'Net Features : publishers

Real-Time Bidding Boosts Ad Revenue for Publishers

Michael Garrity — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:25:00 GMT

The increased use of real-time bidding (RTB) and private marketplaces for selling online ads has resulted in a noticeable boost in revenue for publishers, including a lift in CPMs, according to the digital media platform PubMatic.

A recent analysis by PubMatic of publisher monetization in 2012 showed that by the fourth quarter of last year, RTB was representing almost 31 percent of its paid impressions (a figure that was nearly double what it was at the same time in 2011), as well as accounting for 48 percent of the company’s entire revenue. This means that RTB revenue is experiencing an annual growth of approximately 57 percent, and it now nearly matches the value of the entire ad inventory that is sold through its ad networks.

“[Publishers] are moving from the fixed prices sales of ad networks to dynamically traded inventory,” said PubMatic President Kirk McDonald. “They’ve found that RTB can consistently generate higher CPMs and allow them to react to in-the-moment market opportunities.”

In addition, PubMatic found that private marketplaces (PMPs) may end up increasing inventory value even more than RTB, as the use of PMPs allow publishers to offer ads to select buyers from a guaranteed inventory in a transparent negotiation environment. PMP usage has more than doubled, while the revenue that they generated grew by 120 percent in the third and fourth quarters of 2012.

“While still an emerging mode of selling, it’s also important to underscore the growth in usage and strong results for implementing Private Marketplace sales,” said McDonald. “We’re moving from an era of blind inventory to one where buyer and seller [sic] use programmatic as a tool to increase efficiencies but also build long-term sales relationship sin a transparent manner.”

PubMatic’s data analysis was based on a quantitative review of premium publishers and demand-side ad networks that had been utilizing its Strategic Selling Platform (SSP) from Q1 2011 through Q4 2012, which includes thousands of buyers and sellers.

Block Ads with Google Publisher Toolbar

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:30:00 GMT

Over six months ago, Google launched the Adsense Publisher Toolbar, a browser-based extension that enabled publishers to monitor their earnings and performance directly on their own website pages.

31,000 Adsense publishers now use the Chrome extension, but thanks to a few recent improvements, you can (should) expect that number to skyrocket.

The toolbar, which consequently now supports DoubleClick for publishers, has received new blocking capabilities that are definitely worthy of note. Publishers that have the extension enabled will be able to block ads they deem unsuitable for their audience without needing to navigate to their account or spending time determining which ad or URL to block. Publishers can even indicate to Google if there was a problem with an ad – e.g. the ad in unsafe, the landing page is unaccurate, etc.

Previously, publishers were only able to view account. Now, those ad overlays display additional information about the ad unit including the name of the ad slot, performance metrics, destination and display URLs, as well as a preview of the ad. And, if publishers are using the Ad Review Center, they can now take action on either the ad or the URL, choosing to block the ad directly which adds it to the URL filter list.

Tracking Multiple SubIDs for Mobile Marketing

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 18:30:00 GMT

Performance marketing company Neverblue just announced a new feature that provides mobile publishers and advertisers the ability to identify different traffic quality characteristics and adjust their digital strategies accordingly.

The new Multiple SubID tracking and support enables Neverblue clients to capture up to five traffic-specific parameters to track mobile information such as device, carrier, mobile site, or app. Advertisers are also able to identify traffic quality characteristics, providing publishers an opportunity to expand traffic in areas that match that of advertisers' interest.

“Running effective mobile marketing campaigns requires tracking and analyzing much more data than traditional internet campaigns,” notes Gregg Stewart, vice president of new media platforms at Neverblue.

“Advertisers, media buyers and publishers who use our flexible multiple SubID tracking system can track the information elements that are the most important drivers of mobile campaign performance in conjunction with our mobile analytics tools to quickly and cost-effectively optimize their campaigns for volume and quality metrics."

nRelate Publisher Network for Content Marketing

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:15:00 GMT

Content marketing and recommendation engine nRelate just announced that it is now servicing over 20,000 publishers.

Nrelate offers widgets which help publishers to showcase content and increase engagement. The platform offers two widgets to showcase related and popular content, a dynamic unit called the nRelate Flyout which displays related posts when a readers get partway through an article, as well as in-text linking features.

