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Advertising | Perspectives

To win in the digital ad game, focus on the end (user)

Lately, every week brings more news of sweeping changes from the media world’s tech titans to their platforms and ad policies. And none of them are more alarming than the end of the third-party cookie — if you believe the headlines.

However, this tectonic shift in how advertising operates on the open web today does not need to be a death knell for publishers and their ad supported revenue models. Publishers will win if their focus is on the end game: their users. Let’s start with a quick recap of the changes undertaken by the largest browsers and device owners.

The third-party cookie & data privacy

In January,Google declared the retirement of third-party cookies from Google Chrome by 2022. This gives the industry only two years to completely rework technology fundamental to the operation of the internet. 

Not long after, Apple announced enablement of its Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) by default on all browsers on iOS, not just Safari. 

Advertising creative & traffic changes

In May, Google rolled out a feature designed to block ads it deems use too much network or battery power (also known as “heavy ads”). 

In August, Apple announced the iOS 14 feature that automatically redirects from News+ publisher links to the Apple News app. 

How publishers can win

Let’s briefly level set the real-world context behind these Google and Apple updates. 

Forty percent of online US audiences currently access the internet through a third-party cookieless environment such as Safari or Firefox. What does this mean? It’s likely a significant portion of your traffic already has third-party cookies disabled.

Once Chrome joins the ranks of Safari and Firefox, another 45% of online US audiences will no longer be trackable with third-party cookies. That means 85% of US online audiences will be untrackable by third-party cookies by 2022. This could seem like the end for your ad supported revenue model. But is it really all gloom and doom?

Not even close. The elimination of third-party cookies is a good thing for publishers. That’s because your first-party data and onsite cookies just skyrocketed in value. 

Step 1: Prioritize data security to protect your users. And yourself.

If onsite users consume your content (or media), they value your property and their relationship with you. Don’t let precious user data leak from your site for targeting on other sites.

Rather than spending the next 12 months on the hunt for a perfect cookieless solution, lock down your data today. Update your security terms and conditions. Determine which of your technology partners enable secure and cookieless targeting and matching – or who they are considering for this solution. Why? You can then deliver unique and proprietary first-party data for onsite targeting – for a premium. Recognize the unique value that you deliver brand advertisers by coupling your media and data. With the right configuration of content, data and unique ad formats, publishers can decrease the number of ads onsite and still increase revenue and performance. 

Next let’s tackle the ad creative and traffic changes. Google and Apple aren’t blocking “heavy ads” and redirecting users to the News+ app simply for the sake of undermining publishers’ businesses or thwarting audience traffic to your site, though it may feel that way. Rather, long page load times and barriers of entry like paywalls are terrible for users. Apple and Google (and Facebook and Amazon) know their value is their user base. Publishers must prioritize the end user, too.

Step 2: Optimize the user experience. Optimize the revenue potential.

We live in a world of instant information and gratification. This point has been punctuated by the pandemic’s ongoing surge in digital content consumption. With each wasted second on page load or obstacle to information, publisher bounce rates increase exponentially.

Alternately, a decrease in latency inversely correlates to revenue, with RPMs increasing as high as 70%. To accommodate, the industry is witnessing monetization solutions shift server-side, like Prebid, or even closer to the CDN in some cases. Explore these options when investigating or assessing monetization partners. Moving server-side has added benefits for first-party cookie persistence that can also enable a higher premium for your first-party user data. 

It’s easier said than done, but this technology exists today. I’ve witnessed its results firsthand. To prepare for the death of third-party cookies, double down on your most valuable asset — your users — and bullishly safeguard their experience. The result? Happy and returning users, a future-proofed business model and positive impact to your bottom line. 

Advertising | Innovation | Perspectives | Revenue

How machine learning improves header bidding

If you have worked in the digital space in the past few years, you’ve likely encountered the term Machine Learning (ML) in some context. For those of us who aren’t tech experts, this buzzword may be a little daunting. However, these technologies are actually widely used across industries including digital advertising.

So, what exactly is Machine Learning? To explain that, let’s take a step back and talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI describes a computer program’s ability to conduct a task that would normally require human intelligence, such as drawing conclusions based on data or recognizing patterns in a dataset. Machine learning is a step above this. A subset of AI, ML is the ability of programs to “learn” and self-improve as they get more data. This allows them to make more accurate decisions and predictions over time. This greatly reduces the human input required in performing crucial tasks.

How is machine learning positively impacting header bidding

Many publishers across the world rely on header bidding as the most efficient way to boost programmatic revenue. However, the technique in itself has undergone significant advancements. Initially, the majority of publishers used client-side header bidding to maximize yield through multiple demand partners. But it had its own challenges such as latency. 

Then, server-side header bidding arrived. It helped publishers combat latency issues but had its own shortcomings. Publishers now use a combination of both, which is generally known as hybrid header bidding. 

Among all of these advancements, one thing has remained constant: the use of machine learning in improving header bidding for all publishers. Therefore, the future of header bidding relies on how well technology companies can incorporate ML into improving header bidding tech. This will ultimately yield a robust solution that does not require any workarounds for its peripheral issues. 

Impact of machine learning on header bidding dynamics

Automatic selection of demand partners

One of the key challenges that publishers dealt with before heading bidding was a lack of control over demand partners. That is key to optimizing revenue. Without knowledge of demand partners, the entire system would lack critical transparency. 

Through the use of ML in header bidding, publishers get access to multiple demand partners. In fact, the selection process ois automatic, while simultaneously providing maximum yield. This massively benefits publishers as it saves them time for other activities while ensuring a consistent increase in revenue.

Timeout management 

For every publisher, managing timeouts is a tricky process. Timeouts can often result in lost revenue and publishers need to spend some time troubleshooting. However, ML has completely altered the game. Publishers can now use managed heading bidding solutions that utilize machine learning to fine-tune timeout settings in a way that maximizes yield but reduces latency.

Server-side header bidding

Server-side header bidding was introduced to reduce the latency issues associated with client-side header bidding. Instead of a user’s browser, the auction takes place on a server. Many publishers have gravitated towards a combination of client-side header bidding and this to get the maximum out of their investment. 

The credit however, goes to ML for helping the ad tech industry in advancing this technology. Machine learning helps in tracking deal performances through automated systems. All this is done in real-time with multiple demand partners in place.

Price floor optimization

Another added advantage with using ML in header bidding is optimizations of price floors. As mentioned above, ML is what makes algorithms smart. With a consistent tracking of data, patterns, trends, demand partners, ad requests, and related factors, ML can help in automated price floor optimization. Over time, this can considerably improve header bidding performance. 

