.”

SAI is a podcast ad technology available on Spotify that incorporates digital planning, reporting, and measurement for podcast advertisers – based on confirmed ad impressions. It was designed to “deliver the intimacy and quality of traditional podcast ads with the precision and transparency expected of digital marketing” according to Vaughn. 

Paid podcast subscriptions

However, Vaughn points out that at Spotify, subscriptions are a critical piece of their business. “In our last earnings, subscription revenue increased 17% to €3.17 billion.” 

And, while most podcasts are ad-supported and free to listeners, some publishers are now offering exclusive podcast content only paid subscribers can access. For example, late last year The Economist launched an audio subscription ($4.90 US per month) that put the majority of its shows behind a paywall. The Economist’s entire collection of podcasts is exclusively available to Economist Podcasts+ subscribers. 

At Fox News Audio, the breadth of podcast content across the Fox Audio Network allows the company to attract a broader audience with diverse interests, explained William Sanchez, executive director of digital & business development at Fox News Audio and Fox Audio Network. Fox News is not new to podcasting or subscriptions. 

The company has been in the business for 10 years, and Sanchez says that “when we started our first venture into podcasts with our talk radio shows as premium podcasts. So they’ve always been a part of our strategy as far as subscription goes, and now is inclusive of Apple podcast subscriptions and ad-free listening on Amazon Prime for Prime members. Subscription continues to be, it was always a part of our plan or strategy, and it used to be a part of our roadmap.”

At Vox Media, while the company’s business model is primarily advertising-driven and their main focus is continuing to grow advertising. However, it’s also a priority to continue to diversify their revenue model, explained Chao. “We’ve done that through subscriptions and consumer revenue,” Chao said. “We’ve been operating Cafe Insider, which is a subscription business for several of our shows, including Stay Tuned with Preet. And, we recently launched Criminal+, which is a subscription product for Criminal. We’re excited about consumer revenue as a space to continue to grow and diversify our revenue model.”

Their strategy starts by looking at the show and thinking about its host, its team, the audience, and figuring out if there is an opportunity for a paid consumer product that allows fans of the show to engage more deeply with the content, Chao said. “So, for fans of Preet Bharara who are listening to Stay Tuned with Preet, they are excited about more content in the intersection of policy, law and politics. And, we deliver that each week through Cafe Insider.” 

Video audiences expand podcast audience and revenue

While podcasts used to be the medium of choice for multi-taskers, publishers are now filming their podcasts and distributing them on visual platforms with big built-in audiences like YouTube and TikTok. In case media companies worry that offering full length content might cannibalize an audio audience, there’s certainly a wealth of highlights to be clipped for social and promotional purposes, and a clear opportunity to expand podcast monetization. 

The fact is that people actually enjoy watching video podcasts almost as much as listening to them. A February YouGov poll suggested 33% of respondents favored listening to audio podcasts, while 25% preferred watching video podcasts. The visual appeal of video podcasts was one of the main reasons for 51% of respondents, while 29% preferred the variety of content and ability to share on social platforms. 

And, as users increasingly consume podcasts in both audio and video formats, leveraging YouTube for consumption, digital media companies are slowly expanding upon existing ad models to make video part of their go-to-market plans. Video-enabled podcasts represented just under 10% of revenues in 2023, according to IAB’s most recent U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Study. Which makes it a prime opportunity for advertisers to engage in cross-channel buys. 

Last year, Slate announced a partnership with YouTube to bring Slate’s network of podcasts, including favorites like Slow Burn, Political Gabfest, What Next and Amicus, to the platform. 

“We see this as a real opportunity to build scale and reach a new, untapped audience on YouTube, which has become the world’s most-used podcast platform,” wrote Charlie Kammerer, Slate’s president and CRO, in a release.

After introducing video podcasts in 2020, Spotify announced in June last year that they had more than 100,000 video podcasts on their platform, adding that the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, the U.K., and Germany published the most video podcasts.

Fox News Audio has success with video and its podcasts, according to Sanchez. “Our audio division lives among a video first world, so we get to tap into a lot of the resources and the expertise from the video side of the business that allows us to bring the audio-first business into the video world as well and capitalize our platforms like YouTube.”

