(Disclaimer: Sovrn Ad Management is a Jounce Media customer)

The sales house category has always been associated with the long tail of the internet. So it’s not hyperbole to say that Jounce Media’s March report, which focused on sales houses, made quite a splash. The data showed that the volume represented by the long tail, small-site category using sales houses accounted for more than 25% of bid requests for the entire web. 

However, what stands out for me is the incredible growth of the entire category as a percentage of the bidstream, from approximately 12% to 25% in just the last three years, more than doubling.

Sales House as a % of all Web Bid Requests

Certain trends in the data show that growth is being powered by an erosion of the mid-market web publisher, with many struggling with the difficulties of running a profitable advertising business in-house and instead turning to sales houses. 

Mix of Web Bid Requests

Jounce’s working hypothesis regarding why the category has grown so disproportionately is that sales houses have best-in-class monetization capabilities due to having made investments in yield optimization tech, and that they are the only category with enough scale to warrant those investments. Jounce goes a step further and posits that the entire sales house business model relies on this scale in order to unlock advertising revenue upside across those investments (think dynamic flooring, traffic shaping, and addressability tactics) and that most publishers do not have sufficient funds to justify adding the required large, fixed-cost investments to their in-house capabilities.

With the current economic climate presenting significant challenges for publishers to grow their businesses, many are deciding to pause investments in developing an in-house tech stack. The build vs buy debate is seemingly over, as Neil Vogel, CEO of DotDash Meredith, and Brian Morrissey, founder of The Rebooting, discussed in a recent interview:

“Any publisher that tells you they’re a technology company, run away screaming and sell all your shares. The product expertise, the engineering expertise, it’s just super different. But (as a publisher), understanding and using these technologies is critical.”

More specifically, the March Jounce report posits that sales houses are more effective at monetizing ad inventory than any other cohort. From the report:

“The combined effect of technical mastery and direct sales creates a monetization advantage that most in-house publishers cannot replicate. And this monetization advantage surfaces in our data in the form of high demand scores…… Mid-market publishers appear to be reluctant to hand over the keys to a sales house, but mid-market publishers are also unable to make the necessary investments to achieve in-house monetization excellence. The outcome is a squeeze of the middle. Sales houses are bringing technical mastery to the smallest sites, enabling those companies to occupy a growing share of the bidstream. The largest premium publishers similarly can invest in monetization excellence that has enabled them to occupy a growing share of the bidstream.”

Jounce Demand Score for Web Inventory

But why doesn’t everyone jump to the sales house category?

The caveat here is, through the lens of a mid-market publisher, sales house solutions typically come with a compromise in control. More specifically, working with a sales house and leveraging their monetization capabilities requires handing over complete control over how programmatic inventory is managed — and which partners you work with. This can lead to a lack of transparency in performance, along with data leakage risks and potential channel conflicts of managing access to inventory/audiences across sales teams. For publishers with direct sales efforts, this lack of control can make the decision to transition the management of their programmatic inventory untenable — or one filled with unacceptable compromise.

Equally as important are concerns of adding yet another revenue share. With some sales house revenue shares taking 20 or sometimes 30% of the bid price, it’s no wonder mid-market publishers might prioritize improving their own in-house capabilities as a better bet on ROI.

We see this in many of our conversations with publishers that currently work with other sales houses, as well as in Jounce’s sales house churn data. With many publishers not convinced of the margin returns of adding yet another rev share into the mix (after all just 36% of marketer budgets end up as working media and make it through to the publisher) while a little under half of the publishers end up as customers of the top 2 market leader sales houses, a whopping 33% of publishers who churn from the category go back to in-housing. It’s this category of publisher that we believe is underserved. What if a sales house could solve for these compromises?

Current Monetization of Sites that have left a Top-10 Sales House

But it’s not just the sales house tax that needs fixing

At Sovrn, we believe the hidden costs represented by SSPs — and indeed, sales house rev shares — are unaccounted for by many publishers when managing their businesses and P&Ls. This hidden “ad tech tax” makes it that much harder to compete and is something that doesn’t find its way onto earnings reports. The ad tech industry’s revenue-sharing model, initially streamlined business but now burdens publishers financially. With fees deducted from earnings, many publishers remain unaware of the significant revenue leakage.

Having been on the vendor side of the supply-side for the past decade, I’ve often been asked by publishers why and how SSPs can justify charging differently on an impression transacting at a $5 CPM vs one transacting at $0.50 CPM. The answer to this question is, of course, “In an era of volume-based discounts, post auction discounts and rebates, there is no delta in operational costs for serving a less valuable impression, so why do we insist on this model?”

The ad tech industry was built on revenue shares. The pricing model was favored by the industry because it made it easy to do business. Publishers could get started with a new partner because (perceived) risk was mitigated. 

