At Sovrn, we’re committed to helping publishers thrive by capturing audience attention and maximizing return on high-value ad inventory. We believe that publishers who create engaging content should be rewarded for their efforts — publishers who can deliver clear attention signals to buyers can command higher rates for high-value inventory — and the ad ecosystem should evolve to do just that.

That’s why we’re long-time advocates of increased transparency in the ad ecosystem and a stronger focus on attention as a measure of ad quality. To that end, Sovrn is excited to participate in the IAB Attention Task Force to help bring about alignment and standards for defining and measuring attention.

What is the IAB Attention Task Force?

Publishers and advertisers alike understand that an engaged audience is more valuable than one that’s not paying attention. Engaged users are more likely to view an ad, click on it, and ultimately make a purchase. 

To date, however, there is no universal definition of “attention” and no widely accepted standards for measuring it. The IAB Attention Task Force was convened to:

• Establish a clear, consistent set of definitions of attention
• Develop a set of metrics that measure attention in different contexts and situations
• Create standardized attention metrics that are widely accepted and used across different applications

In order to standardize attention, it’s critical to create a strong knowledge base. The IAB Attention Task Force is bringing together many different stakeholders — attention providers, publishers, advertisers, and marketers — to share their unique perspective, offer solutions, and collaborate on the development of educational guides, presentations, best practices and other resources. 

Why did Sovrn agree to join the IAB Attention Task Force?

By participating, Sovrn has the opportunity to help define and standardize industry metrics and requirements, while representing the interests of the publisher. This task force is a big step forward for the ad industry, and we’re proud to play a role along with other IAB member companies in defining the future of online advertising. 

For more than seven years, Sovrn has offered publishers a way to measure and monetize user attention through multiple mechanisms, including our “engaged time” attention metric and our proprietary data tool, Sovrn Signal. Using Signal, publishers can:

• Understand the metrics buyers use to value ad inventory
• Benchmark ad performance against the market and other similar sites
• Identify, segment, and broadcast your most engaged audience segments
• Deliver high value inventory to buyers through attention deals

Simply put, Signal provides an easy, scalable way to measure user attention, package high-value inventory, and broadcast engagement signals to ad buyers. Across the entire programmatic stack, Signal leverages attention metrics to pinpoint your most engaged — and most valuable — ad inventory, so you can maximize ad revenue.

Prepare for the future today

As definitions and requirements around attention are formalized, both advertisers and publishers will need to adjust. But change often brings opportunity for those who are prepared to embrace it. And when publishers have the right tools to capture and broadcast attention signals, everyone wins.

Ready to see Signal in action? Just email us at sales@sovrn.com request a free demo. 

The post New IAB Task Force Seeks to Standardize Attention Measures appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

2023 promises to be a challenging year in the programmatic space, as the cookieless rubber finally meets the road. What options do publishers have to meet ad buyers’ requirements for addressability at scale, and how do we ensure that stakeholders across the ecosystem are working together toward the right solution?

Recently, our own Peter Cunha, Managing Director of Sovrn Ad Management, dug into these timely topics at ID5’s Identity 2023 conference. He partnered with Justin Wohl, Chief Revenue Officer at Salon.com, to host a session titled, “How Publishers Can Fill the Identity Gap.”

Key insights from their conversation include:

• In general, advertisers are working with smaller budgets this year — and they require new data tools to activate those budgets effectively.
• Scalability is an ongoing challenge with many possible solutions, but universal IDs appear to offer significant potential value.
• Publishers have an opportunity to take control by creating data-driven audience segments based on first party-data, observed reader behavior, and more.
• Adoption of universal IDs is growing, and the market is consolidating behind a few primary vendors.
• While there is no “silver bullet” solution to the addressability problem, publishers should stay agile and be willing to experiment as the situation evolves.

Addressability benefits of Signal + ID5

In late 2022, Sovrn and ID5 tested the efficacy of combining Sovrn Signal and the ID5 universal ID to deliver privacy-safe solutions for enriching and segmenting first-party data. In the study, permissioned first-party data from the Sovrn Data Collective was linked to an ID5 ID on each applicable user visit, then passed to buyers for evaluable. Results showed that using Signal plus the ID5 ID allowed publishers to realize nearly 2x lift in CPMs.

