This temporary reprieve is good news for publishers, but 2023 will be here before we know it. And it’s fair to say that the vast majority of publishers are not prepared for a cookie-free future. In fact, a recent survey by ENGINE Media Exchange (EMX) found that while 98% of publishers plan to implement cookie-less solutions, less than half have taken steps in that direction. 

To provide some motivation for publishers who are dragging their feet on the cookie conundrum, this blog post will dig into the impact of cookie deprecation and offer some tips to help publishers prepare for their coming demise.

The impact of cookie loss for publishers

There’s no question that today’s programmatic advertising ecosystem runs on third-party data. Cookies are used across the internet to identify and authenticate website visitors – which means that when third-party cookies are turned off in 2023, a huge portion of audiences will suddenly become invisible. 

That means it will no longer be possible for publishers and advertisers to:

• Segment an audience list to deliver targeted, personalized ads.
• Evaluate the potential value of ad inventory for pricing and bidding.
• Apply frequency and recency caps to avoid annoying visitors with repeated ads.
• Target and re-target audiences across websites.
• Measure the effectiveness of ads, especially across devices.

The end result is that publishers will be unable to monetize traffic effectively. Recent IAB research found that publishers could lose up to $10 billion in ad revenue when cookies are disabled, and Google reports that publishers stand to lose 50-70% of their revenue without a new approach to audience data.

Ad campaign attribution is another area that’s likely to feel significant impact from cookie loss. Third-party cookies are often used to link ad impressions or views on one site to user actions (like page visits or purchases) on another site. If cookies can no longer be used to connect an ad to the actions it drives, advertisers and publishers will likely be forced to return to last-click attribution – a far less accurate and effective measure of ad success.

Why do third-party cookies have to go?

The short explanation is that consumers are increasingly concerned about their online privacy and demanding greater control over their information. While third-party cookies aren’t inherently dangerous (like malware and viruses), they allow companies to track every website an individual visits and collect a vast amount of data. Consumers have little control over who is collecting their information, who has access to the data, and how it will be used. 

It’s important to note that not all cookies are created equal – there is a clear distinction between first-party cookies and third-party cookies (the kind that will be blocked). 

• First-party cookies are created by websites that an individual visits directly, in order to collect analytics data and remember preferences that contribute to a good user experience. 
• Third-party cookies collect data from a variety of sources that may have no direct relationship with the individual. The data is then aggregated and sold to any number of entities for marketing and retargeting purposes.

3 things publishers can do to prepare for a world without cookies

Living in a post-cookie world may seem daunting, but you don’t have to go it alone. As a publisher, you should rely on your technology partners to help you navigate the coming changes and find new ways to capture and monetize audience data. Here are three areas of opportunity as we move toward a cookie-less future:

1. Shift your focus to first-party data.

Now is the time to dig in and truly understand your audience, to uncover the insights you need to effectively monetize your traffic. Start building your first-party data lake using all the audience data available to you, including email capture, on-site behavior, purchase records, demographic data, and content consumption. A tool like Sovrn Signal can analyze every action a visitor takes on your website, to help you measure and benchmark engagement.

2. Find ways to enrich your proprietary data.

To increase the value of your audience to advertisers, you need to enhance your visitor profiles and increase your “known” audience. Using a tool like Sovrn Data Append, you can supplement your first-party data with off-domain insights and scale your authenticated traffic by matching your audience data with hashed emails, mobile advertising IDs, and other identifiers. In fact, data enrichment with Sovrn can increase your authenticated visitors by up to 10x!

3. Start testing in Safari.

It’s important to remember that browsers like Safari and Firefox – which account for 40% of all online traffic – have already eliminated third-party cookies. This gives publishers the perfect environment for testing out monetization strategies before the advertising ecosystem goes entirely cookie-less. Work with your partners to run the right tests so you can start to build an effective monetization strategy before the 2023 deadline.

With an enriched data stream and a solid strategy that doesn’t rely on third-party cookies, you’ll be better able to package up audience segments for advertisers and communicate their value, so you can maintain – or even increase – your overall ad revenue. 

Contact us at sales@sovrn.com to learn more about how our Identity solutions can help you transition to a world without cookies and generate the best possible outcomes from your site traffic.

The post The Coming End of Third-Party Cookies: What Publishers Can Do Now appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

We’ve been busy the last few months adding new features, improving the functionality you rely on, and making strategic acquisitions that will allow us to offer new eCommerce capabilities. Here’s a quick summary of what’s new with Sovrn Commerce:

Acquisition of Monetizer101

In July, we announced the acquisition of Monetizer101, a leading provider of comparison shopping solutions for publishers. This technology provides price and merchant comparison shopping tools, as well as in-depth reporting to help publishers improve conversion rates and drive more revenue. Through this acquisition, we will be able to offer another fast-growing revenue stream to publishers, enabling them to offer new choices and create valuable experiences for their readers.