As one of our steering committee members, Samuel Youn, VP Programmatic at Chegg, said in a recent op-ed, “Rev shares create a dependency on short-term thinking and don’t encourage meaningful partnerships…revenue share fees should in theory align performance incentives between SSPs and publishers, however (due to rebates and post auction discounts) … revenue shares are no longer straightforward.”

This leads to premium publishers, who invest in quality content and attract valuable audiences, subsidizing less desirable inventory saturating the internet. The SSP category benefits tremendously from this model by earning variable rev shares, while their unit costs remain consistent. Premium publishers, however, pay out significant non-visible sums, typically $1.5M to $2M for every $10M generated in programmatic revenue.

A New Model

What would happen to the financial outlook and viability of the open web if we could change the model into something that is more transparent and sustainable? At Sovrn, we’re taking a different and more intentional approach to tackle the opportunity of the under-served mid-market publisher. The data presented in Jounce’s March report points to an opportunity for both the SSP and the sales house to evolve. 

And, what if a sales house could eliminate some of the trade offs referenced above by moving toward a more software based model? Through leveraging a modular ad management platform that offers increased control and flexibility, publishers can finally leverage best-in-class yield optimization tools in a self-serve capacity. Publishers could maintain control over their sales channels and buyer relationships, while foregoing the overhead costs of developing their own proprietary yield optimization tools in order to compete. They would have access to all of the different components of the monetization stack of a best-in-class, sales house monetization engine without having to build it themselves. 

In addition, Sovrn has intentionally eliminated the SSP rev share for customers across our Ad Management and Signal product lines. In lieu of a rev share, the publisher can bundle those products and pay a monthly SaaS fee that’s volume based and predictable. The data supports the argument that this is a win for all parties involved. A win for the publisher in a number of ways (a reduced net effective take-rate with SSPs, a larger share of the working media dollar, a more competitive auction and therefore more revenue); a win for advertisers (more transparency, increased reach and efficiency); and a win for Sovrn (in having a more predictable SaaS revenue stream). Here’s a case study with more details.

The Software Opportunity

Getting rid of rev shares isn’t the only opportunity here. As the ad tech ecosystem has flourished, so too has the number of “toll booths” that require publishers to pay some kind of price in order to operate, including ad verification, ad quality and cybersecurity costs, CMPs, adblock recovery, unified reporting solutions, and more. These are all costs the publisher is saddled with, hindering margins and reducing economies of scale. So this year, at the behest of our Ad Management steering committee, we’ve begun bundling-in and assuming many of these “toll booth costs” into our SaaS fees.

On a personal level, I’ve been obsessed with building tools for publishers since I left the publisher side almost a decade ago. At Sovrn, I firmly believe we are providing an operating system for publishers across advertising and commerce products  that delivers on the full promise of the SSP when the category emerged 15+ years ago: Ensuring publishers avoid disintermediation and can compete and thrive at scale.

What are your thoughts? (click here for the original Linkedin post)

Peter Cunha,

Managing Director, Sovrn Ad Management

linkedin.com/in/peterbcunha/

The post Erosion of the ‘Under-Served’ Mid-Market Publisher Powers Sales House Category Growth appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Collaborative effort aims to optimize ad ops yield at scale

June 6, 2023 – Boulder, CO – Sovrn, a publisher technology platform that helps content creators remain independent and thrive on the open web, today announced the launch of a new steering committee to collaboratively tackle the challenges publishers face in efficiently optimizing programmatic ad operations and yield at scale.

Composed of leading publishers such as Ziff Davis, LoveToKnow Media, and Publishers Clearing House, among others, the committee’s mission is to provide a roadmap and guidance to prioritize development of new tools, processes and technologies that deliver the products they need from their ad tech partners to maximize ad operations efficiency. 

“I am excited to be part of Sovrn’s steering committee,” said Mark Obermoller, Senior Director of Programmatic Strategy for Ziff Davis. “Not only can Ziff Davis help influence the development of key products that better align with our strategic objectives, but we can also help positively impact the broader industry.”

The digital media advertising industry is at a significant crossroads. With rapid technology advancements, shifts in consumer behavior and tighter data privacy regulations, the landscape publishers and advertisers must navigate is transforming at an unprecedented pace. To remain nimble and ensure profitability for the long haul, publishers need simple yet robust tools that drive the greatest value from their content and audience engagement. 

Over the next 12 months, the steering committee will focus on unlocking seemingly intractable issues such as addressability, first-party data deployment, marketplace development, yield management and robust data insights. The group will work with the Sovrn Ad Management team to explore and extract the functionality delivered with the Ad Management platform, including its efficient management of programmatic ad operations and yield across hundreds of websites, in order to innovate new solutions for publishers who require control over their owned and operated media properties.

“At Sovrn, we believe that the challenges confronting publishers can be better addressed through collaboration and shared insights,” said Peter Cunha, Managing Director of Sovrn Ad Management. “Our intention with this steering committee is to create a platform for shaping the future of our ad operations software, and more importantly, to engage our customers and partners in ways that foster an environment of collaboration that benefits the industry as a whole.”

