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Perspectives | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

Putting the value back in our industry’s opaque VAT

As 2020, without a doubt the most challenging 12 months in our lifetimes, stumbles to the finish line, one undeniable lesson learned for all publishers is the need to focus on the sustainability of revenue streams. The turbulence of the market, the unexpected upheaval from factors that are unanticipated and entirely out of our control may well have become the new normal. So now, more than ever, publishers need to choose AdTech partners wisely and select those who can demonstrate the ability to deliver a tangible contribution to the bottom line.

Value chain drain

Earlier this year the UK’s ISBA (the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers) released their Programmatic Supply Chain Transparency Study in association with the Association of Online Publishers and conducted by PwC. This groundbreaking examination of the digital industry’s programmatic advertising supply chain shines a bright light on the lack of transparency shrouding AdTech costs levied against publishers and advertisers. Estimates of these fees range anywhere from 15% to 51% of revenue lost by publishers and of non-media expenses paid by advertisers. Graeme Adams, head of media at BT Group, took part in the investigation and branded the lost cash “a big hole in the value chain.”

These unattributable “taxes” are slow leaks in the plumbing of our ecosystem. They expose both the opaqueness inherent in the marketplace and the lack of trust in advertising technology third-parties. Certainly, we all agree there needs to be a greater level of transparency and accountability throughout what has now become the world’s largest advertising segment. And studies such as these are necessary to facilitate adoption of broadly applied standards and practices. However, painting all AdTech providers with the same negative broad brush runs the real risk of our “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”

ROI vs. ROWe

Clearly there are technology vendors out there whose contributions to the efficacy of your programmatic advertising investment or a publisher’s bottom line are rightly suspect. Indeed, there are companies whose primary goal is self-serving. While they may promise to do no harm, they often fall short of guaranteeing measurable results and fully transparent visibility into their operations.

Their compensation is not directly tied to your ability to generate incremental income. Their tools are available for you to activate without the guarantee of a return on your investment. On the other hand, there are a select group of AdTech software providers who receive compensation only when their solution delivers measurable incremental revenue and income. That’s the ultimate measure of accountability.

Vendor or partner

Therefore, working with the right AdTech third-parties can make the difference, not only on your ability to “make your numbers,” but actually become the deciding factor between the survival of your business or its demise. We would modestly suggest that one way to decide who your best options are is to understand the nuanced differences between a vendor and partner:

Vendor: A party in the supply chain that sells goods and services to companies or consumers.

      A vendor is a general term used to describe any seller of goods or services.

Partner: A person or organization you are closely aligned with in some way.

                To partner is to join with another organization in a shared activity.

In summary we recommend a very careful evaluation among the myriad of third-party solution providers. Seek partnerships based upon full transparency, a shared commitment to mutually beneficial results, incremental revenue and income contribution to your bottom-line, and a guaranteed return on your investment.

About the author

Bruce Brandfon is Chief Media Officer of Duration Media. Prior to that he was Executive Vice President of Webspectator . He was Vice President and Managing Director at Publicitas. Prior to joining Publicitas, Bruce was Vice President of Sales for the Philadelphia Media Network. He has also held leadership positions at Scientific American, Newsweek, and Time Inc. Brandfon is Director of the Board of Advisors at Planet Forward. And he’s an Adjunct Professor of Media Studies at Westchester Community College. He contributes frequently to industry publications.

Perspectives

How to survive in the consent economy

Our previous article outlining the birth of the consent economy warned that the initial waves of privacy regulation in the U.S. are growing stronger. The recent news that California voters passed Proposition 24 proves the point. It also elevates conversation around what the future may hold in terms of national regulation, especially given California’s large influence on the tech industry.

Proposition 24 is better known as the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) and builds upon the existing California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) passed in 2018. CCPA left room for interpretation, particularly around whether selling targeted ads qualified as selling California residents’ personal information. The CPRA goes one step further in expanding the rights of California’s citizens through new consent definitions among other things. 

While the CPRA won’t be enforceable until 2023, it could severely impact publisher revenue. The added uncertainty around any federal or additional state regulations coming out prior to the deadline makes immediate action a smart choice. If stricter federal regulation rolls out, it will be important to have set the groundwork that will give yourself a head start.

Anticipating what’s to come 

The European privacy regulation landscape offers parallels, that can and should be drawn from, as we face a similar trajectory.

The existing CCPA borrows heavily from the “right to be forgotten” principle enshrined in the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). To make it easier for publishers to process first-party user data and to obtain consent in compliance with the rules laid down by GDPR, the IAB Europe created the Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF). 

As the shortcomings of TCF v 1.0 became apparent, TCF v 2.0 was introduced to clarify and strengthen the regulatory framework. This dialing up of control measures is exactly what we’re seeing play out in California with the passage of CPRA as an addendum to the CCPA.  

The CCPA limited “selling” data. However, the CPRA is closer in nature to the relationship between the GDPR and TCF by now including restrictions on sharing of personal information as well. Publishers will be required to allow citizens to opt-out and the CPRA. It requires that all third parties with whom a data owner may have sold or shared information be notified as well.   

This new regulation also establishes an enforcement arm. This would be the first agency dedicated to privacy rights enforcement in the U.S. The five-person board will appoint a Chief Privacy Auditor in a structure similar in nature to the GDPR’s European Data Protection Board. In this latest version, California will now have the authority to levy larger fines, which has already occurred with GDPR violations. 

The lessons learned from GDPR and CCPA can help anticipate the future. There’s no doubt that publishers are entering challenging territory with these regulatory demands and the concerns around ad blocking further compounding the path to protecting and growing revenue. Publishers should only be fearful if they are unprepared in their strategy for how to monetize both a consented and non-consented user.

Revenue diversification in the consent economy

The time is now to challenge old belief systems. With the passage and evolution of new regulations, one must begin taking the first steps in the inevitable long-term journey towards revenue diversification. The reality of garnering 100% consent has shown itself to be elusive, if not impossible. In European markets, depending on the country, we have seen anywhere from 50-80% consent adoption. With outcomes like this, having a proper plan in place will enable you to monetize both consented and non-consented traffic, starting with how your ad server is configured and building the initial infrastructure.

When a user provides consent, most of your current monetization partners and policies will be fine and won’t require additional changes. When user consent isn’t provided, a shift in tactics is required. You’ll need to work with partners that will still have the ability to serve ads when user consent is not present. And keep in mind that you should always beware any provider who requires access to your user data to do this. In these situations, contextual targeting and semantic targeting can serve as effective and compliant alternatives.