Improved link creation and management

When it comes to affiliate marketing, links are the lifeblood of your business. But what happens if your strategy changes or a product goes out of stock? Recent enhancements to Sovrn Commerce let you edit the destination of any link in one easy-to-manage place. And once you’ve changed the destination, it’s automatically updated wherever you’ve shared that link. Our new link editing capabilities also let you create new links, view existing links, and search links without logging into social media or your CMS.

New Commerce Analytics

We’re pleased to introduce new analytics functionality to enhance the existing Commerce dashboard. In addition to providing a first glimpse of the new Sovrn platform, publishers will be able to analyze period-over-period trends for all of their data. The streamlined user interface lets you independently control chart and table data, and metrics have been updated to better align with publisher use. With the new unified search, finding the analytics data you need is faster and easier.

We’ll have more news to share about our Commerce product offering in the months to come — so check back often! You can also visit our website to learn more about Sovrn Commerce, the fastest and easiest way to start earning through affiliate marketing.

The post Product Roundup: All the Latest Enhancements to Sovrn Commerce appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

You’re now even better protected when you work with Sovrn. We’ve insured nearly all of our demand sources against the risk of default, giving exchange publishers an extra layer of insulation from a fluctuating market. In this article, we’ll dive further into the nuances of credit and demand insurance and what it means. We’ll also go over our three-phase Sovrn Demand Protection Program, and take a look at both what has already happened and what’s coming next.

Phase 1: Credit insurance (complete)

As of February 2020, credit insurance is built in to being a publisher on the Sovrn exchange. Credit insurance is a big step, and it provides security against some DSP default risks—but it isn’t perfect. Our carrier, Euler Hermes, covers the vast majority of our demand—and thereby your demand. Insurance carriers are able to provide coverage for large, well-established public companies, but not so for smaller, private companies whose financial information may be less readily available. For those demand partners that are covered by our credit insurance policy, the insurer will reimburse us for 90% of covered losses in the case of default. In turn we will pass these insurance proceeds on to our publishers.

While our demand partners for whom we’ve been able to secure insurance protection comprise the substantial majority of our demand (89% for the three month period that ended April 30, 2020), we believe that some of the smaller, privately-held demand sources can be an important component to publishers’ advertising revenue. If publishers limit their demand sources only to large, established partners, they may be exposed to less risk of defaults, but also may inhibit their ability to maximize their earnings. That’s why, in addition to the third-party credit insurance, we continue to rely on our own stringent credit process.

We want our publishers to have access to information that impacts the risks and rewards of their advertising earnings. And we want to provide publishers with the tools to control the level of risk/reward appropriate for their business. Those further steps represent phases 2 and 3 of our Demand Protection Program. It’s important for you to know that whether or not you choose to make use of the next two phases, you’re still insured. In the case that one of our covered DSPs defaults, 90% of your earnings from that DSP will be protected. 

Phase 2: protection pool (forthcoming)

The protection pool offering will allow publishers to further mitigate risk without limiting the number of demand sources they work with. For a small fee, calculated as a percentage of your advertising earnings through Sovrn, we will guarantee protection against sequential liability resulting from DSP default. As a result, publishers can ensure maximum earning potential while gaining the confidence that their earnings are protected. This will effectively mitigate the risk of losses for non-payment for those demand sources not protected by credit insurance.

Phase 3: Premium demand (forthcoming)

For those publishers who wish to have the security of knowing their earnings are protected from DSP default, but who do not wish to pay an additional fee, we will be offering a list of select demand sources for whom default risk is a minimum. For this more restricted list of demand sources, Sovrn will eliminate a publisher’s risk of sequential liabilities resulting from DSP default. Again, no publisher is required to participate in either phase 2 or 3 of the Demand Protection program.

We’ll have more information about how to sign up for and make use of these offerings in the near future. For now, if you have questions about our credit insurance policy or the Sovrn Demand Protection program, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

The post Sovrn Demand Protection Program: publisher demand insurance appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Create a diversified ad revenue strategy with non-banner ad products

You don’t have to be a large publisher to explore new revenue streams. One of the simplest ways to do this is to use non-banner ad products to increase revenue. As more readers download ad blockers and try to get away from traditional banner ads, you can make money without them.

A great example of this is Commerce, our free link monetization product. Because Commerce links are native to your content, you’re able to monetize without disrupting reader experience and increasing latency—and you don’t lose revenue to ad blockers. And because we have a network of over 70,000 merchants, as well as robust CPA and CPC deals, you can maintain earnings without compromising your hard-earned reader trust.

Another option is to use our data services to increase your monthly revenue. As privacy regulations become more prevalent in both the US and across the globe, a smart data strategy can offer a strong foundation for your future monetization plans.