About Sovrn

Sovrn provides products and services to thousands of online publishers to help them understand, operate and grow their business. Sovrn is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, with offices in New York, San Diego, and London.

With thousands of customers deploying advertising, affiliate marketing, and data products across more than 80,000 websites, Sovrn reaches 500 million active consumers across more than 40 billion pageviews every day. Sovrn has been a leader in online publisher technology since its founding, and has been recognized by IAB, JICWEBS and TAG for its role in combating fraud and promoting pro-transparency initiatives. Sovrn is dedicated to helping content creators do more of what they love, and less of what they don’t. www.sovrn.com  

The post Sovrn Launches Publisher Steering Committee appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Results show a greater than 60% increase in bid win rate when Ad Management and Ad Exchange used together 

March 27, 2022 – Boulder, CO – Sovrn, a publisher technology platform that helps content creators remain independent and thrive on the open web, today announced that all customers using its Ad Management and Exchange products bundled together will have the advantage of the industry’s first zero take rate. Beginning on April 3, publishers using Ad Management and Exchange products bundled together will simply pay a usage-based fee.

According to a recent study by ISBA, only 65 percent of advertiser dollars make it back to the end publisher. Sovrn has created a direct path between a publisher and the more than 55 demand-side partners on the Sovrn Exchange. This immediately increases the revenue for its Ad Management customers. A direct zero take-rate path between publisher and demand ensures a more competitive auction by requiring other bidders, including Google’s AdX, to increase their prices in order to remain competitive.

“Most SSPs charge a 10 to 20 percent revenue share for connecting publishers like Salon to DSPs,” said Justin Wohl, Salon’s Chief Revenue Officer. “In bundling its Ad Management service with its Exchange, Sovrn is directly increasing revenue for publishers, improving profitability that can be pumped back into operating and growing our digital media businesses.”

Starting in December 2022, Sovrn tested the savings and revenue impact of a bundled Ad Management and Ad Exchange solution with 20 publishers. The test revealed that marketers allocated more spend to the publisher via the more efficient direct-to-publisher Sovrn Exchange path. 

Sovrn’s Ad Management product includes complete ad operations software plus a highly skilled, dedicated team of programmatic advertising specialists to help publishers do more with less. The software runs a unified page-level auction, offering individual auctions for each ad placement on the page. This improves advertising yield by utilizing bid responses more efficiently, thus requiring fewer bid responses and a more direct path. 

Sovrn’s Ad Exchange delivers advertising revenue to publishers using private marketplaces and enhanced CPMs through the open market. Connections to the biggest and best advertising demand gives publishers access to a wide variety of buyers, from The Trade Desk to niche ad agencies.

“We are working to eliminate the ‘adtech tax’ so that more of the marketer’s dollar finds its way into the publisher’s pocket.”  said Walter Knapp, Sovrn CEO. 

About Sovrn

Sovrn provides products and services to thousands of online publishers to help them understand, operate and grow their business. Sovrn is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, with offices in New York, San Diego, London and Lugano, Italy.

With thousands of customers deploying advertising, affiliate marketing, and data products across more than 80,000 websites, Sovrn reaches 500 million active consumers across more than 40 billion page views every day. Sovrn has been a leader in online publisher technology since its founding and has been recognized by IAB, JICWEBS, and TAG for its role in combating fraud and promoting pro-transparency initiatives. Sovrn is dedicated to helping content creators do more of what they love, and less of what they don’t. www.sovrn.com  

The post Sovrn Eliminates Take Rate with Bundled Offering appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

If your monetization strategy relies on advertising, you’re probably aware of the widespread outage suffered by Google Ad Manager (GAM) on Thursday, December 8. At approximately 7:08 pm ET, a bug was inadvertently introduced that impacted Google Ad Manager’s ability to process ad requests and therefore serve ads.

With the bug impacting delivery for more than three hours during the busy holiday shopping season, it’s hard to fathom the worldwide economic impact. GAM is used by some of the largest publishers in the world.

For Sovrn Ad Management customers, however, the story was much brighter.

Sovrn response preserves publisher ad revenue

Sovrn Ad Management actively monitors ad impressions and revenue for our customers in real time. So when ad serving went down at Google, our systems alerted us to the problem and our expert teams went to work on implementing a solution. 

Rather than continuing to deliver ads through GAM, we disabled ad requests through Google and instead served programmatic ads directly from the winning bidder using our proprietary wrapper. For nearly half of the GAM outage period, Sovrn Ad Management customers were among the minority of web publishers that were successfully delivering display ads to their visitors.

Get the help you need in a crisis—and beyond

Fortunately breakdowns like this one are rare. But an expert partner can make your ad operations simpler—and more profitable—under everyday conditions as well. Sovrn Ad Management is the partner you need to maximize ad revenue and minimize headaches. 

