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Programmatic Still Seen As Method for Monetising Unsold Inventory in CEE: Q&A with Bartłomiej Chmiel, MD, Yieldbird

by on 31st Oct 2017 in News

Publisher monetisation is a global challenge, but there isn't a global, one-size-fits-all solution. ExchangeWire speaks with Bartłomiej Chmiel (pictured below), managing director of Yieldbird, ad inventory optimisation specialists, headquartered in Poland, with strong presence in the Central and Eastern Europe and LATAM regions, about the differing challenges and approaches to programmatic publishers face in these regions.
ExchangeWire: Yieldbird focusses on yield management and optimisation for publishers. How do you ensure you deliver this?
Bartłomiej Chmiel: As soon as we know a publisher’s page views and revenue results, we get to work. Our task is to make 30% improvement, or more, over the course of a 30-day trial. Typically, it takes 14-to-45 days to increase a publisher's actual revenue.
So, how do we do it? It all comes down to three aspects of our yield optimisation: header bidding and wrapper implementation; unique deals for private marketplace (PMP)/preferred deals (PD) (local and worldwide); and open market (OM) optimisation. To be more specific, we provide yield optimisation support to find the most efficient pricing rules on the OM. Simply speaking, our support is a mixture of manual and technological work.
We use our wrapper solution to add more demand to an ad stack. Because of this, we end up earning more money for a publisher. Since Yieldbird has direct integration with all the major SSPs on the market (such as Appnexus, PubMatic, OpenX, PulsePoint, WideOrbit, bRealTime, Facebook Audience Network etc.), it’s much easier to reach the desired goals.
Similarly, we use our unique demand to generate more PMP/PD income from worldwide and local advertisers. We’re fully aware of how important it is to perfect our tools, expand technology partnerships, and work closely with advertisers and media agencies located in the global capitals of spending, like London, Amsterdam, or Miami. And that’s what we do on a daily basis. We arrange meetings globally and call advertisers to get them familiar with all of our inventories. You see, not all of our publishers have an international sales team, and that’s where we step in.
Foreign traffic monetisation is a big part of your business offering. How much traffic on your partners platforms is driven by foreign visitors? Is this something publishers need to focus more on?
We monetise all traffic that comes to us, no matter the origin. On publishers’ sites, traffic mostly comes from the core market, but there is some foreign traffic as well. Usually it breaks down to 90:10. However, this may differ dramatically depending on the publishers. Publishers like Celltick, headquartered in Israel, have a strong presence on several markets outside the publisher’s country, where their head office is located. Others host traffic from all around the world.
All too often, such traffic is handled by publishers without adequate attention. Part of the reason it happens is because each market is different; so, in order to succeed, a yield optimisation provider must demonstrate exemplary local knowledge. A good example is The Daily Mail. For them, we optimise traffic from 13 Latin American markets and 17 Central and Eastern European markets. This means a staggering total of 13.5 million page impressions every month from both regions and translates into a lot of extra revenue for the publisher. It requires real knowledge and experience to handle it properly.
As you mention, part of your strategy is publisher monetisation across CEE. This is a diverse region, with a blend of markets – what differences in publisher monetisation do you see across CEE?
As you said, it’s a blend of markets that are somehow different, but on the other hand, similar. At some point, all experience and knowhow gained from one market can be applied to another, to a certain degree. And that’s a huge advantage. More distinct demand differences tend to appear in the local programmatic marketplace.

Bartłomiej Chmiel, MD, Yieldbird

Another major difference applies to optimisation and how it’s perceived. Two years ago, there was a sea of differences when it came to building awareness about programmatic. Now we see convergence in this area at an increasing scale.

We observe the markets to better understand what the daily processes are. It’s good to know which markets grow into innovators or leaders – these are markets with a rising share of private marketplace/preferred deals. Just like Poland, a leader in this part of Europe.
Yet, the development of individual markets also produces major differences in available formats: e.g. endemic formats which are unique in every country. If we work with publishers, which host traffic from a given region, we need to make sure they have what it takes to aggregate demand for these formats.
We work with European suppliers, such as Pubmatic, or Adform, which provide stable demand. Naturally, we’re fully aware of how strong Google's penetration is as well. It is true what they say about the majority of CEE publishers, which use AdSense, as for some this is their only access to programmatic. They don’t have enough traffic to use AdX and have to use the services of companies that are Google Certified Publishing Partner – like Yieldbird, the only company in CEE certified by Google.
At the end of the day, there are more similarities in these markets than differences. And, although the markets differ in various aspects, some of the problems are universal. Such as rebuilding publishers’ internal structures successfully in order to maintain relationships with advertisers who have traditionally purchased an insertion order and, at the same time, juxtapose it with programmatic budgets. We are as helpful as we can be in that respect.
How is CEE as a region, compared with the rest of Europe, or rest of the world, when it comes to maximising publisher yields?
When it comes to optimisation work and algorithms, there aren’t many differences. The real discrepancies appear on the business level. We’re referring to whether there are larger players, if the demand is available, and if there’s awareness of programmatic potential.
Generally, in Western Europe many publishers have used header bidding as a standard feature. In CEE countries, on the contrary, not everyone is using this solution or server-side header bidding. A similar case is with first-price auction – a topic discussed mainly in the Western Europe region.
Western European countries may introduce innovations faster, but they also have higher, yet more realistic, expectations. That’s how the cookie crumbles – knowing more, it’s easier to understand what a given innovation is about. This means it becomes faster and increases knowledge about the surrounding market.
Yet it’s worth mentioning that, in CEE, programmatic is often associated with the technical department, and not with sales. Programmatic is a sales model, not a specific technology.
Sellers in CEE, on the other hand, learn how to sell ad space programmatically. In Western Europe, they have learnt their lesson: it doesn’t matter if the customer buys a programmatic ad or an insertion order, only until the salespersons get their bonus. In CEE things work slightly differently: programmatic is seen as a method for monetising unsold inventory. Luckily for us, the perception is changing.
How do publisher monetisation strategies in CEE differ from the strategies needed in LATAM?
Most differences come down to how relationships are built, the onsite presence, and language proficiency. It’s hard to establish a full picture of LATAM publishers – this is a gigantic region, after all. It’s no secret that without Spanish or Portuguese, there isn't a big chance of bringing any added value. Not to mention that technical or key representatives rarely speak English.
Latin American publishers, which run globally, can find themselves at ease with these regions, especially if they have header bidding. It’s true, though, that header bidding is used by few publishers there and, when applied, results take a very strong uplift.
No matter the market changes, without proper insiders it’s much harder to find one’s way in the LATAM region. But knowing the potential of the LATAM market, it’s worth considering selling and purchasing inventory there. With LATAM’s monetisation, the sky's the limit.