We took one year of data across our portfolio of publishers with European traffic and we share our findings with you today. For clarity, we looked at all countries from the European Union plus the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Norway, from April 1, 2021, to March 21, 2022. Let’s see what the data tells us about CPMs, how various SSPs perform, and what ad formats drive the most value. Seasonality If you’ve been running a website for a few years, you are probably already familiar with the seasonality trends in ad monetization. There are no surprises in the graph below which illustrates how CPMs in Europe vary throughout the year. As expected, the highest rates are around Black Friday and the holiday season, taking a big dip at the beginning of the year. You can see good rates at the end of Q2 when advertisers try to spend up their budgets as the timing coincides with the end of the fiscal year for most ad agencies. September and October are also typically strong with Back-to-School campaigns and getting ready for Black Friday. Ad formats Performance If you are wondering which ad formats you should choose for your site, here is a little inspiration. Although performance largely depends on your website’s specifics and audience habits, there are also factors such as demand and advertiser preference that should factor in. In the graph below you can see the top 10 ad formats as per their CPM level (calculated for the European market)….
Iva Todorova
If you are exploring ways to increase your ad yield, you’ve probably stumbled upon ad refresh as a tool that can help you earn incremental revenue from the same users that visit your site. But what exactly is ad refresh and is it right for your site? In this article, we’ll answer these questions, as well as discuss some best practices and implications of its implementation. What is ad refresh? Ad refresh allows publishers to load new ads in a single user session without reloading the entire page. The refresh is activated on a specific trigger (such as time, event, or user action) and practically increases the ad impressions that publishers can monetize. Types of ad refresh Depending on the trigger that will activate the refresh, we differentiate between the following types: Time-based ad refresh As the name suggests, time-based ad refresh simply means that a new ad will be loaded after a predetermined time interval, such as 30, 60, or 90 seconds. The trigger will usually activate regardless of whether the user is browsing the page or not, which means they might have another tab open and not be looking at the page at all. This directly impacts ad viewability in a negative way and respectively results in lower rates for ads as advertisers are not willing to put their money on placements that are not being seen. Event-based ad refresh An ad refresh is considered event-based when a trigger is an event initiated by the publisher. Most commonly,…
Ad tech terminology can get a bit confusing, even for seasoned professionals. Especially when terms are so similar to one another. In this article, we will see what exactly Automatic Guaranteed and Programmatic Guaranteed are all about, and how they differ. Let’s get right into it. What is Automated Guaranteed? The term Automated Guaranteed is used for advertising agreements that were traditionally executed via direct deals (insertion orders) and are now possible end-to-end as a programmatic direct deal. The transaction is agreed upon directly between the buyer and seller via a mediation platform and the inventory volume and pricing are fixed. Publishers usually package their inventory and present it to advertisers at guaranteed volumes. Price is negotiated and once an agreement is reached, the deal elements are plugged directly into the publisher’s ad server via the ad server’s API, which is what distinguishes Automated Guaranteed from other programmatic direct deals (such as Programmatic Guaranteed). Advantages Automated Guaranteed allows publishers to present their inventory to buyers in a way that makes the sales process more efficient and less resource-intensive. Media owners can shift the focus towards building relationships, discussing performance and strategic partnerships, while selling impressions in an optimized automatic way and filling their pipeline efficiently in the meantime. Buyers can browse through the available options, and build their own campaigns, which eliminates the need for ongoing communication on those elements and saves both sides precious time, effort, and possible misunderstandings. The price of the inventory is determined by both the…