Even when ad supported situations are off the table, other options exist. A subscription-based limited- or ad free experience, as we’ve seen publishers like Business Insider and The New York Times create, offers additional revenue streams while still staying true to the essence of your brand. 

Another option is to consider ecommerce as it aligns with your brand and brand experience. Publishers like BuzzFeed, Hearst, and Meredith have taken this route through online stores, licensing agreements, and product development. These additional revenue streams increase the long-term value of your audience while still providing value. 

Welcome to the new frontier

This new frontier can be intimidating. However, publishers who successfully diversify revenue streams will be positioned best for long-term sustainability. With the user now occupying a seat at the table, the consent economy can also be seen as an opportunity for publishers. 

Respecting the wishes of the user always pays in garnering trust and attention. This balance between respecting data privacy and delivering on expectations for personalized interactions, not only protects existing revenue, but could also lead to revenue growth through new audiences. Taking the first step now sets you on the path to positioning yourself well for survival in this new consent economy. 

Innovation | Perspectives

Streamlined streaming: How to improve newsroom efficiency

With a rapidly evolving digital media landscape, it’s not surprising that media companies — newsrooms in particular — have faced new challenges and new pressures. A significant decline in traditional broadcast and appointment-style viewership has coincided with an explosion in increasingly accessible digital and on-demand streaming. Technology has already radically altered many of the fundamental realities around content creation and consumption that newsrooms were built on.

Media professionals recognize the need to evolve to keep pace with these changes. But connecting with and retaining content consumers who now have a virtually unlimited range of options available to them is easier said than done. More importantly, finding efficient and cost-effective ways to produce, distribute, and monetize content can seem like a formidable hurdle. But it is possible, especially with new tools and platforms emerging that are designed to enable newsrooms and other traditional content creators to make the process better fit the realities of today.

Be an educated adopter

Every platform makes big claims. All promise new efficiencies. Educate yourself and understand how to examine those claims with a critical eye. Make sure whatever path you choose, your digital content solution can efficiently develop content and create and deliver high quality viewing experiences in a way that is impactful, profitable, and sustainable. The right solution should answer important questions for you, including how to balance live and pre-recorded content, how to access and insert ads, and how to do all that in a streamlined and efficient manner.

Utilize automation

For organizations where a large majority of on-demand content originates from their live programming or other sources of traditional linear content, taking full advantage of digital streaming requires some level of automated prowess. The goal is to minimize the number of toolsets needed to be deployed throughout the process of generating digital streaming content.

Automation and “hands-free” production can yield new efficiencies, saving time and money on tools, resources, and manpower at a time when media companies are often dealing with tight margins and are already making tough ROI calculations. In that context, the ability to effectively automate the process of generating more digital content is enormously valuable. Automated tools and solutions make it possible to accelerate the digital production and distribution of your content without interrupting what you are already doing.

Lighten the workload

For media companies, creating content is just the first step. It is critically important to find ways to streamline the workflow required to efficiently edit, develop and distribute volumes of new content to digital audiences. Fortunately, new suites of tools are becoming available that can make that digital/online transition possible.

Keeping fresh content in front of viewers is difficult. Instead of relying on tools that require manual curation of playlists – and thus a person on staff dedicated to the role – consider a tool with capabilities to populate playlists automatically. This frees up staff to focus on the actual process of creating the content, rather than managing it. And the best tools on the market today also can lighten the load in other ways, from auto-clipping a newscast to the seamless transition between live and breaking news to prerecorded video.

Prioritize simplicity

At a time when some newsrooms have had to entirely reorganize to accommodate much more extensive digital production and distribution needs, simplicity is an appealing prospect. Which is why it makes sense to invest in tools meant to automate the ingestion of incoming content. Whether it’s aggregating content from multiple newsrooms or introducing content from other sources, bringing designated content from a range of different sources into the digital content ecosystem of target audiences is a way to lessen the load on your team and your resources, while still delivering compelling content.

Another important feature for streamlined simplicity is handling all of the technical heavy-lifting server-side, which makes it possible to have a simplified workflow and create a unified viewing experience across all digital platforms.

Embrace efficiency

As newsrooms evaluate and leverage tools and technology designed specifically to help them take that all-important step to expand the distribution of streaming monetizable content, it’s important to understand how efficiency translates into revenue. Monetization opportunities are all about scale. More content yields more viewers, which subsequently creates numerous opportunities for monetization. In other words, efficiency isn’t just helpful, it’s a prerequisite for sustainable profitability.

To take the next step forward, newsrooms will need to embrace tools and systems that allow them to quickly, efficiently and automatically update digital content. This includes graphic elements, closed captioning, and added metadata.

Engage viewers

Recognize the importance of the viewer experience. Manage your content with tools designed to connect content with viewers and help them understand critical context about what they are watching. Creating a better viewing experience also means letting consumers know when something is breaking news, and then returning them back to what they were originally tuned in to watch. It’s the feel of live content with dynamic elements that elevate the standard static viewing model into something more engaging.

Viewer expectations are skyrocketing. And media companies are wrestling with complex (and often costly) changes they feel like they need to make to meet those expectations. But charting a path forward in our new environment might be easier than many suspect. Streamlined content creation tools can not only make the digital transition successful for newsrooms and their operational needs; they can enhance the online viewing experience and boost bottom lines in the process.

About the author

David Hemingway is the Sr. Product Manager, New Ventures at Bitcentral, one of the video industry’s most trusted and innovative software providers.

Advertising | Innovation

Rethinking ad production for connected TV

Connected TV presents some inherent trade-offs, like more limited targeting capabilities as well as a complex and heterogeneous array of devices. And, of course, there’s the viewing environment. In part one of this op ed, we tackled the dizzying array of CTV platforms, the multitude of capabilities that can drive impact, and performance. Even for planners, developers, and designers who have been building advertising for desktop and mobile video for a decade or more, CTV presents a new host of questions and challenges. 

But it is worth stepping up to the challenge. CTV is increasingly where audiences are spending their time. It is important to note that, while CTV offers the same potential for rich interactivity that a computer or mobile device does, it’s still on a television, and consumers are used to approaching TV in a more “lean-back” way. 