As content publishers are always looking for ways to increase pageviews, which nRelate suggests its products can help with at the tune of a 5-12 percent increase, the platform is worth a look. nRelate also offers some monetization solutions for WordPress users, as well as those on Blogger and Tumblr in addition to a standard JavaScript integration

"At nRelate, we define success not only through analytics, but by the contributions we are making to meet the changing needs of online publishers, marketers and consumers," said Neil Mody, founder and CEO of nRelate. "Reaching 20,000 publishers in our network is an important testament to the growing significance of content marketing. This is a win-win for all parties. Brands are increasingly using platforms like ours to keep their customers engaged through content; publishers are looking for new monetization opportunities; and consumers like Internet experiences based on their interests."

Below is an example of nRelate's related content widget:

In-Image Ads from AdMedia

Administrator — Tue, 17 May 2011 17:00:00 GMT

A new and rather innovative ad format came across the wire today and it might be something to look into for both publishers and advertisers.

Advertising and affiliate/publisher network Ad Media has unveiled OverlayAd.com, a platform that utilizes existing images and videos from websites for the purpose of monetization. Ad Media is touting the platform as a way for publishers to monetize static content and is claiming the new formats are yielding high-click through rates for advertisers. Since consumers already naturally gravitate towards graphics and video, and network advertisers and publishers see the potential in these types of content, OverlayAds might just be the next feasible way to generate revenue for publishers and drive awareness and web traffic for advertisers.

The Overlay Ad platform support several creative formats including text only ads, static banners (see image below) and rich media. What makes the platform really innovative, besides the contextual targeting algorithm, is that consumers attracted to the ads can actually interact with the advertisements by scrolling, viewing multiple ads, and performing searches without leaving the webpage.

Little in the way of revenue share for publishers or cost for advertisers was available. WM will keep an eye out on the progress of OverlayAd in the future, but if you see them in the wild do let us know.

Better Adsense Earnings Reports

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:30:00 GMT

Google announced this week that it has begun displaying more earnings data to publishers on the Adsense dashboard.

As you will be able to see in the image below, Google is now showing earnings for the current day, the previous day, the month so far, and the previous month as well as any unpaid finalized earnings and most recent payment information.

Also, alerts will be appearing at the top of the homepage to ensure publishers don’t miss anything too critical.

Adsense publishers can also expect a few more changes in the coming months, including the ability to view the top channels from the home page.

Publisher Tools Analysis from Lijit

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 03:15:00 GMT

Lijit Networks, a site search and engagement tool provider for online publishers, announced results of its 2010 Publisher Tools Analysis today.

Lijit surveyed 735,834 websites to collect data on referring traffic and on-site widget deployment (any regularly occurring functionality on a website powered by an external service, voluntarily installed by the site owner, and powered by Flash or Javascript).

Sites analyzed include all 15,000 sites in the Lijit Network as well as their extended network, which incorporates blogrolls and other linked sites. Of the sites surveyed, 84.8% have widgets installed.

Information of note from the study includes:
- Widget adoption specifically related to Facebook and Twitter almost doubled, growing from 6.96% to 11.86% deployment.
- Of referring traffic from social media sources, 44% came from Facebook, 41% came from StumbleUpon, 6.7% came from Digg, 5.13% came from Twitter, and 2% came from Reddit.
- Related content tools used to keep readers on-site longer didn’t make the list of Top 10 tools in 2009, but are now being used by 3.68% of sites surveyed.
- Online advertising services continue to track at a 20% adoption rate; however, new monetization tools used in affiliate marketing programs such as Skimlinks, Infolinks, and Amazon saw a 16% increase in 2010.

“Online publishing has become a two-way street, and those who are most successful have learned to use social media to build highly engaged, conversational communities of readers,” said Todd Vernon, CEO and founder of Lijit Networks. “Social media tools should not only be used to attract new readers, but also to engage and retain them by allowing people to post comments, receive feedback, and share relevant information.”

AddThis into the Advertising Game

Administrator — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Clearspring Technologies, makers of the wildly popular AddThis content sharing platform, has launched Audience Platform which enables advertisers and publishers to reach audiences of influencers and “intenders”. I am not familiar with the term intender – if you are please do comment below and let us know. We could draw some assumptions but why not ask our wicked smart readers?

Clearspring's AddThis platform is currently used by over 1.5MM unique domains to share content including webpages, widgets, photos, and video to over 300 social services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Digg. With the Audience Platform, Clearspring is aiming to leverage its real-time data processing engine to “aggregate and synthesize influence and intent data” from across the platform. Not to put too fine a point on the announcement – but thanks to AddThis, ClearSpring is making its way into the online advertising and publishing game.