Why machine learning is here to stay and scale

ML capacity to learn and improve is uncapped. This means that with time, as the programs amass and go through more data, their predictions will only become sharper, quicker, and more accurate. While ML may not replace humans anytime soon, these tools can definitely help marketing teams free up time to focus on high-level strategy, instead of repetitive data analytics.

Advertisers across the world are already witnessing increasing returns on their ad spends, thanks to ML-based optimization of everything from creatives, targeting, and bid values. However, advertisers are not the only ones who stand to benefit from the adoption of ML tools. Publishers typically receive a percentage of the revenue (through CPM, CPC or other models) and more effective advertising campaigns mean a chunk of a larger pie for publishers. 

However, publishers can by no means afford to be merely passive bystanders in the ML revolution. Thanks to the data at their disposal, advertisers, today, have a clearer picture of how, where and when their ads work best. In contextual advertising, for instance, publishers need to continually create content. However, they must also evolve based on their audience’s changing consumption patterns. This requires knowing your target audience deeply, and often working with advertisers to create a synergistic experience for the audience. Publishers, too, can leverage ML solutions for layout optimization to create greater value for advertisers, and by extension for their own platforms.

Overall, AI and ML tools offer an opportunity for all parties involved in advertising technology. Early adopters of these solutions will likely see the best outcomes and returns, and given that these tools are based on the premise of self-improvement over time, it is likely that those who adopt a wait-and-watch approach will face an uphill task of catching up.

About the author

Ankit is the CEO and Co-Founder of AdPushup, a leading technology company which helps web publishers and e-commerce companies accelerate their revenue growth. At AdPushup, he has led the product development, market strategy, and business development efforts, which has allowed the company to scale to 4 billion+ monthly impressions for over 300 publishers worldwide.

Perspectives

Everyone’s talking about ID, but it’s consent that really matters

After years of intense adtech ecosystem development, we’re moving towards a more mature and controlled market, driven in part by rising concern around the use of personal data. From the privacy laws of Germany and France in the 1970s through to the IAB’s Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) and GDPR in the EU, the scope of these regulations has grown along with the increasing levels of concern. 

Europe has led the way in implementing privacy regulations in the past. However, citizens everywhere want greater transparency, choice, and control over how their data is used. The waves of privacy are now crashing upon all shores. None of us can continue to operate with our heads buried in the sand. In the US, the floodgates have opened with the implementation of CCPA in California and the upcoming vote to expand it. 

In a 2019 Pew Research Center study, 79% of U.S. adults expressed concern around how companies use the data collected about them. Given that 57% also reported following privacy news very closely, it’s safe to say it won’t be long before the other 49 states follow California’s lead. The key to adapting quickly to current and future regulations without negatively impacting revenue lies in setting a solid foundation based upon respectfully addressing citizen privacy demands.  

The birth of the consent economy

With the introduction of each new set of regulations, it’s clear that we’re shifting towards a new era of consent. As third-party cookies disappear, consent will be required to counterbalance the loss of user ID to continue to target effectively. While most of the industry conversation has been focused on ID alternatives, the real value lies in consent and the power that it carries.

Average publisher revenue is estimated to decline by 52% without access to third-party cookies and expenditures on data management solutions increased by 9.8% last year. However, advertising depends on the delicate balance between the interests of the publisher, the advertiser and the citizen. This new economy aims to maintain the balance of the scales by establishing consent with data as the new currency.

To prevent revenue losses, strengthening relationships with your audiences by integrating privacy into your core operations is key. This, combined with regulation, serves as a catalyst for change. Standard consent permissions clear up confusion and maintain data integrity. Building an informed and fully-consented audience isn’t just the right thing to do, it helps increase the value of your audience.

How publishers regain control 

With the current lack of global industry-wide standards, navigating this stormy sea of tangled regulations can be a challenge. The need to add resources to manage compliance can be a pain point, but it’s clearly important to protect revenue. Choosing the best tech partner can help remove some of this burden from your internal teams and allow for better balance between business needs and regulatory compliance.

Consider the following questions: 

  1. Privacy and consent needs to be at the core of your monetization strategy. Is it currently?
    What consent management platform and framework are you using/adopting?
    Is your platform set up to handle the regions where your traffic originates?
    Are you ready to handle consent from all environments: display, in-app, video, CTV?
  1. Define your data processing and data privacy practices
    What are the practices you and your partners employ?
    What is your provider doing with the data it collects on your assets?
    Does that conform to your strategy and plan and do you trust they have your best interests at heart?

    A publisher’s first party data coupled with consent is their ultimate leverage point. You should protect it at all costs. Adtech companies’ interests must align with the publisher’s. Adtech should be your partner – not your competitor.
  1. How will you and your adtech provider manage opt out traffic? In the consent economy you will not receive 100% opt-in.
    Will your adserver be able to serve non-personalized ads when users have opted-out of sharing their data?
    How can semantic and contextual targeting help you develop valuable audience segments?
  2. Under GDPR you are legally responsible for managing consent choices. Are you clear on the policies and procedures of your adtech partners?
    Can you ensure control over how your audience data and consent is processed throughout every single one of your tech partner platforms? Or, will you be forced to share data at your own risk?

    Get this part wrong risks fines, which have gone into the billions of dollars.  

We are all aware global consumer consent regulations will continue to be adopted/adapted around the world. Being anchored from the start will help you chart the best course through the tides of this new consent economy for the short, medium, and long-term. 

Advertising | Perspectives | Revenue

Why publishers need to push back on platform-specific “cookie-less” solutions

With the imminent demise of third-party cookies in Chrome, and other browsers blocking them already, everyone is talking about “cookie-less” solutions. But what exactly are “cookie-less” solutions? And how will they help – or hurt – publishers?

For the most part, when someone says they have built a “cookie-less” solution, they mean that they don’t rely on third-party cookies. Instead, they use first party cookies or locally store some bit of information they can use later to identify the user.

There are obvious challenges with using first party cookies or local storage compared to third party cookies. Notably, that they aren’t accessible across domains. Therefore, identifying a user from one site to the next is not possible without additional technology or signals.

However, the benefit is that all browsers currently still allow them to be set with JavaScript. (Though, in some cases, set with shorter TTLs). For our purpose here, and to keep things focused, let’s make the false assumption that any platform offering a cookie-less solution can successfully and accurately connect these first party cookies across domains at scale.

First parties and risk

So, if third party cookies are essentially dead and first party cookies can work as a viable replacement, this sounds perfect. Well: Not exactly.