Advertising on CTV truly embodies the adage that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Advertisers, publishers, and technology companies are all interdependent. And, in order for any of us to succeed in it, the whole industry has to understand how to approach the medium. 

Rethinking strategy from the ground up

Structure

Building for connected TV means, in many cases, starting completely from scratch — including with your technical team. The complex, multi-device CTV landscape means that you’re often building for platforms with a range of capacities and technical limitations. That is unless you’ve chosen to restrict a campaign by platform, which might be your best route if your goals are innovation rather than scale. 

How audiences react to CTV ads is in many ways still evolving. That means that it’s important to set up an experimentation feedback loop where you can rapidly develop, test and flight new experiences and capabilities. Then you need to graduate only those experiments that were successful into scaled, cross-platform formats. It’s important to engage your advertiser clients to participate in this process. You must partner with them in supporting these innovative advertising projects and being upfront about the fact that you’re working in a relatively unproven medium — but one that has massive potential. 

Your learnings from these technical investments can form the basis of an ongoing strategy that enables you to drive rich advertising experiences in a scalable way across platforms as different as a Roku box to LG TVs to the Sony PS4. 

Targeting

As Part 1 of this series explained, many CTV platforms do not support cookies at all. On CTV in general, targeting is very different from what digital advertisers are used to. Many CTV campaigns aren’t targeted at all beyond the network or show that they run against. 

Consider incorporating self-identified targeting by using an interactive card to try and qualify the viewer for its requirements. This card might ask the viewer if they have pets, for example. If they said yes, a campaign targeted to pet owners would run. Otherwise, the experience would revert to an untargeted fallback campaign. 

This experience is open and transparent, as there is a direct link between a targeted campaign and the collection of the information enabling the targeting to be fulfilled. (You can also offer the viewer the choice to opt out of any question, leading them to said fallback campaign.) 

Engagement

How do you get a viewer to follow through on a call to action in a CTV ad? To be blunt, neither the living room setting nor the device / app environment lends itself well to clicking through to a landing page. These are usually not possible due to reasons noted above, like the lack of a web browser, as well as the fact that viewers tend to be in a more lean-back state. As a result, most branded experiences on CTV leave a lot of campaign performance on the table by being passive and failing to pull the audience in. 

We had a bit of an unfair advantage at true[X], given that all our ads already require a deliberate opt-in — not just on CTV. So, we only put ads in front of viewers who have actively chosen to see them. We’d be thrilled if more companies adopted this, to be honest. Opt-in advertising puts those viewers into a state where they will be more actively processing and reacting to an advertiser’s message, and as it turns out, this is perfect for addressing connected TV’s “lean-back” problem. 

There’s also one well-known alleged drawback to viewer engagement on CTV (and non-connected TV, for that matter) that you can turn it into a major opportunity. Over 90% of consumers have their mobile devices in-hand while they watch TV. Rather than get discouraged by the implication that it means they’ll never pay attention to ads, consider incorporating mobile phones into the CTV ad experience. 

You can implement QR codes that enable a click through onto the viewer’s mobile device, where it then becomes much easier to drive lower-funnel goals such as consideration and purchase. And you can go a step further and create a two-screen real time session. As a test, we built an interactive pizza builder where the viewer could assemble a custom pizza by swiping ingredients up from her mobile device to the CTV screen. Pepperoni, mushrooms, or anchovies would seamlessly animate up from the mobile screen and onto the pizza on the large screen — presumably, that very pizza could be ordered right at the end of the experience. 

Future ready

But will viewers actually engage? Will the ads work? That’s where we go back to the question of structure and workflow. Restructuring teams to address an emerging medium meant that we could adequately test experimental features and proceed with the prototypes that “stuck.” 

Just because a new technology is widely available doesn’t mean consumers are actually using it, after all. Figuring out what sticks is paramount to CTV success. And if something doesn’t stick? Don’t force it.

The transition to connected TV advertising requires the whole industry to take what we know from both linear and digital platforms, keep what works, and adapt it for this totally new environment. The unique capabilities of the medium, and diverse array of device architectures rule out simply replicating solutions that worked before. It requires a new, innovative approach. But remember that it’s one we all need to work on to create, because the connected living room is where consumers are now. 

Advertising | Perspectives | Revenue

Do publishers stand a chance against the digital duopoly?

The word publisher can conjure up many different things to different people. Some old-schoolers picture The New York Times or Condé Nast, while younger generations may think of digital-first publishers like Refinery29 or consumer-generated outlets like Reddit. However, anyone working in media and advertising knows that two largest “publishers” need to be taken into account. Together Google and Facebook dominate the lion’s share of viewers and readership, and, of course, the revenue from advertisers chasing those people.

The duopoly, as they are known among buyers and sellers of media, have seen their numbers swell over the course of the still-ongoing pandemic. According to an Aug. 18 New York Times article:

“The traffic on these sites was immense before the pandemic, but daily visits increased sharply in March, when stay-at-home orders began, with Facebook up 15 percent and YouTube 10 percent, according to SimilarWeb, an online data provider. Facebook reported that the number of daily users of its services globally in June was 12 percent higher than a year earlier.”

How can any other publisher begin to compete with such dominance? In short, the answer is: don’t. At least you shouldn’t try to compete with them at their game. Instead, create your own value in ways they cannot.

Competition

Opportunity abounds for publishers that have a clear content mission and a strong ad offering. Given the steady rise in time spent on mobile devices across all age and income groups—and advertisers’ need to be where their potential customers are—the smart publisher can offer a few things the giants cannot. These include quality curated content, a less-cluttered ad environment, and a greater degree of brand safety.

The two massive walled gardens suffer from their own size, in that the millions of advertisers on those platforms don’t stand out in any way. Facebook alone is estimated to have something approaching 9 million advertisers alone. That’s a staggering number relative to any other media company or platform. How can any advertiser stand out in such a crowd?

That’s why I argue that other publishers, from digitally native Vox Media to traditional Hearst should take heart, knowing their smaller audiences generate something those giants can’t. One particularly successful area of digital publishing, gaming, also plays by its own rules—but more on that later.

Quality matters

First off, publishers outside of Google and Facebook spend millions of dollars to generate high quality, curated original content. That differs enormously from the user-generated content found on duopoly platforms, which is completely unpredictable. Your quality content sets you apart, and attracts engaged, relevant users, which is the starting point for monetization.