Implement a Consent Management Platform

Privacy has been in the headlines quite a bit recently. But reader consent matters for more than just compliance reasons—it’s also valuable. Since regulations like GDPR, many demand partners are erring on the side of caution by sending no-data requests to users who aren’t consenting. By implementing the CMP and forcing most (or all) of your readers to consent to requests based on user data, you can garner higher CPMs based on the value of that consented traffic.

Increase viewability with mobile sticky footers/headers 

Viewability matters to demand partners—a lot (that’s why Signal is such a valuable tool). Sticky ads guarantee that any impressions served in those units will be viewable, which ensures that your CPMs don’t weaken over time.

Sticky units can be incredibly valuable, so don’t neglect your mobile layout, either. After all, there’s a good chance you’re reading this on a mobile device right now. Don’t ignore that traffic.

Use Signal to reload ad units with high viewability and engagement

On that note, when you’ve gone to the trouble to maximize viewability, it’s a good idea to maximize the revenue you’ll earn as a result. Since highly-viewable and highly-engaged ads are the most valuable on your page, it makes sense to get the most out of those ads by adding a Signal reload feature. Because these ads are only reloaded when they’re viewable, your CPMs stay strong over time, and can even improve your viewability scores with demand partners.

Ultimately, there are countless ways to diversify your ad revenue streams without the need for massive engineering projects. The best way to get started is to take the leap and get started, and see what works best for you.

The post Boost earnings with a diversified ad revenue strategy appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

We’ve talked to a lot of publishers over the last year, and it’s clear that although engagement and increasing engagement are often at the top of the priority list, publishers struggle to define engagement. Variously, we’ve seen engagement defined as site visits, clicks, pageviews, and dwell time, which means a) few publishers are on the same page when they talk about engagement, and b) there’s no industry standard for monetizing off of engagement. And, as a consequence, they struggle to take advantage of the engagement they do have. 

We have a horse in this race, obviously. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about Signal, and how it helps publishers make more money by rewarding engagement. But we haven’t talked about how we define and measure Signal engagement. We’re here to set the record straight.

Signal Engagement Markers

Internally, we start our measurement of user engagement by looking at engagement markers, which are tracked via Signal. Engagement markers are singular metrics such as:

• Site visits
• Page views
• Page and site dwell time
• User actions (such as clicks, scrolls, etc.)

In sum, we track 45 engagement markers via Signal, including device-specific markers such as taps and scrolls. We’re confident that these markers cover every user interaction that occurs on a page. Individually, they give us (and our publishers) a metric that we can track over time, but this is still an incomplete view of any given user or audience segment. That’s because they don’t tell us anything about contextual or historical behavior. However, when these markers are combined and tracked, we can start to build an in-depth image of a user, an audience, or even a piece of content. 

Engaged Time

If engagement markers are the brush strokes, engagement is the completed portrait. Engagement is when a reader (or visitor, or viewer) is engaged, that means they’re occupied with your content. They’re involved, they’re interested, they’re interacting.

When we say “engagement,” we’re referring specifically to engaged time, rather than to any individual engagement marker (such as a click) or metric (such as a click-through rate). And we define engaged time as the amount of time that a reader is occupied with your content, based on tracking user actions—engagement markers—over time. 

A definition of engagement necessitates a definition of disengagement—and that’s also dependent on engaged time. User engagement markers keep our engaged time counter running, and we start a simultaneous disengagement counter after each input. After 5 seconds without an engagement marker, the user is no longer engaged. We’ve shown this chart before, but it bears sharing again:

Let’s use a cooking website as an example. A reader navigates to a recipe, reading more of it (and scrolling or moving the mouse) as they progress. Over the course of their total dwell time (the total amount of time spent on a page before bouncing), a certain percentage of that time is “engaged time.” Every mouse or keyboard action is a marker that tells us the reader is engaged, and adds to the engaged time counter. If a reader opens a recipe, but then wanders away for an hour without interacting with the recipe any further, they’re not engaged with the content—even if it remains open on the screen.

So What?

We’re strict about our measurements because we know that clarity and specificity matter to our publishers, and to our demand partners as well. Using Signal data, publishers can create a more detailed image and analysis of any given user or audience segment—and by tracking the types of content that make for greater engagement, they can adjust strategy accordingly. Of course, they can also use that engagement data to reload or inject ads and show them to engaged readers.

Ultimately, publishers will always be responsible for identifying which Signal engagement markers matter most to them, whether it’s clicks, dwell time, or any other metric. However, we believe it’s important to give context to these markers, and to give publishers the data they need to create a more informed, more intelligent business strategy, and ultimately help them—and the demand partners that rely on their content—capitalize on the engagement they generate.  

The post WTF is Signal engagement? appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Signal is not an auto-refresh

One of the questions we get the most is “Doesn’t Google Ad Manager already refresh ads?”

Well, sort of.

Google’s Ad Manager (GAM) has a setting which enables auto-refresh of specific ad units. It’s a similar feature to other legacy refresh solutions in that the ad unit is reloaded based purely on a pre-set timer that starts on initial page load. Ad Manager doesn’t consider whether the ad is or has been in view, or whether or not the user is or was active.