"Our focus has been to connect people via content by powering social sharing across the web. Our sharing platform, AddThis, today reaches over 1 billion people online and drives more sharing than any other publisher platform of its kind," said Hooman Radfar, Chief Executive Officer of Clearspring. "Our Audience Platform technology leverages our huge reach and proprietary analytics engine to provide advertisers and publishers with incredibly valuable audiences, as well as provides consumers with advertisements that are of interest, without leveraging personally identifiable information."

The Three Tiers of Blog Earnings

Linc Wonham — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:23:00 GMT

With the number of blogs on the Web now in the hundreds of millions, it is more critical than ever to ensure that yours is doing the most for your business and not merely existing in cyberspace.

Affiliate marketing has always been an effective method for increasing a blog’s earning potential, but it is just one piece of the puzzle. The most successful blogs are built on a multilayered revenue model in which affiliate earnings are just some of the key ingredients.

Below are the three main areas to focus on if you want to get the most bang out of your blog.

1) Your own expertise

The content of your blog will play a significant role in driving traffic to your website and creating exposure for your business, as well as in determining the potential for advertising and affiliate marketing revenues. Your blog is the gateway to an entire community of users that has shown some level of interest in your industry or niche, and the information and ideas you present to them will have a profound effect on how your business and products are perceived. This is why it is imperative to keep your focus on subjects that you are passionate and deeply knowledgeable about, whether it is your own products or services, other offerings throughout your industry that you strongly believe in, or additional topics of interest within the industry or niche in which your business thrives. It is important to never lose sight of the fact that your blog’s aim is to provide service and education to an audience of similarly impassioned visitors. Once your blog has developed somewhat of a following, invite guests within the community to share their own knowledge and expertise. This practice will serve your business by adding a fresh perspective to your own, as well as potentially opening the door to valuable partnerships and affiliate relationships.

2) Finding a sponsor

Building partnerships with other companies or websites that have a vision similar to your own can be an enormously beneficial aspect to a blog. The financial rewards are obvious, even if the relationship starts with your new partner or sponsor covering a small amount of your overall costs, but aligning your blog with a respected member of your industry’s community will do wonders for your business’ visibility and credibility. Once you have built a distinguishable voice through focused and informative posts to your blog, you can approach businesses and other websites in your niche to find out their level of interest in some kind of partnership. If you are having trouble making any headway finding a sponsor, try to entice one by offering discounted products or services to initiate the relationship. If you stand behind the integrity of your blog and your business in general, the partnership will undoubtedly grow, and additional sponsors may even come knocking on your door.

3) Filling in the gaps

This is the layer in which affiliate marketing and other advertising opportunities exist. Where affiliates are concerned, it is vital to seek out and limit your partnerships to those companies and products that fit directly in your industry and the subject matter of your blog posts, and to those businesses and products in which you sincerely endorse. If you treat your affiliate partnerships with the same integrity that you put into maintaining your blog and the rest of your business, it will only enhance your standing among the community of users. Seek out individual partnerships and programs that are best suited to the needs of your visitors, and do your due diligence wherever necessary. The remaining gaps can be filled in with a variety of advertising methods, but be careful not to turn your blog into a billboard that promotes products you’ve never heard of. Google’s AdSense and other targeted contextual ads are one good source of revenue, but they will generally earn revenues on a cost-per-click basis rather than impressions or views, and too many of them may scare away visitors.

Why not examine the earnings of your own blog and see how it compares? Is your product or industry expertise generating significant sales? Are you getting a substantial amount of revenues from your relationships with sponsors, or are affiliate marketing and other advertising vehicles your blog's main sources of earnings?

MyLikes: Fully Customizable, CPC Affiliate Marketing

Mike Phillips — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:00:00 GMT

Looking for an alternative to restrictive AdSense for your website? New start-up MyLikes believes they have a solution, and it's aimed squarely at niche publishers and industry influencers.

In short, it works like this: Publishers sign up for an account then choose among participating advertisers to feature on their website, blog or Twitter feed. The publisher can create custom ads, or "Sponsored Likes" - using their own language and text - then publish those ads to their website or blog, or send the ad as a tweet. Every ad runs on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis and all ads are clearly marked as sponsored content. Sponsored Likes can also be included as a blog post. Advertisers have the option to accept or reject the user-generated advertising.

Here's how the Sponsored Likes CPC model works: Publishers are given a starting CPC, first based on Twitter. The more "influence" you have (determined by a number of factors including data from Topsy and Klout), the higher your starting CPC. You do not need a Twitter account, however, and a starting CPC without an audit of your Twitter influence is usually around $.05. From the start of a new campaign, CPC is constantly tweaked, based on click-through rates on your website or Twitter feeds. The click-through rate model - and not total clicks - is used to determine influence and, therefore, relevance to advertisers.