Any identity provider that can read and write a first-party cookie to store their own identifier, also has access to all of the publisher’s own cookies. (With the exception of HTTP cookies with HttpOnly properly set). They also have access to any other first-party cookies set by any other technologies (ad tech or otherwise) on the page.

There are three problems with this level of exposure:

  1. Data from first-party cookies could be leaked to other platforms who are incorrectly reading first-party cookies that they did not set.
  2. Platforms can overwrite the publisher’s own first-party cookies or the first-party cookie of another platform, causing issues.
  3. Cookies set by the publisher and all platforms writing first-party cookies are included in HTTP requests to the publisher’s servers. Cookies can become so large that the browser starts to limit them. (~4kb is the limit in most browsers.) Or they will cause network latency and increase consumers’ bandwidth usage.

Too many cookies

If there were only a handful of identity providers being used by the publisher, these may not pose too much of a risk. The publisher could properly audit the code and manage the cookie space accordingly.

Unfortunately, there are already 15-20 different companies offering identity solutions using first-party cookies. Standards have not been established. And that  means it is open season for identity providers to manage first-party cookies as they wish. Yes, even though these cookies are supposed to belong to the publisher.

Prebid.js is the exception. It employs a standard implementation for identity providers to read/write cookies and publishers have control over the name of the first-party party cookie used by default. But even here, several of the modules handle cookie naming, reading, and writing on their own.

Check your IDs

This leads to the question: Why do we have so many “identity providers”? Are they all doing something unique and special? Some are. But many are just ad tech companies “offering a first-party cookie solution.” Unfortunately, these solutions are simply a means to an end for platforms to get their own ID in the bid stream to make it usable for themselves.

This may seem necessary and feasible today. But what happens when every ad tech platform decides they need their own ID in the bidstream? Publishers would need to support hundreds of IDs on their page. SSPs would need to pass these IDs to DSPs. And Data Platforms and DSPs would need to be able to ingest and understand all of these IDs. Beyond just these technical challenges, having this many IDs poses significant privacy challenges, like we have today with 3P cookies. And it certainly does not move the industry in the right direction for consumers.

Shared solutions

At ID5, we believe there are identity providers that deserve to be on publisher pages and in the bidstream: those that are providing a shared ID for all platforms to use. However, vendors that are creating “cookie-less” solutions simply to power their own platform should instead use these shared IDs as a currency to transact across platforms while using their own ID for internal purposes and building their own graph.

Publishers need to push back on any platform-specific “cookie-less solutions.” They are not beneficial to the industry and are causing confusion and technical challenges. Shared ID solutions improve technical efficiencies and provide a common language to communicate about users across platforms. They also allow the various platforms in our industry to focus on what they do best. Identity should be a commodity and not a differentiator and should be handled by companies who focus solely on providing shared identity solutions.

Advertising | Revenue

Deceptive landing pages: Why ad security must look beyond the creative

In 2020, yet another vector of attack has deployed by scammers, fraudsters and other bad actors to harm the digital advertising ecoystem. For years, we’ve been on guard against malicious code hidden in ad creative, ready to deploy without the user’s knowledge. However, in this latest wave of attacks, the user is lured to a dangerous landing page by willingly clicking on a deceptive ad. Once on that page, the user gets hit with a phishing scam, a fraudulent product offer, or a prompt to download malware.

Evasive tactics

Just last year, discussions about ad quality, the industry’s attention was largely – and rightfully – focused on auto-redirects. But as the COVID pandemic spread, bad actors quietly ramped up efforts to evade ad security tech by enticing users to willingly click on bad ads.

Publishers have seen an onslaught of ads for questionable health-related products, and products bearing fake celebrity endorsements. With publisher CPMs falling, those bad actors were able to buy the inventory. With a large, anxious captive online audience, they were able to convince many users to click through to pages where they would be vulnerable to scams and malware.

Graphical user interface Description automatically generated

For publishers, this scenario underscores the security and QA importance of inspecting not only the ad creative, but the landing page it leads to. To keep users safe, publishers need closer analysis of what awaits the user after the click. If you can recognize a fraudulent or otherwise unsafe landing page, you can flag the creative itself as a potential risk.

Powers of deception

Let’s get back to how this current wave of attacks plays on the user’s mindset. Deceptive ads are a long-running problem in the digital advertising ecosystem. These ads may show a celebrity’s name, a deceptive product description, or even a message that appears legit. And in many cases, the landing page keeps up the ruse.

Deceptive ads often lead to deceptive sites. Unfortunately, many of these are counterfeits of actual premium sites. Bad actors rely on borrowed prestige, copying the design and branding of well-known, premium media outlets. These bad actors also create counterfeit landing pages for sites relevant to different geographical regions and different interests. This, in turn, allows them to target their attacks.

Revenue problems

Those attacks often come in the form of phishing scams and cryptocurrency schemes. They also frequently offer fraudulent or low-quality products (including unregulated supplements or medications) and malware downloads. This is a great risk to the security of the user’s devices, personal information and wallet.

It’s also a risk to the publisher’s wallet. Users will conclude the publisher hosting the deceptive ad has condoned that ad, its buyer, and its buyer’s landing page. And then they will avoid the site that led them down this path, depriving the publisher of its ability to monetize future sessions.

If the user believes the counterfeit site they’ve landed on is the real site of a premium publisher, that user may even lose faith in the counterfeited publisher. Both publishers appear untrustworthy, and the only party to blame is the bad actor.

Graphical user interface Description automatically generated

Tricks of the trade

Detecting deceptive landing pages is a complicated proposition, though. In large part, this is because malvertisers will often use cloaking methods to obfuscate the ad’s content and landing page content. They’ll send a dummy creative to the publisher, with the landing page URL hidden somewhere in the code. The ad will appear legit to a scanner, and the code will swap in the malicious creative (with the hidden URL that will open when the user clicks) as the publisher page loads. Cloaking utilizes layers of deception that are designed to evade creative scanning technology, and that are too complicated to be routinely detected manually.

Cloaking is a preferred method of many of today’s most dangerous malvertisers and scammers. The method evades scanners because it can differentiate environments where there is a human user, and where there is a non-human user (that is, a scanner or a bot). Then it shows different content to each. To stop cloaked attacks, publishers need technology that can detect the real (hidden) URL and inspect the landing page. And, because the creative is flipped as the page loads, that technology must be automated and must function well in real time.