Secondly, advertisers at independent publishers appear in more brand-safe environments. Concern over brand safety online originated with advertisers appearing adjacent to violent content. Likewise, the biggest social platform is encountering resistance from some parts to its in-stream video, which aims to compete with YouTube. Brand safety is particularly important for advertisers in our current viral-moment society, where slips can lead to severe reputational damage.

Standout opportunities

Finally, and most importantly, advertisers have a chance to be more memorable when working with media companies rather than platforms. Customization opportunities are a big part of that, as publishers can design proprietary ad experiences and opportunities.

Think interactive, choice-driven ads like Ogury’s Video Chooser, which allows the user to select the brand ad they want to see, which drives a 300% uplift in memorability. Publishers may offer splashy takeovers, custom formats,  and otherly highly viewable offerings. The brand benefits from facing less competitor clutter, and ads stand out. Users don’t just see them. They notice them.

One area of mobile publishing that is seemingly impervious to the heft of the digital duopoly—and plays completely by its own rules—is gaming. Why is that? For one, it amasses gigantic and demographically diverse audiences, while time spent in-game keeps growing year after year.

For another, the oddity of the mobile gaming world is its acceptance of corporate cannibalism. Most advertisers in gaming are other games, which try to eat away at each game’s audience. Gaming publishers offer advertisers something totally unique: full screen ad opportunities that are seamlessly embedded into games at logical moments in the experiences, like between levels. These ads have 100% share of voice and unmatched viewability, proving that small publishers can offer something the big guys can’t, by playing up their niche.

My ultimate message to publishers is: don’t give up. Stick to what you do best. You can succeed in your niche, even while the walled gardens try to rake in the rest. One day you may even eat into their share.

Revenue

8 ways media companies can diversify revenue

Traditionally, many media companies earned the bulk of their revenue from display advertising. But as the pandemic continues, media companies face an increased need to explore more innovative models of monetizing their content. Here are several ways media businesses can generate new revenue streams:

1. Data

Data is the future of driving revenue. Consider what Conde Nast is doing with first-party data, with its Now|New|Next Segments. These explore what consumers are buying now, how the behaviors might change, and who will spend next. Increased audience engagement is driving the ability to discover new customer segments, opening the door for advertisers whose doors are closed during the pandemic.

Advertising spend decreased during the early months of Covid-19, but now media companies are starting to look at data offerings to entice advertisers. GDPR and additional privacy laws have dictate that this monetization strategy must emphasize a cookie-less future.

2. Monetizing Talent

Reputation and brand are important in the media industry. Quality journalism keeps people coming back — and talent is a big part of that. Media has begun to recognize the value of monetizing the individual. For example, Spotify gained exclusive rights to Joe Rogan and Michelle Obama podcasts, and The Athletic gathered a cult of the best sportswriters. Quake, a subscription-based podcast founded by media veterans, just launched in October 2020 with $2.5M in seed money. Its exclusive shows are headed by top talent in politics and media, like Laura Ingraham, Soledad O’Brien, Mike Huckabee, Andrew Gillum, Marc Lamont Hill, and Buck Sexton.

If media companies don’t start monetizing talent, the best journalists will begin creating their own micro-brands instead. This will further crowd the competitive space and the talent is likely to take their dedicated followers with them.

3. Ecommerce/Affiliate Marketing

Ecommerce in news media is poised for explosive growth. According to Digiday, 85% of CPG marketers are planning to buy more ads from retail media networks. Many media companies are forming partnerships with retail brands, as retailers are piggybacking on the reputation of established media brands, and vice versa. This could be especially lucrative during the holiday season. 

Some ways to explore the Ecommerce opportunity include:

  • Creating newsletters with embedded content to promote either brand advertising or direct-response advertising.
  • Allowing partners to pay for news real estate by writing their own opinion pieces.
  • Opening an online shop, like BuzzFeed.
  • Offering affiliate links for products mentioned.
  • Opening a pop-up boutique and e-commerce shop for the holidays.
  • Promoting events with merchandise (for its livestream with Billie Eilish, Spotify is promoting with an exclusive t-shirt).

4. Paywalls

More media companies are putting digital subscription strategies ahead of other initiatives, and the numbers show that’s paying off. The New York Times has reported an increase in subscribers of 2 million year over year, and their digital subscription model is now finally more profitable than their print model.

And the latest report from the Digital Publishers Revenue Index, shows an overall increase in revenue from subscriptions over the past decade. 10 years ago, subscriptions made up only 7% of digital revenue, and now the data show that has increased to 22% of total revenue. Many publishers have begun to explore paywalls — from soft, hard, metered, and dynamic models. If you’ve not yet done so, now’s the time. 

5. Communities and Membership Models

With the cancellation of in-person events and social gatherings, there has been a huge decrease in networking opportunities. Companies like Fortune are successfully solving two problems with one (big) concept. Problem 1: What’s a way to monetize virtual events to decrease revenue loss? Problem 2: What is a new way to bring in revenue and create a loyal customer base?

Traditionally, Fortune’s live events were designed for a finite number of people; there could only be 50 people at the Top 50 CEO’s retreat, for example. But Fortune realized an opportunity to grow its community to include previously untapped leaders and create a broader community by launching Fortune Connect in the fall of 2020. This online learning platform and community provides ongoing networking events and educational content to aspirational mid-tier leaders. Fortune is using a membership model to build, and grow, a sticky community.

6. Over The Top (OTT)

A growing list of brands are expanding into broadcast and streaming TV to grow their brand, engage their audience where they go, and bring in a new revenue stream. TIME & Univision won an Emmy. Vox has a top-ranked Netflix show. Axios is on HBO. Vice, New York Times and BuzzFeed have turned to streaming content. Beyond their well-known “Explained,” Vox has branched out further into unbranded production shows.

OTT is no longer an opportunity limited to legacy video or television brands. Media companies of all sorts are finding creative ways to monetize their video investments because it engages a new audience and establishes a new habit for the consumer to connect to the brand. 

7. Education

Media companies are providing a growing number of learning/education courses for readers. For example, TIME has expanded its iconic TIME100 people with TIME Talks. The Wall Street Journal launched a mobile app to help provide resources on managing finances during the pandemic. Morning Brew has been putting together 101 courses on topics like Marketing, Finance, and Branding. And Axios is starting 101 video courses on topics like 5G, which are sponsored by companies related to the topic. 

