Overview

A long time Sovrn customer, Mumsnet wanted a better way to increase both its programmatic advertising yield and its operational efficiency. Mumsnet is the go-to online community for UK parents, with eight million unique users. Established in 2000, it offers support, advice, and a vibrant platform for parents to connect and share experiences.

Key Takeaway: Mumsnet captured a 10% average revenue uplift using Signal dynamic pricing.

Opportunity: Optimize Yield in Q4 (and Beyond)

Mumsnet monetizes some of their inventory via programmatic advertising channels using demand partners through Prebid, Amazon’s Transparent Marketplace, and Google’s Open Bidding and AdX.

Mumsnet ran static price floors across several supply-side platform (SSP) partners, updating manually on a semi-regular cadence to capture market movements. However, by the last quarter of 2023, Mumsnet was actively seeking a dynamic pricing solution to increase revenue during its peak season by optimizing ad pricing.

Solution: Sovrn Signal Dynamic Pricing 

The Sovrn team invited Mumsnet to participate in Beta testing the dynamic pricing tool embedded in Sovrn Signal, a data decisioning engine to understand and generate maximum value from every advertising transaction. Signal would measure, price, broadcast, and monetize the value of every ad unit to dynamically generate the best price and send it to bidders.

By adding a single line of JavaScript (JS) code to each Mumsnet.com webpage, Signal could dynamically:

• Measure the attributes of all impressions including visit details, viewability and attention, audience segments, and addressability.
• Price each ad using the attributes to predict and set the optimal floor.
• Broadcast the floor price in bid requests to SSPs.
• Monetize by routing requests to buyers most likely to bid at or above the estimated market price.

Throughout the testing period, Signal automatically updated pricing floors to maximize yield while alternative floors were tested concurrently to capture market changes. Signal-generated dynamic pricing was passed to the Sovrn Ad Exchange plus several additional SSPs during the test, while a control group comprising at least 5% of Mumsnet’s ad inventory was maintained to measure the revenue uplift. 

Results

• Overall revenue increase across all programmatic channels through testing period
• Yield increased across all ad units when dynamic pricing was passed versus the control
• Revenue uplift remained steady, even accounting for traffic spikes, dips, and cyclical demand trends
• Overall yield increased across all programmatic channels, including in Google AdX

Methodology

During a three-week period between December 13, 2023 and January 2, 2024, Signal’s prediction and pricing algorithm continuously ran against a control sample, in order to determine both the effective market rate and the impact of dynamic pricing. In the control set no floor was passed at all to provide a true benchmark of the market rate without interference.

We determined revenue uplift by calculating the yield (or, total revenue divided by the total number of ads available) for ads with Signal dynamic pricing enabled or from the control group, and then compared the results. Yield for the control group was applied to the total number of requests that received dynamic pricing to determine what revenue would have been without Signal.

For the revenue uplift figures quoted above, custom targeting key values were passed through to Mumsnet’s Google Ad Manager to denote if dynamic pricing was set or whether the impression was part of the control group. 

Start benefiting from the true value of your audience.

Maximize your revenue with Sovrn Signal. Reach out to sales@sovrn.com to get started.

The post Higher Yields, More Revenue for UK-Based Parenting Platform appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Overview

A long time Sovrn customer, Daily Voice wanted a better way to increase both its programmatic advertising yield and its operational efficiency. Daily Voice is a digital news platform, reaching over two million unique monthly users by focusing on hyperlocal journalism. Serving the northeastern US, Daily Voice bridges the “news desert” between national and hyper-local, reporting on town, city, county, and state news to inform and connect communities. 

Key Takeaway: Signal dynamic pricing delivers 20% average revenue uplift across all ad formats.

Opportunity: An Efficient Way to Increase Revenue

Ninety percent of Daily Voice’s ad revenue is via programmatic advertising channels using demand partners through Prebid, Amazon’s Transparent Marketplace, and Google AdX.

Daily Voice ran static price floors across several supply-side platform (SSP) partners, updating on a semi-regular cadence to capture market movements. However, by the last quarter of 2023, it was actively seeking a way to optimize ad pricing and increase revenue during peak advertising season (and beyond).

Solution: Sovrn Signal Dynamic Pricing 

In the fourth quarter of 2023, Daily Voice agreed to Beta test the dynamic pricing tool embedded in Sovrn Signal, a data decisioning engine to understand and generate maximum value from every advertising transaction. Signal would measure, price, broadcast, and monetize the value of every ad unit in the test group to dynamically generate the best price and send it to bidders.