Watch the full session from ID5 Identity 2023 for more data and insights on filling the identity gap. Then download the case study to learn more about the power of Signal plus ID5 universal IDs.

The post ICYMI: Filling the Identity Gap (ID5 Identity 2023) appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

While the future of media buying and the broader ad ecosystem in 2023 may be murky, one aspect is clear: online advertising is broken. Why? The incentive system that largely excludes time and attention causes perverse behaviors. There are too many ads, many of which go unseen. And even if they are seen, most are only partially visible for a fleeting moment, not nearly enough time for a consumer to recall an advertisement with any meaningful clarity.

Moreover, the market is cluttered with intermediaries that simply trade traffic between each other, exploiting inefficiencies in the system. Every so often the inefficiencies generate a fee rather than adding value for consumers, advertisers, and publishers. The more volume, the more inefficiencies, and thus the more opportunities to grab a fee. 

The result? Less than 50% of advertising dollars ever reaching the publisher.

In its latest report, digital marketing consultancy Jounce Media stated that “the average RTB enabled publisher monetizes through 27.8 directly integrated sell side technology companies and authorizes 16.2 of these partners to initiate resold auctions. Rebroadcasting supply chains account for 45% of display auctions and 37% of video auctions.” In addition, Jounce estimated that in the past three years, the volume of bid requests for the top 10,000 websites, mobile apps, and CTV apps that collectively represent 94% of all real-time bidding requests has more than tripled in just two years — from 205 supply paths in 2020 to 622 as of late 2022.

An unnecessarily complex system that relies on trading and reselling ad space to generate fees, rather than one of transparency and directness, drains revenue from publisher pockets, decreases advertisers’ return on spend — and most of all — makes the consumer experience miserable. 

All of this contributes to the outsized carbon footprint of digital advertising. Identifying and measuring inefficiencies in the advertising supply chain, as advocated by companies such as Scope3, Cavai and others, and making that data visible to ad buyers so they can make “carbon conscious choices” in how they spend their ad dollars, is a solid step forward to reducing carbon emissions. 

Here are a few of the ways that Sovrn is working to create a more efficient, better quality, and more sustainable ad ecosystem.

Reducing ad waste by delivering on attention

Multiple studies have shown that the longer the viewable time of an ad, the greater its effectiveness, whether in driving conversions or brand recall, although this impact is only observed once the ad has been in view for at least two seconds. Frequency is important too: seeing the same ad twice for 15 seconds is worth more than seeing the same ad once for considerably longer. 

To help capture the information publishers and buyers need to identify and target engaged audience segments, Sovrn has devised a new measure of attention called “engaged time.” Engaged time measures not only when an ad is in view, but also when a person is actively engaged with the content. This ability to analyze ad performance and turn attention into increased revenue is the foundation of Sovrn Signal. 

It makes sense, then, that the most valuable audience segments are those paying the most attention. And publishers who can deliver clear attention signals to buyers can command higher rates for high-value inventory. Instant scarcity is created; as much as 40% of all digital advertising wouldn’t make the cut. From there, the price paid scales up alongside the ad performance until it hits a diminishing return.

Solving for quality

Sovrn strives to provide buyers and sellers with a safe, transparent, and fair marketplace and consistently ranks as one of the top exchanges when compared to our peers. This is based on how few security violations are served by Sovrn ad tags. To do so, our team of supply quality experts ensures each publisher transacting on the Sovrn Ad Exchange meets a set of site, ad inventory, and traffic guidelines. This reduces supply that exists solely to exploit algorithmic buying on the open exchange, and increases the probability that our publishers’ ad experiences deliver on marketer outcomes.

Filtering low- to no-demand ad requests at the front door

Before conducting an ad auction, we filter out ad units with a low likelihood of generating viewability and attention before sending them to Demand Side Platforms (DSP) partners. If we determine an ad request is unlikely to receive bids from a DSP, we discontinue processing and no auction is held. This eliminates approximately 20% from our Ad Exchange’s 80 billion daily requests, reducing the energy needed to serve up that traffic.