For publishers, the big advantage is increasing clicks and CPC by offering custom advertising. After all, you know your audience best and what will resonate with them the most. In addition, unlike typical affiliate programs the publisher is paid by the click, not a per-acquisition basis. So, the publisher is not relying on the effectiveness of another person's website or sales strategy. Advertisers benefit by getting highly-qualified clicks from an audience with very specific interests. The ability for publishers to customize an advertiser's message is a key component to targeting the ever-expanding long-tail, and preventing unqualified leads. Advertisers can learn more about Sponsored Likes here.

"From the publisher point of view, these ads are far more engaging than a typical AdSense ad," says Bindu Reddy, MyLikes co-founder. "They can customize the ads to talk to their audience. They get complete creative control to maximize monetization.

"From the advertiser perspective, they get a very engaged audience. It's a much more targeted lead, something that is not just randomized language. AdSense doesn't measure the effectiveness of a website."

To start, MyLikes has 12 advertisers on board, such as Moo Cards and Joylent Cloud Computing. But they will be expanding in short order and look to target several industries outside of the tech field such as lifestyle and food. They will be looking for advertisers where the long-tail is the longest - such as fashion and beauty and mommy bloggers, where there is a surplus of sites to target. And to help gain advertisers, MyLikes is offering an early bird promotion - they will pay 50 percent of the advertiser's budget for the first 50 advertisers.

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Consumers Say "No" to Paid News Content

Mike Phillips — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:36:00 GMT

Times are tough in the publishing world. And the news doesn't seem to be getting any better. A new survey from PaidContent:UK and Harris Interactive polled nearly 1,200 UK readers and found that a scant five percent would consider paying for their "favorite" news site if it began charging for access. Close to 75 percent said they would find a free alternative while the others would either continue to scan headlines or were "not sure" what they would do.

This comes on the heels of Rupert Murdoch's proposed plan to form a "bloc" of sorts, urging top content providers to start charging for access all at the same time. The idea is that by blocking access in unison, users will be forced to pay up. But if this recent study is any indication, it doesn't look good for Mr. Murdoch and friends.

“This does not look like good news for a pay model in a competitive environment,” says Andrew Freeman, Harris’ senior media research consultant. “As long as free alternatives exist, consumers will turn to them for their daily news information, meaning heavy losses in terms of audience figures for those that charge. It remains to be seen whether the news industry will take the leap and begin charging for that which has been free for so long.”

One interesting note is that younger readers are far more likely to pay for content than their older counterparts. Among those aged 16-24, 13 percent would pay to continue reading; among those aged 25-34, 6 percent would pay. Just one percent of those aged 35-44 would pay.

What's often left out of the discussion of paid vs. free content is a middle ground, hybrid model. The Wall Street Journal, for example, offers free content, but premium content requires a paid subscription and they have been very successful. That's because much of their content is of tremendous value to the financial community and drives business decisions. (Full disclosure - Website Magazine also utilizes the hybrid model, with a free quarterly edition but a paid monthly subscription.)

As a publisher, how are you dealing with declining ad revenue? How do you monetize your content and what are your plans moving forward? Please join the discussion by commenting below.

Also read: WordPress Membership Plugins, Transparency is So 2008. And don't miss Website Magazine's November issue, including an article on selling Informational Products - Subscribe now!

Publisher Platform Enhanced at Tatto

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:40:00 GMT

At my last count there were over 300 advertising networks available These providers come in a number of varieties making selecting one that is sensible for your business a real key to your success.

When deciding which ad network or combination of ad networks is best suited to you, it's crucial to understand where your advertising messages will be seen and by whom. The affiliate/publisher side of the equation is as important (if not more so) than the features provided to advertisers on the network. If affiliate/publishers aren't sending you the right traffic, they aren't doing their part. When they are equipped with the right tools and capable of sending the best possible traffic, publisher/affiliates can be an important part to maximizing you return on advertising spend.

Tatto Media, an ad network which focuses on behavioral and performance optimization technologies, announced some important updates to its affiliate platform today including advanced tracking features and mobile targeting support. Never heard of Tatto? According to the March 2009 comScore Worldwide Key Measure Media Metric report, they are the third largest ad network in the world. That by itself warrants a closer look at enhancements made to the publisher platform.