So, while Fox News Audio has shows that come from the video side, they’re findinging that they have a much larger catalog that is audio-based. “We’re starting to move forward with bringing those to our YouTube channel. So, that’s another revenue stream opportunity for us as we all try to figure out what video role plays in podcasting.”

As Chao sees it, a podcast is just a direct to consumer (D2C) show that has been delivered through RSS onto platforms like Apple and Spotify. However, the ecosystem for podcasting continues to expand into new content categories, new creators and talent, and as consumer behavior continues to evolve and there are flourishing video platforms like YouTube and TikTok out there. 

“We’ve seen a lot of success with these direct to consumer shows, building an audience and a business on platforms outside of just traditional RSS feed podcast listening platforms,” said Chao. “So, if you think about podcasts more broadly than just an audio show, it’s actually a direct to consumer show that can be audio, can be video. That is really where we see continued expansion in the podcast industry for both audiences and advertisers.”

Podcast merchandise revenue: swag, gifts and more

Podcast networks and digital publishers are now hawking merchandise – from clothing lines to bags, water bottles and more. Fans, eager to show their allegiance to their favorite podcasts through t-shirts, mugs, or hoodies, discuss which podcasts have the best merchandise.

Indeed, podcast merchandise has become big business. Vox Media has some podcast-related merchandise in its shop, for Today, Explained, Vox’s daily news explainer podcast and its Future Perfect podcast. 

Fox News Audio offers some podcast-related merchandise as well. While it’s not a large part of their business, there is representation in the Fox shop, Sanchez said. 

American podcast network Wondery, home to podcasts Morbid, Smartless, Redhanded, MrBallen and other popular shows, has a merchandise shop that offers apparel, accessories, drinkware and home and office. 

Podcast revenue forecast

“The era of podcasting that we’re moving into now is that we need it to be a sustainable business and not just something that people are trying to get rich quick off of,” according to Weiss-Berman. “I think that it’s fun figuring out how a thing can be sustainable and a good long-term business. There’s a lot of opportunity for growth that we’re seeing and it’s actually not very complicated to make it a profitable business when that’s the focus.”

While 2023 was a challenging year for podcasters, with layoffs at NPR, Spotify, Stitcher and Amazon Music and lucrative deals with celebrities falling apart, the industry also saw growth in listeners and ad revenue. While it is heartening to see stalwart revenue models–advertising and subscription supported–holding strong for podcasting, diversification builds strong media businesses. Publisher investment in new revenue streams like video and merchandise comes from a desire to drive expansion, growth and sustainability. 

As Vox’s Chao put it: “As we think about continuing to grow this business and to continue to help it flourish, these additional revenue streams or diversifying our revenue model through expansion into subscriptions and consumer revenue and other types of revenue streams is a core component of how we’re going to continue to grow this business going forward.”

Advertising | Supporter Spotlight

Data collaboration gives power to the publishers

Over the last few years, publishers and digital marketers have been preparing their data capabilities to withstand third-party cookie deprecation and heightened privacy regulations. Data scarcity is the challenge. And the clear solution is data sharing between trusted business partners who stand to benefit mutually. 

No wonder we’ve seen a variety of data clean room options emerge as a means for publishers and advertisers to share and match audiences. But now, the industry is taking a much-needed step forward. Data collaboration platforms have emerged as essential tools for marketers’ new customer acquisition efforts. And publisher data is what makes successful collaboration possible.

The deep data insights that marketers can gain from publishers is of heightened value right now. This puts publishers in the driver’s seat, giving them leverage in the ad buy and positioning them as essential partners to marketers. Deepening these partnerships allows publishers to win commitments and preferential deals from marketers.

For any media executives that are wary about sharing their data, it’s time to take a closer look at the controls that are possible today. Publishers can safely and privately permission parts of their audience, pseudonymously, for purposes of learning, analysis, modeling, and segmentation. 

