What publishers should know about ad spends and revenue
The online advertising industry has been in difficult situations before. It has always recovered, and the lessons learned were leveraged to bring about changes that made the industry a bit better for everyone involved. However, from advertisers to agencies to publishers to even the end consumer, no one is under the impression that business will return back to pre-COVID levels anytime soon even as the global economy recovers.
At Media.net, we have brought to surface trends being observed in advertising at this time - with credible industry sources and internal Media.net analyses. The goal is to help publishers understand what they can expect in the near future, and how they can weather the adverse impact on revenues in the long-term.
Search Advertising Has Proved to Be More Resilient Than Display
Unlike display, performance budgets are holding steadier, with Search leading the way.
Less of a drop in search ad spend (vs display ads) due to keyword bidding
Search will retain, and even gain, ad budgets in H2 2020
While digital CPMs dropped across the board, the drop in Search was much less than other avenues within digital.
The optimism for Search is validated by the recovery now being observed in the Yahoo! Search Marketplace.
Category engagement by users and advertisers: May v. April
+40%
Travel & Lodging
+9%
Vehicles
+8%
Clothing
+4%
Home & Garden
+3%
Shopping
FACT:
Search has proved itself to be more recession-proof; a key reason why Search budgets should be part of every ad monetization strategy.
As Lockdowns Ease, Display Advertising Is Slowly Recovering Too
Brands that were hit the hardest by the pandemic are slowly working their way back into programmatic spends.
The industry is now seeing a cautious uptick in spends with one SSP recording a 14% increase in programmatic ad spend in May vs April, with many categories like travel and autos starting to light up
Europe saw a 10% improvement in total digital display ad spends in May when compared to April
But even though spends are trending in the right direction, a second wave of COVID-19 could once again hamper growth.
Contextual Targeting Can Counter the Practice of Broad-Blocking Keywords
During this period, brand safety has become synonymous with blanket-banning all Coronavirus-related content.
40% of brands are not advertising next to COVID-related content online
'Coronavirus' became the second-most blocked term for ad buys as early as February 2020
The longevity of this particular crisis means that this content is here to stay for the foreseeable future, and both the buy-side and the sell-side will have to find better targeting options that accurately reflect the volume of brand-safe content.
Coronavirus-related content is drawing traffic, but by taking a blunt approach to blocking this content, brands are denying themselves access to vast viable ad inventories and costing publishers millions in lost revenue.
Contextual targeting has emerged as the most reliable tech to help connect advertisers with publishers who offer brand-safe environments, regardless of market/industry conditions.
Contextual technology can…
Analyze the nuance and context of individual web pages in real-time, and spot what’s genuinely a threat and what is relevant and suitable for the brand.
Enable each marketer to identify their own sense of brand suitability, affording advertisers a greater ability to deliver targeted campaigns while also supporting useful content.
Discover new inventory on pages that would have been previously overlooked, and add incremental revenue for publishers.
FINDING:
A contextual analysis of 45 billion impressions across a sample of Media.net publishers revealed that 72% of all coronavirus-related content actually qualifies as brand-safe.
For Publishers, No Time Like NOW to Diversify Their Demand
What does the changing attitudes of advertisers towards brand safety and the rise of contextual mean for publishers? An opportunity to grow and future-proof ad revenue streams, especially by diversifying demand sources.
Remember that old saying about putting all your eggs in one basket?
01
Look beyond Display
Display is a very useful channel, but display ad budgets are also the first to be in line for the chop in times of conflict and crises
02
Introduce Search into the Mix
Search spends represent 43% of all digital spends, so don’t miss out on them. Also proven to be more recession-proof than other channels
03
Seek Out Exclusive Demand
Because having different ad partners should mean tapping into different demand sources
FACT:
Diversifying demand sources acts as a critical safety net for publishers, regardless of size. Overdependence on Display has hurt a lot of publishers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Media.net offers access to unique search/performance spends worth billions from the Yahoo! Bing marketplace to all its publishers.
Pivoting Your Content Strategy
Pivoting content to ensure it is brand-safe is critical for publishers. As was made obvious during the Coronavirus slump, ad budgets eventually flow to where the brand-safe content is.
The direction to pivot in should be determined by two key trends: Consumer search, and Advertiser spends. Amongst the blanket-blocking of content by advertisers, this was embodied very well by publishers who allowed themselves to be flexible with their content strategy and focused on topics that adhered to consumer behavior insights as well as brand safety.
There are multiple opportunities, even now, regardless of the vertical you publish content in - to keep attracting users and therefore brands.
Travel
Travel insurance, Train travel, Virtual travel
Entertainment
Free streaming, Learning skills (like instruments), Best online shopping deals
Home & Family
Natural cleaning products, Family recipes, Games to play with kids, Quality time activities with family
Work & Education
Homeschooling, Free online courses, Work-from-home tips, How to stay focused
Relationships
At-home date ideas, Reconnecting with friends, Checking in on parents and bridging gaps
Health & Fitness
Health insurance, Indoor workouts, Building immunity, Healthy diets, Mental health, Journaling, Meditation
Finance
Unemployment, Budgeting, Frugal living
FACT:
Brands trust ad tech vendors and publishers with their ad dollars and a brand-safe environment is the minimum they expect in return. And on the publishers’ part that means pivoting content strategies to provide it.
Leaning on Experts for Yield Optimization
While the publisher's focus is on pivoting content, yield optimization cannot be ignored; merely optimizing the ad stack alone can add significant incremental value. AdOps may be time-consuming, but it's a multi-faceted function that can make a considerable difference to the bottom line.
When the industry is doing well, it helps publishers make the most revenue possible from their inventory
When the industry is doing poorly, it helps publishers minimize the impact of revenue loss
Publishers with an established working relationship with ad monetization partners, offering yield optimization, were instantly able to go into damage-control mode during the COVID-19 pandemic ad revenue slump. They are also poised to gain traction as soon as the digital advertising industry shows signs of recovery.
RECOMMENDATION:
Constant optimization means advanced tech and seasoned experts iterating with multi-variate testing so that publishers are well-positioned to earn the most that they can. That is why having an ad partner that offers yield optimization can be priceless.
Looking for an ad partner to navigate the next normal with? We can help.
