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The Future of AMP – Further expansion in 2020 It’s business as usual with Google as we approach the end of the year, even though there have been a lot of recent changes that have caught everyone in the industry off guard. Looks like user experience is still a top priority for the company going forward, as shown by their latest updates overall. It’s clear that the tech giant is steady on the path to simplify a lot of the mechanics used by digital businesses, aiming to establish good practises and create user-first experiences across the board. In retrospect, perhaps the biggest move in that direction was the release of Accelerated Mobile Pages a few years back. So, with the same trend likely to continue into 2020 and beyond, we thought an updated guide on AMP was due.
On May 4th, Google announced its second for this year major algorithm update. It has been rolling out for almost two weeks now, and by the end of this week the so-called ‘May 2020 Core Update’ should fully be released globally. Similar to the previous Google January 2020 Core Update, it’s a large change to the search engine’s algorithm that already has a big impact on a lot of sites out there. Our observations so far are that this broad core algorithm update resulted in a highly visible effect across search results worldwide. That is why the timing Google chose to roll out its update was harshly criticized by many website owners and SEO experts around the globe. Due to the current pandemic situation, it’s been already tough enough for online businesses to sustain. Let alone, dealing with traffic drops, which for many led to a decline in sales and revenue loss. Let have a look at some more detailed information on the May 2020 Update and what the digital publishing industry should expect from it. How has the Google algorithm changed? It has become a tradition for Google to announce its core updates, however, the policy is to not reveal what exactly has changed in the search algorithm and how it will affect the search rankings. Shortly after the update was announced, John Mueller, the Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google was asked on Twitter to provide more details about the May update. His statement was frank and referring…
What are Ad Sense Auto Ads? AdSense auto ads are a Google feature that uses machine learning to automatically make decisions on ad placement and monetization. Essentially, this enables Google AdSense to inject ads into your site only if the ads are likely to perform well. Auto ads can be used alongside traditional ad placements that you have implemented, so it is not a case of one or the other.
Programmatic advertising has revolutionized the scale at which digital publishers can sell their inventory. With scale, comes efficiency and that’s where Header bidding has really come to the fore. In 2019, the share of Global publishers using a Header bidding wrapper reached over 75%, officially overtaking waterfall as the strategy of choice.
We live in an era that is rich in information, so much so, that we are even spoilt for choice in how we choose to consume it. The challenge for digital publishers is deciding the best platform to present content bearing in mind how users’ habits have changed. There used to be a time not so long ago where the media and the general public were both figuring out the internet. Online became a new place where physical, printed media was replicated onto the world wide web. This was how traditional publishers could tap into their readers’ initial new habits by providing their content online. Very quickly, these now online publishers realized that their traditional readers were evolving. Over the years, as physical turned digital, readers became website visitors. With the advent of new ways to engage their audience, these visitors then became users.
Viewability is a key component of any successful monetization strategy in the context of real-time bidding. With all the industry developments in recent years, it’s importance has magnified even further, forcing publishers to put more emphasis on view frequency. This, however, brings a new challenge for webmasters who are utilizing a mix of different tactics to maximize their profits. Let’s explore one such example and take a deeper look at the relationship between viewability and ad refresh technologies.
RTB; The Evolution of Programmatic Advertising The advent of RTB (Real-Time Bidding) in the late 2000’s changed the way digital publishers monetized their ad space forever. Auctions were introduced, enabled by technology, to bid on an impression-by-impression basis. Thus, replacing sequential CPM paid directly for ad space or fixed fee, sponsorship-focused strategies replicating print advertising. These auctions rely on a bidding system but unlike real-life auctions, where the highest bid wins after a series of bids, here, all bids happen at the same time. Traditionally, with a real-time auction, the highest bidder would, of course, win, however, only paying what the second-highest bid was.
When it comes to programmatic web monetization, people automatically think of display adversiting and openRTB. There is, however, a lot more to explore in the ecosystem and affiliate marketing is a prime example of that. Such programs are actually one of the oldest types of advertising and surprisingly, their internet revival has somehow been widely neglected by the publishing world. In spite of their relatively low popularity, affiliate deals have an enormous potential and have become an integral part of the monetization strategy for many who have implemented them. So, let’s have an overview of what Affiliate Programs are and how to use them.
The advertising world is in a lot of trouble right now, due to the global pandemic taking a heavy toll on the economy. With marketing budgets being pulled back and some businesses even shutting down altogether, ad spend is at a low that’s unnatural for this time of the year. But wait, there is some good news in all this. Just because the market is down, it doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do as a publisher to recover some lost revenue. Over the past month we’ve been hard at work to come up with a response to the crisis and this is what we found.