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Advertising | Industry-Research | Perspectives | Revenue

Marketers’ programmatic buying habits more than double

Programmatic ad buying behavior more than doubled over the last two years despite major ad fraud and transparency concerns. The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) and Forrester just released the results of a new study reporting  of a new study reporting an increase in programmatic ad buying habits among marketers from 34% in 2014 to 79% in 2016. This research was conducted last month among 128 ANA members.

Two-thirds (66%) of marketers reported “I understand it (programmatic) and use it to execute campaigns” compared to 23% in 2014. Nearly all marketers reported programmatic buying of display advertising and eight in 10 (84%) reported purchasing programmatic video advertising.

Marketers identified key benefits of programmatic ad buying as:

  • Better targeting (90% rating),
  • Real-time optimization (76%),
  • Managing buys across multiple channels (66%)
  • Reach consumers at multiple points along the purchase path; decreased cost of media (62%, each)
  • Ability to personalize ads to individual consumers (60%)
  • Reach more consumers by buying ads in more channel (56%)
  • Dynamic ad placement (49%)
  • Access to a broader set of media options (48%)
  • Faster executions of media buys (43%)
  • Ability to buy ad directly from media companies, without an agency (24%)

Still markets cite there three top concerns in programmatic ad buying as the higher bot fraud in programmatic buys (69%), the lack of transparency to the costs within the programmatic supply change (64%) and the potential for buying traffic with low viewability (63%).

The research confirms the industries rapid adoption of programmatic buying habits. With the reported complexity of programmatic amid critical concerns, 31% of marketers stated that they expanded their in-house capabilities to manage programmatic ad buying. It appears marketers are looking to new opportunities to fully analyze the digital supply chain from request to execution.

Industry-Research

Navigating mobile hurdles in 7 charts

The case for mobile has been made. But it comes as no surprise to anyone developing content for mobile, creating mobile experiences, and developing monetization strategies that there are many issues that need to be  address to pave the way for success.

Finding your audience

Mobile is certainly a given in any content delivery plan. However, there are demographic segments that must be prioritized in terms of mobile development.

Devices & Demographics, Fluent
Devices & Demographics, Fluent

 

Deciding which platforms to prioritize in terms of app development can’t be based solely upon gross popularity. Certain platforms attract specific demographic segments and verticals experience distinctly different levels of conversion success depending upon platform.

The State of App Marketing – H2 2015, AppsFlyer
The State of App Marketing – H2 2015, AppsFlyer
Monetizing mobile

The average monthly per-app revenue is in the range of $5k to $11k depending on the platform. Windows Phone is the highest money-maker at $11.4k per month per app. Those that develop for the Apple iOS make an average of about $8.1k per month per app. For Android, the average revenue is $4.9k per month per app.

It is interesting to note that, since Windows has only a niche audience, the app store is not as fragmented as the Android and iOS counterparts. Thus app discoverability is much easier and the competition among apps is less. Thus developers on the Windows App Store seem to enjoy the highest monthly revenue.

State of Mobile App Developers 2016, InMobi
State of Mobile App Developers 2016, InMobi
Making ads work

Regardless of platform, the majority of app revenue is generated through advertising. Unfortunately, the ad experience on mobile has not been one users have reacted to favorably. Thus, it is important to be aware of what mobile content consumers don’t like about mobile ad experiences in order to address these issues. Significantly, these opinions vary based upon types of mobile users.

2015 GfK MRI data analyzed by eMarketer
2015 GfK MRI data analyzed by eMarketer

 

As important as it is to understand what annoys consumers in terms of mobile advertising, it is also useful to know how mobile content consumers react to a variety of formats and factors in order to create effective ad experiences.

Consumer Intelligence Series Mobile advertising: What do US consumers want? PwC
Consumer Intelligence Series Mobile advertising: What do US consumers want? PwC

 

And, of course, once ad experiences are optimized for consumers on mobile, marketers have made it clear that it essential that the effectiveness of these campaigns be accurately measured.