Security solutions

Deceptive landing pages, hiding behind tantalizing ads, should be a top security concern for any legitimate, quality publisher with an engaged audience. But bad landing pages can be detected — allowing the creative to be blocked before the page loads — using existing technology. However, that technology must be sophisticated enough to analyze the landing page and the creative in real time. This needs to happen before it can reach the user, harm them, and deter them from returning to, and monetizing, the publisher’s site.

To be effective, the tech must first be able to analyze the ad creative for patterns that indicate malicious activity, including cloaked code. The tech then must be able to analyze the text and images on the landing page in question. It must be able to recognize signals that indicate fraudulent activity and security risks. And, again, it must be able to do so in real time.  

In today’s complex digital media reality, publishers cannot simply take a defensive and reactive stance on ad security and quality. They must act aggressively and proactively. They must take the fight to the bad actors’ landing pages. And the industry has the tools to do so safely and effectively.

Industry-Research

Learning from past events to prepare for election day coverage

As the U.S. presidential election nears, it’s logical that global publishers want to understand the strategies that can encourage stronger reader engagement. Pivotal, high traffic events that truly showcase their content only come along so often.

With that in mind, we looked back at our analysis of reader engagement trends during major events — including the 2016 U.S. presidential election and Brexit vote — to see how audiences tend to interact with this type of unique content. More on our research, along with its implications for publishers, below.

Honing in on audience behaviors before, during, and after events

For the sake of this research, we wanted to put ourselves in the position of publishers for this upcoming election. More specifically, we analyzed data around three major timeframes: before, during, and after the event. These tend to offer the opportunity to reach and engage more readers.

Thinking about pre-election content strategies 

There’s no doubt that direct, search, and social traffic have a significant role to play in audience development efforts during major events. However, it’s just as important to understand when they can be most effective.

Our data suggests that the majority of referral traffic in the days leading up to an event will be coming from search, as we show below. This aligns with reader behaviors we saw during the 2016 election. Search traffic was highest leading up to and during the election. In contrast, social traffic didn’t increase until hours later, when reactions (emotions, hot takes, opinions) to the news are more likely to dominate those channels. As such, we see this as a critical opportunity to reevaluate SEO and referral linking strategies in order to maximize traffic during the event. 

How audiences seek and interact with content during events

We’ve also seen that loyal readers will likely come directly to publishers once a story breaks or more details emerge. Meanwhile, the majority of newer visitors will find coverage amid a search results page. This is where pre-election SEO efforts should pay off. It could be the difference between content being seen first or buried among other outlets’ coverage.

This is also where publishers can start to get promotional channels such as social media involved. It’s critical that all visitors, new or loyal, are made aware of a publisher’s stated differentiators during major news events. That could be a “dedication to the facts” or a local angle on the event. Publishers have the ability to gain new visitors without alienating their direct, loyal readers. 

Building trust with new and returning readers is important any time. However, now you have a chance during periods of higher-than-usual traffic. Loyal readers consume more than double the content of non-loyal readers. So, the experience you provide today will increase the likelihood they come back again.

Prioritize experimentation with different article formats. When we recently conducted research across COVID-19 related content, we found that the up-to-the-minute appeal of live blogs garnered significant reader attention. We also saw that pattern reflected in our 2019 Most Engaging Stories, where live blogs during major events such as Brexit were among the top articles.

Social media as a means of engaging readers post-event

The two previous sections highlighted search optimizations as a point of emphasis before and during the election. When it comes to post-event engagement tactics, our analysis suggests that social media offers a strong opportunity as traffic picks up again in the event aftermath.

Let’s use Brexit as an example. We analyzed multiple articles and angles that covered the same topic across Google search and Facebook. We found that the coverage and subsequent audience behaviors aligned with the reader behaviors we’ve outlined thus far.

For instance, we see that the most successful stories on Facebook tend to have an emotional, rather than informative, lens. Only a few highly emotional topics, like “Regrets and anger about results,” received significant engagement via Facebook. More factual topics such as “What happens if UK votes to leave” received much more significant engagement via Google search.

Therefore, we’ve seen the benefits of experimenting around sentiment on social media versus a singular “news you can use” strategy that works well in search. This approach can help attract new audiences in the post-event phase of election coverage.

Key takeaways: Planning for election coverage traffic increases

As publishers determine their election engagement strategy, here’s some key takeaways based on our research:

1. Optimize for search sooner rather than later

Consider posting search-friendly content before the election. This way, there’s no doubt that it will be indexed by Google or any other search engine of choice. Meanwhile, review linking strategies to ensure that content is being updated or iterated upon for the best reader journey possible.

2. Lean into coverage strengths

The election will have multiple angles. Even though our research suggests that audiences tend to gravitate towards factual pieces, it shouldn’t limit publishers to a single angle on any piece of content. Give readers the unique storytelling angles and formats they can’t get anywhere else. 

3. Get social when it counts 

Our data suggests that social media traffic will begin to gain traction as long as 12-24 hours after the event. Consider the timing and messaging of content and invest accordingly to have the greatest differentiation and impact on that referral traffic.

When preparing for the election, or any major event for that matter, we see a clear advantage to getting ahead on pre-coverage search and post-coverage social tactics based on the reader interactions we’ve seen before and after the fact. This should also give teams time and flexibility to iterate and experiment during the event, as reader behaviors can rapidly change when it comes to the diverse audiences landing on publishers’ sites.

Perspectives

Publishers: Marketers care about identity and you should too

Change is the “new normal” in 2020. Everything comfortable in our personal and professional lives has been upended. But in the face of massive amounts of discomfort, the digital advertising industry is beginning to collaborate like never before on the many challenges in front of us. 

Identity is front and center, and for good reason. It’s become a highly divisive topic with those in favor and those firmly against (and without an alternative, innovative idea). On the pro-identity side are marketers who believe identity is an essential tool to understand, find, and accurately target and message their customers. 

Marketers are asking for what they want. It’s our duty – and in our best interest – to listen. 

Get real, people

Marketers want to engage real people – and as many as possible. That real person is not a device or a one-time page visit. We’re talking about a real person with multidimensional needs, desires and passions. Ask any marketer (or agency, for that matter) about the arduous work of crafting personas that represent those people. It requires an enormous lift to create, validate, and test these personas. You can imagine how defeating it is to turn your personas into addressable audiences, only for them to fail or be unable to prove that they didn’t fail. 

Identity can solve this marketer pain. The duopoly understands identity well, which is why they’ve put up walls. (By the way, they can afford to put up walls as all of their users are authenticated. By contrast, publishers can at best hope for 10% authentication.) 