• Technical and strategic expertise
  Sovrn Ad Management gives you access to advertising pros who understand the programmatic world inside and out. Our team has the expertise to audit your site, optimize your ad units and monetization strategy, and maximize performance—so you never have to get bogged down in technical details.
• Advanced technology
  Our proprietary wrapper makes more efficient use of bid requests and responses, with a unified auction that incorporates display, video, and native formats to maximize yield.
• Deep analytics and reporting
  Without a dedicated ad ops partner, few publishers have the ability to generate critical insights into ad performance. Sovrn Ad Management provides rich dashboards and real-time reporting—so you never have to guess what’s working and what’s not.
• More ROI with less effort
  Our expert team can help you find those small but critical opportunities to increase ad revenue. And our volume-based pricing offers a more equitable model for publishers, compared to ad ops providers that take a cut of your ad revenue off the top. With Sovrn, you can generate more revenue and keep more of what you earn!

There’s no denying that Google is a major player in the online advertising industry. You can’t become an ad ops expert without deep knowledge of Google’s advertising platform and tools — things like Google Ad Manager, AdSense, Ad Exchange, and more. They’ve even created a program, Google Certified Publishing Partners, to recognize companies that support publishers in their monetization efforts. These trusted vendors, which includes Sovrn, have completed rigorous assessments to prove their expertise with Google products and solutions.

As a Google Certified Publishing Partner, Sovrn Ad Management also has access to exclusive tools and products to help publishers maximize their income potential. Certified Partners get the scoop on Google’s product roadmap and new feature releases, along with customized training and technical support so we can provide better service to our customers. 

Get started today!

At Sovrn, we’re dedicated to helping publishers thrive in an unpredictable world. Sovrn Ad Management provides unmatched technology and an expert team to help you earn more revenue while reducing overhead costs. When you leave the details to us, you have more time to focus on what matters most: creating great content.

To learn more about how Sovrn Ad Management takes the complexity out of ad ops, contact us at sales@sovrn.com.

The post GAM Outage? No problem for Sovrn Ad Management customers appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

But digital advertising is a complex business. It’s not enough to just sell ad space on your website — you need a comprehensive understanding of DSPs (demand-side platforms), SSPs (supply-side platforms), ad exchanges, private marketplaces, performance analysis, and how to turn data insights into actionable strategy. Publishers are often strapped to find the time, resources, and expertise to keep up with optimizing for an effective advertising strategy and ensure their ad operations (or “ad ops”) delivers the best opportunities for revenue generation on an ongoing basis. 

Outsourcing ad ops to a third party can help to reduce this burden — but first you have to find a partner you can trust.

Google can help you find the perfect ad ops partner

There’s no denying that Google is a major player in the online advertising industry. You can’t become an ad ops expert without deep knowledge of Google’s advertising platform and tools — things like Google Ad Manager, AdSense, Ad Exchange, and more. 

That’s why Google is a great place to start your search for an ad ops partner. They’ve even created a program, Google Certified Publishing Partners, to recognize companies that support publishers in their monetization efforts. These trusted vendors have completed rigorous assessments to prove their expertise with Google products and solutions.

Earning the Google Certified Publishing Partner (GCPP) designation is no small task. In addition to extensive product certification exams and a lengthy onboarding process, Google has stringent requirements related to quality of technology and service offerings, company health and bottom-line growth, adherence to industry best practices, and more. At a high level, a GCPP must:

• Have a proven track record of helping publishers succeed with value-added services and technology
• Offer publishers consistently superior interactions and expert consulting
• Maintain a strong reputation for prioritizing a healthy ad ecosystem

Sovrn is a GCPP — and here’s why that matters

As a Google Certified Publishing Partner, Sovrn Ad Management has access to exclusive tools and products to help publishers maximize their income potential — including to Google’s product roadmap and new feature releases. Certified Partners also receive customized training and technical support from Google, so we can provide better service to our publishers.

We help publishers leverage the most innovative advertising technologies to optimize their advertising strategy and maximize ad revenue. When you leave those details to us, you have more time to focus on what matters most: creating great content.

Get started today!

At Sovrn, we’re dedicated to helping publishers thrive in an ever-changing world. As a GCPP member, Sovrn Ad Management provides unmatched technology and an expert team to help you earn more revenue while reducing overhead cost — so you can keep more of what you earn.

• Industry expertise: We take the headache out of ad ops with technical support, best practices, and tools to ensure the best ad performance.
• Advanced technology: More efficient use of bid requests and responses, with a unified auction that incorporates display, video, and native formats to maximize yield.
• Advantageous pricing: Volume-based pricing offers a more equitable model for publishers. Generate more revenue with Sovrn and keep more of what you earn!
• Granular reporting: Rich dashboards and real-time reporting provide deep insights into ad performance, so you don’t have to guess what’s working and what’s not.
• Flexible service model: Utilize as much support as you need, whether you’re looking for full ad ops management or simply want to use our wrapper and reporting.