Mobile7.importanceviewofcustomer

Industry-Research

How newspapers can capitalize on consumers’ content demand(s)

According to the cliché: Content is king. Yet while an ever-expanding cadre of “content companies” such as Netflix, Spotify, and Apple are profiting mightily, newspapers continue to struggle. MECLABS Institute surveyed 900 people who earn at least $40,000 and spend at least three hours a week consuming print or digital news to explore what newspaper publishers can do to transform their customer experience in order to profit from consumers’ growing hunger for digital content experiences. Using the results of this survey as well as expert interviews, the report provides insights in how to increase the probability of converting the many readers who are open, but have not yet committed, to digital subscription news products.

The report, Newspaper Paywalls and Digital Subscriptions, is part of of the MECLABS Institute Executive Series.  The Newspaper Paywalls and Digital Subscriptions report offers four key insights, which are explored in depth:

Key insight #1: Because digital subscriptions lack a perceived product-level value proposition, consumers have commoditized digital news content

The reason most readers do not purchase a digital news subscription is not because they do not understand the value of your content, but rather, they do not yet understand the value of a digital subscription.

Key insight #2: News consumers have been conditioned to expect a seamless digital experience

Poor user interface design and user experience may be negatively impacting the perception of your digital subscription.

Key insight #3: Exclusive content is the primary motivation for subscribers

Subscribers are motivated most by exclusive content—like arts/culture and local news—rather than other kinds of news topics.

Key insight #4: Customers are waiting for you to ask them to engage

Customers are more willing to engage with newspapers than you might think

Consumers’ frustration with paywall usability and advertising
Consumers’ frustration with paywall usability and advertising
Industry-Research

The majority of smartphone users are still getting news from traditional media sources

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of adult smartphone owners in the U.S. reported that they still get their news and information frequently or very frequently from at least one traditional source like the television news or the printed newspapers.

The latest 2015 RJI Mobile Media News Consumption Survey also reported the local television news as the most popular “old” media source with more than half (55%) of smartphone respondents saying they frequently or very frequently used in the past week. Network television news ranked second at 49%, followed by printed local newspapers at 36%. While the percentages of each “old” media source varied, usage of at least one “old” media source was relatively consistent across all demographics:

  • 67% of adults 18-24;
  • 75% of adults
  • 69% of adults 35-44, 79% of adults 45-54;
  • 69% of adults 55-64; and
  • 70% of adults 65 plus used at least one “old” media source.

Additionally, just under one-third (33%) of adult smartphone owners said they had followed news stories frequently or very frequently on their smartphones in the past seven days. Smartphone owners are also actively engaged in social networking. In fact, 49% reported they interacted on social media platforms and 24% stated they shared news stories using their smartphones.

The report provides a good understanding of consumer preference and the power of a multi-platform news operation, offering both quality news and information and the ability for a more dynamic interaction.

Advertising | Industry-Research | Perspectives

$66 billion isn’t just for TV advertising anymore

It’s no secret that investment in TV advertising is declining, with brands allocating more dollars to digital ad spend. This represents a huge opportunity for digital media. Marketers are looking to re-allocate ad spend, set a cross-platform strategy, and re-purpose video content online.

Linear TV ad spending is projected at $66 billion in 2016 – but $1.5 billion already shifted from TV to digital in 2015. While this amounts to less than 3% of the total $66B spend, this is still a huge amount in absolute dollars. This is not a new trend by any means, but one that continues to build momentum. Importantly, most of the beneficiaries are relative newcomers to video (think YouTube).

Here are some factors that are leading to this shift:

  • Changing media consumption habits: Consumers are increasingly spending time online, away from their television set. And even those watching video online are not watching in the same way. For example, instead of tuning in to linear TV, audiences are watching some of the most popular shows in one sitting (thanks to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu) or skipping traditional shows entirely, making a good business for alternatives like Twitch.
  • Appealing video content online. There are many examples of success in video, but YouTube stands above all. After only 10 years in business, YouTube is now believed to earn more than $7 billion in annual revenue. Despite some criticism of its “less-professional” content, YouTube is every bit a competitor to broadcast TV.

Here at MediaRadar we’ve recently added TV ad intelligence into our platform. We took a close look at the data to understand the opportunities outside of traditional TV and video streaming sites.