Reducing our infrastructure footprint

Starting this quarter, we are migrating our traffic to the Amazon Web Server cloud to dramatically cut down the infrastructure required to operate the Sovrn Ad Exchange. According to Amazon, companies using AWS rather than their own on-premises infrastructure typically reduce carbon emissions by nearly 80% by tapping into a cleaner mix of solar and wind power. By the end of 2023, 100% of Sovrn Ad Exchange traffic will be hosted in the cloud on AWS.

Optimizing our traffic shaping by DSP

In 2023, we are strengthening our traffic shaping capabilities to better predict which DSPs will participate in an auction to ensure we are issuing bid requests to probable auction participants. In other words, rather than sending bid requests to every DSP for every auction, we use historical bid data per DSP to predict whether or not they will submit a bid. This way, if we don’t expect a bid, we don’t waste energy by asking them to participate in our auction.

Our commitment to sustainability

These are just a few of the actions Sovrn is undertaking today to help improve the digital advertising ecosystem. Our goal is to add value to the advertising supply chain by routing requests to the right buyers, eliminating unnecessary ad calls, providing great products like Signal to help buyers find valuable audiences that are paying attention, and deliver quality content supply to make the internet an awesome marketplace of ideas, content, and commerce.

As we continue to innovate and deliver on our sustainability goals, we will share our progress to highlight what we are doing, how we are measuring it, and how we are holding ourselves accountable. 

Get Started with Sovrn Today

If you’re not already working with Sovrn’s Ad Exchange, or if you need to add Signal to your current ad ops tech stack, just email us at sales@sovrn.com. Our team will be happy to provide more information and help you get started.

The post Cleaning Up Ad Tech: Solving for Quality and Eliminating Waste appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

When brands and ad buyers create digital ad campaigns, they typically target audiences by selecting from a list of IAB-defined categories. Depending on the content of the ad, an auto parts retailer might choose a category like Auto Parts, Auto Repair, Electric Vehicle, Performance Vehicle, and the like. Category information is then attached to the bid request and used to match the ad to the most relevant inventory.

While the list of IAB categories is extensive, there are still plenty of gaps and overlap. They may be useful for approximating an audience segment, but they aren’t granular enough to guarantee an engaged audience. However, a new protocol called seller-defined audiences (SDAs) is emerging in the ad ecosystem that has the potential to give publishers more control in targeting by balancing targeting options between both buyer and seller.

Understanding SDAs

As a publisher, you know your site visitors better than anyone else. You have first-hand insight into their interests and demographics, the content they consume, and how much time they spend on your site. SDAs provide a way for publishers to package these first-party data insights into relevant audience segments and broadcast them to demand partners. On the buyer side, SDAs make it easier to target audiences based on demographics, interests, and purchase intent without the use of third-party cookies.

For example, a health and fitness publisher might know they have an audience of 15,000 parents who enjoy running with their kids. SDAs would let that publisher offer this audience segment to brands that want to target this unique group — like retailers who sell running shoes, jogging strollers, and more.

The Sovrn Ad Exchange was the first SSP to support SDAs for programmatic ads through Prebid. And while the approach is still gaining traction, ad giant Google recently announced that SDAs would be supported in Google Ad Manager.

Engagement takes SDAs to the next level

While alignment with the buyer’s target criteria is important, the most valuable audience segments are those who are also paying attention. To help capture these attention signals, Sovrn has devised a better measure of attention — called “engaged time” — which analyzes more than 50 distinct on-page actions like clicks, swipes, scrolls, mouse movements, and more. Sovrn measures not only when an ad is in view, but also when a person is actively engaged with the content. This ability to analyze and act on user engagement is the foundation of our data product, Sovrn Signal. 

Layering engagement data from Signal onto the demographic and interest data via SDAs lets you deliver more targeted (and more valuable) inventory to ad buyers. It’s a win-win: buyers can confidently direct their ad budget to target the right audience, and you’ll drive more revenue from engaged site visitors.

