In 2015, what were the pivotal milestones in the ad industry on the sell-side?
Native advertising took a massive forward leap into the mainstream in 2015. We saw adoption from some of the world’s most reputable brands, leading to some amazing campaigns that truly provided a great experience and value add to the consumers viewing these messages. Advertising doesn’t need to be tacky, it doesn’t need to be intrusive and it certainly doesn’t need to always be driven by a hard sales message. We saw this ring true louder than ever in 2015 with some beautiful marketing from publishers and advertisers
2) What were the drawbacks and challenges in advertising that affected publishers?
I think adblocking is the obvious answer here. But at a higher level, the largest challenge that has affected publishers is much bigger than adblocking, it is the catalyst to ad blocking: ad quality and ultimately, user experience. The industry has buzzed about ad blocking, discussing solutions to monetize a user with adblock installed, or circumventing adblocking altogether, but the issue here merely ends with ad blocking. What’s important is where it begins: ad quality and user experience. Publishers, advertisers and networks need to understand the the popularity of ad blocking is due to the poor user experience. The industry needs to take a hard stance against low quality, intrusive ad fill and realize that user experience needs to be at the forefront of every decision we make as a collective industry. 2016 will be a pivotal year for this and we as a network are very excited to champion this programmatically with our technology, and systematically with a high ad quality standard demanded from our advertisers’ content and publishers’ page implementations.
3) Lessons Learned: What ad optimization lessons/hacks did you learn this year that you wish you knew last year?
Data data data data. We’ve always been disciplined about consistently testing new predictive algorithms, widget types, internal processes, etc. Before last year, we would spend a lot of time talking and less doing. In 2015, it became very clear to us that aside from the brilliant minds that make up the Revcontent team, data is the most powerful tool at our disposal. As we continue to experience rapid growth on all fronts, the data points within our network follow suit. We are delivering billions of clicks and impressions, creating massive data sets, that grow exponentially by the minute, which is great. We’ve learned countless new ways to leverage this data to make informed, real time optimization decisions across every level of our network. From ad delivery, to responsive device optimization to backend processing, we learn something new every day from what the numbers tell us – it’s fascinating and something we look forward to learning more from in 2016.
2016 Forecast: What’s in store for publishers this year?
4) What is the biggest ad tech innovation to watch out for in 2016 in terms of maximizing publisher ad revenue?
The competition is more fierce than it’s ever been in the “ad tech” world and I think the herd will thin this year as ad tech companies find new ways to deliver a product to advertisers and publishers that finds the perfect harmony of simplicity, control, and global scalability. Last year, after years of development, we released our Revcontent V2 product, and the list of new targeting and optimization tools that came with this sent shockwaves through the industry. We’re giving our partners access to game-changing technology and granular control that isn’t available from any of our competitors. We have an amazing pipeline of groundbreaking innovations we’ll be releasing this year that will continue to revolutionize the industry, and we can’t wait to share them with you.
5) What do you think will be the biggest monetization challenge for publishers in 2016?
Publishers need to take a step back and realize that a healthy revenue stream and high quality user experience can be congruous to one another. In the short term, moving away from aggressive page implementations may seem like something that will hurt your bottom line, but it doesn’t have to. Leverage your technology as a resource, let the data do the talking and create a site that will make your users WANT to come back every day – without you having to pay to bring them back. The publishers who can master this now will be the earth movers who will ultimately put themselves in a position to become the world’s leading media brands of tomorrow.
Conclusions
6) How can publishers overcome challenges in 2016 that were not resolved in 2015?
Get to know your audience, and listen to them. They are your lifeblood and without them, you’re nothing. Our partners who’ve seen massive revenue and traffic growth are brilliant content creators, but what separates the sharks from the minnows is their ability to analyze audience data trends and quickly act upon it. Constantly test new implementations and provide tools that add value to the user experience. If you want your visitors to come back to your site – give them a great reason to, because if you don’t, your competitors will.
Takeaways for online publishers:
- Native advertising is here to stay
- Ad blocking was the buzzword of the year in the industry though the reason behind the trend should be addressed: user experience and bad ad quality
- Use data to make informed decisions
- To have a healthy revenue stream, publishers must prioritize high quality user experience, which means that users come first before anything else
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