Marketers can answer their important questions inside the walled gardens but can’t build on those learnings on their own. Publishers already feel the heat from competing with walled gardens and from marketers who want and need to prove they’ve reached who they intended to and that their ad dollars are well spent. Everyone’s job is on the line. Identity can solve for the pain we’re all feeling.  

If we invite marketers to the conversation versus solving in isolation, we may be pleasantly surprised. Marketers have a lot to say. They also have a lot of opinions on what a bright future for digital advertising looks like. The Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media is one such group of enterprise marketers and adtech that are collaborating to find solutions that work for all of us, rather than a select few. (Full disclosure, Lotame is a member of PRAM.) Let’s dig into why identity matters to marketers.

Five reasons identity matters

1. Customers

A marketer’s most valuable asset is the customer. The same is true for publishers. What we know about our customers is limited by our interactions, no matter whether we’re a marketer or a publisher. Identity helps fill in the blindspots in our customer intel.

Data enrichment is one method marketers use to expand their knowledge of changing behaviors, passions, and interests. If we want our messages to resonate with customers, we have to be on top of their ever-changing habits. We have to find a way for marketers to bring their own customer data to the party. 

2. Privacy

Privacy is a human right. PRAM sees privacy as the bedrock of its six principles. Consumers must have transparency and control over how their data is used. Navigating privacy is increasingly more difficult for everyone in the digital advertising ecosystem. With privacy laws changing all the time, even well-meaning companies are having a tough time keeping up. It requires deep resources to do the right thing by consumers. 

However, it can be done and identity can help in a cookieless world. Those spinning fear about the impossibility of universal opt-out aren’t telling you the truth. It’s possible and happening right now: Consumer choices can be respected and cascaded across the digital life of the consumer. Privacy should be controlled by a consumer, not a device or browser. 

3. Addressability

Identity helps us identify our customers so that we can engage with exactly the right people. Any marketer that wants to keep their job must be able to prove their ad spend worked. Will a single page visit comfort marketers that they’ve reached the right person? Unlikely. 

If we can’t reach our customers with confidence, we’ll invest elsewhere, because we have to. Identity helps us make investments in publishers with greater assurance that ad spend is going toward engaging someone who is actually interested or has a high propensity to be interested in our products. Context does matter but it comes second to identity. 

4. Frequency Capping

Customers are only human. And anyone will get annoyed by an ad they are not interested in or have seen too many times. Identity solves the frequency capping problem. When devices are connected down to the individual-level using identity, we can ensure that the consumer is encouraged toward conversion and not enraged by the recurrence of an ad. Frequency capping is a win-win for marketers and publishers. 

5. Measurement & Reporting

With the insight provided to enable targeting and frequency capping, marketers also have access to accurate measurement and attribution with identity. Marketers need proof our campaigns worked. With identity, we can follow the customer through their journey from exposure to conversion to repeat purchase, etc. We can also understand which channels are responsible for that conversion. No one wants to return to the John Wanamaker days of “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

Change for the better

No one said change was easy. But it’s certainly worthwhile to examine our practices and processes and strive to do better. Investing in identity benefits marketers, publishers, and consumers. We don’t need a white knight to save us all. We need our best and brightest to come together and debate solutions. Frankly we need each other to survive. Let’s build a future that connects rather than divides us. 

Advertising | Perspectives

Adtech’s regulatory reckoning: It’s time to do the right thing with data

If GDPR, CCPA, and all the emerging regulatory acronyms make you cringe, you’re not alone. 

Hopefully, though, that sentiment’s about to change.

Despite what many think, data regulation is not the end of advertising. In fact, for many, it could be the next step toward more effective advertising. But it requires a shift in thinking that many U.S. companies have yet to make. You must adapt to the idea that the user is a participant in the process of deciding what happens with his/her data.

Back when the Internet was starting its rapid ascent in popularity and potential, Europe was quick to step in to protect the data rights of users. Stateside data collection, by contrast, was more like the Wild West of old. We saw a mad rush to gather and hoard data for data’s sake, with few rules and fewer consequences.

Data that delivers

Having a lot of data is good. Having the right data is better. And you only know it’s right if you take a step back and determine if it’s just confirming what you want it to confirm or if it’s telling a story you need to listen to. Hint: it’s time to listen.

Ideally the state of adtech wouldn’t have come to this. However, it helps if you think of regulation as the catalyst for new opportunities to connect with consumers. Of course, that connection requires an understanding of the consumer’s choices and how data consent benefits them. The peril is not in partnering with the people who generate data; it’s in not respecting them as the center of the equation. 

The first step is abandoning the round-up mentality. Gone is the competitive edge companies had by collecting data on the sly. With a more level playing field, it’s the companies who shoulder the responsibility of educating consumers about data usage and the providers who properly vet their data-collection partners who will succeed. 

Fair value exchange

Today’s consumers are savvy digital navigators. They know nothing is truly free. But if they are empowered to pay with data for content that’s of value to them, they’ll probably make the choice companies want them to make. 

That’s the mindset companies need to adopt in order to adapt. Many are still stuck in the past, trying to force the principles that governed TV advertising onto a mobile medium. This legacy thinking is negatively impacting both their ROI and customer satisfaction. 

Our data shows that when consumers are engaged in a choice-driven fully transparent ecosystem their brand awareness and purchase intent both dramatically increase, and their perception of brand favorability increases 300%. Instead of being told what to watch/do/consume, those consumers feel they’re entering a peer-to-peer conversation, increasing the halo effect for that brand.

Consent is an advantage

Better ROI and customer satisfaction are a great start. But there are other benefits that having consent brings to brands. With self-selected data, we find we’re able to bring a better curated subset of consumers to brand sites. They feel they’re part of a premium experience that’s relevant to them, which makes them more open to exploring what a brand has to offer. 

There’s also the protection afforded to a company’s reputation. Showing you’re trustworthy with traceable proof of consent eases the minds of consumers. It also helps deflate attempts at fraudulent consent. Particularly now, as the Covid-19 pandemic has altered consumer behavior and points of view about social responsibility, the spotlight will shine harshly on companies that aren’t willing to engage more honestly.

According to Kantar, 75% of consumers want to know what companies are doing during the pandemic. And recent IAB data shows 53% of advertisers are increasing their marketing focus to talk about their mission. In a time when most people are feeling isolated and uncertain, consumers need relevancy as well as reassurances that all involved in their day-to-day transactions are doing the right thing. 

Regulation is not the end for adtech – it’s a new beginning. And in this dawning era of digital integrity, a holistic approach is what will sustain companies through these adjustments and well into the future.