By adding a single line of JavaScript (JS) code to each DailyVoice.com webpage, Signal could dynamically:

• Measure the attributes of all impressions including visit details, viewability and attention, audience segments, and addressability.
• Price each ad using the attributes to predict and set the optimal floor.
• Broadcast the floor price in bid requests to SSPs.
• Monetize by routing requests to buyers most likely to bid at or above the estimated market price.

Throughout the testing period, Signal automatically updated pricing floors to maximize yield while alternative floors were tested concurrently to capture market changes. Signal dynamic pricing was passed to the Sovrn Ad Exchange plus several additional SSPs during the test, while a control group comprising at least 5% of Daily Voice’s ad inventory was maintained to measure the revenue uplift.

Results

• 10% overall revenue increase across all programmatic channels throughout the testing period
• Yield increased across all ad units when dynamic pricing was passed versus the control
• Revenue uplift remained steady, even accounting for traffic spikes, dips, and cyclical demand trends
• Overall yield increased across all programmatic channels, including in Google AdX

Methodology

During a three-week period between December 13, 2023 and January 2, 2024, Signal’s prediction and pricing algorithm continuously ran against a control sample, in order to determine both the effective market rate and the impact of dynamic pricing. In the control set no floor was passed at all to provide a true benchmark of the market rate without interference.

We determined revenue uplift by calculating the yield (or, total revenue divided by the total number of ads available) for ads with Signal dynamic pricing enabled or from the control group, and then compared the results. Yield for the control group was applied to the total number of requests that received a floor to determine what revenue would have been without Signal.

For the revenue uplift figures quoted above, custom targeting key values were passed through to Daily Voice’s Google Ad Manager to denote if a price floor was set or whether the impression was part of the control group.

Start benefiting from the true value of your audience.

Maximize your revenue with Sovrn Signal. Reach out to sales@sovrn.com to get started.

The post Increasing Programmatic Yield From Every Ad appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Today’s programmatic marketplace is unnecessarily complex, creating an online experience cluttered with ads that decreases the value of marketers’ ad spend while diverting revenue from publishers’ pockets. In fact, a recent study found that less than 65 percent of advertising dollars ever reach the publisher. Connecting buyers directly to publishers has potential benefits for both the buy-side and the sell-side of the advertising equation. 

To counter these issues, Sovrn recently tested a more direct supply path, coupled with a no take rate pricing model, that eliminates inefficiencies, reduces fees, and boosts revenue for publishers. Early results indicate this unique bundled solution has the potential to transform outcomes, not only delivering an increase in revenue to publishers via the Sovrn Ad Exchange path, but a more competitive auction across all demand partners. 

Zero take rate plus direct supply path

In December 2022, the Sovrn Ad Management team began testing the impact of a unique model, one that offered a zero take-rate path between a publisher and the more than 55+ demand-side platforms (DSPs) on the Sovrn Exchange. The goal was to demonstrate that a bundled solution would improve efficiency for buyers while ensuring higher ad yields for publishers. 

Sovrn tested the efficacy of this model with 105 Ad Management publishers, including ClassicCars.com, JamieOliver.com, Ask Media Group, and Salary.com, among others, by sending their supply — unburdened by a take rate —via the Sovrn Ad Exchange directly to Sovrn’s demand partners, from The Trade Desk to niche ad agencies. 

The test revealed promising outcomes, including:

• Improved efficiency for buyers
• A more competitive auction environment
• Increased yield for publishers
• Higher allocation of ad spend via the direct-to-publisher path

This test provided proof of the potential influence of bundling Sovrn Ad Management and Exchange together, demonstrating that a direct, zero take-rate path to demand model delivers clear revenue benefits for publishers while improving efficiency for buyers.

Results

Increase in buyer participation rate

Testing proved the bundled offering and direct-to-demand path makes Sovrn Ad Management a more efficient option for ad buyers. This improved efficiency resulted in increased bidding activity by the majority of demand partners (DSPs) during the test period, and an average bid rate increase of 20% across the board. Through optimizing this supply path, Sovrn ensures that buyers prioritize this path over less efficient points of access — thus increasing visibility for Ad Management publishers. 

Revenue impact

The direct-to-demand path, coupled with the usage-based pricing structure Ad Management offers, has the potential to transform revenue outcomes for publishers. Test data showed a 35% average increase in net revenue earned through the Sovrn Exchange and an increase of 16% in their share of advertising spend.