In web monetization, there are many numbers you need to be constantly aware of. Ad Fill Rate is one of them. But what does it stand for? What determines it? How can you optimize your fill rate and is it supposed to be 100%? Read below to find out the answers to these questions and more. What is Ad fill rate? The fill rate represents the ratio between the number of successfully delivered ads versus the number of ad calls made. Or, to put it simply, fill rate is the percentage of ad calls that resulted in a filled ad spot. How do you calculate it? You can calculate your fill rate as follows: Divide the number of ads served by the total number of ad requests. Then, multiply by 100 to get a percentage. So for example, if 60,000 ads were delivered out of 100,000 ad calls, that gives you a 60% fill rate. Should you aim for a 100% fill rate? As you’re probably aware, reaching a 100% fill rate is almost impossible. But should you actually strive to achieve a perfect fill rate? Not really. Your fill rate is just one of the indicators of monetization success – and a high fill rate doesn’t always mean higher revenues. Usually, as the fill rate increases past a certain point, CPM rates will decrease. After your premium ad inventory is filled with top-paying ads, the remnant inventory that’s left will generally be filled at progressively lower rates. It’s best…
The digital advertising landscape has changed significantly over the past one or two decades. Technology that used to be considered innovative and even futuristic is now standard practice. Programmatic advertising is one of those technologies – and we’re here to explain how it works, who uses it, and how they benefit from it. The definition Programmatic advertising means buying and selling digital advertising in real-time through the use of automation. Back in the day, what was carried out by people and involved things like proposals and negotiations, is now done by machines. Through the use of complex algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, etc., the process forgoes manual labor (or most of it). Thus, it is quicker, more efficient, and fault-proof. Who uses it? It is used by both sides of the digital advertising ecosystem: the sell-side (publisher) and the buy-side (advertiser). What makes programmatic advertising tick? When the media buy happens programmatically, it takes into account predefined characteristics. For example, the publisher sets their desired price or price floor. The advertiser sets the price they’re willing to pay, their target audience, etc. What types of programmatic are there? Programmatic technology is used in several different ways, such as: Real-time bidding (RTB) – These are real-time auctions that happen as the page is loading. An ad impression is put up for sale by a publisher (the seller). The advertisers (the buyers) place their bids. The bidding happens in a cascading manner (called a ‘waterfall’) where advertisers bid one after the other….
As we enter into 2022, the January blues are imminent. After the exciting and lucrative holiday season, the results in the first quarter of the year are doomed to turn our smiles upside down. Seasonality is a powerful driver for ad revenue fluctuations and publishers are better off understanding the principles behind it. Various factors such as advertising budgets, consumer buying intent, events that bring higher traffic, all play into the final results. This article will explain what seasonality is, how it influences ad revenue and how publishers can prepare in order to optimize their performance during each part of the cycle. What is Seasonality? Google defines seasonality as any predictable fluctuation or pattern that recurs over the calendar year and further divides it into cultural, commercial, and ad-hoc events. Cultural seasonality is caused by annual holidays and celebrations such as Christmas and Ramadan. Commercial seasonality revolves around events such as Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Examples of ad hoc events that cause seasonality are the Olympics, elections, and even certain notorious TV productions. It is important to take your audience into consideration and what influences their behavior so that you can take advantage of opportunities around seasonality. During seasonality peaks, advertisers are willing to buy more inventory and/or pay more for it. This drives RPMs up. At the same time, users are more likely to browse the internet during such periods, which drives traffic and impressions up. These factors both contribute to seasonality effects in publisher revenues. Quarterly seasonality trends and…
Google Ad Manager (GAM) is one of the most widespread and well-known Ad Servers in ad tech. While it does a good job of targeting its audience in general, publishers can utilize it even better by using key-value targeting. This functionality is used for inventory management, enriched reporting, and specific targeting of ads to users, webpages, and ad slots. Personalized targeting ensures brands are exposed to the right audience, and advertisers are willing to pay a premium for this. Furthermore, key-value targeting provides users with less intrusive ads that are relevant to both the web page they are visiting and their personal preferences. What are Key-values in Google Ad Manager? Publishers can specify custom targeting criteria for their ad slots in Google Ad Manager (GAM) via a feature called Key-value targeting. This helps advertisers reach their intended audience and increases the value of your inventory. Key-values can be used to identify pages on a website, specify parts of a page, and help target other ad inventory. One way to go about this is for publishers to analyze their audience characteristics, such as age, location, and so on, and base key values on this information. When a line item is set to target a key value, ads selected to be served on your website will always match it. Predefined & Dynamic Key-values Depending on your targeting intention, you can choose between two types of key-values within Google Ad Manager: predefined key-values and dynamic key-values. Predefined key-values are static, they don’t change…