This means that GAM creates new inventory without a minimum quality standard, which then harms viewability rate and viewable time. That hurts publishers in the long run, because poor viewability and engagement scores lead to buyers paying a low rate for your inventory—if they buy at all. Bad refresh technology can potentially even get your inventory banned from ad exchanges, as this type of unintelligent ad refresh can be considered ad fraud.

So yes, while GAM can refresh ad units, it’s a blunt instrument.

Broadly speaking, this is true for most refresh features. Most of the refresh systems built into ad servers or employed by websites are unintelligent legacy refresh products. This means that the impression, or in some cases the page, refreshes on a predetermined time (called refresh rate) from initial page or ad load, as opposed to taking into account ad viewability and user engagement.

Again, these tools focus purely on short-term benefits without considering long-term health. They’re built around boosting impression volume, which is itself a flawed metric. Impressions don’t consider or reflect real reader behavior, and Signal does.

Signal tracks real user engagement

Signal only recognizes that a user is active if they’re ‘focused’ on the tab. They will be deemed inactive if they:

• click the URL bar
• move to another tab in the browser
• cover any portion of the browser window with another app
• move to another screen (if using multiple screens)

Once the ‘focused’ condition has been met, Signal tracks 45 unique engagement triggers (such as mouse movement, keyboard movement, scrolling, etc.) to determine if a user is active. Here are a few of the events that Signal tracks:

• Mouse movements (such as  mouse up, mouse down, mouse click)
• Keyboard movements (such as key up, key down)
• Focus & Blur events (such as tab changes)
• Touch events (specific to mobile and tablet environments)

Signal sets the user status as ‘inactive’ if no engagement events occur for a period of pre-defined time, or once the disengagement threshold is met (for example, if a reader clicks into the URL tab, they’re immediately labeled ‘inactive’). This threshold determines the period of time a user can fail to produce any engagement events before they’re labelled inactive. This setting is customizable, but our standard is 5 seconds.

Here’s a chart that demonstrates how a user changes from an active to an inactive state via the disengagement threshold:

As long as the user is active, Signal is active as well. But unlike auto-refresh features, Signal constantly tracks how long two conditions have been met:

• Viewability
  A given ad is ‘viewable’ by the user (51% of the ad is in view for 1+ second, as per MRC standards)
• Engagement
  The user is active and engaged, based on Signal engagement tracking.

The Signal reload timer starts when both of the above conditions are met, and stops if either of the conditions is not met. The timer will start and stop to mirror user behavior. Because Signal is constantly tracking user engagement, you’re never mindlessly refreshing ad units.

/Signal goes beyond viewability and dwell time to deliver value to publishers that actively reflects the engaging content they create. While legacy ad refresh tools have been around for some time now, they don’t mirror the realities of online behavior, or of online publishing. In some cases, legacy tools can actively harm the publishers they were built to help. We built Signal to be intelligent, so that you can benefit in the short term with powerful boosts in revenue in impressions, while at the same time focusing on the long-term health and growth of your business.

The post Reload, don’t refresh appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

But what is an interest-based publisher? Isn’t every publisher interest-based in one form or another?

Good point. Content is consumed first and foremost because of interest. When we talk about interest-based publishers at Sovrn, we’re thinking of mid- and long-tail publishers who sit outside the mainstream but provide significant value to their readers. One of our favorite such publishers on the Sovrn exchange is Instructables.com.

Instructables is for people who love to have fun making stuff. It contains thousands of step-by-step, community-powered how-to guides for consumers to create, share, and revel in the awesomeness of making just about anything. The site was created by Eric Wilhelm and Saul Griffith in August 2005, and is currently owned by Autodesk. Instructables started working with Sovrn in 2016.

According to Lauren Gerber, Yield Manager, Autodesk, the most popular articles on Instructables focus on technology followed by workshops and food. Their audience skews male at 58% and is most popular with the 25-34 and 35-44 age groups. When asked if she had any tips for advertisers who want to make the most out of campaigns hitting Instructables, Ms. Gerber said, “Be authentic and fun.” We think that’s great advice since authentic and fun is a perfect description for the content you’ll find throughout Instructables.com.

Great story, but why should advertisers care about interest-based publishers instead of mainstream sites?

Mid- and long-tail sites give your campaigns several advantages. You’re gaining additional reach. Your ads are less likely to appear near your competitors. You may even find performance advantages to advertising on smaller sites. Think about your own behavior. Are you more likely to pay attention and engage with ads on sites where you feel an attachment to the content or that mega news site where you check in to find out the latest big story and quickly move on to something else?

Sounds good. But aren’t there more brand safety and fraud risks in the mid- and long-tail?