Publishers are seeing an opportunity to develop deep subject matter expertise and be the go-to source on certain topics in addition to news stories. It improves the value they can provide to subscribers and pulls in more targeted advertisers since they can reach a highly engaged niche audience on long-shelf life content that can continuously draw an audience.

8. Evergreen

Most hard-news outlets saw a drastic hit to their advertising revenue this year. Even an increase in subscription revenue failed to offset the advertising losses. But evergreen sites like Dotdash — which owns sites like SimplyRecipes and TreeHugger — have seen an 18% increase in revenue. While Dotdash does rely on an ad revenue model, they use ads about ⅔ less than a traditional news outlet and bet on fast page load and better UX for their growth. 

What makes it particularly effective is their diversification of brands and content. Their travel brand ads, for example, have decreased while their health verticals have exploded. Having evergreen content allows them more flexibility in what content to create and how valuable each piece is to them since it doesn’t have a shelf life. 

As news media becomes increasingly competitive, companies must find innovative new methods of generating revenue that also help attract and retain new customers. By exploring a wide range of approaches, with a focus on your core competencies and customer needs, news publishers are able to stay competitive and build healthier diversification of revenue sources.

Perspectives

The next step in engaging audiences: personalized news content delivery

Legacy news outlets have traditionally tried to be all things to all people. They’ve broadly served up content in a shotgun approach that has them competing in increasingly crowded spaces. Unfortunately, this had led to increasingly diminishing returns.

Especially considering the consolidation of ownership of newspaper chains and TV networks, many media websites serve the same stories. With little differentiation, there’s little incentive for audiences to choose one over the other.

The lesson that media outlets could learn from the marketing world is to offer greater personalization of experiences in serving up content. Personalization, backed by quality customer data, isn’t the future. It’s the now in a rapidly accelerating digital world.

Opportunities since Covid

Research has shown that online audiences have been voracious for content since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. News publishers have not only seen a rise in online audiences, but a rise in subscriptions – and less churn.

That doesn’t necessarily equate to increased revenue, though. Newspapers and magazines are still hemorrhaging dollars. However, an investment in transformative digital experiences could be the key to drive growth.

According to McKinsey, the digital transformation has only accelerated since the start of the pandemic. And it’s the companies ready for big strategic change that have the best chance at thriving.

What personalization could look like

Marketers use data and analytics to understand their buyers and buyer journeys and to personalize digital experiences to inspire brand loyalty. News media websites could be doing the same thing.

Many media websites are already asking users to create accounts to read stories, whether or not they’re behind paywalls. These sites ask users to subscribe to email newsletters about a wide range of topics like cooking, politics, sports, or news of the day. And along the way, they collect information about these users and their interests.

However, instead of asking users to sign up for a newsletter, media companies could use marketing tools and technology like intent data. This would provide them with information about a visitor. Then, with the right platform, it would allow AI-driven personalization using a content hub.

Users could see personalized homepages with content tailored to their interests. These would feature key spaces reserved for breaking and important news that would always be included.

Five tips for driving engagement

Some tips for putting a personalization strategy in place include:

  • Know your audience: This is where quality data is critical. You have to thoroughly understand who you’re targeting and what they care about for personalization to be effective.
  • Define clear objectives: Understand what you really want from personalization. Do you want to drive engagement with your content? Sell more ads? Make sure your goals are clear and measurable.
  • Have a data and privacy strategy: Know what kind of data you’ll be collecting, where you’ll be collecting it from, and how you’ll be using it about your visitors. Set rules about data use and privacy and communicate clear expectations to your visitors.
  • Don’t be overly creepy: There can be a temptation to over-personalize, but that can make your audience feel “watched” and drive them away. A good tactic can be to use their preferences to populate a content block with stories labeled something like “Other readers enjoy.” That gives them the targeted content they want to see without rotating to over-personalization.
  • Start small, see what works, scale fast: Know what metrics you’ll track so that you can quickly pivot.

Some tools for success

Personalization will be successful when based upon a thorough, data-driven understanding of the target audience. Again, media outlets can learn from techniques used by marketing and customer experience leaders to gain a deep understanding of how to engage with audiences.

  • Research-based journey maps can illuminate the touchpoints your audience has with your digital channels and how you can meet their needs at each stage of their journey.
  • High-quality data paired with a customer data platform can give you a 360-degree view of your customer, their behaviors, and their intent.
  • You can segment your audience, and track and measure their site visits, which will help define the success of personalization strategy.

However, most important to the success of a personalization strategy will be depth and breadth of content that is relevant to your audience’s needs and journey.

Stay on mission

News websites can adopt marketing techniques and methodologies for delivering and personalizing content. At the same time, they can remain true to their core mission of reporting and delivering the facts without bias.

Analytics can drive personalization of how stories might appear in something like a “suggested stories” widget. That said, they shouldn’t necessarily drive decisions about what stories get covered. The important news of the day remains the important news of the day. City council meetings still need to be covered. As the Washington Post eloquently describes on its masthead: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

However, by better engaging audiences through personalization, media outlets may find an opportunity to capitalize on ongoing digital transformation and appetite for content that has accelerated during the pandemic. Those willing to make the investment in personalization have an opportunity to grow and thrive.

The information provided in articles are suggestions only and based on best practices. Dun & Bradstreet is not liable for the outcome or results of specific programs or tactics. Please contact an attorney or tax professional if you are in need of legal or tax advice. 

Advertising | Perspectives

To understand where the cookie is headed, let’s look at its history

Note: This is the first article in a two-part series.

Almost a year ago, Google announced that Chrome would sunset support for third-party cookies by the end of 2021. These days, the discussion of the replacement technologies for “life after cookies” dominates the digital media industry press. The IAB’s Project Rearc, Google via its Privacy Sandbox, and multiple companies (including BritePool) have all developed or pledged to create technologies that will power advertising in the cookieless future.

To develop a perspective on third-party cookies and what should replace them, this is a deep dive into the cookie’s history.

Cookies came from a virtual shopping cart

The cookie was created in June 1994 by Lou Montulli. He was a programmer working at what would become Netscape Communications Corp., best known for its once-dominant web browser. Montulli was working on an e-commerce app for Netscape client MCI, which had effectively asked for a virtual shopping cart (a novel idea at the time).

Montulli and his team devised a way for the Netscape browser to place small files on a website visitors’ computer that tracked what each visitor did on that site. This allowed the telecom giant to avoid placing the data on its servers.