Here are three discoveries:

  1. Online video advertising on DCN member company sites has low overlap with linear TV. There were 3,025 advertisers placing TV spots in Q4 of 2015 on national broadcast and cable networks. Of the 3,025 brands however, just 209 also placed on DCN member websites in this same period. This demonstrates a big opportunity to upsell and convert traditional TV advertisers to digital platforms.
  1. Top ad categories in TV have low overlap with online. The top five product categories advertised for DCN members are Retail, Professional Services, Home Furnishings, Apparel, and Financial. Of those top five, however, only two overlap with TV’s top five: Retail and Professional Service. Making inroads with traditional TV advertisers will mean forging stronger relationships in product categories less associated with web advertising.
  2. TV advertisers do buy across media platforms. Of the national TV advertisers, 50% are buying cross-platform for online video already. This is not to minimize the very different silos that TV, print, and digital are purchased by. But on the other hand, some of the biggest, highest-margin, deals are done across media formats, including even print.

As TV advertisers continue to rethink their strategy, digital media should consider doing the same. Specifically pursue advertisers who are open to shifting away from TV. Upsell existing customers who already buy with you, but not online video. Target early adopters who have already started the shift from TV to online video. Finally, find the product categories that are spending on TV, but not with you, and show them the value of partnering with online video.

Todd Krizelman is Co-Founder and CEO of MediaRadar (@MediaRadar). Growing up near the epicenter of technological innovation in Palo Alto, California encouraged him to become an entrepreneur and co-found of one of the world’s first social media sites, theGlobe.com. Krizelman also held leadership positions at Bertelsmann’s Gruner + Jahr and Random House. With his expertise in ad sales and innovation, Krizelman joined veteran web architect, Jesse Keller, to found MediaRadar in 2007.

Industry-Research

TV everywhere consumption shifting to connected devices

Although Apple’s iOS operating system still sees the bulk of TV Everywhere (TVE) authentications, new analysis from Adobe Digital Index (ADI) shows TVE consumption slowly moving toward connected devices, such as Apple TV and Roku.  According to ADI’s “Q4 Digital Video Benchmark” report, iOS share of TVE decreased 20% year over year (YoY), while connected devices saw 31% growth.

Among Adobe’s key findings:

  • Overall growth in TVE video viewing has doubled YoY (102%)—a trend ADI expects to continue.
  • The number of TV Everywhere (TVE) users has increased 22% quarter-over-quarter, particularly due to special programming (i.e. fall TV premiers) and sports-related content.
  • Broadcast & Cable genre grows more other content categories for the first time (up 11% YoY) due to seasonal TV programming events.
  • The Total number of TV video views doubled its growth year-over-year.
  • Roku share increased 14% QoQ as a result of major broadcasters adding their channels in mid-November.
  • All access types, with the exception of browser, continue to see growth in viewing frequency.

TVEpercentAdobe Digital Index publishes research on digital marketing and other topics of interest to senior marketing and e-commerce executives across industries. Research is based on the analysis of select, anonymous, and aggregated data from over 5,000 companies worldwide that use the Adobe Digital Marketing Cloud to obtain real-time data and analysis of activity on websites, social media, and advertising. This report is based on consumer video viewing from October 2014-December 2015.

Industry-Research

Editorial analytics sharpen newsrooms’ focus

News organization everywhere are competing for attention. In a continuously changing media environment, journalism is challenged more than ever before to connect to its audience. In its report, the Digital News Project 2016, Reuters Institute examined how news organizations, across Europe and the United States, analyze their audience’s behavior in order to inform and develop their editorial voices.

The Guardian and The Financial Times, both subscription-based business models, developed proprietary metric tools. The Guardian’s real-time analytics tool called Orphan offers minute-by-minute data on individual articles like pageviews, social shares, and attention-time for each article published in the last two weeks. Orphan can also show whether the article has been pushed via the Guardian’s social media channels and/or if it was promoted on the homepage. The data can also be broken down by different segments, such as time, section, device, browser, country, referrer, loyalty, and attention time. The editors can use this data to inform decisions on headlines, pictures, placement, and how to promote across social media channels.