Throughout the test period, buyers allocated more of their ad spend to publishers through Sovrn’s efficient, direct-to-publisher path, who experienced a 67% higher win rate, on average.

Auction environment

Finally, testing demonstrated that the bundled, direct-to-demand model drives higher yield for publishers across their entire stack of demand partners, even when bids sent via the Sovrn Ad Exchange did not result in impression wins. This is because a direct, zero-take rate path between publishers and ad buyers creates a more competitive auction environment and increases pricing pressure on other bidders — including Google AdX. A bundled, direct-to-demand model incentivizes more bidding and exerts an upward pressure on price floors — both of which directly benefit publishers. This resulted in the Sovrn Exchange the top demand source for Ad Management publishers, second only to Google’s AdX. 

Ready to get started?

Built for ad ops professionals, Sovrn Ad Management delivers the ability to optimize performance, drive more revenue, and quickly respond with real-time data. With robust, enterprise-level tools and efficient, proprietary header-bidding technology, Ad Management ensures ad ops teams can easily optimize ad placement, increase yield and fill rates, and maximize ad value. Additionally, since Sovrn Ad Management leverages a usage-based fee structure instead of a revenue share, publishers keep more of their hard-won earnings. 

To learn more about Ad Management, visit sovrn.com or Request a Demo. Our team will be happy to demonstrate how we can help you get the most out of your advertising program.

The post The Value of Coupling a Zero Take-Rate with Direct Demand appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Overview

Four, a buy now, pay later (BNPL) solution, has worked with Sovrn for the past three years. The company uses Sovrn Commerce to power affiliate links through their consumer shopping app. As a fast-growing online platform, Four is focused on maximizing affiliate revenue — and they’re open to experimenting with new strategies and tactics that can help drive higher earnings. 

The Opportunity

Four’s product manager, Yossi Klein, works closely with Sovrn and his account manager to optimize the company’s affiliate strategy and ensure they are taking full advantage of Sovrn Commerce capabilities. 

It became clear that one of Yossi’s biggest pain points was uncertainty regarding the rates he could earn with Sovrn Commerce. At the same time, Sovrn was looking for a way to win back Four’s affiliate traffic with a top retailer. Sovrn recommended testing out Fallback URLs, a new feature in the Commerce platform that could help Four earn higher, more reliable affiliate rates and give Sovrn a chance to win back that traffic.

The Solution

Fallback URLs are an easy-to-use Sovrn Commerce feature that lets you explore whether Sovrn can beat your best available rate per click. Here’s how it works:

• Rather than building your affiliate links with a single product URL, Fallback URLs let you set a bid floor and specify an alternate (or fallback) URL to lock in your target rate. 
• When someone clicks the link, the Commerce technology automatically checks to see if Sovrn’s rate can beat the bid floor you set. 
• If Sovrn can beat the bid floor, you’ll earn the higher affiliate rate. If not, the reader is shown your Fallback URL and you’ll earn the rate you’ve secured with another partner. 

Fallback URLs offered Four significant upside with no risk of losing out on higher rates from another affiliate partner. At the beginning of the test period, Four had secured an EPC of $0.30 on every click from a top retailer so they used the Fallback URLs feature to set their bid floor at $0.30.

The Results

Four started seeing positive results in just two weeks. After running the fallback URL test for 45 days, Four had earned an average $0.59 EPC on the retailer’s traffic — nearly double their target rate of $0.30. In addition, Sovrn’s win rate during that time was an astonishing 90%. That means Four was able to earn more with Sovrn on nine out of every 10 clicks for that retailer — and they still earned their target $0.30 on the other 10% of transactions.

Yossi has now incorporated fallback URLs into Four’s regular affiliate strategy, so they can continue to maximize affiliate earnings with Sovrn without missing out when another partner can offer higher rates.

The post Sovrn Helps Four Earn Higher Affiliate Rates per Click appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Boons Media finds a key strategic partnership with Sovrn

Overview

Advertising is a critical component of the monetization strategy at Boons Media. But as a mobile-first publisher, they also pride themselves on delivering an enjoyable user experience that’s easy to navigate — and ads must integrate seamlessly into that experience. 

In order to connect with premium brands that align with their audience, Boons Media works with dozens of ad tech providers for both client-side and server-side bidding. As they expand their reach into new geographies and new content areas, Boons Media is constantly looking for reliable ad tech partners to help drive incremental revenue on their sites. 

