Mobile ad revenue is exploding

Referencing Meeker’s annual Internet Trends report, mobile ad revenue grew by more than 66% while desktop revenue was up just 5 percent. This explosion in mobile ad revenue isn’t for no reason, as consumers are spending 25% of their time on mobile.

Mobile Video Encroaches on Desktop Video

Mobile Video is increasingly eating desktop’s leading share of video views, and mobile video ad spend is already growing faster than any other digital advertising format. eMarketer reports, one in three consumers watch videos on their mobile devices, often times at a higher level of attention than those who are on their desktop. Video is emerging as one of the best ways to explore products and offers before making a purchase. Brands take note: because attention spans are limited, shorter videos are better when being targeted to mobile users.

Viewability standards for mobile

Intro to Viewability blog.

Audience Modeling gives brands a leg up

Mobile audience modeling is getting more sophisticated as mobile continues to rise. As brands put more effort into their mobile strategy, we’ll see a shift of targeting consumers that goes beyond just geolocation data. Brands focusing on their mobile strategy will begin to target mobile users based on their preferences and behaviors as well.

Proximity Signals with Beacon technology

Proximity-based mobile advertising is one trend in advertising isn’t completely new, but it’s been given some more gusto recently due to the development and inclusion of beacon technology. Proximity signals fire when a user is close to a sensor, and can be used to send promotions or ads to users when they are close to the sensor. This can be seen as an alternative to GPS geolocation targeting in closer spaces, such as shopping malls.

Cross Device Marketing

Mobile should not be treated as the end-all-be-all, and should definitely not be used as a singular strategy. Mobile is a complementary form of media, that when used with other types of media will be even more successful. It’s a very competitive market, with a lot of noise. The best strategy is to implement an overall mixed media strategy, connecting with consumers wherever possible.

Ad Blocking

The boom in mobile advertising doesn’t come without some unforeseen consequences. Consumers just don’t love seeing ads on their mobile devices, which is leading some of these consumers to begin installing ad blocker software on their smartphones. Recent research from PageFair suggests that more than 400 million global users use an ad blocker on their mobile phones, compared to 200 million desktop users. By these estimates, that’s 9% of all mobile users using some form of a mobile ad blocker (4.43 billion mobile users in 2015 – statista).

Tying it all together

A mobile strategy is best crafted with these trends in mind. Find out what works best for what your needs and implement these mobile advertising trends so you can maximize value by allowing mobile to be part of your main strategy. Remember, mobile is just a piece of the puzzle, don’t forget everything else you have learned along the way.

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If you agree with that statement, you are not alone. In fact, video viewing on mobile devices is projected to account for 66% of all mobile traffic by 2017. It’s no surprise, considering that crazy growth, that advertisers are investing more than ever in this highly coveted channel. Mobile video ad spend is growing faster than any other digital ad format; jumping 25% from 2015 to 2016 and from $7.7 billion in 2015 to $9.59 billion in 2016.

So let’s get down to brass tacks: what are the best tactics for monetizing those video-craving, smartphone-wielding readers of yours?

1. Ditch YouTube – for good

Bet you didn’t see that one coming, huh? Hear me out. Posting your awesome video content to Youtube has killer SEO benefits, but what Youtube doesn’t provide is money in your pocket! Other video players like JWPlayer give you control over advertising on your videos and put money in your pocket for each video play.

A great compromise? Post your videos both on Youtube and within an HTML5 player on your site. You get the reach from Youtube and the moolah from your player.

Now, there is a requirement here for moving your video content into an HTML5 player: your content needs to be HTML5 compatible. Luckily, compatibility is simple.  Just make sure that your mobile video files are MP4s or WebM.

2. Select an ad plugin for your player or go rogue

To run mobile video ads you’ll need a HTML5 Player and an advertising plugin. Some companies like JWPlayer combine these two features in a real turnkey solution, but you will have to shell out some cash to get started.  Some of our more tech savvy readers can roll up their sleeves and go open source with a player like Video.js and install an ad plugin themselves. Talk about scrappy!

