Lacks & current limitations of digital advertising industry

Huge administrative costs 

Digital online advertising is plagued with substantial administrative costs.

Good points made by RTE's Conor Mullen on the #AdMonsters panel – Digital is still very expensive to operate, esp. comapred with TV advertsg

— RubiconProject (@rubiconproject) April 23, 2013

2% of TV ad budget is spent in average on administrative cost versus 27% in online video advertising (to put online & manage the banners)

.@adslot backs up the old adage that digital ad process (still) costs 10x TV ad process #AdMonsters

— Bowen Dwelle (@bdwelle) April 23, 2013

Complex & hand-operated ad ops process 

Automation is much needed to shorten the ad ops process: it takes 47 steps, from end-to-end value chain (i.e from demand side to publishers) to put online banners, it could be reduced to 7 steps with automation, said Brian Fitzpatrick, Adap.tv.

in a 100 billion dollar industry, Excel remains the most used tool for billing purpose. It’s hand operated, not scalable & not automated enough (As the Business insider ironically puts it, Microsoft is dominating 76% of adtech)

CTR, the most common metrics

One of the most common & standard metrics is CTR & clicks, when in fact, studies showed that people that clicked the more were not people with the highest ARPU (Average Revenu Per User), said Ian Lowe, Adslot’s CEO. Optimizing campaigns to reach those with biggest ARPU, instead of reasoning in terms of clicks has led to a 40% increase in revenues.

Top advertising industry’s challenges

Multiscreen

Multiscreen and the additional workload it causes (specific design, test & bug fixing of the mutiple-size creatives) is definitely the top challenge ad ops are currently facing.

"Multi-device is the main nightmare that we (#adops) have right now" #admonsters

— Bowen Dwelle (@bdwelle) April 23, 2013

Legal 

Legal is the main other challenge of advertising.  A new regulation of cookies for advertising purpose is being debated/ has just passed, depending on the country.  Moreover, one of the very hot topics for publishers is Big Data and how the use of its own first party data can lead towards a better monetization, following the example of social networks. Again, this topic is closely connected  to user’s privacy and legal.

Future: what’s next?

Future=RTB.  RTB=lower eCPM? 

A common fear among publishers is RTB could lead to lower eCPM.  Actually, this is not what most publishers have experienced  yet.

According to  Michael Smith’, from Google Adexchange, the eCPM of “valuable assets” such as premium inventory  of most publishers tended to increase but low valuable inventory had tended to lower when the floor price were not properly set or not set at all. By setting floor price, any decrease of eCPM can be prevented.

Premium inventory, which represents 26% of publisher ad impressions  drives 88% of the revenue in average in 2011 (according to AdSlot internal data),  the other 12% being generated by RTB.

Future= integration of advertising technologies. Was Smart AdServer a precursor? 

Online advertising technology landscape has become so complex, with a great number of actors (see for instance the European ecosystem) than ad ops can be reportedly using 8 different tools to manage their online inventory. The market needs integration, that’s one of the top trends in 2013: Google has been integrating DFP, Admeld & Adexchange for instance.

As Pedro from Prisa Brand solutions said, the perfect ad server would be all-inclusive, with an integrated solution for mobile, video, programmatic buying and integrated billing.

I was delighted to observe Smart AdServer’s original commitment that  consist in providing publishers with an all integrated platform with only one interface to make things easier has become trendier than ever.

OPS London miscellaneous quotes

“What drives revenue is your inventory, not your technology” by Michael Smith, Google Adexchange

Google discussing making tech work for your marketing strategy – not the reverse #admonsters

— Propeller Group (@propellerites) April 23, 2013

Data warehouse only stock data, Data management platform can make them actionable too

Yes “@Jessdaviesmk: Data warehouse stores data but DMP makes that data actionable, says mediacom's Rob Webster #admonsters”

— James Sandoval (@checkyourfuel) April 23, 2013

Topical: 7 out of every 10 digital video content views still don't carry advertising http://t.co/KrTbCWrMcS” #admonsters #media #advertising

— Chacana (@Chacana) April 23, 2013

Facebook mobile ads not currently frequency capped says Somo's Andrew French #admonsters

— Jessica Davies (@Jessdaviesmk) April 23, 2013

Facebook is said to generate over 500TB of data every day, says Xasis' Nicolas Bidon #admonsters

— Jessica Davies (@Jessdaviesmk) April 23, 2013

As the new Samsung Galaxy S IV is going to be presented later today, we were curious to know which Android devices  have triggered the biggest number of ad impressions worlwide in this first weeks in 2013.