That’s where Sovrn comes in. We know advertisers need to be feel safe when wading deeper into the ocean of the web. That’s why we’ve set up rigorous standards for any publisher who wants to be part of our exchange. Every site goes through a meticulous 25-point inspection by two humans, and we reject far more than we accept. It’s worth it though. We’re one of only five companies to achieve TAG Platinum status for certification against fraud, malware, piracy, and inventory quality.

The bottom line is there’s a lot of upside for advertisers when it comes to interest-based publishers. If you want to hear more about advertising opportunities on Instructables.com or any of the 2,000+ direct, interest-based publishers we work with, hit us up at advertising@sovrn.com.

The post What’s an Interest-Based Publisher and Why Should Advertisers Care? appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

If you’re already using Exchange Bidding, adding Sovrn to your demand stack is a quick, easy way to drive up competition and increase revenue. There’s no risk to your site, and you’ll be connected to one of the cleanest exchanges on the web.

Before you begin:

1. First, make sure you have an existing Google Ad Exchange account. You’ll need it to use Exchange Bidding.
2. Make sure you’ve got all of your intended Yield Partners set up as Companies in your Google Ad Manager network. You’ll want to use ‘Ad Networks’ as the Company type.
3. Check with your Google Account Manager to ensure that there is nothing on that end to prevent proper EB set up. Any recent or ongoing traffic- or site quality-related flags, or notification-related issues from Google may cause issues.

Setting up Exchange Bidding Yield Groups and Yield Partners:

1. A Yield Group is only as effective as the Yield Partners that are competing for the inventory within that group. Make sure that you know which inventory parameters are most likely to get the highest performance from your different Yield Partners. These can include specific ad unit inventory, size, and/or geo targeting.
2. Understand these parameters. They’ll help you better combine different Yield Partners in Yield Groups configured with those Yield Partners’ optimal, high-level targeting settings.
3. If you get an error notification saying that “The exchange is not accepting requests for ads from your Ad Manager network. Contact them regarding their Pretargeting?” while adding a Yield Partner to a Yield Group, you’ll want to check your setup with that specific Yield Partner. Again, make sure that you don’t have any pending traffic or ad quality issues with your Google Seller, Ad Manager, or AdEx accounts.

Optimizing Exchange Bidding

1. Exchange Bidding optimization consists largely of A/B testing different Yield Group settings and Yield Partner combinations within one or more Yield Groups. Experiment with different integrations and identify what works best with your strategy and your revenue goals.
   1. For example, if you have 8 available Yield Partners, try testing a few of them in a specific Yield Group targeted to only US or Mobile traffic. Another Yield Group might contain a different set of Yield Partners targeting international Desktop or your BTF Ad Unit inventory only. These settings can—and should—be monitored and adjusted regularly, so that you’re reacting quickly and maximizing your Exchange Bidding earnings.
2. Note that you cannot set price floors for 3rd party Exchanges or Yield Partners in Google EB. Ad Manager will pass a dynamic price floor calculation for inventory included in your EB Yield Group. You’ll want to reach out to your Yield Partners directly for any additional floor price controls that they may offer for their EB bidding.

Finally, Exchange Bidding should be looked at as a part of an overall site inventory monetization strategy. Simply sending ad requests for the same inventory via multiple channels may not equate to long-term success if done in a vacuum. Rather, recognizing and managing what channels and what partner combinations within channels perform best is the ideal way to ensure ongoing success—and more revenue to put back into your business.

If you’re struggling, we can help.

We know that it can be hard to focus on your strengths while you’re running your business and optimizing your ad operations. That’s especially true while trying to harness new, powerful tools like Google Exchange Bidding. If you’re finding it hard to balance content creation with business, or if you need help improving your advertising strategy, Sovrn Services can help. We offer consulting, training, and full ad stack management. We’ll boost your revenue, the value of your inventory, and the time you have to do what you love.

The post How to Start Earning with Exchange Bidding appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Well, that’s partially true. Sovrn is different, and we pride ourselves on this. While other sell-side platforms focus on getting pieces of the advertising businesses of large media companies, Sovrn is much more focused on enabling the businesses of smaller, interest-based publishers.

But this doesn’t mean we neglect our advertising partners and exchange. In fact, it’s precisely the opposite. Because our business model is hyper-focused on enabling small, independent businesses, it’s more important than ever that we run the cleanest and safest exchange possible for advertisers.

Major media companies have the option of working with multiple sell-side partners. If one fails them, they can move on to another with barely a blip in their bottom line. Smaller, interest-based publishers often don’t have that luxury. For many of these independent media businesses, Sovrn is their lifeline. If we fail them, we put businesses and livelihoods at risk.

When you combine this with our need to make sure advertisers are safe wading deeper into the ocean of the web, it’s no wonder that we’ve long been industry leaders in protecting advertisers return on ad spend. We’re one of only five companies to achieve TAG Platinum status for certification against fraud, malware, piracy, and inventory quality.