Contact us at sales@sovrn.com to learn more about how we can help you take the complexity out of your ad ops strategy.

The post A Partner You Can Trust for Ad Ops Support appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Get the most out of your ad revenue

Managing advertising operations (“ad ops”) is a difficult, time-consuming, and often complex job. Most small- and medium-sized publishers are stretched to the limit with content creation, site operations, and revenue generation — leaving little time to deal with the complexities of ad performance and constantly evolving ad technology. 

As you scale up your business, a choice emerges: hire a dedicated ad ops team or outsource some or all of your ad operations. And while either option can help to reduce the burden of ad ops, both come with considerations:

• In-house: Difficult to find candidates with the specialized expertise to manage a complex ad program. In-house teams may also lack the engineering resources to keep technology up to date.
• Outsourced: Selecting a trusted vendor from a crowded marketplace is key to ensure you are driving consistent performance rather than squandering precious time babysitting your ad program.

Whichever path you choose, the cost can be significant. Paying full-time salaries for ad ops staff is expensive, while most ad ops vendors operate on a revenue share model, which can cut into profits.

Sovrn has a better way

When you work with Sovrn Ad Management for your ad operations, you bring onboard a highly skilled, dedicated team of programmatic advertising specialists. As your trusted partner, we take the time to understand your business and align our efforts to help you reach your goals.

Our unique approach allows you to earn more ad revenue and keep more of what you earn. Here’s how:

Earn more

Sovrn is integrated with all of the top supply-side platforms (SSPs) and exchanges, including Google Ad Manager, Amazon TAM, PubMatic, Magnite, and targeted partners such as PulsePoint and Beachfront. And because we operate at scale, we’re able to negotiate better “take rates” with these exchanges than the typical publisher could get on their own — allowing you to earn more revenue from the start.

In addition, Sovrn uses a unique, proprietary wrapper that helps to drive higher ad yield for publishers. The fundamental advantage lies in our unified page-level auction, as opposed to Prebid, which runs individual auctions for each ad property on the page. This proprietary technology is designed to improve yield by utilizing bid responses more efficiently, thus requiring fewer bid requests.

Let’s look at an example:

• PreBid runs a separate auction for each ad slot on the page — but only the highest bid in each auction wins. If the highest bid in any individual auction is lower than a losing bid in any other auction for the same ad size, the publisher misses out on revenue.
• The Sovrn wrapper runs a single unified auction. The three highest bids on the page win, resulting in a higher page RPM (the sum of all ad impression CPMs on the page) — $15 vs $12. Because Sovrn can utilize bids more efficiently, we can send out fewer bid requests, reducing latency on the publisher’s page and improving load times.

Spend less

Most managed services providers operate on a revenue sharing model — so when you make more money, they make more money. That may sound good in theory, but it means the vendor will always take 15-20% off the top of your ad revenue. With our fee-based pricing, your cost for outsourced ad ops is based on CPM — not earnings — allowing you to keep more revenue. For most publishers, this works out to 10-15% less cost versus the competition each month.

However you choose to leverage our services, setup is easy and even though we ideally aim for deep and lasting partnership with all of our customers, you’re never locked into a long-term contract. 

With Sovrn Ad Management, you can stop worrying about ad ops and get back to what you do best: creating great content and growing your audience. Schedule a personalized Demo to see it in action.

Google Certified

---

We’re proud to be a Certified Publishing Partner. This badge shows that we meet rigorous qualification standards, we’re highly trained and we’ve received high rankings in client satisfaction.

The post Make More, Keep More appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

No matter how clever or creative an ad might be, placement is the key to making sure it’s seen by the intended audience. In the modern world of online advertising, programmatic advertising is the preferred way for advertisers to find the ad space that’s most likely to reach their target audience and buy it at the best price.

As a publisher, you own the ad space that publishers need – so understanding programmatic can help you maximize your revenue from that valuable real estate. On the surface, the programmatic ad process is relatively simple:

• The publisher puts ad space on their website or app up for auction.
• Advertisers bid on the available ad space based on audience information.
• The highest bidder wins, and the winner’s ad is served to site visitors.
• The publisher receives payment based on the terms of the deal.

This entire process happens instantly and automatically – simple, right? The problem is, there’s a lot of complexity going on behind the scenes. As a result, the programmatic ecosystem includes a multitude of complex terms, jargon, and acronyms you need to understand before you can navigate it effectively – and they’re constantly changing. 

To help you sort out the “alphabet soup” of programmatic, we’ve compiled this glossary of the most important terms and concepts. Want to keep it handy? Download our PDF or bookmark this page so you can reference the glossary whenever you need a refresher!

A Programmatic Glossary for Publishers

Ad exchange: A computerized marketplace where supply side platforms (SSPs) and demand side platforms (DMPs) connect to buy and sell ad space.