Samsung Galaxy SII still tops mobile ad impression on Android (15%), slightly ahead of Galaxy SIII (14%).Samsung accounts for 60% of android ad impressions,  Sony Ericsson 15%, HTC 9%, Amazon (with its Kindle range) 3%.

In our previous infographics (3 key points about mobile advertising in 2013, Euro 2012, Olympics 2012 ), we highlighted the fast-paced rising share of mobile traffic in key channels, such as Sports & News.

In our News panel of publishers, mobile accounted for 32% of pages views in Q4 2012, matching other recent external sources (WSJ: 32% of traffic coming from mobile,  FT: 30% ).

These 2 channels overperforms the average: in average, 72% of digital traffic come from desktop, 28% from mobile in Q4 2012, according to  internal data taken from over 50 premium leading cross-platform publishers.

Since mobile traffic has at least doubled since last year in most of studied countries (see source), at this pace, 2013 will be the key year when traffic to most publishers’ properties start being mobile-driven.

Digital traffic share

To embrace & take the most of this trend (100% of publishers format their content for mobile in 2013 in North America), publishers have been spending a lot: they are facing substantial technical costs in building & maintaining several versions of mobile sites & apps, revamping their website in responsive design without being able yet to put in, on the other side of the profit & loss sheet, a line of revenues as substantial.

This might be the biggest challenge for publishers in 2013: the audience is switching from desktop, a platform they had clear view on how to best monetize their web audience, with a very advanced & sophisticated ecosystem (Big data, RTB,…) to mobile.

Key learnings of this infographic about mobile advertising in 2013

Mobile has been going mainstream, even from publishers perspective: Mobile traffic made up 40% of digital traffic in Sports Channels in Q4 2012 & 32% in News Channels.

Mobile traffic is about to exceed Desktop traffic in 2013.

Publishers running mobile supports (apps/mobile sites) have seen their mobile traffic multiplied by 2,6 in UK, x2,9 in Germany, x4,3 in USA,  x2,7 in France, x4,2 in Brazil…. in average in 2012.

Read the articles : London Olympics 2012: The Impressive Mobile Infographic & Euro 2012: The Mobile Infographic 

 Users are more likely to use their mobile & tablet than their computer earlier in the morning (before 9 am) and later in the evening (after 8PM for mobile // 10PM for Tablet).

Mobile Web or Apps, how do users access mobile content in different countries?

Mobile web: it accounts for 86% of mobile page views of premium publishers in Germany // 56% in Spain // 89% in Poland // 74% in Brazil // 76% in US

Mobile Apps: it accounts for 74% of page views in France // Italy (66%) // UK (66%).

Which devices & OS top mobile web ad impressions?

For the first time, Android accounted for the highest number of mobile web ad impression (50%) in Q4 2012, it increased 17 pointsyear-to-year // iOS decreased 5 points year-to-year to 42%.

Which are the best performing mobile ad units? 

Interactive mobile ad units engaging users such as Bounce /Travel or Video ad units and HTML5 ad units drive the best performances.

Read the article : Assassin’s Creed III Case Study: How Smart AdServer Is Being Used To Launch Great Mobile Rich Media Campaigns?”

About this infographic methodology

This informative study is based on several dozens billion of ad impressions & page views in 2011 & 2012, delivered by leading digital publishers (Web, Mobile Apps & Mobile Sites) in UK, USA, Germany, France, Brazil, Italy, Poland,..

All comparisons were done in a relevant & representative perimeter : all data was taken only among publishers filling the relevant criteria for its purpose ( Publishers using Smart AdServer technology for each analyzed support).

All overtime comparisons were done in a constant perimeter : overtime comparison were made on the same sample of supports (Apps, mobile sites or websites). For instance, the calculation of mobile traffic evolution in each country was done, based on the same perimeter of mobile supports in 2011 & 2012.