Now is a great time to test SDAs

As with any new technology, there are limitations facing SDAs today; currently, there isn’t a way to regulate SDAs or for advertisers to validate the data they receive from sellers. Without enough historical evidence to support using SDAs over the long term, the ad ecosystem requires more publishers and advertisers to start testing SDAs to establish a track record.

These gaps are making many advertisers hesitant to adopt SDAs while third-party cookies are still available. As Sovrn’s John Rosendahl said in a recent AdWeek article, “A small subset of publishers will put whatever information in their bid requests makes them the most valuable. Third-party cookies used to verify that, but right now it’s an open question.”

The best way to counter buyer uncertainty is to run experiments in browsers that have already eliminated cookies (like Safari and Firefox). Using either your own SDAs or any number of UIDs (universal IDs), you can add your audience data to the bidstream, where buyers can use it to bid on your ad inventory. You can then compare the performance of cookie-free ad placements to those in a standard cookie-based auction, and fine-tune your SDA data to improve results over time. Because these tests mimic a future where cookies no longer exist, they provide a reliable forecast of ad performance in a cookieless environment.

As buyers experience positive results with SDA-targeted ad placements, they’ll become more receptive to embracing this protocol as a viable replacement for third-party cookies. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that you don’t need to dive head-first into the SDA pool — start by dipping a toe in the water, monitor results, and see what works.

Get started with Sovrn today

If you’re not already working with Sovrn’s Ad Exchange, or if you need to add Signal to your current ad ops tech stack, just email us at sales@sovrn.com. Our team will be happy to provide more information and help you get started.

The post Get More Control with Seller Defined Audiences appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

This blog was originally published on Digital Context Next InContext.

Speculation about the future of digital advertising abounds, now that the end of third-party cookies is almost certain — whether that’s in 2024 or years down the road. Most predictions focus on the negative: how an inability to target ads will lead to a less personalized experience, more paywalls, diminishing ad value, and loss of revenue. In fact, the IAB’s most recent State of Data report suggests that advertisers could lose up to $10 billion in annual revenue.

However, there’s another side to the story. For publishers who recognize the opportunity, the coming loss of third-party cookies may provide a way to take control of ad rates and even increase ad revenue by capitalizing on one of their most valuable assets: audience attention.

Attention creates an opportunity in a cookieless future

In the current ad marketplace, ad buyers hold all the cards when it comes to ad pricing. But with the loss of third-party cookie IDs, advertisers will be forced to rethink how they execute ad targeting, optimization, and measurement. Without a universal way to identify and authenticate users across the web, ad buyers will become more reliant on publishers for audience data that ties back to useful performance metrics.

This represents a pivotal change in how advertising is bought and sold. Rather than simply selling ad space to the highest bidder, publishers will be uniquely positioned to identify highly desirable audience segments, broadcast audience data to ad buyers, and set appropriate prices on valuable ad properties. For those who can get out ahead of the coming changes, there is a real opportunity to shift the balance of power in the ad marketplace back to publishers.

Attention puts publishers in control

Smart publishers have long understood the importance of audience engagement. Engaged readers are more likely to become repeat visitors — and over time, repeat visitors who trust your content are more likely to generate revenue by clicking an ad or making a purchase through an affiliate link. 

Ad buyers are beginning to embrace this connection, and there’s an increased willingness to pay premium rates for ads that reach relevant, engaged visitors. Advertisers even appear ready to move on from viewability — which fails to consider whether a reader interacts with or even notices an ad — as the standard metric for ad performance.

This trend toward attention was evident at the recent Cannes LIONS event where the “attention economy” was a key theme. Speakers there noted that buyers are looking for new, attention-focused metrics and technology to scale their campaigns, and advertisers show a clear preference for publishers who can demonstrate high levels of reader engagement through clear attention signals.

Capturing the signals of audience attention

To capitalize on this opportunity, publishers need a reliable way to capture, measure, and broadcast engagement data to ad buyers. But the fact is, there’s currently no universal definition for audience attention — much less a widely accepted methodology for measuring it.