3. Know your video acronyms: VAST, VPAID and MRAID

Every time your videos are played and a video ad is eligible to serve, an auction takes place between multiple advertisers. In the video advertising world, there are three different types of ad tags that determine where that auction actually occurs and the type of video ad that is served.

VAST: “Video Ad Serving Template” is a piece of script that tells video players which video ad creative to play, when, and for how long. VAST script allows publishers to use different ad servers for their video ads without having to totally rearrange their ad stack. The catch? Well for one, many video players haven’t made the jump to support the newest versions of VAST as new video technologies have come along. Also, VAST was really developed for the desktop advertising world.

VPAID: “Video Player Ad-Serving Interface Definition” is another script that runs within video players and enables interactive features like clickable call to actions to the ad. Advertisers love VPAID ads because they provide more opportunities for user interaction and thus give advertisers more information about how effective their ads are. VPAID code can deliver multiple advertisers to the player and conduct an auction within the player instead of on the ad server, which can cause page latency issues. Again, like VAST, VPAID was really built for a pre-mobile, pre-app world.

MRAID: “Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions” is a standard created by the Interactive Advertising Bureau for rich-media ads that run in mobile apps. In March, the IAB updated MRAID standard to include some of VPAID’s functionality.

Sovrn provides mobile-friendly VPAID and VAST advertising solutions for publishers of all sizes.

4. Partner with at least three demand sources

As with display advertising, building a solid demand partner set up is key to mobile video advertising success. It’s best to start with two to three video advertising partners: a high CPM solution at the top of your stack, a mid-tier partner in the middle, and a high fill partner for backfill. Vet potential video advertising partners by the following criteria:

1. Is their serving mechanism compatible with your strategy? Are they serving VAST, VPAID and/or MRAID ads?
2. Do they have strong video performance metrics? Look for a partner with high CPMs and one with high fill to round out your stack. Ask about their VPAID error rate as well, as VPAID errors can substantially impact fill and overall revenue.
3. Do they have mobile-specific demand? Don’t just hope that your desktop video ad partners will have strong performance with mobile traffic as well. Make sure you have partners that specialize in mobile video ads. You might even have your own separate mobile video ad stack.
4. Which video formats do they offer?  The most lucrative video strategies are multi-pronged, so explore the various flavors of video formats and make sure your partner can support and help optimize your approach.

Choose Sovrn as one of your video advertising partners for high quality, high CPM video ads.

5. Give Outstream a shot

All of the money flowing into the video advertising space means advertisers and publishers are hungry for new video advertising formats. However, creating custom video content is a big investment, so there are many publishers who simply don’t have the resources or expertise to add video to their strategy.

Enter: Outstream video advertising. Outstream allows any publisher to monetize their website with video ads on desktop and mobile even if they don’t have their own video content or player. Outstream ads are and relevant and high quality, adding interactive ads to the site without sacrificing user experience. This new(ish) format is also highly viewable and is therefore sold a premium to savvy advertisers looking to get the best return on their investment.

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Google AMP overview

In short, Google Accelerated Mobile pages are special mobile-optimized pages built in a Google-created version of HTML. The pages are made to load instantly on mobile devices and show up as “cards” on the Google mobile search results.

How Google AMP is optimizing the mobile web

The key feature of Google AMP HTML web pages is that they are optimized for load speed and reader experience more than anything else. While the text content of the page loads instantly when a reader lands on the page, elements such as ads and images are not loaded until the exact moment they are scrolled into view.

How does Google AMP effect SEO?

It remains to be seen how much Google AMP will influence Google’s mobile search results, but we suspect it will have a significant impact, given how important load time is to SEO, particularly in the mobile-specific search signals. The AMP cards, however, are prioritized in search results and have been given premium positions at the very top of the page, right below the first two SEM ads. Because the cards feature large images and big headlines, they are much more likely to get clicked than a normal text-only search result.