- Conversion Tracking Report: Provides lead information such as sub ID, tracking info, transaction ID, IP address and payouts
- Updating Tracking Links: Specify a source name in the tracking URL to drill down and analyze performance in reports.
- Refer a Friend: Improved friend referral feature now rewards you for introducing friends into the network.
- Browser Targeting: Target offers to users based on their browser, redirecting them to receive offers designed for mobile devices, including iPhones, and thus increasing conversion rates.
- Creative Manager: Generates tracking codes with creatives automatically. This makes it simple to include the preferred creative with the tracking URL specific to the offer. Additionally, browsing and previewing creatives is now available.
- Suppression List: Updated suppression lists now better support email marketers.
- Tiny URLs: Shorten tracking links with a shortened URL.
- Live Support: Instantly AIM with an affiliate manager for live support.

“Given Tatto Media’s extensive growth over the past year, it was imperative to make enhancements that would support our large affiliate network and give us a competitive edge. We have truly revolutionized the way our affiliate platform works as compared to the rest of the industry,” said Lin Miao, CEO at Tatto Media. “The industry as it currently stands has not yet found an efficient way to allocate their advertising dollars, as many are still implementing untargeted CPM campaigns. Our industry-leading platform envelops certain features that most of the market has yet to conquer, leading us to provide our marketers with millions of specifically targeted leads every year.”

Stay up to date on the latest Internet trends:
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the most popular print publication on Web success.

Sell Content on Scribd

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:02:00 GMT

Social publishing and document sharing site Scribd is now testing an e-book store.

The company will be providing an 80-20% revenue split (favoring the publisher unlike Amazon's revenue model which takes 70%) and there are no monthly membership fees. Content publishers are able to make changes in real-time and receive sales data immediately. There are some built-in marketing tools, enabling publishers to share previews of items for sale. The Scribd store also ensure mobile-platform distribution, as the system will make sure content is available for mobile devices and e-reader devices like the Kindle.

Perhaps the most interesting feature is the ability for publishers to opt to sell rights-managed documents. Publishers will be able to set their preferenes to allow those purchasing content to download the PDF, view on Scribd, download the PDF with DRM or download an ePub with DRM. After setting the preference, Scribd will also help ensure that there will be no unauthorized downloading of documents from the Scribd site through its Copyright Management System (CMS).

Additionally, Scribd is also preparing to launch an iPhone application for the Scribd store that is very much like the Kindle for iPhone app.

White-Label Jivox Video Ad Platform

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:45:00 GMT

Online video advertising service Jivox has made available a tool for publisher partners interested in white-labeling the service to create and manage advertisers' campaigns on the Jivox platform.

The Jivox Publisher Portal enables publishers' sales and ad operations teams to access and manage their advertiser accounts, enter insertion orders, set campaign pricing, track campaigns and traffic video ads all from a central console. Extensive analytics enable publishers to see real-time critical metrics related to ad performance and ad inventory and to report back to their advertisers.

"We built our new publisher portal so that our white-label publisher partners have a live status of all their advertisers' campaigns and can manage them the way they currently do business," said Diaz Nesamoney, founder and CEO of Jivox. "From pricing and payments to trafficking and reporting, the new Jivox Publisher Portal puts our partners in complete control."

Colorado media publisher Lehman Communications (http://www.lehmanfyi.com/) is the first to adopt the new online video advertising tool. "Jivox has helped us expand our offerings to new and existing customers. The ability to offer video and slide show web ads with audio has been well received by sales reps and advertisers alike. Jivox is extremely customer focused. Our questions are answered immediately and our learning curve was relatively short, due to their attention to our feedback and fast response time," said Terry Emler, ad director at Lehman Communications.

CPX Expands Vertical Offerings

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:45:00 GMT

Online advertising and marketing network CPX Interactive has added several verticals to its Content Network offering (bringing the total to thirteen) including those for Career, Real Estate and Hispanic audiences.

Traditionally known as a '100% fill' distribution-focused ad network, CPX Interactive took the progressive step, in 2008, of developing a multiple product offering. In order to be able to provide advertisers and publishers with a one-stop solution for all of their diverse needs, the company split its network into Reach, Content and Premium categories.

Mike Zacharski, VP of Business Development for CPX Interactive, explains, "The growth of our Content Network is all about evolution and clarity in the online ad space. While we are reassuring our publishers by protecting their interests and direct sales efforts by selling their inventory in a 'site-blind' environment, we can also allow our sales teams to present advertisers with audience-defined channels in the fastest growing and most desirable verticals. All of this translates into high CPMs for our publishers, and the efficiency that brands are seeking."

Previously announced channels included Automotive, Conversational Media, Games, Health, Men's Interest, Women's Interest, News, Pets, Sports and Anime.