As the IAB’s Elizabeth Lane stated in our recent ebook, Capturing the Signals: How Reader Attention Can Drive More Revenue, “Advertisers are excited about using attention to measure [ad] effectiveness, but they’re confused about 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.”

The need for a scalable measure of attention is clear. Yet today’s ad marketplace isn’t set up to reward user attention. As a result, publishers often miss out on potential ad revenue because they struggle to identify, target, and broadcast valuable audience segments to ad buyers.

The power of engaged time

Engaged time combines viewability with 45 distinct on-page reader interactions — including clicks, scrolls, mouse movements, and more — to help publishers truly understand when visitors are paying attention to their content.

To analyze the correlation between engaged time and the current attention metric, viewability, Sovrn partnered with demand-side platform Avocet and attention technology company Lumen. Using Lumen’s eye tracking data and predictive modeling, the study identified that engaged time is a truer measure of a reader’s attention, capturing more than double the attention and three times greater CTR than viewability alone

Pay attention to attention

Change is coming, and players on both sides of the ad ecosystem will need to adjust. But change often brings opportunity for those who are prepared to embrace it. And just as the loss of one sense can heighten those that remain, the absence of third-party data may clear the way for new and innovative ways of evaluating audience segments, measuring ad performance, and driving ad revenue. Luckily, with the right tools and mindset, publishers have the power to use attention to identify and target their most desirable audience segments, and broadcast that value to buyers.

The post Leverage audience attention to maximize ad value appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Today’s ad buyers are in a difficult position. With the coming loss of third-party cookies, the IAB projects that advertisers stand to lose billions of dollars in annual revenue. Going beyond the monetary aspect, this fundamental shift means advertisers will have to rethink how they target, optimize, and measure ad performance. 

Think about it this way: without the robust third-party data they’ve relied upon for years, buyers are less confident about where to direct their ad spend. They’ve lost the ability to target audiences that deliver results. And they’re struggling to understand whether readers are seeing their ads. 

The good news is, there are steps you as a publisher can take to help buyers address these challenges — and help your own bottom line in the process. It all starts with one critical concept: audience attention.

Viewability doesn’t go far enough

For years, the digital ad industry has used viewability as a proxy for attention. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has defined viewability as “at least 50% of an ad is in view for a minimum of one second.” Yet this covers the absolute minimum — one second isn’t enough time to convey a message — when it comes to actual human engagement. It also doesn’t measure ad performance. By using viewability as their main metric, many advertisers still struggle to deliver the right ad, at the right time, to the right audience.

So what exactly is “attention”?

As a metric, attention is intended to convey whether an ad captures the reader’s interest at a given point in time, making it a valuable signal of their likelihood to take action. Judging from all the buzz around the so-called “Attention Economy” — in the media, at Cannes LIONS, in webinars and ebooks — it’s clear that advertisers are interested in the idea of tapping into audience attention. 

There’s just one problem: at the moment, there’s no single, unified definition of what “attention” actually is. And with no clear definition of attention (or way of measuring it), there’s no clear path to optimization for either buyers or publishers.  IAB UK’s Elizabeth Lane explains it like this:

“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.”

Clearly, the most valuable audience segments are those paying the most attention. And publishers who can deliver clear attention signals to buyers can command higher rates for high-value inventory. To help capture the information publishers and buyers need to identify and target engaged audience segments, Sovrn has devised a new measure of attention called “engaged time.” 

Capturing attention for better optimization

Every time a user visits your site, they emit “signals of intent” – including clicks, swipes, scrolls, mouse movements, and more. And every interaction tells you something about where the reader’s attention is focused — and their level of engagement. 

This idea is the basis for Sovrn’s engaged time metric, which combines viewability with more than 50 distinct on-page reader interactions. As a result, engaged time measures not only when an ad is in view, but also when a person is actively engaged with the content. This ability to analyze ad performance and turn attention into increased revenue is the foundation of our data product, Sovrn Signal. 