Why now?

Taking the 30,000 foot view for a minute now, let’s discuss why Google is doing what they are doing and why publishers should be rooting for Google’s success. Ultimately it comes down to competition and choice.

Over the last few years, SEO dominance has waned as social has been an increasing source of traffic for publishers. As a result, publishers have been essentially seeding power to Facebook and away from Google and their own web pages.

While Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News are closed systems where publishers have less power over their content and fewer monetization options, the AMP project is designed to keep the web open. Many critics of Facebook’s Instant Articles and Apple News are bullish on Google AMP because of the openness of the project and Google’s efforts to bolster their search business and strengthen the open web.

One way AMP is more open is that publishers will have their choice of ad providers and will not be locked into using Google products as they are with Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News. AMP will also support subscriptions and paywalls.

Most content-rich publishers will be able to easily adopt AMP, but there will be some custom coding required.

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The Latest Google Mobile Algorithm Update

Popup ads and interstitial banners are a somewhat controversial subject for publishers and advertisers. While click through and viewability rates for banner ads and conversion rates for calls-to-action like newsletter signups can be higher with popups, they can be very disruptive to user experience. One of Google’s main philosophies is that websites should be easy to use and navigate, which they have demonstrated through other algorithm updates in the past. Remember the “mobile apocalypse”?

Not every style of popup will be met with penalization in  the new Google mobile algorithm, just ones that affect the content on the page and the user’s ability to interact with content.

For example:

• Popups that cover the main content either immediately after the user navigates to a page from the search results, or while they are looking through the page.
• Standalone interstitials that the user has to dismiss before accessing the main content.
• Layouts where the above-the-fold portion of the page looks like a standalone interstitial, but the original content has been inlined underneath the fold.

• 300×250 smartphone static interstitial
• 300×250 smartphone rich interstitial
• 320×480 smartphone interstitial (portrait)
• 480×320 smartphone interstitial (landscape)
• 768×1024 tablet interstitial (portrait)
• 1024×768 tablet interstitial (landscape)

Now, not all interstitials and popups are frowned upon. Here are some examples of interstitials and popups that are okay by Google:

• Legal popups  – think cookies or age verification
• Login dialogs – such as for content that sits behind a paywall
• Smaller banners that don’t take up the whole screen – think small app install banners

Instead of these highly viewable (but soon-to-be-axed) popups, we recommend implementing Signal 100% viewable ad units in your site’s whitespace to maintain high viewability and high CPMs without sacrificing your search rankings.

This new signal is only one of hundreds of signals that make up Google’s secret search ranking algorithm. As a best practice, always keep a watchful eye on the Google Webmasters blog so you aren’t in the dark when new signals are added.

As always, if you have any questions about this or anything else we can do to help our publishers, contact us at support@sovrn.com

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Mobile advertising spend is well on its way to surpass 100 billion in 2016. As readers continue to consume more and more content on mobile, publishers are rushing to install mobile advertising.

The problem? Many WordPress themes, even responsive ones, push all the ads to the bottom of the screen. This crushes viewability, allowing very few readers to even see the ad. Luckily, this problem can be remedied with the help of several WordPress plugins. Here are three mobile advertising plugins that will allow you to easily install mobile ads on your site.

1. Pojo Device

A good choice if: your site is already responsive.

Pojo is an easy-to-use plugin that allows you to install desktop, tablet or mobile ads. Using Pojo, you can simply paste size-specific ad code into the widget.

Access the Pojo Device Plugin here.

2. Advanced Ads

A good choice if: you’re fairly experienced with WordPress and tag implementation.
If you’re looking for a more robust plugin, Advanced Ads is an excellent choice. Advanced Ads is an ad insertion plugin that offers tons of features and settings for displaying ads on your WordPress site. However, it may be better suited for publishers with an intermediate level of display advertising.

Access Advanced Ads here.