Ad inventory: The ad space a publisher makes available on their website.

Ad network: The “middleman” in a programmatic transaction that bundles inventory from different publishers and offers it for sale to advertisers (for example, Google AdSense).

Ad unit: An individual advertising block used as a placeholder to demonstrate the size and placement of an ad within a website or app.

Advertiser: The buyer in a programmatic transaction; typically a company that wants to advertise on a publishers’ website or app.

Audience: The visitors to your website or app; these are the people an advertiser wants to reach.

CTR (click-through rate): A performance metric that shows how often a user clicks on an ad.

Conversion: A pre-determined action that the advertiser defines as a successful audience interaction (e.g., visiting a website, downloading an asset, signing up for membership, etc.).

Cookie: A piece of Javascript that helps publishers collect valuable information on the behavior of website visitors.

CPC (cost per click): A method of pricing ads where payment is made every time a user clicks on an ad, without regard to the number of impressions.

CPE (cost per engagement): A method of pricing ads where payment is made when a user engages with the ad.

CPM (cost per mille): A method of pricing ads based on each 1,000 ad impressions. 

Creative: The actual advertisement that a user will see when the ad is served.

Deal ID: A unique number assigned to each ad buy so publishers and advertisers can identify it.

DMP (data management platform): A system used by advertisers and publishers to collect, store, sort, and categorize user data; it allows publishers to gain insight on their audience and advertisers to optimize their buying strategies.

DSP (demand side platform): A platform that allows advertisers to identify the best inventory for reaching a target audience, automatically place bids, and gain insights into ad performance. DSPs are connected to SSPs via ad exchanges.

Engaged time: A measure of ad quality that considers both whether an ad is visible and whether a user is actively engaged on the page.

First look: An arrangement where certain advertisers are given priority access to a publisher’s ad inventory.

First-party data: Proprietary data you collect directly from users about their online behavior; this is the “gold standard” of user data in terms of accuracy and insights.

Frequency cap: A method of controlling how many times an ad will be served to an individual user.

Header bidding: An advanced programmatic technique where a publisher offers its inventory to multiple ad exchanges/SSPs simultaneously.

Impressions: The measure used to count the total number of times an ad is served/displayed.

Open auction: A marketplace where publishers offer their ad inventory to all bidders connected via the SSP, and the highest bidder wins the impression.

PMP (private marketplace): A marketplace where publishers offer higher-value ad inventory to a select group of buyers first, before the inventory goes to an open auction.

Price floor: The minimum price a publisher will accept for its ad inventory.

Publisher: The seller in a programmatic transaction; typically the owner of a website or app with advertising space to sell (i.e., YOU). 

Recency cap: A method of controlling how much time must pass before an ad will be re-served to an individual user.

RTB (real-time biding): An automated process where a user’s information is sent to an ad exchange the moment they visit a page, triggering a real-time auction to win the ad slot.  

Second-party data: Essentially someone else’s first-party data; it is typically purchased or shared through a partnership arrangement to supplement your own proprietary data.   

SSP (supply-side platform): A platform that allows publishers to automate the sale of their ad inventory by connecting to DSPs and ad exchanges.

Third-party data: A broad collection of implicit and explicit data points aggregated from many sources that typically have no direct relationship with the user; typically involves the use of cookies.

Viewability: Industry-standard measure of ad quality; a “viewable impression” is defined by the IAB as one where at least 50% of the ad’s area is displayed onscreen for at least one second.

Download our PDF or bookmark this page so you can reference the glossary whenever you need a refresher.

A word about cookies and third-party data…

In recent years, you’ve likely seen countless news stories about online data privacy and the coming elimination of third-party cookies. As a publisher, you may be wondering what this means for you.

We’ll explore this topic further in a future blog post, but for now, it’s important to understand that today’s advertisers rely heavily on cookies and third-party to develop their bid strategy for advertising. As third-party data becomes less readily available, publishers will need a strategy to communicate the value of their audience to advertisers.

Sovrn has solutions to help small and mid-sized publishers understand their audience, enrich their proprietary first-party data, and package up audience segments for advertisers. Contact us at sales@sovrn.com to learn more about how our Identity solutions can help you generate the best possible outcomes from your site traffic.

All sound a little complicated? Our Ad Management team offers a dedicated service to take your ad operations pain away. Find out more here.

The post Making Sense of Programmatic Advertising appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Can you identify with any of these statements? If so, it might be time to find a new partner.

1. My ad performance is unreliable or inconsistent. 
2. I’m not earning enough revenue from advertising. 
3. I outsourced my ad ops, but I still spend too much time dealing with it.
4. My ad ops provider doesn’t have the answers I need. 
5. I don’t get enough actionable insights from my provider. 
6. My provider’s technology isn’t keeping pace with the industry.
7. My provider’s service model isn’t a fit for me anymore.