Digital traffic share in Sports Channels & News Channels include data from several leading publishers in different countries , using Smart AdServer technology on  Web, Mobile (sites & Apps), Tablet in 2011 & 2012.

Mobile traffic evolution’s data is taken from dozens of supports in each countries using Smart AdServer in 2011 & 2012.

Share of mobile traffic (Apps versus Browser) has been taken from dozens of supports using Smart AdServer in Q4 2012. The share of mobile web ad impressions was taken globally (per devices & per OS) in Q 4 2012, same as CTR performances.

This infographic was possible thanks to the help of several departments in the company,  a special mention to Marine & Céline!

Many new players (DSP, SSP, Ad Exchange…) have emerged in the ecosystem to answer marketers’ needs and solve some of the technological challenges.

Source : http://www.advertisingperspectives.com/adblog/media-technology/are-ad-exchanges-and-real-time-bidding-the-next-big-thing/

Ad serving companies like us that have been building digital ad technology for years have also a central role to play in the new digital landscape. Discover below why:

Reliable Infrastructure: Ad servers have already existing & reliable infrastructure, proven for years.

Human assets: Ad serving companies have also experienced & valuable ad technology people.

Control of 1^st impression-Data: Ad servers see the first impression = they can make all existing impression available for real time demand in order to challenge direct sales.This is the only way to effectively optimize the yield and revenue. And it finally allows real time demand to reach high tier impressions (and not only remnant inventory).

One-stop solution: ad servers can provide all channel control and ad management options.

No conflict of interests: Ad servers are technology providers, thus, do not compete with their users by having a direct relationship with demand/buyers (e.g. Ad networks, etc…)

Trustful relationship with Publishers: It takes years to build strong relationship with content owners and media companies and they are now relying on their ad serving provider to make their advertising business sustainable, at least from a technology point of view.

Sustainable positioning in the display ecosystem: Last but not least: ad serving providers are already established, they are not Venture Capital backed; they have a proven track record and won’t change their business model from one day to the next.

That is why ad servers will be put at the center of the real time advertising game. Stay tuned for more revelations in the coming weeks! F2PC98ZTQ7YE

What our customers think about Smart AdServer product and service

Only 8% of the respondants consider that we have a product worse than the competitors, 76% would say our ad server is better or at least equivalent to the alternatives.

This is real in mature markets such as UK & US (average grade: 8/10), Canada: (7,5/10), France (7/10,..) but also in emerging markets such as Brazil( 8/10), Mexico(9,8/10)..

Among other things, they praise Smart Adserver’s user interface (average grade: 7, 7/10) and campaign management workflow (7,3/10).

Our customers are as enthusiastic regarding our services, the customer support is lauded too for its quality (average grade of 7,2/10) and its promptness (average grade: 7,1/10)

97% of the repondants would recommend Smart AdServer

97% would recommend Smart AdServer

What Managing Directors specially think about our ad serving solutions:

85% of Managing Directors consider our product/Services is very or extremely helpful in achieving their business goals. They are satisfied with our professionalism (85%) and are pleased with our expertise (average grade:7,8) the product quality (average grade:7,2)

An ad server is a tool at publisher’s disposal making possible to implement their sales strategy and reach their advertising & revenue goals.
Therefore, choosing an ad server is a long-term & strategic decision that can involve several departments, where two kind of ad serving features are to be taken into account: critical requirements mostly linked to their core business model and organization and “nice-to-have features”.
More over, migration can be complex and time consuming, that’s why listing all his requirements, both current & future, before starting reviewing the different ad serving solution, is a critical first step.

In the 2013, the 10 most important criterias in our point of view are below:

1) Core features: site-related features

Among the critical requirements, your next ad server should meet your basic content & ad formats requirements, i.e. the platform you’re looking to monetize (Web or Mobile) & the ad formats you’re looking to sell: video banners, rich media banners, text ads, audio ads, SMS… Those are, let say, most basic features.

2) Core features: Yield management &monetization options, RTB, Targeting options

To maximize direct revenues from your inventory (direct sales), a publisher can optimize their sell-through rate& eCPM by leveraging classic but vital features such as delivery methods, yield management & forecast options. They can also leverage targeting & retargeting features, accounting for higher CPM to their direct advertisers.