As programmatic opportunities are evolving, publishers have more and more ways to put their inventory on the market. We’ve looked into Preferred deals and Programmatic Guaranteed already and in this article, we’ll dive into Private Marketplace deals. What is a Private Marketplace? Private Marketplaces are also known as PMPs, closed or invitation-only auctions, and private auctions. The concept is that a publisher, or a few of them, invite advertisers/demand partners to an exclusive real-time auction for their premium inventory. Publishers often package their inventory based on various audience and impression attributes, content type, etc., thus making it more attractive to buyers. PMPs are more transparent and safe than traditional open auctions as publishers are fully aware of who will be bidding and are upfront about the price they expect by setting respective floors. Advertisers, on the other hand, have the advantage to know exactly where their creatives will appear. How do they work? Private Marketplaces combine the best of traditional direct deals and programmatic. Typically, PMPs involve a direct relationship with buyers, exclusive premium inventory that is only available at the specific private marketplace, transparency of the deal, as well as the efficiency of programmatic automation of the sales process, and the potential to optimize and target distinct audiences in real-time. All details of the deal are negotiated in advance between the publisher and the buyers, including price floors and type of inventory. To set up a PMP deal, the publisher’s inventory is directly plugged into the advertiser DSP (demand-side…
Digital advertising and the whole ecosystem around it have evolved quite a bit over the years. Volumes have increased dramatically, and so has complexity. Publishers and advertisers alike need more tools and technology to manage campaigns efficiently, track results, plan, optimize, and achieve their revenue potential. Ad servers are one piece of the puzzle that we will explore in this article. We will cover what ad servers are, how they work and what types are out there, and finally how to choose one to best suit your needs. What is an ad server? Ad servers are the piece of ad technology that is responsible for the management, serving, and tracking of digital ad campaigns. They are used by website owners, ad networks, ad agencies, and advertisers, and can be built in-house or managed by a third party. Often, ad networks and exchanges will offer them as part of their services. Ad servers are used to place ads on a website and make real-time decisions about what ad would be shown to which user, based on multiple factors such as targeting, budget, relevance, and revenue. They also collect data about user behavior related to the ad for further campaign analytics. How do ad servers work? Ad servers have a key role in digital advertising and are involved in most parts of the process of selling and placing ads, including further analytics. Once a user lands on a site (or mobile app) that is being monetized through ads, the ad tag(s) on…
With programmatic digital advertising on the rise in the last few years, the opportunities for publishers and advertisers alike are getting more and more robust. There are several types of deals that fall under the “Programmatic Direct” deal type: programmatic guaranteed, preferred deals, and private auctions. In this article, we will be unfolding the ins and outs of Programmatic Guaranteed. What is Programmatic Guaranteed? Programmatic Guaranteed is an attractive type of campaign to both publishers and advertisers. The sellers get a guaranteed revenue stream, whereas the buyers lock in the exact audience they want to reach. Both sides get predictable results from the deal and mitigate uncertainty. Programmatic Guaranteed allows publishers to negotiate with a buyer the price and terms for specific inventory that would be reserved only for that buyer at a fixed price. Audience targeting happens through device ID or cookies and advertisers get a very precise match to what they are looking for. The deal includes impression volumes and price, frequency capping, what ad sizes and formats will be used, as well as the campaign timeframe. All of this is coded into the Deal ID and handled fully automatically (this is why Programmatic Guaranteed is often confused with Automated Guaranteed, which, however, does not use Deal ID, but rather displays the ads via an ad server API). For Programmatic Guaranteed to work, publisher and buyer Data Management Platforms (DMPs) need to first sync. This allows advertisers to find the right audience and then offer a guaranteed price…