Grand ambitions with inherent problems

In a 2001 interview with The New York Times, Montulli said that he designed cookies to be a flexible tool, with the potential to be “a next-generation communications system.” He said, ”We wanted people to be able to use it for other uses” besides shopping carts. That included ”things we hadn’t thought about.”

In April 1995, a working group was established to propose a set of standards for cookie usage. David M. Kristol, a scientist at Bell Laboratories, led the group. But the longer the group collaborated, the greater its concerns about how cookies might invade consumer privacy.

Original restrictions to protect consumer privacy

According to the Times, the engineers developing cookies sought to avoid “a privacy nightmare” by deciding “not [to] identify web users by name” and rejecting “an idea for creating a single ID number that a person’s browser would use in all Web explorations.” Montulli said, “We didn’t want cookies to be used as a general tracking mechanism.” Instead, protocols required that sites assign a unique ID number to a visitor’s computer, one that could only be read by the issuing site or a sister web property.

At the time, the ability for companies to circumvent this restriction was foreseeable. A Dutch member of the 1995 working group, scientist Koen Holtman, warned that companies could, by agreement, place cookies across a network of related sites. Those cookies would be able to track user activities at multiple sites across the web.

Advertising co-opted the cookie

Holtman proved prescient as companies began working to do what he predicted. Soon DoubleClick, Engage, and others were serving banner ads across thousands of websites, using a shared cookie that allowed the issuing company to recognize a visitor wherever he or she went on the web. This innovation allowed these companies to control users’ ads as they moved from one site to another.

In 1996, to potentially provide privacy protection, Netscape and Microsoft both altered their browsers to distinguish “cookies coming directly from the site being viewed from third-party cookies.” This initiative proved meaningless, as consumer browsers automatically accepted third-party cookies by default.

In 1997, in a last-ditch effort to protect consumer privacy, Kristol’s working group tried to thwart the use of cookies for advertising tracking, recommending that browsers automatically block third-party cookies. This effort failed as Netscape and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer embraced these so-called third-party cookies despite Montulli’s protests.

Montulli described the advent and ascendance of third-party cookies, for advertising tracking, as a surprise. ”That’s the one ‘gotcha’ we had,” he told The New York Times.

Similarly, Lawrence Lessig, a Standard Law School professor and leading expert on the Internet and public policy, made this observation: “Before cookies, the web was essentially private. After cookies, the web becomes a space capable of extraordinary monitoring.”

Lessons for today

This brief history suggests two takeaways for managing the next quarter-century of web advertising:

First, while most of the critical technologies for web operations reflect several generations of development, the cookie, a 1990’s technology, has remained the fulcrum for Web advertising delivery. In essence, outdated technology is now central to managing over $300 billion in global annual spending on digital advertising.

Second, the initial development of cookies raised privacy concerns, which led developers to deploy safeguards. Subsequently, ad management firms circumvented these restrictions. Hence, it was inevitable that the unchecked and unregulated expansion of web advertising would invade consumer privacy.

Next (Part II): Privacy Ascendant and Life After Cookies
About the author

Bruce Judson is Vice President of Communications at BritePool. His 1996 book, NetMarketing (Random House/Wolff), was a sleeper bestseller which accurately anticipated the rise of the web as a powerful vehicle for the direct sale and marketing of products and services.

Perspectives

OTT subscriber acquisition strategies for a new reality

Amidst the gloom of a global pandemic, the rapid growth of OTT subscriptions has sounded a rare positive note: it is estimated that global revenues for the sector will grow by an unprecedented 55% in 2020, according to Videomind.

Traditional pay-TV and broadcast subscriptions are falling away, particularly in the U.S. Therefore, it would be easy to reach the conclusion that Covid-19 stay-at-home orders have accelerated our arrival at the tipping point where on demand and OTT become the dominant models for video entertainment consumption.

The truth, however, is that the road ahead for OTT brands in an increasingly crowded and competitive market remains uncertain and fraught with challenges. Some of which come in the form of:

  • Unknown post-lockdown churn with continual changing global circumstances
  • Potential slowing of subscriber growth as the world returns to a sense of normal
  • Raised expectations in line with what customers have grown accustomed
  • Change as the only constant, with the ability to adapt quickly to meet continuously shifting needs

Opportunity from uncertainty

The net result is that subscriber acquisition is likely to be more important than ever in 2021. And the fact is that subscribers themselves will represent a more demanding, constantly moving target.

Our recent OTT playbook explores the opportunities for OTT brands to experiment and innovate at every stage of the subscriber acquisition journey. To succeed, brands need the ability to innovate, experiment and adapt quickly. This capacity has long been held back by everything from a lack of customer insight and inflexible business models to monolithic technology platforms that set limits on the pace of innovation.

However, that is starting to change.

Broad customer insight

No-one yet knows whether the pandemic-era spike in new subscribers will be temporary or convert into long term loyal customers. Subscriber growth– be it short or long term – offers clear financial benefits. However, it also offers something potentially more valuable and enduring: insight. 

It seems that recent subscribers were drawn from every section of society, not just the traditional heartland of the 18-35s. In fact, some of the most significant growth was among older age groups, with around a third (32%) of 55-64-year olds and 15% of over-65s using subscription streaming services, according to Ofcom.

What’s more, it would be a mistake to assume those demographic changes are entirely transient. Research from EY found that 19% of households agreeing that the pandemic has irrevocably changed their viewing habits.

As a result, OTT brands could attract and engage a much broader cross section of society, accompanied by diverse needs and behaviors. So, success will depend on understanding and adapting to a broader set of demands.

The good news, for those brands able to convert data into action, is that subscriber growth during 2020 has provided the basis for hugely valuable customer data. Interrogating that data, to understand customer needs and behaviors can be the basis for multi-faceted, adaptable and, above all, effective subscriber acquisition strategies.

Agile, flexible subscriber management

The brands best poised to act on that insight, and the ability to keep pace with a constantly moving subscriber sweet spot, will have a significant advantage. The scale of that advantage will depend how far along the digital transformation journey they have traveled.

Those still wrestling with monolithic legacy systems will struggle to keep pace with change. Siloed data will hamper customer insight. And complex systems requiring technical resource will limit the ability to innovate, adapt and experiment in response to change.