Contrary to one lingering misunderstanding in the industry, clean rooms are built for more than authentication alone. They are, in fact, useful to media companies even if they don’t have a great amount of emails to use as matching identifiers. Data collaboration allows businesses to unify and analyze data from any internal sources – breaking down old data silos – along with data from external partners. 

Even if publishers don’t have a lot of data on email, they can still benefit from this technology. In fact, this data can include subscribers who log-in, as well as data from content consumers who don’t need to authenticate for access. All of this can considerably grow the amount of data available for analysis and activation, a more comprehensive solution than most traditional clean rooms alone. It can also be a more direct and less resource-heavy arrangement than what some data clean rooms offer. 

The value in a fuller picture of the buyer’s path

Of course, as with a clean room, a data collaboration platform is only as effective and valuable as the data that goes into it. And the overwhelming share of brand marketers will find that because they have limited touchpoints with consumers, they have a limited view of the buyer’s journey. CPGs, for example, are big digital spenders whose overall ROI is threatened by their shortage of direct interactions with consumers. 

And for any industry vertical, the longer the path to purchase, the larger the marketer’s data blind spots. It’s easy to imagine the implications for industries like automotive, real estate, or travel and hospitality: The consumer will spend a great deal of time researching their purchases, but the brand doesn’t own the data from the overwhelming bulk of sites and apps where that engagement happens. Publishers do. 

Therefore, publishers play an absolutely crucial role in data collaboration. They have the leverage in this scenario to drive greater value from the data that they own and marketers need. When marketers are able to analyze their consumers’ browsing patterns across platforms and devices, they can develop a deeper understanding of consumer behavior and preferences, which can make targeting and personalization more relevant and effective.

Newfound scale brings newfound ad revenue opportunities

To envision how data collaboration works, consider how a brand might start with data from their qualified leads – logged-in or deeply engaged users on their own sites and apps – and combine it with a publisher’s data. Keep in mind that many data collaboration platforms rely on an identifier, such as a hashed email, for matching purposes. But this will limit a business’s statistically significant data set to be analyzed. It’s important to open the field to a larger data set – which will entail finding the options that work beyond email identifiers to enable a greater audience overlap. 

Patterns in content consumption unlock consumer interest insights that might not have otherwise been obvious or intuitive to marketers. For a real estate company, for example, the marketer won’t be able to overhear in-person conversations between prospective homebuyers and realtors. But content consumption habits can help suggest what a buyer’s longer-term concerns might be – interest in colleges, financial planning, and products for children of specific age groups. Content consumption insights can also provide a wealth of information that enables targeting and personalization on pages that are relevant to the individual consumer, but not directly related to the brand’s own vertical. 

Without data from publishers, marketers simply wouldn’t be able to fill out the consumer’s profile this way and reach them in a wider variety of relevant settings. Media companies are now empowered to present a bespoke data package to a preferred advertiser partner, full of uniquely valuable insights and recommendations. And the monetization benefits go beyond attracting new advertisers and drawing existing advertisers closer. There’s also an opportunity for publishers to increase CPMs overall, in tandem with the increase of their data’s value to advertisers.

Becoming an advertisers’ essential partner

Throughout the industry’s process of reshaping how data is used, most businesses have found that first-party data tied to email identifiers, taken on their own, simply aren’t sufficient. Publishers’ data leverage in the ad marketplace becomes even greater with data collaboration platforms. In exchange, publishers can deepen relationships with their preferred advertisers, position themselves to bring new partnership ideas to the table, and win newfound ad spend from brands in verticals and markets they may not have even considered before. 

Through data collaboration, media companies can grant advertisers the ability to discover, reach, engage, and retain their best consumers efficiently. They are able to effectively save advertisers from wasted spend, irrelevant targeting, and reliance on multiple point solutions. That’s a very valuable proposition in today’s data landscape, where consumer attention is fleeting. Publishers need to take advantage of powerful data collaboration solutions to cement their place in marketers’ budgets and in the media marketplace well into the future.

About the author

Dave Chokshi Lotame

Dave Chokshi is Director of Client Services at Lotame, responsible for managing enterprise publisher accounts in the North America region. Dave brings nearly a decade of industry experience to his client services role, having worked at Comscore and PGR Media. 

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