Sovrn Ad Management provides unmatched technology and an expert, dedicated team to help you earn more and keep more. We understand publishers and we’re dedicated to helping them grow their business in an ever-changing world.

How Sovrn Ad Management can help you optimize your ad ops strategy and maximize your revenue:

• Low fees: Volume-based pricing offers a more equitable model for publishers. Generate more revenue with Sovrn and keep more of what you earn!
• Industry expertise: Our dedicated team takes the headache out of ad ops with technical support, best practices, and tools to ensure the best ad performance.
• Efficient bidding: Our wrapper makes more efficient use of bid requests and responses, with a unified auction that incorporates display, video, and native formats to maximize yield. 
• Access to demand partners: Leverage top local and global demand partners across various ad formats (display, native, video and high impact) and channels (header bidding, open bidding and server side bidding)
• Granular reporting: Rich dashboards and real-time reporting provide deep insights into ad performance, so you don’t have to guess what’s working and what’s not.

With Sovrn Ad Management, you can stop worrying about revenue operations and get back to what you do best: creating great content and growing your audience. Contact us at sales@sovrn.com to learn more about how we can work together.

Google Certified

---

We’re proud to be a Certified Publishing Partner. This badge shows that we meet rigorous qualification standards, we’re highly trained and we’ve received high rankings in client satisfaction.

The post Make Sure your Technology Partner Fits your Needs appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Unfortunately, digital advertising is complex and it’s constantly changing. Many publishers miss out on valuable revenue opportunities because they lack the time, resources, skills or expertise to optimize their ad operations (“ad ops”) effectively. In fact, some may not even realize all that goes into revenue generation via ad ops.

What is ad ops? 

Ad ops is a broad term encompassing everything related to the planning, management, and delivery of online ad space. It typically involves the use of various platforms and tools, including demand side platforms (DSP), supply side platforms (SSP), data management platforms (DMP), ad exchanges, private marketplaces (PMP), and more.

A comprehensive ad ops workflow includes a wide variety of tasks, including:

• Ad management
• Site management
• Demand management
• Revenue optimization
• Performance optimization
• Ad inventory audits
• Billing and technical operations
• Vendor management
• Performance analysis and reporting

The ultimate goal of ad ops is to drive higher ad revenue for the publisher but doing so requires constant attention, testing, and experimentation. For small and mid-sized publishers, keeping up with the demands of ad ops can be time-consuming as evidenced by the complexity shown in this image of the display advertising ecosystem.

In-house versus outsourced ad ops

A dedicated in-house ad ops team can provide the necessary expertise to manage this complex process, but the high cost of paying a full-time staff puts this option out of reach for small to mid-sized publishers. In addition, programmatic advertising is a highly specialized field, so finding and retaining skilled professionals is no small task. 

Instead, many publishers choose to partner with a trusted provider for their ad operations. With the right partner, publishers can get expert support and cutting-edge technology to maximize ad revenue – without the overhead cost of hiring and managing an in-house staff.

Top 5 benefits of outsourcing ad ops

Outsourcing your ad operations to an expert – like Sovrn – provides numerous benefits for small and medium-sized publishers. Here are just a few:

1. Technical and strategic expertise
   With an outsourced ad ops team, publishers get access to the latest in ad technology, along with experienced professionals who are well-versed in programmatic best practices and industry trends – not to mention website design and development. Your outsourced team has the tools and expertise to audit your site, optimize your ad units and monetization strategy, and maximize overall performance so you don’t get bogged down in technical minutiae.
   
2. Continuous campaign optimization
   Effective ad operations requires careful planning, precise calculations, and thorough testing. As a result, making changes can be a slow and tedious process for an internal team with wide ranging responsibilities. An outsourced ad ops team is solely focused on executing campaign strategy and making changes to optimize performance – and a good partner will offer 24/7 monitoring for complete peace of mind.
   
3. Better ROI with less effort
   Publishers know that an effective ad strategy will improve revenue, but it can take a lot of time and effort to get it right. Dedicated ad ops professionals have the expertise to find those small but critical opportunities to increase revenue from ad channels, and they can lower your overhead expenses because you only pay for what you need. The end result? More value from your ad ops investment and significant improvements to your bottom line.
   
4. Deep analytics and reporting
   Without a dedicated ad ops partner, publishers seldom have the capability to thoroughly test their monetization strategy to gain critical insights into what’s working and what’s not. Outsourcing ad ops provides access to rich data insights, real-time reporting, and in-depth analysis to fine-tune every aspect of your ad strategy.
   
5. More time to do what’s really important
   Let’s face it – you didn’t get into online publishing so you could spend time managing ad ops strategy. Successful ad ops keeps the revenue flowing, but it requires a lot of time, energy, and expertise. Outsourcing your ad ops can free up your valuable time to focus on your core purpose: creating great content to keep your audience engaged.

