Ad tech? Try add value!
"Here I go again, on my own......going down the only road I've ever known". Ah, Whitesnake! Many people may not know this, but David Coverdale wrote that song specifically about the trials and tribulations of being a publisher in today's confused ad technology world.
Ok...maybe not. But that line accurately describes how many publishers today feel about the constant state of change they have to deal with from their ad technology vendors. From 2009-2013, it was all about RTB. Then it became all about header bidding. Now it's all about server-side header bidding. Next it will be programmatic direct via server side header bidding, combining SSPs and exchanges into a soupy froth of demand. And yet, the publisher STILL FEELS ALONE, trying to sort through these technology changes, wondering if it will help move the needle on their top and bottom line.
All the while, publishers have to sort out the differences between platforms & their commoditized offers without ALSO losing focus on omni-channel audience development, content generation, and somehow differentiating themselves so that agencies have a reason to spend time & money engaging with them on customized programs.
Balancing the challenge of vendors constantly changing their implementation methodologies while also trying to grow their content business is what publishers have always known. It never changes, and doing the same thing repeatedly while somehow expecting different results is the very definition of crazy.
So how do we help publishers feel like vendors are their business partners? How do we help our clients (speaking from the ad tech side of the ecosystem) find a different road, a different path towards success? How do we help them feel less alone in trying to grow? Easy: we focus on adding value through products they need, not just on incremental developments in implementation methodology.
Ad technology companies have some of the best technologists, engineers, and product managers/marketers of any industry in the world - and I've had the good fortune of working with many of them. These are folks who are trained to turn customer pain points into revenue opportunities for BOTH platform and publisher, and they should begin to think about where they can build products that add real value to a publishers complete business, not just to their "programmatic inventory".
Doing so means understanding what would add value, and adding value means addressing what our customers want - and the list isn't terribly complex:
Publishers need tools that grow page-views & time on site.
Publishers need platforms that help them easily grow their owned & operated video inventory.
Publishers need ad products that can offer customized engagement experiences between the brand and the consumer.
More time on the site, more videos to watch, and more creative ad solutions that can easily scale. This is the holy trinity of publishing today and it's where ad technology companies should all start to orient themselves for their next round of product development.
HOWEVER.....the onus here isn't solely on the ad tech platforms to build tools that add value through the above list. It is imperative that publishers begin to engage with their existing vendor set and identify new partners who DO offer products that address true over-arching business needs. Publishers MUST lean into this discussion and be willing to listen to new vendors, ask for product roadmaps, conduct meaningful quarterly business reviews with the purpose of having a real discussion with their tech partners, and reframe their BD teams to think about more than just programmatic yield. BD teams should be thinking holistically about adding value to their readers, which also means breaking down the wall between direct & indirect sales so that product ideas can flow horizontally across sales, product and ops organizations.
The more each side of the ecosystem approaches each other with an eye on adding holistic business value (and less on incremental lift), the more the true audiences we server - readers and advertisers - will benefit.