Industry-Research

Climate change news coverage has declined. The audience for it has not.

It’s 2020, and things have gotten to the point that we may not have the bandwidth to pay attention to all the existential threats we’re facing at once.

In March, the coronavirus pandemic reached a global scale. News organizations around the world focused their coverage on the deadly outbreak and readership reached record levels. But while all this was going on, the climate change crisis continued its steady march. 

News coverage is inherently limited given the resources media organizations have to allocate. And audience attention is a finite resource. So, it’s natural to worry that focus on one crisis may reduce much-needed focus on another. 

However, the data show a more complicated story.

On a high level, U.S. media coverage of climate change has declined since March. Fewer new articles have been published and fewer articles are being read overall. Readership has not followed, however. In fact, the number of readers and amount of page views has not dropped off.

These patterns indicate that there is an opportunity. News publishers can expect higher-than-normal traffic for continued investment in climate change coverage.

(Image via Taboola Newsroom)

This chart shows data from the network of Taboola’s news publisher partners. These include thousands of news websites in the U.S. They range from those belonging to large TV networks to local newspaper chains to digitally native publications and many more. Essentially, it’s a uniquely broad representation of what U.S. news consumers are reading about on the internet.

There’s a lot happening so let’s look at the lines one-by-one.

Articles read and written

The yellow line represents the number of articles consumed by U.S. readers that week which mention “climate change.” There’s a clear drop beginning several weeks before U.S. readers fully turned their attention to coronavirus, which is the green highlighted portion of the graph beginning the week of March 9.

The likely reason articles began dropping a few weeks prior is because news organizations had already begun shifting resources to coronavirus coverage. The number of articles consumed about climate change eventually drops to around 2,000 per week. That is a level below anything we saw in the previous year.

One thing to be very clear about is that our data shows the number of articles being consumed, not the amount of new articles. The drop indicates that there are fewer new articles because news consumers tend to focus on recent updates.

We can confirm this with data from a tool built by MIT and Harvard researchers called Media Cloud. It shows the percentage of new articles per week about topics on a large selection of major U.S. news sites. Media Cloud also shows the production of articles about climate change dropped from the 1.5% – 2% range to consistently under 1% as of early March.

Coverage concerns

Before moving on, it’s worth noting that even 2% to 3% of articles likely isn’t a suitable level of coverage for something dire as climate change. Remember, this topic impacts a wide range of news topics such as public race, health, housing, income inequality, transportation, animal preservation, and much more.

(Image via Media Cloud)

In fact, hundreds of news organizations tried to address this very issue late last year when they joined together in a coordinated effort to increase climate coverage. You can see a spike in both the Taboola and Media Cloud charts in late September 2019, when the Covering Climate Now launched.

For comparison’s sake, the chart below shows what it looks like when the news media rallies its full resources to cover a topic. Significantly, more than half of the articles published—nearly 70% some weeks—mentioned coronavirus from late March until June.

Weekly readers

Returning to our original topic, let’s dig into how coronavirus affected the number of people reading about climate change.

Unlike with articles, the number of weekly readers remains relatively consistent with what we saw in the months ahead of the U.S. outbreaks.

The weekly reader count remains in the 14 million to 20 million range. It hasn’t quite reached 20 million in the past few months. But that could be seasonal as we can see the same was the case during the summer 2019 months.

These numbers align with the findings of a report published in May by researchers at Yale University and George Mason University entitled “Climate Change in the American Mind.” In the survey of Americans taken in April, the researchers found record-tying levels of acceptance that global warming is a serious problem. They also report extremely high levels of concern and interest.

As noted in a New York Times report about the research, author John Schwartz notes that this survey defies a psychological phenomenon called the “finite pool of worry.” This suggests that concern about climate change may wane amid coronavirus because people only have so much attention and energy to dedicate to crises.

Schwartz also found the research defied the expectations of other academics. University of Rhode Island environmental communications professor Sunshine Menezes commented:

“I’m excited by these findings. Taken together, the report’s findings indicate that Americans are reaching, or maybe even have reached, a turning point. They see climate change in their backyards, they recognize the unequal impacts, they increasingly recognize the urgency of adaptation measures, and they want news coverage that tackles consequences and solutions.”

Page views per week

The story for weekly page views was similar to the one for readers. The weekly totals remained relatively similar after coronavirus took over the news. We saw a range of 30 million to 50 million page views per week about climate change remain steady. If you’re an audience growth strategist for a news website, your ears should be perking up right now.

(Image via Taboola Newsroom)

With fewer articles in circulation about climate change and a consistent audience with a consistent appetite for coverage, supply and demand suggests there’s an opportunity to take advantage of the dearth of new articles.

This chart shows how the amount of page views per article mentioning climate change has increased significantly in the coronavirus era.

The founders of Covering Climate Now picked up on this trend anecdotally in a report they published in June entitled “The Climate Emergency Won’t Wait for the Press to Play Catch-up.”

“The public sees the urgency and actually wants more climate news. Even during the peak of coronavirus coverage in April, some of the world’s biggest news organizations told us that their audiences had little appetite for stories that weren’t about the virus, with one exception: climate change, which continued to generate significant traffic.”

Advertising | Revenue

Reducing subscription churn is critical for advertising revenue

The deluge of advertisement and subscription offerings can lead to rampant reader fatigue. In this digital age, subscription churn presents an ongoing problem for media companies. Benchmarks place the media and entertainment industry near the middle of churn averages, between 5-6%.

So, it’s no surprise churn is a big topic of conversation. However, what is less often discussed is the impact churn reduction strategies have on advertising revenue. Spoiler: Yes, they have a massive impact.

We’ve said before that subscription and advertising-based revenue models are the future of media. Unfortunately, though, some companies continue to underestimate the effect of subscription churn on advertising revenue and overall company value.

Understanding how these revenue models support one another empowers better decision making, presents opportunities for data sharing and cost reduction, and just generally improves performance. It all boils down to leveraging subscriptions data in your advertising sales and prioritizing churn reduction strategies that improve ad performance.

Modern ad sales boosted by solid subscriptions data

Ryan Holmes, Chairman and Co-Founder at HootSuite, points out that the average American consumer has seen a massive increase in daily advertisement exposure. In fact, since the 1970s, “that number has increased by a factor of 10 to upward of 5,000 ads per day.”

Highly engaged audiences are inherently valuable to brands. This is particularly true when compared with risky ad placements on social media, which can end up alongside fake news, or worse. These inundated audiences around the world require far more specialized, contextual advertising to build long-standing relationships with trusted brands.