Partner with Sovrn for all your ad ops needs

Outsourcing ad ops can make life a little easier for publishers – but only if you choose the right partner. Sovrn Ad Management provides innovative technology and an experienced, dedicated team to help you maximize your ad revenue while reducing overhead cost.

• Industry expertise:
  We take the headache out of ad ops with technical support, best practices, and tools to ensure the best ad performance.
  
• Advanced technology:
  More efficient use of bid requests and responses, with a unified auction that incorporates display, video, and native formats to maximize yield.
  
• Advantageous pricing:
  Volume-based pricing offers a more equitable model for publishers. Generate more revenue with Sovrn and keep more of what you earn!
  
• Granular reporting:
  Rich dashboards and real-time reporting provide deep insights into ad performance, so you don’t have to guess what’s working and what’s not.
  
• Flexible service model:
  Utilize as much support as you need, whether you’re looking for full ad ops management or simply want to use our wrapper and reporting.

With Sovrn Ad Management, you can stop worrying about ad ops and get back to what you do best: creating great content and growing your audience. Contact us at sales@sovrn.com to learn more about how we can work together.

Google Certified

---

We’re proud to be a Certified Publishing Partner. This badge shows that we meet rigorous qualification standards, we’re highly trained and we’ve received high rankings in client satisfaction.

The post Take the Complexity out of Ad Ops with Expert Support appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

BOULDER, CO (July 14, 2021) – Sovrn Holdings, Inc, a publisher-focused technology company, today announced the acquisition of San Diego-based Proper Media. Proper Media combines industry-leading advertising technology with personalized managed services. The result is high-yielding advertising with insightful unified reporting that boosts revenue, and lowers costs. This acquisition extends Sovrn’s products and services, and helps publishers make more money, more profitably.

“Proper Media gives publishers access to enterprise-level technology that increases their revenue while streamlining operations and improving profitability,” said Chris Richmond, Co-Founder and CEO, Proper Media. “In Sovrn we’ve found a partner that shares our view that publishers deserve better, and we now have the investment to drive further innovation in website monetization for publishers.”

“Sovrn and Proper Media share a commitment to help publishers better understand, operate and grow their business,” said Walter Knapp, CEO, Sovrn. “Programmatic Advertising is a complex challenge for publishers, and many don’t have the time, resources or expertise to best navigate these changes on their own. Our aim is to help our customers make and keep more of their hard-earned revenues, giving them insights to make better decisions and investments.”

The post Sovrn Holdings, Inc. Acquires Proper Media to Expand Solutions for Publishers appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Make sure your site is responsive

Your site will show up on a user’s phone no matter what, but a responsive ad map means that your readers will see a mobile-friendly version of your site, instead of a teeny tiny version of your desktop layout. Therefore, it’s important that the number and placement of ads on your mobile layout makes sense. It might not interfere with a desktop display to have 5 ads on a given page, but if they’re crammed into the spaces between paragraphs on a single mobile article, they might not work so well. 

Consider the experience of your users: ad-stuffing is never a good idea, and an ad layout that’s non-intrusive and tailored to mobile browsing will keep visitors happy, and keep them on your site longer. Returning readers = more revenue.

Create Google AMP pages for mobile

Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is an open-source HTML framework that creates fast-loading and user-friendly pages that work across multiple devices and platforms. By stripping out extraneous code and branding, AMP pages can run anywhere from 15-80% faster on mobile devices. Load times directly influence everything from bounce rates to conversion rates, so even if you’re not building AMP pages, make sure you’re not driving readers away with poor mobile performance. Aim for page load times under 3 seconds. If nobody ever makes it to your page, you won’t earn any money.

Sticky footers are your friend

Viewability on mobile sites can be low. Because screen real estate is limited, ads are typically smaller and people scroll quickly. Sticky footers are typically mobile banners that sit at the bottom of the page as a user scrolls through content. They are an easy, non-invasive way to increase your site’s mobile viewability, in turn increasing the value of that inventory to programmatic buyers.

Consider pre-roll ads on mobile video

Since more and more people are watching and engaging with content on their phones, mobile video and pre-rolls on existing mobile video players can be a great way to serve ads to engaged users. These ads are more likely to remain in-view for longer periods of time, increasing their viewability and value. Video in general also commands higher CPMs than standard display ads, so your page RPM will increase as well.

Keep your mobile advertising mix diverse

We’ve already talked about tailoring your display and video ads to work on mobile, but don’t forget to make sure your mobile pages are set up for eCommerce as well. More purchases are made on phones and tablets than ever before, so making sure your strong eCommerce pages are set up for mobile as well will help you to capture that audience. 

Next steps

Optimization is no easy task, whether on desktop or mobile. That’s why our Gold ad management team builds custom strategies for every publisher. We’ll help you build and maintain your demand stack, diversify your advertising revenue, and grow your earnings. If you’re interested in higher revenue and better performance, set up a free consultation with our team.

The post 5 Mobile advertising tips for publishers appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..