Publishers work hard to keep up with the information and updates their audiences want to see. They devote a lot of time to perfecting their content and delivering an unbeatable experience. They even spend a lot of time trying to sell ad inventory through historically tried-and-true ad selling strategies.

What most publishers don’t have time to do is keep up with all the new advertising technologies. And the near-daily calls from sales reps saying that every single new ad tech product is “the next big thing” aren’t helping.

At Playwire, we feel your pain, and we’re here to help. In this post, we take a look at three essential advertising technologies every publisher should be using. For help implementing these solutions or increasing your ad revenue, reach out to the experts at Playwire today.

-- Article Continues Below --

Letterboxd Case Study

Header Bidding

A lot of advertising technologies are described as the “gold standard” of this or that. But header bidding is the real deal - it is in fact the gold standard of ad tech gold standards.

Essentially, header bidding gives publishers access to the entire field of demand for their inventory instead of demand from a specific source. Publishers offer their inventory to multiple ad exchanges and get a wide range of bids from advertisers. The highest bidder gets the spot, and the publisher gets more revenue.

Header Bidding Levels the Playing Field for Publishers

The effect of header bidding technology has been to “de-average” ad inventory sales for publishers. Before header bidding, publishers had to rely on averages to price their inventory. There was a lot of guesswork, and sometimes publishers didn’t end up getting a market-appropriate price for certain impressions.

Header bidding takes away the averages and guessing by allowing advertisers to submit a bid for a specific impression in real time. The net effect of this is that publishers get wider demand for their inventory and a higher average price.

Do Header Bidding Right

Header bidding is an advanced advertising technique that can bring a lot of benefit to publishers’ revenue, but only if it’s done right. To do header bidding the right way and maximize your revenue, keep these tips in mind:

  • Make sure all of your ad partners are connected to the header bidding system.
  • Make sure all of your partners have equal access to your inventory.
  • Build internal processes to ensure that you are getting paid for impressions in full and according to the winning bid every time.

Programmatic Advertising

In the digital publishing world, you’re either doing programmatic advertising or you’re wasting a lot of time and money. This digital advertising technique dominates ad spend for most advertisers - in other words, it’s where the money is for publishers. And it’s a must-have advertising technology you should be using.

Ad Sales: Digitized and Automated

Programmatic advertising digitizes and mostly automates many of the time-consuming aspects of the traditional insertion order (IO) ad buying process. This is big for efficiency - programmatic can reduce or eliminate your need to deal with invoices, communicate directly with individual advertisers, manually put together IOs and send tags and assets.

Access Higher Sale Volume with Programmatic

Most advertisers spend at least a portion of their budgets on programmatic advertising campaigns. For publishers, skipping programmatic tech means skipping access to an enormous swath of the available revenue. 

It’s true. Automated ad sales like programmatic eat up nearly 85 percent of the digital display ad market in the U.S. That’s nearly $60 billion in ad dollars going to technologies like programmatic. To increase your revenue, go where the money is.

An Identity Solution

This essential piece of advertising technology for publishers may not exist yet. Talk about being on the cutting edge. 

But really, here’s what’s happening: Google is killing the third-party cookie. That means the third-party data advertisers have long used to guide their inventory purchases may fade or go away entirely. That’s as much a threat to publishers as it is to advertisers because publishers rely on ad dollars to stay afloat. 

This major change in digital advertising is sure to usher in several online advertising technologies that provide solutions. Here’s what you can do now to stay competitive:

As Third-Party Data Fades, Own Your First-Party Data

As the curtain closes on third-party data, the spotlight is shining brighter on first-party data. This is data publishers have about the specific users of their sites - what they read or do, where they’re from, their purchase behavior, and more.

That data is yours and is unique to you. You can use it to tell advertisers about your target audience and why their ad impressions are worth premium prices.

Use Tracking Software to Understand Your Users

If you aren’t already, you need to track your users’ behavior to ensure that you generate as much first-party data as possible. Google Analytics and similar applications provide a wealth of data about on-site user behavior. 

As we wait for the next big solution in publisher data aggregation for advertisers, you should generate as much first-party data as possible. That way, you don’t come up short when the time comes to leverage your unique audience for ad revenue.

No Winning Identity Solution Yet: How to Make the Right Choice

Every publisher should be planning for an identity solution as the third-party cookie sinks below the horizon. But as ad tech companies offer up myriad potential solutions marketed as the next big thing, how do you know which one to implement?

The short answer is that you don’t know. But you can make sure you partner with the right identity solution by partnering with all of them. That way, you already have the winning solution in place when the time comes.

Playwire: Advertising Technologies to Put Publishers First

Many publishers are sprinting full speed and still falling behind the ad tech giants who are leading the race. Hand the baton to Playwire. As your partner, we’ll help you pull ahead of the pack so you can amplify your revenue through ad tech instead of falling behind.

To discuss your ad revenue needs with a publisher partner at Playwire, give us a call at 1-561-206-4621 or contact us online.

New call-to-action