At Lineup, we’ve long advocated for audience-based ad sales. But where does the best audience data come from? Subscriptions! Thus, when an advertising team can leverage subscriber data, particularly from loyal, long term subscribers, more effective strategies can be employed to target campaigns and better activate key audiences.

Customer data platform, Blue Conic suggests that most brands don’t actually leverage the power of this kind of first-party data to their full advantage: “Less than 5% of marketers say they’ve yet to realize 80% or more of the potential of their first-party data. They include information provided by their audience in some facets of their marketing but have yet to realize the desired ROI from the source.”

Effective churn reduction strategies impact advertising

Applying successful churn reduction strategies obviously benefits the subscription team with stronger retention rates to improve overall revenue growth for a company. However, successful reduction strategies also improve the impact of advertising revenue.

Prioritize personal experiences

Personalized subscriptions and ads are likely to mutually benefit each other. For example, subscriber data that builds stronger reader profiles and return-rates can, in turn, enable advertising teams to offer more insightful contextual targeting to a captive audience.

Successful advertising requires engaged audiences who trust the publisher’s content and return often. The act of subscribing indicates the difference between a casual web visitor and a true, returning, reader. And advertisers are eager to get in front of those eyeballs whenever possible.

In 2019, data management platform Cxense demonstrated this in the global market. Online marketing team members of major Danish advertiser Nordjyske Medier successfully leveraged personalized customer data to increase “click-through rates by 300 percent on average — while digital subscriptions grew by 50 percent in the same period.”

Personalized experiences are critical for turning casual web visitors into subscribers (whether paid or free). They are also essential for turning those subscribers into a fully monetized audience.

Build loyal audiences

If personalized experiences convert visitors to subscribers, the next step is ensuring those new subscribers stick around long enough to impact your bottom line. An individualized customer experience on both ends of subscription and advertising content creates deeper connections with audiences, making them likely to remain loyal to brands in the long term.

A loyal audience base attracts marketers because these kinds of audiences prove to be more responsive. Twenty years ago, many companies did not have the digital resources to so carefully segment, track, and individualize content for key audience groups in a relationship between subscriptions and advertisements.

But now, brands that can leverage cross-functional strategies and shared data insights to their advantage can build even greater loyalty to their high-quality content and ethical, reliable journalism. This approach builds strength across departments within media businesses so that everyone from audience teams to editorial teams has a basic understanding of marketing principles and can contribute meaningfully to the strength of your brand.

The result? Readers transform into brand advocates!

(Of course, systems like Amplio can strengthen brand loyalty by leveraging subscription data to the benefit of interested marketing teams.)

Understand why readers leave

When you understand the reasons readers cancel subscriptions, you’re also more likely to pick up on parallel reasons the same readers don’t interact with ads. It’s time to stop guessing why readers leave and start asking. Like many of the other benefits we’ve discussed so far, taking this integrated approach to discovery can benefit all teams and departments towards achieving collective company goals.

A solid approach to identifying at-risk subscribers is not only a marketing strategy, it’s equally critical for the success of your advertising sales team.

One goal, two revenue streams

Reducing subscription churn empowers you to focus on collecting better data from existing, long-term customers to the distinct benefit of advertising revenue. This approach can move a company from focusing merely on impressions, to actual impact.

Companies that retain more subscribers spend less time and resources strategizing against losses — as many businesses have had to do in the last year. Instead, they will be energized to use those resources for improved subscriptions and visibility to marketers.

Advertising | Innovation

How Insider Inc. leverages first-party data for its partners

About Insider Inc.

Insider Inc. is the parent of Business Insider and its general interest news and lifestyle sibling, Insider. Insider is one of the world’s largest digital news platforms, with a global audience of 275 million. The company was founded in 2007 with the launch of Business Insider, which now has 14 editions around the globe and is published in eight languages.

The challenge

Insider, Inc. wanted to gain a more holistic understanding of its audiences to better serve advertisers

Insider faced challenges connecting data across its sites and getting a holistic view of its audience. It wanted to understand programmatic buying behavior and learn which audiences advertisers were looking for. Insider knew that this information would help it to inform editorial and content strategies as well as ad pricing and packaging. To increase the value of advertising on its site, the company needed a solution to connect all the different data pieces in its arsenal. 

The Solution

Insider and Permutive build first-party data platform, SÁGA

Insider worked with Permutive’s Data Management Platform to create SÁGA (named after the Norse goddess of history and storytelling). The platform was designed to better understand users and their behavior in order to make tailored recommendations for advertisers and partners. 

The platform has three key components:

  • ‘Audience’ enables audience segmentation for effective ad targeting
  • ‘Inform’ empowers strategic content creation recommendations
  • ‘Insights’ provides real-time data to improve campaign performance

The results so far

With a first-party data strategy and an efficient way to view audience data, Insider helps advertisers tailor their campaigns and improve engagement. Now, Insider is better able to:

Create bespoke segments for advertisers

With SÁGA, Insider can discern more than five billion user data points each month. These include: content consumption, engagement frequency, where traffic comes from, and ad clicks — just to name a few. Using this data, Insider can create valuable, bespoke segments for its advertisers. For example, the Insider ‘business influencers’ cohort consists of users that consumed content on the Insider platform over the last week on finance or technology verticals, or as part of subscription-driven stories. To these segments, Insider is also able to overlay third-party data, such as job title or industry. 

Tailor content and advertising to users 

With better analytics tools, Insider can now discover which content resonates best with different audiences. This helps advertisers make smarter decisions about their content and advertising strategies. For example, Insider found that readers of small business content are often likely to be interested in pet stories. This insight led to a banking advertiser creating a unique campaign that spotlighted how a pet-themed small business worked with said company.

“It’s about understanding behavior. While respecting user privacy, we are able to discern a lot about our readers from what they do on our platform. Our goal is to better serve our audience — and our partners — with actionable insights based on what we know about behavior.”

–Jana Meron, SVP Programmatic & Data Strategy, Insider Inc.

Leveraging more granular audience data helps advertisers reach the right users at the right time with the right message on Insider. This works regardless of whether the browser blocks third-party cookies, which is a a growing reality for publishers.

Showcase the value of first-party data

Today data provided by SÁGA informs all campaigns running on Insider Inc. sites. Each campaign begins with a tailored strategy that aims to meet the specific goals of a given RFP. 

“First-party data goes beyond the authenticated web to gauge how readers engage on our platform. This has tremendous value.” 

-– Jana Meron, SVP Programmatic & Data Strategy, Insider Inc.