On the other hand, a new breed of fully integrated cloud subscriber management platforms will provide forward thinking brands with all the flexibility and agility they need – and at lower cost. These will allow OTT brands to innovate and experiment in every aspect of the subscriber acquisition journey. This will take hours rather than months, without the need for technical skills. These factors offer a critical competitive advantage in the months and years to come, as we all adapt to a new reality.

Experiment and innovate

In the post-pandemic world, there can be no standing still. OTT brands will need to constantly experiment and innovate in every element of the subscriber acquisition journey in response to diverse customer needs and rapidly changing behaviors, coupled with a demand for greater flexibility and choice.

Revenue

How Crain Communications uses pricing research to grow revenue

Veebha Mehta is the CMO at Crain Communications, a diverse business publisher with titles spanning the advertising, healthcare, investment, automotive, and plastics industries. When she assumed this role, she quickly landed on three crucial questions to answer in order to grow the business. However, she certainly couldn’t have anticipated the global pandemic that descended just a few weeks into her tenure. 

As it turned out, these unexpected events only sharpened her focus on the hunt for these answers. Mehta recently shared those revelations with Piano, illustrating the process she went through around research, testing and data.

The full discussion between Veebha and Piano’s SVP of Strategy, Michael Silberman is available as part of our Piano Academy webinar series, Maximizing Acquisition: Perfecting Pricing and Promotions. We’ve distilled the highlights here. 

1. How to effectively leverage a discount program?

An early observation Mehta made upon joining Crain was how extensively the publisher used heavy discounts to build subscription velocity. It’s common for publishers to offer low introductory rates or even free trials to bring in new users. However, without the right pricing strategy, customer churn and conversion can become detrimental. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, publishers reported a resilience in subscriptions as more people turned to digital outlets for news coverage. This presented a surfeit of new users up for grabs and discounts are an effective way to bring these potential new readers into the fold. Using a combination of price research and live price testing, Crain ran a promotional program to drive up their subscriptions. 

Significantly, they discovered that many of their trusted products were priced far below what consumers were willing to pay. This data empowered Crain to adjust prices in order to meet revenue targets, as well as experiment with trial offers to attract and retain new subscribers.

2. How to balance revenue and circulation?

Pricing doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Changes to pricing and promotions naturally impact  readership. Tactics such as gating certain content behind a paywall, raising or changing pricing structures, or even shortening trial periods can positively impact revenue. However, they can also reduce a publication’s reach. 

During radical changes like the Covid-19 pandemic, longtime readers’ priorities and price sensitivity may shift. Publishers must account for that and be willing to adapt their strategies.

Crain Communications is developing a more sophisticated understanding of what people are willing to pay for each of its products. This would lead to creating a distinct pricing and offer strategy for each brand. 

In particular Mehta says Crain found that it was valuable to decouple its print and digital pricing. Price testing for Crain’s Chicago Business — a weekly business outlet with both a print and digital edition — showed that while both the print and digital editions were highly trusted within the market, demand for digital was higher than for print.

Prior to this analysis, the pricing was similar for both outlets. These crucial data points helped Crain adjust pricing for its digital edition in order to fully monetize that untapped demand. It also allowed them to prioritize further demand for digital subscriptions. This resulted in more digital revenue share, and a 39% overall conversion rate on subscription offerings.

3. Driving conversions through content and pricing

Finally, Mehta wanted all of Crain’s publications to focus on driving new subscriber conversions through a combination of innovative content strategy and smart pricing rather than relying on deep discounts. Using pricing research and testing, Crain was able to more clearly understand the pricing psychology of their core consumers. They also discovered the content that they most valued and use those insights to develop a conversion focused content strategy. 

Price research on some of Crain’s flagship business products showed a delta between what the publisher was charging and what its customers were willing to pay. It also revealed a need for specific content. This insight allowed Crain to optimize its promotional efforts toward the content that readers valued most. By locking specific articles and creating premium verticals, Crain was able to communicate that value of specific content and drive higher rates of conversion on its most valued content. 

Intimate knowledge of a specific audience is at the heart of publisher’s offerings. But without a complete view of an audience’s pricing psychology, as well as their willingness to pay for information, the data is simply incomplete. Harnessing the power of price testing and research can help even the most sophisticated publishers better understand their audience and serve them the content that will drive them to convert at a higher price point. 

Advertising | Revenue

By prioritizing context and understanding over “attention,” Vox Media is poised for growth

Dave Constantino, Senior Director, Client Development of Oracle Data Cloud talks to Edwin Wong, SVP of Insights & Innovation at Vox Media about how strategy and tech power advertiser flexibility, immersive content, and emerging formats.

DC: Vox Media is seen as a trusted resource for its clients, from being a strategic partner to a thought leader. What are the short and long-term opportunities that you see for the advertising industry to transform and connect brands and publishers more closely to consumers? 

EW: As a modern media company, we help brands reach audiences wherever they are – across nearly every platform including TV and streaming, podcasting and digital. In the short-term, we are focused on offering brands flexibility, which continues to be a major priority for every advertiser at this moment. Long-term, we are modernizing the ways brands can work with us on brand building across the modern platforms where audiences are.

In long-term planning, we are putting greater emphasis in areas with strong growth in consumer engagement and areas where we can broaden the opportunity for marketers to work with us. This can be seen across the growth of our podcast network and our investment in our ad marketplace.

We’re excited about the opportunity in podcasting. The medium represents a shift from quick feed-based media experiences. It gives listeners a chance to lean in, connect, and immerse themselves around a subject. In fact, we found that 74% of listeners believe podcasts provide content not available elsewhere.

Investment in local journalism also presents a significant opportunity for marketers looking to reach local audiences at a national scale. We found that 38% of local news site visitors do not visit any national news sites. This means a large audience is not being reached by brands who only advertise on national news properties.

The study also found that a localized version of an ad (i.e. creative that included the name of the city) in a locally relevant environment performs significantly better compared to a non-localized creative on a national news site. In fact, almost every brand metric we measured was significantly higher among those who viewed this localized experience compared to viewers of a national news site. There’s a real opportunity there for brands to reach audiences and support local media. 

DC: Brand safety has been top-of-mind for brands long before the woes of 2020; how do you see advertisers navigate this shift from brand safety to suitability?

EW: News around the pandemic, the much-needed rise of awareness around systemic racism and climate change have caused the definition for what is considered “brand safe” to evolve along with our current reality. Early on, brands cautiously steered clear from any association with news and stories around the pandemic. We also saw brand safety go past its intended solution when ads were blocked on the home pages of Vox, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal around coronavirus content.