Key monetization features in 2013 are about Real Time Bidding, which has been going mainstream over the last 3 years & become one of the main opportunity for publishers to gain additional revenues by competing in real time the direct sales of sales house & the indirect sales.

3) Your own activity and business model

Most importantly, what you need to keep in mind when choosing your ad server is your business model: your own organization, your pieces of inventory to monetize, the way you sell them. All these aspects would have a significant impact on your final decision.

If as a main activity, you are a network in charge of the advertising spaces of a bunch of websites, you might want an ad server with a great multi-placement management.

If you are a performance-oriented publisher, you might opt for an ad server with a very advanced inventory optimization module if you can find a solution that meets all your expectations. If you’re more branding-focused, you might choose an ad server with great ad units.

Your next ad server can also depend on the way you sell your inventory to advertisers and the correspondent KPI you’ll need to track.

For example, in a case of a complex scenario: if you need to monetize your videos on your platform and you pay a revenue share to third party partner for each syndicated videos that is viewed on their site, one key technical feature would be a tool being able to track impressions & clicks and the location of the delivered ads.

4) Programming user-interface:

Is your next ad server a productivity-oriented tool, with fluid workflows, enabling to fast program & manage your campaigns?

Does it include real time delivery? (Once you press the “put online” button, how much would you have to wait for the delivery to be effective?)

Is it a user-friendly tool adapted for multiple kinds of users, ranging from sales employees with low technical background to traffic managers?

5) Digital convergence & Mobile : single vs multiple ad servers

Ad servers enabling to deliver to any kind of content on any media has increasingly become crucial & standard, in this convergence context.

Mobile is the big new thing (mobile traffic accounted in 2012 for 20% of digital traffic), your ad server in 2013 should (or at least can) include mobile ad serving. Real digital convergence is also about real ad operation convergence.

Benefits are tangible: it’s time-saving (it avoid all the back &forth between all the different programming interfaces), business efficient (less need of specific training), cost-saving (with possible economies of scale if you deal with only one provider)

 6) Market validation & third party integration

You can ask your contacts and partner if the ad servers you are reviewing are praised or recognized by an institution or by the market: has it been certified by other players or institution? Has it certified other main actors?

Beyond information you could gain about its reputation, It also could help avoiding high discrepancy issues.

7) Pricing

Other key criteria is the pricing, which include the set-up (it happen to be free, depending on your contract), the on-going billing (traditionally, publisher are billed per impression) plus extended services

8) Flexibility & upgradability

As an ad server is a long term relation ship, taking into account what’s coming next is also crucial. Regarding your future expectations, is a solution that provides you with new developments in timing convenient to yours? 

9) Hosting & infrastructure :

You can choose between two main creative hosting options:  local hosting (with a local ad server) versus external hosting or cloud based creative delivery (with a SAAS ad server).

This choice can impact your billing (hosting would be charged)  and in case of external hosting, infrastructure would be more  crucial.

Is your next ad server infrastructure reliable, 24/24, in your region, with a great Content Delivery Network? Is the architecture secured? The whole point is avoided to degrade your site performance and your audience experience.

10) Support

Last but not least, technical support. Which your next ad server meet all your assistance expectations? Will you receive proper & quick support, when needed?

More than 200 international digital marketing specialists were gathered in Paris during the IAB Master conference, organized in collaboration of Swedish digital school Hyper Island.

It was a very intense day, full of challenging and provocative ideas acclaimed by all the attendees.

What can be digital will be, what can be mobile will be – you should change your way of thinking #iabmc

— gregory pouy (@gregfromparis) November 27, 2012

The objectives were to defer to the international “visionaries”, to outline what will be tomorrow’s digital world and above all a great opportunity to network & exchange.

A full day marked with interesting conferences regarding some “hot” topics interspersed with feedback workshops in which the professionals wrote in the small different groups their common vision of the future of the interactive media.