The Opportunity

Boons Media was looking to move more of its ad program to server-side bidding (like Google Open Bidding and Amazon TAM) and were intrigued by Sovrn’s strong performance compared to other providers and that the company worked with leading DSPs. The company also learned that the Sovrn Ad Exchange was expanding its demand partnerships in geographies of interest.

Boons Media and Sovrn began their relationship by launching a dual integration of both Prebid and TAM in the Sovrn Ad Exchange. The setup and integration were completed quickly, with very little friction. The team at Boons Media appreciated the clear communication and simple process for getting both the contractual and technical details of the engagement squared away.

The Results

The Sovrn Ad Exchange delivered solid performance out of the gate, and quickly improved as volume ramped up. Boons Media typically works with 15+ providers for client-side bidding (TAM and Google Open Bidding), and Sovrn is consistently among the top five in key regions. Sovrn is also one of Boons Media’s top-tier providers for server-side bidding (Prebid). 

Top Revenue by Domain

“Sovrn was willing and open to listen to our needs as a publisher, and they are now connected to our entire programmatic inventory. They frequently rank among our top 5 revenue partners in strategic geos like France, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, and the US.”

“As a publisher, it’s nice to know that our partners are looking for opportunities to help us increase revenue. Speaking to other ad tech providers, I haven’t heard of anything else like this.”

— Asher Glinsman, Head of Monetization at Boons Media

Top Geos by Revenue

Boons Media has recently seen a revenue surge from Google Open Bidding, due to a new innovation from Sovrn that uses machine learning to constantly improve matching of bid requests. This allows publishers to earn more on traffic that would typically go unmatched. From Q1 to Q2 2022, Boons Media increased its supply on Open Bidding by just 6%, but  revenue increased by 12%. 

While the team at Boons Media initially chose to work with Sovrn based on the strength of its server-side header bidding technology, the relationship has evolved far beyond a simple point solution. In addition to consistent, solid ad performance, the company has e come to rely on the Sovrn account team for strategic guidance and industry insights.  

“What strikes me with Sovrn is they’re so knowledgeable. They’re willing to teach us not only about Sovrn products, but also about the ad tech space. They know the industry; they know the trends and what to expect. It’s nice to have more than just a typical client-provider relationship — they’re a source of knowledge we can rely on.”

— Asher Glinsman, Head of Monetization at Boons Media

The Future

Boons Media sees growth ahead through its partnership with Sovrn. The team is excited by the ongoing revenue opportunities across multiple geographies, being connected to top buyers such as IBM and Disney, and exploring diversifying their revenue stream with affiliate marketing ideas. 

Boons Media is also very interested in testing solutions to prepare the business for a cookieless world using Signal. One of the main draws to continue working with Sovrn is the wide range of solutions available to help Boons Media operate and grow their business.

About Boons Media

Mobile-first publishing group Boons Media operates a variety of news and entertainment websites including Trendscatchers, Greedyfinance, and Motormag. Their data-driven approach to publishing delivers a premium, tailor-made entertainment experience to engaged readers across EMEA, Central and South America, and the US.

The post Boons Media Boosts Ad Performance with Sovrn appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

The post Salon Sees Superior Ad Performance Results appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Today, more than 40% of the web is cookieless and not addressable. Regardless of Google’s plans for deprecating third-party cookies — whether in 2024 or beyond — regulatory and privacy pressures are removing the ability for publishers and advertisers to accurately target their most valuable consumers.

This presents an opportunity for publishers to better communicate the value and identity of their audiences to buyers and to better control how audiences are valued. The challenge is that most open web publishers today do not have the capacity to leverage their own data assets.

To address this gap, Sovrn and its partner ID5, a market-leading identity provider for digital advertising, tested the efficacy of Sovrn Signal plus the ID5 ID to deliver privacy-safe solutions publishers can use to enrich and segment their first-party data. Results released this week show that using Signal plus the ID5 ID can unlock a near two times greater lift in CPMs.

“Advertisers are excited about using attention to measure effectiveness, but they’re confused by all the different definitions being used in the market. The risk is that this confusion will lead to them not using attention as a metric and not taking advantage of the insights it can offer.”