If we don’t protect the quality of our exchange, advertisers walk away, and the publisher businesses we enable will no longer thrive. The fact that we focus on smaller, interest-based publishers does indeed make us different, and it’s precisely why we strive to be the cleanest, safest, and highest performing exchange out there.

The post Myth-Busting: Sovrn Only Focuses on Publishers appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

]]> https://www.sovrn.com/blog/why-viewability-and-engagement-is-the-perfect-love-story/ Wed, 13 Feb 2019 15:00:41 +0000 https://www.sovrn.com/?p=14084 Viewability has quickly become one of the most important metrics in digital advertising. High viewability is key in driving up revenue, and ensures that your demand partners want to spend money on your inventory. Demand partners are no longer paying for non-viewable ads. If your ads aren’t viewable, you won’t gain revenue from them. Viewability […]

The post 3 Reasons Why Viewability and User Engagement are the Perfect Love Story appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

]]> Viewability has quickly become one of the most important metrics in digital advertising. High viewability is key in driving up revenue, and ensures that your demand partners want to spend money on your inventory. Demand partners are no longer paying for non-viewable ads. If your ads aren’t viewable, you won’t gain revenue from them. Viewability technology ensures that an ad isn’t automatically loading at the bottom of a page, never to be seen by a living, breathing human, and therefore not making your money. But viewability only tells part of the story. Focusing on engagement brings even more value—increasing revenue and offering a deeper understanding of your reader’s interests.
 

1. The combination of viewability and engagement gives you a glimpse into the world of your reader. It may not always be easy to understand your reader’s interests. By tracking page engagement, you get a unique view of your user’s activity, including mouse movement, page scrolls, and when they move from one tab to another. Tracking engagement can tell you when someone is reading your content, and helps you measure the value of that content. It’s likely that reader analytics are a key part of your business strategy already, and understanding engagement can help you curate more of the content that keeps your readers coming back.

2. Tracking user engagement creates more inventory when you know a reader is there to see it. You’ve built an engaged audience that loves your content. They’re reading and scrolling and spending time on your page. When your user engagement is high and an ad is more than 51% in view, your ad unit value drastically increases, and you can reload existing ad zones to create new inventory on your page. This gives your reader a more pleasant user experience while letting you earn more with fewer ads units.

3. Below the fold is cool, too. In a recent study, user engagement was found to be up to 9x higher on ads below the fold. That’s because you’ve drawn your reader in with your content, and they’ve now become your most engaged user. That engagement means a higher likelihood that an advertiser’s targeted ad will resonate with your reader. Tools that track engagement not only equip you to monetize reader interest, but also give you clear metrics on how interested your audience really is in your content. This also shows that reloading ads below the fold is a powerful revenue tool.

 
While ad viewability is absolutely key in generating revenue, your user engagement is just as important, if not more. Tracking engagement brings all the elements of your business together and helps you understand what your reader is looking for in your content, when they navigate on and off your page, and how to best monetize your hard work. By leveraging the relationship between viewability and user engagement, you create a better experience for your audience, and you grow more revenue to continue to build your business.
 
Looking for more information on tracking user engagement? Check out our episode of the eMarketer podcast, Behind the Numbers, or get in touch.

The post 3 Reasons Why Viewability and User Engagement are the Perfect Love Story appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

]]> https://www.sovrn.com/blog/introducing-sovrn-signal-and-sovrn-connect/ Tue, 05 Feb 2019 19:00:11 +0000 https://www.sovrn.com/?p=14043 New names. New possibilities. An even brighter future. It’s hard to be a storyteller. It’s harder than ever to capture and hold on to people’s attention, to get them to engage. That’s why we build products that reward you for the work you’ve done in building your dedicated audience, and make it easier for you […]

The post Introducing Sovrn Signal and Sovrn Connect appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

]]> New names. New possibilities. An even brighter future.

It’s hard to be a storyteller. It’s harder than ever to capture and hold on to people’s attention, to get them to engage. That’s why we build products that reward you for the work you’ve done in building your dedicated audience, and make it easier for you to run your business so that you can focus on creating more great content.

We debuted VET (Viewable Engaged Time), our industry-leading viewability solution, in 2016. We followed that with OneTag in 2018, our single-tag delivery system that gives you access to a package of industry-leading ad products in a single line of code. Since then, we’ve grown these products, their capabilities, and our plans for them. These original names—VET and OneTag—no longer fit what we’d created. Our products had become too big, too important, and the existing names didn’t reflect that growth.

So we changed them.

We’re proud to introduce Signal, replacing VET, and Connect

• They’re simpler and more human, because we believe in the importance of connecting with our very human customers.
• They’re forward-looking, because we’re looking forward to adding more and more functionality to the products we offer already.
• They’re more accurate, because they better describe what each product does.
  • Signal (formerly VET) tracks engagement signals and uses them to maximize the value of every one of your unique visitors.
  • Connect (formerly OneTag) brings you together with the pulse of the industry, simplifies a complex world, and delivers the Sovrn products that help you thrive.