Big Data & the Uncanny Valley. A talk I gave today at the @iabfrance Master Conference with @hyperisland. slideshare.net/jordanberkowit…
— Jordan Berkowitz (@jordanberkowitz) November 27, 2012

A complete and collaborative work was born from their common reflexion and their exchange,  published last week by the IAB, Discover it in “The Book”….
Enjoy it !!!

Here’s a simple definition of an ad server:

An ad server is a web server, that stores advertisements used in online marketing and delivers them to digital support visitors (a website, mobile apps, a mobile site,…).

Thanks a user-interface, users are enable to manage their banners, e.g to put online the creative & set the delivery parameters, (eventually) target , ad serve, monitor and optimize their online campaigns.
Different types of banners ( text, banner, video, flash, HTML5,…) can be supported.

As an ad server consists only of the technology, there is a prerequisite you might need before starting using one:  advertisers willing to advertise on your digital support & the related creatives , even if an ad server can help building advanced banners (Smart Adserver does it pretty well for instance) but not making them from scratch.

Why you would need an ad server?

If you’re a sell-side actor (e.g you have inventory to sell) : you are a Publisher or  an Ad Network

You’re a publisher, i.e you create digital content that you’re willing to monetize, including with advertising. You can make revenues by directly advertising to direct advertisers and agencies interested by your audience or through a third-party actor.

If you sell inventory directly to some advertisers, then you’ll probably need an ad server to manage all your advertising campaigns.

If you don’t have any direct advertiser, either because you’re working with automatic advertising platform, such as google adsense, or you’re dealing with an ad network that would sell you ad inventory on your behalf to advertisers, you don’t have any interest in managing yourself your banners with an ad server.

If you’re a buy-side actor (e.g you have inventory to buy) : Advertiser or Media Agency

You’re an advertiser, willing to advertise you banners to sell-side actors. You have already built our media plan. Or you  are  an agency, ad serving banners on behalf of your advertisers.
You might want to be able  to track by your own the clicks, impressions, conversions of the banners you deliver.

A common way advertisers have jumped on the mobile rich media bandwagon was by completing traditional media plan with mobile and launching cross-platform campaigns.

What is at stake is not only to drag advertisers to mobile spending, but more importantly, have them fully embrace mobile opportunities by specifically redesigning their campaigns, such as YOC.

This is what Biborg, a creative boutique agency, specialized in rich media creation, behind successful recent mobile  rich media campaigns (Dark Knight Rises, Frankenweenie …) does.

In the recent Assassin’s Creed III launch campaign, Smart AdServer “banner+layer” mobile ad unit was set, exploiting user interactions to the maximum.

Depending on the orientation of the iPhone (north, south, east and west), you can watch different videos of Conor, Assassin’s creed hero.

Assassin’s Creed III iPhone Ad (Ubisoft) from Biborg on Vimeo.

On iPad, it’s possible to shoot an arrow within the ad by sliding the ad left to the right.

Assassin’s Creed III iPad Ad (Ubisoft) from Biborg on Vimeo.

We asked François Girardot, cofounder of Biborg, a couple of questions.

What are advertising opportunities specific to mobile?

FG: “Mobile offers lots of new opportunities in advertising. On the one hand, we can explore new user interactions. For example, shaking your mobile opens a layer with the YouTube video with a new display ad “Shake to expand”.

Ghost Recon Future Soldier : mobile campaign from Biborg on Vimeo.

Mobile is a new way to interact, not only click but drag, blow, zoom… On the other hand, there are many things to create and develop with TV and mobile. For example, you can interact with TV spots on your mobile. Xbox is launching Smart Glass, a very interesting app where you can learn more on your mobile about the game you are playing. For example, i am playing Assassin’s Creed III and I can use my smart glass app to view corresponding games, last news on the game, who is playing and more. It is an exciting new playground for advertisers.”

Which technologies do you use to create your mobile ads?

FG: “Regarding the technology, we use a mix of HTML5/CSS3 and MP4 videos. Like we said, Mobile ads are like the far west where everything is to build. It will take time but with passion and hard work we can do something brilliant”.

Which kind of advertisers are the most interested in such mobile operations?

FG: “This type of campaign requires a strong interest for digital from our clients. The aim is not to just add a tv spot, it’s more “How can we make a strong and massive interactive campaign on the internet?”.