Signal gives publishers the ability to:

• Understand the metrics buyers use to value ad inventory
• Benchmark your own performance against the market and other sites like yours
• Generate incremental impressions from your most engaged users
• Identify, target, and price your most valuable ad inventory

Across the entire programmatic ad stack, Signal leverages attention metrics to pinpoint the most engaged — and most valuable — ad inventory. Publishers can then use this data to appropriately price and package their inventory. That same data informs advertisers which ad units are most valuable and what factors contribute to higher ad engagement. 

Today, Sovrn is working with publishers using Signal to predict the “attention score” for each impression and pass this information to advertisers in real time. And we’ve found that buyers are rewarding publishers with high-scoring inventory with up to two times higher CPMs.

As our own Peter Cunha said at the AdMonsters Ops conference earlier this year:

“There’s a huge value for publishers in plugging the gap made by the departure of third-party data in determining the value of an ad. The more publishers can provide reliable data and context at scale around an ad opportunity, the better off the entire ecosystem will be.”

Get started today

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. 

It’s easy to get started with Signal, and a single fee gives you access to all its features and dashboards. To learn more, visit the Signal page on our website or send an email to sales@sovrn.com. Our team would be happy to provide a demo, so you can see the power of Signal for yourself.

The post Leveraging Attention to Help Ad Buyers — and Your Bottom Line appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Today’s advertising ecosystem presents challenges for publishers and advertisers alike. Publishers who create high-quality, engaging content deserve to earn premium ad rates – and advertisers are willing to pay higher rates to reach an engaged and relevant reader base. 

But current industry metrics like viewability and viewable time make it difficult for either side to operate with confidence.

Advertisers have some ability to measure on-page ad performance and compare it across multiple sites, but there are limits to the data they can collect. Publishers have access to a broader range of ad performance data, but they have no ability to compare it with other sites. 

Without these deeper insights, publishers struggle to identify their most valuable ad inventory and set appropriate prices. Similarly, advertisers have difficulty optimizing their ad spend without a consistent, meaningful basis for bidding on ad inventory.

The problem with viewability

For years, viewability has been the industry standard for predicting ad performance. It is designed to measure the likelihood that an ad will be seen by users, based on its visibility on the page. The IAB defines a “viewable impression” as one where at least 50% of the ad’s area is displayed onscreen for at least one second.

Think about that for a moment. Viewability only measures whether the ad is visible – even if it’s only for just a second while a user scrolls down the page. It fails to consider whether there’s any interaction with the ad, or whether the reader even notices the ad. 

The need for a scalable measure of attention is clear, and industry leaders like IAB are focused on the attention debate in 2022 – and Sovrn is leading the way.  

Building a better metric

Every time a reader visits your site, they emit “signals of intent.” Every interaction – including clicks, scrolls, mouse movements, and more – tells you something about where that reader’s attention is focused and their level of engagement.

With this idea in mind, Sovrn devised a new measure of attention – called “engaged time” – that combines viewability with 45 distinct on-page reader interactions. As a result, engaged time can measure not only when an ad has the chance to be seen, but also when a person is actively engaged with the content.

In order to validate engaged time as a measure of attention, Sovrn conducted several studies comparing engaged time to traditional metrics like dwell time and viewable time. Study results showed that:

• Just 16% of dwell time met the standards for engaged time – meaning that during 84% of sessions traditionally counted as “dwell time,” visitors are not actually engaged.
• Engaged time captures 2.6x more attention and a 2.7x higher click-through rate compared to viewable time alone, as demonstrated by eye tracking technology and predictive modeling. 

Tuning in to the signal

Attention-focused metrics like engaged time let you move beyond basic viewability, to truly understand the attention visitors are paying to your content. This ability to analyze and act on user engagement is the foundation of our data product, Sovrn Signal. 