As of today, you’ll see these new names everywhere: on our website, in our product documentation, across The Sovrn Platform, and in discussions with our team members. Similarly, the old names have been retired.

Don’t worry: these changes won’t alter any of your existing product implementations. Signal and Connect still have all of the same functionality they’ve always had. Think of these new names as a demonstration of our commitment to improving our products and services.

In the coming weeks and months we’ll tell you more about what these products can do for you. For now, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.
We’re excited about what the future holds. You should be, too.

The post Introducing Sovrn Signal and Sovrn Connect appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

1. Implement Smart Viewability Technology
   You’ve worked hard to build your audience of dedicated readers, and impressions don’t always reflect the following you’ve built. That’s why we made a product that rewards your hard work by measuring the activity and engagement of your users over time. It lets you reload advertisements when you hit an engagement threshold, and ultimately, it’s a way to balance the scales in your favor. Our industry-leading technology measures actions such as mouse movements and page scrolls to determine when your readers are active, and when it hits an engagement threshold it serves new, always-viewable advertisements. The value of your inventory goes up, your viewability scores go up, and you earn more for every ad you serve. It’s delivered in a single line of code, so you don’t have any excess scripts or coding headaches to worry about, and you don’t have to use Sovrn demand if you don’t want to—you can also license it for full demand-stack flexibility. It’s time to start earning the rewards you deserve.
2. Enable a Consent Management Platform (CMP)
   We have two big takeaways from everything we’ve learned post-GDPR: first, whether you’ve chosen legitimate interest as your legal basis to process EU reader data or you’ve turned off your EU traffic altogether, you’re losing money. Second, this is just the beginning of privacy laws worldwide, and you should prepare for future privacy laws now. Enabling a CMP solves both of these problems—opt-in rates continue to be very good, and consent-based data gathering is the safest, easiest way to ensure you’re GDPR-compliant. Even if only a small percentage of your audience is from the EU, that’s a percentage you could be adding to your earnings. It’s a no-brainer, and since our CMP is delivered through a single line of code (the same line of code as our viewability technology, in fact), it’s incredibly easy to set up and customize.
3. Plug Sovrn into Exchange Bidding
   This one’s easy. If you’re using Google’s Exchange Bidding or EB Video, add Sovrn to your demand stack. It takes seconds to enable, and we’ll increase competition and boost your revenue. No risk, all reward—get in touch, and just plug us in.

These solutions aren’t just effective—they’re incredibly simple. They’re fast, easy ways to maximize the value of every unique visitor, and that means more money for you with less risk, less stress, and fewer headaches. And we’re always looking for new, better ways to empower publishers, so if you have any questions, comments, or requests, don’t hesitate. Send us a message, and we’ll talk about how we can help you achieve your goals.

The post 3 Easy Ways to Maximize the Value of Every Unique Visitor appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Interests and intentions result in commerce.

Publishers are at the core of the modern consumer journey. The content they create drives billions of dollars in purchasing behavior annually, and generates the majority of consumer interest and intention. Stories, anecdotes, reviews, and references from trusted sources both off and online nurture our interests, affect our behaviors, and influence the consumers we become. Publishers know this. Marketers know this. Even so, most publishers capture only a thin slice of the commercial value they create, usually through the advertisements run on their sites.
Through the acquisition of VigLink, we’re bringing a suite of commerce products and services to publishers of all sizes. Today, these commerce products are employed by nearly 30,000 sites, and connect hundreds of millions of consumers to thousands of brands and online merchants. The result is nearly $1B in annual purchasing behavior.
To take advantage of that purchasing behavior, publishers generally implement one of three commerce solutions:

1. Direct Sales
   In this scenario, a publisher sells products directly to consumers. The revenue margins can be high at 50% or more, but the headaches are many: collections, returns, inventory management, chargebacks, disputes, and other logistical difficulties can disrupt even the best Direct Sales revenue streams. The costs can quickly outweigh the benefits.
2. Branded Storefronts
   Similar to Direct Sales, a Branded Storefront is an on-site store created by a publisher but fully operated by a third party. Margins are much lower at roughly 20%, but most of the headaches and operational overhead are gone. Unfortunately, these solutions come with limited inventory, require intense marketing and technology focus, and necessitate constant content-to-commerce modifications.
3. Native Commerce
   Native Commerce offers by far the lowest overhead and offers with the most direct link between content and commerce. Revenue margins range between 5% and 10%. The native alignment of content-to-commerce is by far the highest, allowing for easy implementation and easy earnings. Increased volume, low operational overhead, and maximum inventory flexibility mean that the net value to a publisher is much higher than other commerce options.