3. Jetpack Mobile Theme

A good choice if: your site is not yet responsive.

If your WordPress site is not yet responsive, a good first step is installing a plugin like Jetpack Mobile theme. While the mobile-specific theme is basic, it does offer some color customization.

“The [Jetpack] Mobile Theme displays your content in a clean, uncluttered interface for phones, making it easy for visitors to access your newest content on the go.”

Once your site is mobile responsive, then your mobile ads will have much better viewability – a win win both for publishers and advertisers.

Access Jetpack here.

Which mobile advertising plugins do you like best?

Answer in the comments below!

The post 3 Mobile Advertising Plugins to Help You Seamlessly Install Mobile Ads appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

Happy Friday!
Here’s the third episode of #asksovrn.

In this episode, we answer “What mobile ad sizes do best?”

#QOTD – What mobile ad sizes are successful for you?

Ashley and Maggie, two Sovrn Publisher Advocates, recommend using mobile ad size 300X250 since it performs the best on mobile since there is more advertiser demand for this unit. Yet, mobile ad size 320X50 unit is specific to the mobile screen and gaining interest from our advertising demand partners. In the near future, CPM’s will probably go up for this size. If you want to add a mobile unit, we recommend you begin with a 300X250 and then complement with a 320X50. Remember, not all sites are mobile responsive, so make sure your site is responsive to mobile tags before installing.

Do you have questions for our Sovrn Publisher Advocates? Tweet @sovrnholdings and use the hashtag #asksovrn to ask your question. Or leave us a comment below!

The post #asksovrn Episode #3: What Mobile Ad Sizes do Best? appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

As you can see, the overall revenue earned is $129.50 for this particularly zone, when using 100,000 ad requests.
Now let’s see what happens when we switch that top ad partner out for a different ad partner with a lower CPM and higher Fill Rate when keeping the other two partners at the same performance metrics (still the same traffic metric):

As you can see, the total revenue for the zone increased up to $164 (that’s a 27% increase in revenue!). Hopefully what this illustrates to you is that, when we’re talking about CPM, bigger is not always better. You have to take Fill Rate into account and look at revenue as your definitive metric when measuring the success and failure of your display advertising efforts.
At Sovrn, we firmly stand by the concept that a monetized impression, regardless of the CPM, is what makes our publishers actual money, whereas an unfilled request nets no revenue to anyone. With this in mind, it follows that maximizing the fill rate of your zones (as price floors increase, fill rate decreases) with a floor price of $0.00 is typically the best strategy for maximizing your revenue. This strategy also opens your requests up to the entire gamut of Sovrn’s demand, so you can be sure you’ll have the best opportunity to make revenue with Sovrn.
 

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Before we dive into the results lets look back at what mobilegeddon actually was.

The purpose of the update was to provide better mobile-search results by taking into account how mobile-friendly a site is.  When Googlebot crawls a site to assess its mobile compatibility it is checking that:

•      The site avoids using software that is not common on mobile devices.
•      Text is readable without zooming
•      Content is sized appropriately so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom
•      Places links large and far enough apart so they can be tapped easily.

Sites that don’t follow these practices will have their mobile-search rank penalized while sites that do will be considered more relevant to mobile users. You can check if your site is mobile-friendly through Google’s official tester.
Non-mobile friendly sites were harmed
As was the intended purpose of the update, many sites that did not meet Google’s expectations for a mobile-friendly site lost their rank in searches performed on mobile devices. A study done by Stone Temple Consulting shows the impact it had on the Top 10 results.