For example, Insider worked with a financial client with strict audience targeting parameters. The advertiser had always relied on third-party data. Insider conducted an A/B test comparing a campaign using first-party data with one relying on third-party data. The result was that the first-party data segment outperformed by +11% against the advertiser’s KPI (+11% first-party versus third-party segment).

Insider Inc. continues to improve its first-party data strategy

Insider has had success with its approach to first-party data but is just getting started. The company plans to make additional improvements, such as:

  • Creating a rich taxonomy by adding Natural Language Processing (NLP) to SÁGA. This will provide better targeting options for advertisers so they can reach their audiences across different parts of the Insider platform. 
  • Collecting more first-party data. Insider believes that the number of logged-in users at any time will be less than 25% of total traffic. It wants to ensure its campaigns can scale by including behavioral and contextual data alongside that declared data. It gathers first-party data from multiple sources, including newsletters, on-site calculators, and surveys. 
  • Educating the advertising market. In addition to helping to educate its advertising partners about the benefits of first-party data, Insider is committed to spreading the word to the larger advertising community.

Insider is actively preparing for diminution of third-party cookies by focusing on a first-party data strategy. Through its use of SÁGA ,the company now has a radically improved view of its audiences that can greatly benefit its partners as well as readers and viewers.

Advertising | Industry-Research

The industries surprising us with their ad spend in correlation to Covid-19

There is no doubt that Covid-19 had a negative effect across industries. However, some sectors, including Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) and bicycle brands, have actually done well during this time. Throughout the pandemic, these industries have experienced significant and unprecedented increases in sales. With those increases, the same industries upped their advertising spending as well. 

Here at MediaRadar we took a deep dive looking for industries that have increased ad spend levels in response to Covid-19, as well as those working towards a recovery. Back in June, we analyzed how the ad industry fared during the pandemic, highlighting the industries that had just begun bouncing back. Now, three months later, we’ve reassessed how those industries, plus others, are progressing. Based on what we’ve found, things are continuing to look up. 

Industries that increased ad spend

Pet brands – Pet adoptions experienced a dramatic increase during the pandemic. In fact, the Humane Society noted that in March and April there was a 34% year-over-year (YoY) increase in the number of pet adoptions. Capitalizing on this trend, pet brands (i.e. pet food, grooming supplies, etc.) upped their advertising, with the most recent weeks spend gap showing that pet brands’ ad spending has jumped 52%, YoY. 

Bicycles – Covid-19 caused many to avoid public transit. It also afforded people more time to take bike rides for leisure and as alternative exercise to gyms. These are just some of the reasons why consumer interest in bicycles significantly spiked during the pandemic. Since March, ad spending from bicycle brands is up 56%, YoY. As a matter of fact, the N.P.D. Group, a market research company recently reported that in March, sales of commuter bikes was up 66%, YoY, and sales of leisure bikes was up an incredible 121%, YoY. 

CPG products – As consumers have become extra cautious, and care more than ever about cleanliness, bath and shower products, such as body wash, soap and hand sanitizer have increased marketing efforts. Since March began, ad spend from bath and shower products is up 81%, YoY. Unilever reported that in Q2 of 2020, body wash sales increased 12%, hand soap sales increased 155% and hand sanitizer sales increase was off the charts. Ad spend from home fragrance brands are also up 51%, YoY. Since March began, every week except for one, ad spend in the CPG category is up when compared to its 2019 counterpart. If you’re going to be stuck at home all day, it might as well smell nice.

Commercial furniture –  It probably comes as no shock that as the world was forced to work from home. Thanks to Covid-induced lockdowns, the commercial furniture category saw an extreme increase in ad spend. According to a survey by YouGov, 54% of office workers didn’t have any sort of home office set-up before the pandemic. With everyone now purchasing office furniture for their homes, commercial furniture ads, normally reserved for the world of B2B, have entered the B2C sphere. Year-to-date, ad spend from commercial furniture brands is up 225%, YoY, with no signs of slowing down. 

As reported on DCN in June, additional industries to increase their advertising spend in response to Covid-19 include RVs, food subscription boxes, video games, skincare and childrens toys. Each of these industries is still outspending their 2019 levels, with food subscription boxes jumping 235% and RV’s jumping 378%, YoY, since April, respectively. 

Industries on the Mend 

Automotive – The automotive market continues to slowly but surely recover, as ad spend nears levels similar to last year (2019). During the week of August 10th, automotive ad spend was down just 8%, YoY; the industry’s best mark since the pandemic began. For automakers who are still reporting sales, results are getting better by the month. While Toyota’s sales were down YoY in July, they were still at their highest point since the pandemic began. Also in July, Kia and Hyundai were both roughly flat, while Mazda’s sales were up 3.4%, YoY.

Hospitality – Hotel brands seem to have found a new equilibrium for weekly advertising. Since mid-June, ad spend levels have consistently remained around $4M per week. While this is up nearly four times when compared to April and May, it remains down by about two thirds, YoY. According to STR, a hospitality industry data firm, US hotel occupancy for the week ending August 15th was at 50.2%. While this remains down 30%, YoY, it was the 17th week of increases in the past 18 weeks. 

Bars & Restaurants – Bars and Restaurants are seeing ad spend slowly return to levels consistent with last year (2019), with national chains being the main drivers of the recovery. During the week of August 10th, ad spend was down only 10%, YoY, its best level since mid-March. According to NPD, customer transactions at major restaurant chains were down 44%, YoY, in mid-April, its worst point. But, after 21 weeks of being down double digits, sales were down just 9% during the week of August 10th, signifying major improvement. 

Electronics – Consumer electronics experienced a major spike in sales during the early days of the pandemic, however, it quickly fell off. Best Buy reported a surge in sales as consumers transitioned to work from home, with online sales alone up 242% in Q2, YoY. However, Best Buy’s executives were quick to say this was a temporary spike as people adjusted to quarantine life. During the week of June 8th, after ad spending hit a low point of -70%, YoY, spend has been recovering and is now down only 20%, YoY, with sub-categories including cell phones, computers and WiFi equipment helping to drive the recovery. Back-to-school may have provided another boost, as parents are much more likely to be shopping for computers and tech instead of clothes or backpacks this year. 

Shock and recovery

The early days of the pandemic were a shock to the entire country, as well as most of the ad industry. While the road to recovery will not be easy or fast for every industry, our data does show that many are making strides. And while it may not always be the usual players buying up ad space, we’ve found that advertising remains an important part of any industry’s strategy, so long as they have products they can sell.

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