A Smarter Data Feed

Sovrn Signal linked permissioned, first-party data from the Sovrn Data Collective on each applicable user visit to an ID5 ID, which was then passed to buyers for evaluation. Publishers could also use the same Signal infrastructure to securely broadcast a bid request, in real-time to any SSP, enriched with:

• Viewability, attention, and CTR prediction scores
• Available deterministic attributes, including HEM, MAID, 3PC, and offline data
• An applicable floor price
• Interest, intent, and demographic user segments
• Eligible deal segments

The Signal difference

By using Signal to tap the power of the Sovrn Data Collective, publishers using a first-party identifier can enrich and segment their first-party data, benchmark ad performance against other publishers in the collective, link hashed emails, and append Sovrn’s full event stream. 

And, Sovrn Signal provides robust analytics capabilities that make it easy to track ad performance and benchmark your ad inventory performance against the market. Effective optimization of your ad strategy requires the ability to evaluate ad quality, monitor trends, and recognize potential problems.

Take a deep dive into the Signal difference →

Get started with Signal today

Publishers using Prebid can request free access to Signal to unlock, in a cookieless-environment, greater on-page attention and engagement to effectively segment and scale inventory and audience segments. They can then broadcast enhanced impression information and price recommendations to buyers through Sovrn’s Ad Exchange private marketplace to increase CPM value. In addition, publishers using Signal can tap real-time insights to benchmark how their ad inventory CPM compares to the market, adjust their pricing strategy accordingly and drive greater revenue per user visit. 

The world of online advertising has reached a pivotal moment, with a unique opportunity for advertisers and publishers to join forces and unlock new solutions that will benefit everyone involved. Sovrn Signal gives publishers a simple, scalable way to measure user attention, access deep audience insights, deliver the data buyers need to target high-value audience segments, and maximize inventory value. 

Sovrn Signal delivers a simple, scalable way to measure user attention, analyze ad performance, and access deep insights to maximize the value of your ad inventory. To learn more, visit the Signal page on our website or send an email to sales@sovrn.com. Our team will be happy to demonstrate how Signal can work for you.

The post Sovrn and ID5: Addressability at Scale appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Most affiliate marketing tactics rely on content like articles, product reviews, and social posts to drive clicks and generate revenue. But affiliate marketing isn’t just for content creators. In fact, you don’t even need a website to develop an effective — and profitable — affiliate marketing strategy.

App developers are beginning to see the value of affiliate marketing, and many are tapping into its potential. Shopping apps are especially well-suited to affiliate marketing, including buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services and other tools to help consumers find coupons or deals. These apps serve as consumer discovery engines and can create an entirely new revenue stream for the app developer.

A key feature of affiliate marketing is its breadth and depth. By giving app-based shoppers access to a vast number of merchants to shop at — and sometimes deals and discount programs — you offer the ability to connect with new merchants and trending products, all while successfully monetizing more of your clicks. 

Here are two great examples of how Sovrn clients have incorporated affiliate marketing into their shopping apps.

Klarna

The Klarna app helps millions of customers shop at thousands of stores with their BNPL offering, as well as find great deals on the products they want every day, creating a seamless shopping experience with flexible payment options. Using the Sovrn Commerce API, Klarna monetizes the shopping experience by providing customers with access to our entire list of 30,000+ affiliate merchants. Every purchase made through the app earns Klarna an affiliate commission, and the breadth of discount programs ensures that app users will return again and again looking for the best deals.

Zip (formerly QuadPay)

Zip uses the Sovrn Commerce API to create a seamless monetization solution straight from their in-house shopping app. When shoppers use the app, they’re shown a selection of merchants, products, and product categories tailored to their interests. Each click or purchase drives incremental revenue for Zip. To learn more about how Zip leverages Sovrn technology and expertise to maximize affiliate revenue, check out this case study.

Other Ways to Leverage Affiliate Marketing in Your App

Affiliate marketing is flexible enough to allow all kinds of app developers to diversify their revenue. Even if your app isn’t retail-focused, there may be related products that you could promote as part of the overall app experience.

Using our Commerce API, you can monetize your app experience by pulling in top coupons and trending deals from thousands of retailers. Or build out a rich shopping and product discovery experience to augment your main app content. The potential of app-based affiliate marketing is only limited by your imagination.

Ready to start earning with affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is relatively easy to understand but getting started can seem daunting. Even if you’re already making money through affiliate marketing, there may be new ideas to explore and new opportunities to enhance your strategy. 

Download our free ebook: 5 Ways to Make Affiliate Marketing Work for You in 2021, and visit Sovrn Commerce, to discover how to start earning through affiliate marketing.

The post Make More Bank with Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..