Signal is an easy-to-use data tool that lets you convert your engaged audience into ad revenue. With just a single line of code Signal gives you the ability to:

• Understand your ad performance. Understand how buyers judge your inventory so you can adapt your revenue strategy. 
• Benchmark ad performance. With Signal, you finally have access to the same metrics ad buyers use to evaluate your ad inventory. Benchmark your ad performance using metrics such as viewability, engagement, click-through rate and CPM – against both your peers and the market as a whole – and use these insights to inform your strategic decision-making. 
• Grow your ad revenue.  Unlock revenue by generating incremental impressions from your most engaged users. When done correctly, ad reloading allows publishers to maximize the attention their content captures. Signal technology lets us take a different approach to ad refreshing, because the tool only refreshes ad units with both current viewability and active user engagement. 
• Identify, target & price your most valuable ad inventory. Across your entire programmatic ad stack, Signal identifies your most valuable inventory based on engagement metrics which you can then use to price and package your inventory for advertisers, driving more revenue from engaged visitors.

Get started today!

Our Signal technology gives you a simple, scalable way to measure user attention on every page – and use those insights to maximize the value of your ad inventory. To learn more, visit sovrn.com/signal. 

And when you’re ready to get started, just email us at sales@sovrn.com. Our team will be happy to demonstrate how Signal can work for you. 

The post Attention: The Key to Maximizing Ad Inventory Value appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Yet today’s ad marketplace isn’t set up to reward user attention. As a result, publishers often miss out on potential ad revenue because they struggle to identify, target, and broadcast valuable audience segments to ad buyers.

That’s why Sovrn developed Signal, an easy-to-use data tool that lets you convert your engaged audience into ad revenue. Unlike other ad measurement products, Signal is designed to be simple, lightweight, and frictionless. In fact, we’re confident it’s the easiest solution on the market today.

Here are seven reasons why:

1. Install and manage with a single line of code

Setting up Signal couldn’t be easier. Even without on-site dev support, it can be completed in a matter of minutes. We offer a variety of implementation options, including a single line of code that can be installed with no technical assistance.* You can customize Signal settings and manage controls with that same simple code to deliver exactly the ad experience you want. Once Signal is installed, it’s easy to activate additional features and functionality at any time, without additional code changes.

*For optimal performance, we recommend hard coding the Signal HTML tag on each relevant page

2. True “plug and play” capabilities

Other ad measurement tools require technology to be inserted at the ad level in order to provide any meaningful insights, requiring you to implement additional code every time new ad creative is displayed. With Signal, a single, page-level installation is all you need to start collecting data, eliminating the ongoing set up time your ad operations team experiences with other suppliers. Viewability and engagement insights will start feeding into your Analytics dashboard immediately and Signal will continue collecting data regardless of on-page updates.

3. Robust functionality in a lightweight package

While Signal’s code is simple, its features and functionality are robust, providing the ability to:

• Analyze ad performance and understand how buyers judge your inventory so you can adapt your revenue strategy.
• Benchmark ad performance against your peers or the market as a whole, using metrics like viewability, engaged time, CTR, and CPM.
• Increase ad revenue by generating incremental impressions using sophisticated ad reload technology. (See #5 below for details.)
• Identify your most valuable ad space based on engagement metrics, so you can target, price, and package your inventory for ad buyers.

4. Easy integration with GAM

Google Ad Manager is a vital tool for publishers, which is why we built Signal to integrate seamlessly. You can even choose to give the Sovrn team API access to your GAM account, which allows us to control your GAM integrations and manage your settings for easier reporting on Signal performance.

5. No latency on reloads

Publishers are (rightfully) hesitant to adopt any technology that adds more code to a page due to the risk of slowing down load times and losing reader attention. Signal was purpose-built to address those concerns and optimize ad reloads with no additional latency. Here’s how:

• The Signal code is ultra-compressed, so it takes no time to load.
• It’s delivered through the ultra-fast AWS CloudFront infrastructure.
• It uses asynchronous tag loading, which means the page continues to parse content while the Signal tag loads.
• It makes calls to its metrics collector only when the user is not actively engaged with the page, to prevent slowdowns during user sessions.
• It requires only a single pixel to target every ad placement on the page, rather than cumbersome zone-specific technology that can overwhelm browsers.