Their report shows that almost half of all non-mobile friendly sites in the Top 10 for a search query lost their rank. STC credits the low gain for mobile-friendly sites to two factors:

While these results give us insight into how the first page of results was affected it doesn’t do the full impact justice.  Adobe revealed in their Q2 Digital Advertising Report that non-mobile friendly sites lost up to 10% of their organic traffic after mobilegeddon was implemented.
Many publishers responded to their loss in mobile traffic by purchasing mobile search ads from Google.
According to Adobe, this increased the cost-per-click of these ads by 16%.
If you are one of the many negatively affected by mobilegeddon, don’t rush to buy your search ads just yet. While CPC has increased, click-through-rate is actually down 9% since Q1. With price up and effectiveness down, it may not be fiscally worth it to purchase mobile search ads. Focusing on improving your mobile experience will end up doing more for mobile performance.


Remember-

•  Mobile is only becoming more popular. Having your website function well on mobile devices is essential to overall performance.
• The Quality Update was also released recently which added to the fluctuation some sites saw in their search rank.
• Google’s goal is to show its users the best results catered to their situation. User Friendly is Google Friendly

The post Mobilegeddon: The Effects of Google’s Recent Mobile Algorithm Update appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

1. Create cross-device consistency. 67% of consumers jump between devices when online shopping, and if your ecommerce site isn’t responsive to different devices, your customers are likely to fall off the path to purchase. Need more convincing? Two out of three smartphone users say a mobile-friendly site will make them more likely to buy a company’s product or service.
2. Create fast-loading content. If your website takes more than one second to load, your user will become distracted and lose focus on the purchasing task at hand. For example, when Firefox’s site loaded one second slower, their conversions dropped by 2.7%. Make sure to test how quickly your content loads across devices.
3. Create a personal experience for your user through real-time marketing. Real-time marketing means that you know how a customer is interacting with your brand on any channel, and you use that information to respond to your customers in the moment. This marketing strategy increases conversion rates by an average of 26%, and consumers appreciate a personal touch too: 61% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that delivers customized, real-time content.

The customer journey has changed, but you can adjust your digital marketing strategies to account for how customers shop today. By making your ecommerce site responsive across devices, fast to load, and personal for each unique user, you can keep your customers focused on purchasing.
This blog was written by Tate Handy at Signal.

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As a content creator, webmaster and blogging/publishing guru, you undoubtedly know how important your mobile traffic is to the vigor of your site’s performance. Over the last several years, mobile has been making a name for itself as it quickly caught up with desktop traffic. In some cases, publishers are seeing a large majority of their traffic come from users using mobile devices. You used to be able to make the argument that not enough people use their phones as means for accessing content online, but that time has passed.
On February 26, 2015, Google dropped a quiet bomb through their Webmaster Central Blog announcing their upcoming update to their search algorithms to account for mobile-friendliness as criteria for how sites are to be ranked on mobile devices. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one to miss the update. Over the last couple months, publishers have been scrambling to decide whether or not to make their sites mobile-responsive/device specific. Unless you’re one of the few publishers that sees little traffic from mobile devices, you should seriously consider taking steps towards updating your site to accommodate mobile traffic.

The first question you’re probably wondering is, “What changes are Google making to its algorithm?”

On April 21, 2015, Google’s mobile ranking factors will not only label your site as mobile-friendly, but will also use that to determine if your site should rank higher in the search results. Google said this algorithmic change will have a “significant impact” in the mobile search results, impacting all languages worldwide. Google shares that this is expanding on its mobile ranking demotion algorithm launched back in 2013. According to Google, the reasoning behind the update is simple:  “users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.”

How do I know if my site meets Google’s new mobile requirements?

Take the Mobile-Friendly Test and see how Google ranks your site through the lens of a mobile user.

My site does not meet Google’s mobile requirements. What now?

Check out Google’s Get Started blog on how to make your site mobile-friendly.

There’s no ignoring it anymore, mobile is here to stay.

Here are Google’s recommended next steps. We suggest you take their word for it.

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• Smartphone subscribers have increased 29% since 2012 surpassing 125 million US consumers
• Tablets are now owned by more than 50 million consumers
• Mobile channels account for 1 out of every 3 digital media consumption minutes
• The top 25 digital media platforms extended their reach via mobile channels by an average of 29%

Check out ComScore’s entire report here.

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