We are also seeing a shift in advertisers reassessing how their actions and their marketing budgets reflect their values as a company. More than ever, employees and customers are holding companies accountable for following through on the values they are communicating to the world. Every company needs to take into account how they are allocating their resources, whether its advertising budgets or team resources. 

To reach a place where brands feel safer spending on the open web, part of the solution will be for publishers, like Vox Media, to build opportunities for advertisers to align themselves with quality, trusted content. Publishers should be focused on solutions where brands aren’t being forced to sacrifice quality or brand safety for scale.

Another part will be to help our partners understand how and when our audiences want to hear from brands. In fact, this year we learned 86% of our audience strongly believes that making great products is no longer enough. Brands also need to make society better.

I believe that, in the last decade, we celebrated the entertainment and engagement of the feed. The next will be more about the understanding, activation, and change from the stories we report and tell each other.

We must recalibrate what brand safety looks like in this new context.

DC: What do we need to get done in what’s left of 2020? And what do we prioritize in early 2021 to ensure that we are moving the industry forward?

EW: It’s time to redefine the concept of contextual targeting and how we use first party data. Vox Media has always believed that the context and engagement of content can be a strong signal when it comes to audience targeting. This is a key part of driving the industry forward. On the data and audience privacy side, 2021 will have wide implications of how we use data when engaging our consumers.   

When quality content is matched with people’s passions and interests, it creates a much richer picture of who the audience is, why they are there and what motivates them. When we do this right, we no longer base contextual targeting on just the individual, an individual action, or an individual piece of content, but on what our platforms deliver for the audience holistically. It changes the retroactive perspective of targeting and makes context targeting future-facing.

Compared to behavioral targeting, we also found contextual ads are also more inclusive. We recently worked with a client recently to reach Small Business owners across the U.S. We found that with personalized behavioral ad targeting, only 27% of the impressions reached women. But when we optimized with contextual targeting, 40% of the impressions reached women. What percentage of small business owners in the U.S. are women? 38%.

DC: Our industry values scale, clicks, views, but what about impact, connections, and loyalty? Can you talk to the sweet spot of setting a strategy that enables you to find audiences and earn their attention?

EW: We prioritize perspective, context, and understanding over “attention.”

Our networks have made strong impact, connections and built loyalty with audiences across a number of platforms, covering nearly every topic. We’ve put a focus on growing our consumer revenue lines of business, across subscriptions and commerce. And we’ve seen New York Magazine and The Strategist have record months this year and Vox launched a successful contributions program. These are all built on audience loyalty and trust.

Industry-Research | Revenue

How to combat ad fraud spikes during the holiday season

The holiday shopping season was once a time of packed stores and crowded gallerias. These days, people are much more likely to stay home and do their shopping from the comfort of their couches. In particular, IAS found that this year, nearly all holiday shopping will be online, specifically on ecommerce and retail sites. So, while audiences watch nostalgic holiday movies, they’ll also be on their phones researching gifts to purchase for their loved ones. 

Unfortunately, consumers aren’t the only ones online — fraudsters also have their sights set on holiday traffic. Invalid traffic (IVT), which includes malicious fraud as well as general non-human activity, has the potential to steal valuable impressions. Since it looks like Cyber Monday will become Cyber Season, publishers should optimize their inventory to both support marketers and thwart fraudsters. 

Unwrapping holiday ad fraud

Shopping online offers a convenience that brick and mortar stores lack: information. In their search for the perfect gift, IAS found that consumers turn to search engines, review sites, and online advertisements. Consumers look to advertisements for guidance, and are most interested in ads they see on well-known and respected sites. IAS research shows that retail sites are especially prone to fraud, witnessing spikes around popular shopping dates like Cyber Monday.

At the same time, holiday season campaigns tend to be short and sweet, only meant to appear in consumers’ feeds for a few months. Longer campaigns give advertisers more time to review and optimize campaign performance. However, during this time, advertisers rely on premium inventory to achieve the ambitious KPIs associated with holiday campaigns. This puts additional pressure on digital publishers to optimize their inventory to minimize risk and maximize performance.

Putting fraudsters on the naughty list

A recent survey of U.S. consumers found that 51% of respondents plan to start their holiday shopping earlier this year. To mitigate fraudulent activity, publishers should also prepare early by optimizing their inventory. Bots can be given instructions to visit premium sites, pick up desirable cookies, and then visit fraudulent sites to monetize. In order to protect the value of their inventory, here are some key reminders for publishers looking to prepare for the holiday season. 

Make a list and check it twice 

✓ Figure out where site traffic originates 

  • The first step in identifying fraud is recognizing where traffic originates. For example, traffic that is sourced from a supplier has a higher possibility of attracting fraudulent bot traffic. Suitable ad environments are powerful, and transparency helps to build a strong relationship between publisher and advertiser. 

✓ Confirm how visitors are attracted

  • If traffic is sourced, there is a higher possibility of fraudulent bot activity. If most traffic comes from data centers, rather than residential or corporate networks, publishers should confirm that there are no software tools being run in those data centers that hit their website. Running tools that drive traffic may result in invalid traffic per industry group standards.

✓ Not all invalid traffic is malicious

  • Some cybersecurity, testing, and analytics solutions employ methods that can trigger fraud detection models from ad verification vendors. For example, some bots are designed to crawl the internet and gather information or generate simulations. Publishers should work with their ad verification vendors to further analyze their inventory and consider adding known data center IPs to an exclusion list. 

Happy holidays

In order to protect the value of their inventory, the publisher needs to analyze traffic patterns and optimize their content appropriately. 

In conclusion, the web is rife with invalid traffic. Some traffic — consumers, crawlers, etc — is such a helpful gift to marketers that it should with a bow. However, there’s a great deal of malicious invalid traffic, the lumps of coal in the industry’s stockings. Such activity on publisher pages can threaten the trusted relationship you’ve built with your advertising partners and cost you real dollars. 

The holiday shopping season is right around the corner, and safe inventory is the best gift to give to your partners. If you’ve detected invalid traffic on your site, then it’s likely that your advertiser partners have too. No need to ring the alarm just yet though. Being proactive and well-informed can go a long way toward ensuring that you and your advertisers present a unified front against fraud.

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