Sovrn Commerce, which falls within the Native Commerce category, offers publishers a natural, streamlined way to earn directly from the content they create. It’s simpler than building a direct or branded storefront, and it comes with fewer headaches. It creates a direct link between a story and a consumer, allowing both readers and publishers to capitalize on the value of their relationship.
Sovrn operates a platform of products and services across more than 25,000 websites, and the acquisition of VigLink will bring the entire Sovrn portfolio to more than 50,000 sites with a reach of more than 250M daily active consumers. For publishers, Sovrn Commerce will offer the simplest, most effective way to earn more of the commercial value they generate.
Sovrn Commerce will allow publishers of all shapes and sizes to tap into the entire customer journey, rewarding them for the interest and intent they’ve created. This means more insights, more opportunities—and ultimately more revenue for the publishers that deserve it.
 
— Walter Knapp, CEO
 
To learn more, read the VigLink blog post and our official press release.

The post Introducing Sovrn Commerce appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

As usual, we’re here to help you exceed your quarterly goals, and we have several effective, easy-to-use products that will let you take advantage of seasonal spend without complexity, risk, or headaches.

1. Plug Sovrn into Exchange Bidding and Exchange Bidding Video

   Sovrn is fully compatible with EB and EB Video. Turn us on, and we’ll bring more competition to your demand stack. It’s an easy way to see more Q4 revenue with no risk. Plus, you can rest easy knowing you’re connected to one of the cleanest, highest-quality exchanges on the web. We’re a strong EB performer, and we’re constantly working to improve. We’ve helped countless publishers increase revenue and impressions, as well as the viewability and performance indicators that attract buyers. We’ll do the same for you. It’s that simple.

2. Boost revenue 25% with Sovrn Signal
   Publishers know that page views don’t tell the whole story, and so do we. You deserve to be rewarded for your dedicated readers, and Signal does more than just measure time spent browsing a page. Mouse movements, page scrolls, and other actions indicate when a reader is active, and Signal serves new, in-view ads when it senses sufficient engagement. Your revenue increases, your performance indicators improve, and buyers know they’re purchasing quality inventory. Signal is free to use, and it’s delivered in a single line of code, so you don’t need to worry about complex coding issues or headaches down the road. It’s also available for licensing, which allows publishers to deploy the same technology across their full demand stack. It’s the smartest, most flexible ad reloading technology in the industry, and all you need to do to get started is say the word.

3. Increase your traffic (and your earnings) with Sovrn Consent Management
   If you’re still blocking your EU traffic, you’re missing out on revenue potential. Staying GDPR compliant is simple with our free, flexible Consent Management Platform. Obtaining user consent is the safest, easiest way to make sure you’re following the regulations, and just like Signal, it’s delivered with one line of code. If you’ve been cutting off EU readers out of fear or uncertainty, this is a prime opportunity for you to see more traffic and more revenue before the long, cold wasteland that is post-holiday ad spend.

We like flexibility, and we like it when things are simple. Mostly, we like making you more money. And hey, we get it—you’re probably sweating at the thought of mentioning coding changes during the most profitable time of the year. But if you’re not maximizing your opportunities, you’re not maximizing your revenue. A Q4 revenue boost will give you easy money that you can use to do more great things, so send us a message. We’ll roll up our sleeves and see how we can help you achieve the earnings you deserve.

Send us a message, and we’ll get you started.

The post 3 Easy, Risk-Free Ways to Boost Q4 Revenue Without Significant Changes to Your Ad Setup appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

In other words, I’ve got your back.

So, direct from the source, here’s what buyers are telling me publishers need to keep in mind:

Fight Fraud

Here’s the deal: the industry has proclaimed that by the end of this year, advertisers will no longer buy inventory without an ads.txt file. If you don’t have an updated ads.txt file, your inventory will be ignored.

Keep Your Content Brand-Safe

Brands don’t want to be associated with content or websites that will jeopardize their reputation. Adult content, alcohol, gambling, hate speech, illegal downloads, illegal drugs, offensive language, and violence can get you blacklisted. This is equally true when it appears in user-generated content, so make sure you know what’s happening on your site.

Don’t Load Ads That Can’t Be Seen

Viewability matters. A lot. I can’t overstate this. Buyers tell me that they’re going to stop paying for out-of-sight inventory, and many already have. I know that focusing on viewability as a key metric can seem daunting, but treat it as an opportunity rather than a burden. We’ve spent a lot of time looking into the value of viewability, and have built technology (we call it Signal) to help publishers put our research to good use.

Don’t Ignore Design

Cluttered, poorly-designed sites aren’t appealing for advertisers or readers, so make sure yours is well-designed and professional. Doing so will increase your appeal to advertisers.

Finally, stay on top of industry news. Change is constant in the programmatic marketplace, and staying educated is the best way to increase revenue. If you need a hand working through ways to turn these tips into results, get in touch with our Publisher Support Team. Building lasting relationships with readers and advertisers is worth the investment, and we’re here to help.

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