Similarly, the Financial Times’s is developing a dashboard for its analytics called, Lantern. The Financial Times see editorial analytics as a step to its newsroom and its reporters being audience-first journalists, integrating engagement objectives into the editorial process. The tool will focus mostly on engagement-related metrics such as time spent, recirculation, volume of articles read per visit, and number of comments.

The report identified a few third party analytic tools available to news organization:

  • Chartbeat known for real-time analytics that focus on audience attention. Its dashboard advices on homepage structure and helps to refine headlines and formats. Editors can modify content in real-time.
  • Ly tracks in real-time as well and helps to identify topics audiences have responded well to in the past as well as where readers are coming from, where they’re headed next and on what devices.
  • NewsWhip is also a real-time tool that offers social media tracking like tweets, shares, and comments. It also allows newsrooms to monitor what stories are trending and breaking news.

In addition to Chartbeat, Parse.Ly and NewsWhip, the more standardized report of pageviews and visits are available in analytics tools like Omniture, google Analytics, Facebook Insights, and twitter Analytic.

Usage of multiple data sources is also common among news organizations. The Huffington Post, an advertising based business model, uses an Omniture dashboard, which includes traditional metrics like visits, pageviews, and unique visitors as well as referrals from specific sources and video data.  They also use a customized version of Chartbeat tracking real-time split testing where different versions of an article (copy, headline and/or pictures) are tested to see which performs best.

Importantly, even in the most data-driven analysis, decisions often involve qualitative assessment. It’s a mix of art and science. It’s also important to ensure personal assessment is included especially in terms of how the data is leveraged for both short-term and long-term operations.

 

Reuters Editorial Metrics

Industry-Research

Advanced economies use technology more, but smartphone and internet usage is on the rise worldwide

Tpewincreasehere has been a noticeable rise over the past two years in the percentage of people in the emerging and developing nations surveyed by Pew Research Center who say that they use the internet and own a smartphone. From 2013 to 2015, the percentage of those across 21 emerging and developing countries that use the internet occasionally or own a smartphone rose to 54%, with much of that increase coming from large emerging economies such as Malaysia, Brazil and China. By comparison, a median of 87% use the internet across 11 advanced economies surveyed in 2015, including the U.S. and Canada, major Western European nations, developed Pacific nations (Australia, Japan and South Korea) and Israel. And Pew reports that overwhelming majorities in almost every nation surveyed report owning some form of mobile device, even if they are not considered “smartphones.”

Among Pew’s other key findings:

  • For smartphone ownership, the digital divide between less advanced economies and developed economies is 31 points in 2015.
  • Smartphone ownership rates in emerging and developing nations rose from a median of 21% in 2013 to 37% in 2015.
  • Roughly three-quarters of adult internet users across the 40 countries surveyed in 2015 say that they use the internet at least once a day.
  • It is almost universal that people with more education and higher incomes are more likely to use the internet or own a smartphone than those with lower incomes and less education.
  • Also within nearly every country,Millennials (those ages 18 to 34) are much more likely to be internet and smartphone users compared with those ages 35 and older.
  • There are gender gaps on many aspects of technology use. For example, in 20 nations, men are more likely than women to use the internet.

 

Advertising | Industry-Research

Ad blockers are the new premium target audience

Marketers are focusing on a newly valued audience segment know as ad blockers. Consumers using ad blocking software tend to be more tech savvy and in the millennial age range. According to a new report published by the International News Media Association (INMA), this premium audience segment offers a new opportunity for advertisers to engage with consumers who care and interact with valued advertisements.

PageFair, which sells services to measure ad blocking and offers alternative non-intrusive advertising to consumers, contributed to the INMA report, “What to do about ad blocking?” PageFair has also estimated that the total lost revenue from ad blocking grew approximately from $5.8 billion in 2014 to $10.7 in 2015.

The INMA report recommends specific strategies for publishers to avoid:

  • Do not use undeveloped anti-ad blocking technology like domain rotation.
  • Do not rely on native advertising since this can also be blocked.
  • Do not depend on advertising partnerships with walled gardens like Facebook or Apple News.
  • Do not refuse to show content to ad blockers.