6. Simple pricing structure

All of Signal’s capabilities are available for one straightforward, CPM-based price. You can use as much or as little of its functionality as you need, and there’s no additional cost to activate additional features as your business matures.

7. A publisher-focused product roadmap

Our Signal technology offers a wealth of benefits for publishers, but there’s more to come. As we continue to innovate and add new features, we’re committed to removing complexity and making things as easy as possible by adding automation and streamlining both setup and oversight requirements.

Get started today!

The Signal solution gives you 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 Capitalize on Audience Attention the Easy Way — with Sovrn Signal appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

But current industry metrics like viewability and viewable time make it difficult for either side to operate with confidence.

Advertisers have some ability to measure on-page ad performance and compare it across multiple sites, but there are limits to the data they can collect. Publishers have access to a broader range of ad performance data, but they have no ability to compare it with other sites. 

Without these deeper insights, publishers struggle to identify their most valuable ad inventory and set appropriate prices. Similarly, advertisers have difficulty optimizing their ad spend without a consistent, meaningful basis for bidding on ad inventory.

The problem with viewability

For years, viewability has been the industry standard for predicting ad performance. It is designed to measure the likelihood that an ad will be seen by users, based on its visibility on the page. The IAB defines a “viewable impression” as one where at least 50% of the ad’s area is displayed onscreen for at least one second.

Think about that for a moment. Viewability only measures whether the ad is visible – even if it’s only for just a second while a user scrolls down the page. It fails to consider whether there’s any interaction with the ad, or whether the reader even notices the ad. 

The need for a scalable measure of attention is clear, and industry leaders like IAB are focused on the attention debate in 2022 – and Sovrn is leading the way.  

Building a better metric

Every time a reader visits your site, they emit “signals of intent.” Every interaction – including clicks, scrolls, mouse movements, and more – tells you something about where that reader’s attention is focused and their level of engagement.

With this idea in mind, Sovrn devised a new measure of attention – called “engaged time” – that combines viewability with 45 distinct on-page reader interactions. As a result, engaged time can measure not only when an ad has the chance to be seen, but also when a person is actively engaged with the content.

In order to validate engaged time as a measure of attention, Sovrn conducted several studies comparing engaged time to traditional metrics like dwell time and viewable time. Study results showed that:

• Just 16% of dwell time met the standards for engaged time – meaning that during 84% of sessions traditionally counted as “dwell time,” visitors are not actually engaged.
• Engaged time captures 2.6x more attention and a 2.7x higher click-through rate compared to viewable time alone, as demonstrated by eye tracking technology and predictive modeling. 

Tuning in to the signal

Attention-focused metrics like engaged time let you move beyond basic viewability, to truly understand the attention visitors are paying to your content. This ability to analyze and act on user engagement is the foundation of our data product, Sovrn Signal. 

Signal is an easy-to-use data tool that lets you convert your engaged audience into ad revenue. With just a single line of code Signal gives you the ability to:

• Understand your ad performance. Understand how buyers judge your inventory so you can adapt your revenue strategy. 
• Benchmark ad performance. With Signal, you finally have access to the same metrics ad buyers use to evaluate your ad inventory. Benchmark your ad performance using metrics such as viewability, engagement, click-through rate and CPM – against both your peers and the market as a whole – and use these insights to inform your strategic decision-making. 
• Grow your ad revenue.  Unlock revenue by generating incremental impressions from your most engaged users. When done correctly, ad reloading allows publishers to maximize the attention their content captures. Signal technology lets us take a different approach to ad refreshing, because the tool only refreshes ad units with both current viewability and active user engagement. 
• Identify, target & price your most valuable ad inventory. Across your entire programmatic ad stack, Signal identifies your most valuable inventory based on engagement metrics which you can then use to price and package your inventory for advertisers, driving more revenue from engaged visitors.

Get started today!

Our Signal technology gives you a simple, scalable way to measure user attention on every page – and use those insights to maximize the value of your ad inventory. To learn more, visit sovrn.com/signal. 

And when you’re ready to get started, just email us at sales@sovrn.com. Our team will be happy to demonstrate how Signal can work for you. 

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