Importantly publishers need to respond to ad blockers. This is the time to talk to ad blockers, the time to try new ad formats and the time to discover what specifications need to be included in advertising 2.0.

Advertising | Industry-Research | Revenue

Broadcast radio increasing focus on digital sales

The radio industry grew its digital ad revenue 11.4% last year, to $550.8 million, and is poised to grow even faster this year, according to a comprehensive study conducted by Borrell Associates on behalf of the Radio Advertising Bureau. The Benchmarking: Local Radio Stations’ Online Revenues report showed that the average market cluster made $951,756 in digital sales last year, with the average station making $231,210. With forecast growth of 14%, the report states that digital advertising will account for 6.5% of station revenue by the end of 2016, a full point above what it was in 2015.

For some, the opportunity goes beyond banner ads and spots in the audio stream. Nearly half of the stations are now selling digital services — mostly Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and website design.

This 4th annual Borrell-RAB benchmarking report documents digital revenue, market share, sources of revenue, methods of billing, and attitudes toward digital ventures. The research studied digital revenue for 2,704 stations and surveyed 250 managers on their attitudes toward digital ventures. It documents digital revenues, market share, sources of revenue, methods of billing, and opinions on station strategies.

Among some of the findings:

  • One-third of stations surveyed believe their sales reps are talking to the wrong buyers when trying to sell digital products. Three years ago, two-thirds believed that was the case.
  • Only 16% believe that radio sales suffer because reps are forced to sell digital advertising. That’s down significantly since 2014, when more than half felt that way.
  • Conversely, 24% believe that digital sales suffer because reps focus on radio advertising. Three years ago, twice as many felt that way.
  • The average radio cluster received 0.26% of all locally spent Internet advertising.  There were some, however, achieving 15 times that – up to nearly 4%.

The full report is available to RAB members on RAB.com.

Publish or Perish Header Image
Industry-Research

Publishing is essential for marketing growth

Publishing is a prerequisite for effective content marketing. According to Forbes’ new CMO Practice report, “Publish or Perish” nearly all of the surveyed marketing executives (95%) agreed that effective content marketing is critical to the success of their company’s growth strategies. Further, eighty percent of marketing executives stated that successful content marketing is important to building and differentiating the brand. Today’s CMOs reported allocations of 25% or more of their marketing budget to content creation.

Brand publishing allows corporations to be agile in delivering new and diverse marketing programs to their customers. Marketing content can also provide customer personalization and offers the ability to manage and scale large processes.

Forbes identified seven key strategies for marketing executives to manage throughout the content marketing and operations process:

  1. Content Planning – establish management teams to ensure editorial strategies and processes are in place for the production, curation and licensing of relevant and timely content.
  2. Content Sourcing – manage the quality, volume and relevance of content from both internal and external content contributors.
  3. Content Targeting – optimize content performance by customizing for specific audience segments to ensure a stronger return on investment.
  4. Content Governance – manage and control content quality, consistency and compliance by establishing content governance across the company.
  5. Content Distribution – establish processes and systems to distribute and track content across all channels and touch points.
  6. Content Assembly – create an internal content assembly team to reduce costs on operations and to easily allow for the repurpose of materials.
  7. Content Systems – leverage technology investments to increase productivity and reduce operational cost.

Marketing leaders need control over the publishing process or they and their teams will be at risk. Further, advancing content marketing is crucial to delivering actionable content in today’s digital marketplace.

For executive highlights: http://www.cmo-practice.forbes.com/advice/.

Industry-Research

Sixty percent of mobile banner clicks are accidental

While it has been widely speculated that a “fat finger” problem exists in mobile advertising, new research from Retale confirms that many clicks on mobile banner ads may be accidental due to finger scrolling on devices with small screens. The study, polling 500 adult mobile users across the U.S. between January 18-25, 2016, focused on several aspects of mobile banner ad engagement, from accidental clicks to perceived overall value.

Among Retale’s findings:

  • 66% of users say mobile banner ads have little to no value
  • 65% encounter ads while checking the news
  • 50% encounter ads while using social media
  • 68% think accidental clicks are “annoying”
  • 66% say mobile banner ads have little to no value
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