ExchangeWire have invited hundreds of thought leaders to share their thoughts on what next year will hold, across a range of topics. Today, publisher monetisation takes centre stage. Will 2019 be about publisher diversification, improved technology to fuel better monetisation, or a shift of focus towards quality content?
Uniformity, trust, simplicity
"Advertisers' dissatisfaction with opacity, fraud, and misaligned incentives is as acute for publishers. This will manifest itself in publisher monetisation technology in 2019. Publishers will be increasingly judicious in accepting code on their pages, striving to move it to servers. Pace will be dictated by the progress of a single ID, which should be democratised rather than owned by a single gatekeeper. Publishers know they are solving the same problems independently, leading to inefficiency, fragmentation, and complexity. Those who embrace consistency in frameworks will prosper, enabling development resource to focus on positive differentiation that attracts readers and advertisers. Publishers with quality first-party data will seek to unlock and protect its value, by recoupling it with their now commoditised impressions. This will come in the form of deeper taxonomies, collaboration that frees data from the imprisonment of unscalable PMPs, and significant advances in DMPs that enable sophisticated segment creation with less reliance on the embattled cookie.
"Change is coming faster than ever in 2019, with the goal of creating uniformity, trust, and simplicity. It’s a harder phase of evolution than the preceding wild disruption, but a necessary regrouping to better focus the wonders of the next decade."
Ben Walmsley, Digital Director for The Bridge, News UK
A common identity solution
"What does this mean, exactly? A significant amount of today’s advertising budget comes through custom audiences, or user lists within the walled gardens that allow advertisers to target specific consumers. That said, none of this information is able to make its way out of the walled gardens and into the open web, so publishers don’t see any of this budget. If we’re going to redress the balance and put more of this ad spend into publishers' pockets, we – the independent tech partners – have to work in tandem on a common identity solution (an area in which we’ve made great progress in 2018). Every participant in the digital advertising ecosystem has far more access to identity than we think, we just need to work together to organise it collectively.
"The Advertising ID Consortium is a great example. It has allowed independent tech partners to collaborate and create an open, standardised pool for cookie and device identifiers, ultimately enabling those on both the buy and sell sides of the industry to leverage people-based marketing (instead of just cookie targeting). I expect initiatives like this will ramp up next year. Beyond identity, I’d also encourage pubs and tech partners to push the envelope a little in 2019 – ensuring we’re rewarding ingenuity, while simultaneously working to level the playing field."
James Prudhomme, Head of International, Index Exchange
Content creation investment will reap rewards
"The evolution of AR/AI and 360 video technologies will play a part in driving revenue for publishers, enabling advertisers to literally transport customers to a destination or event; storytelling in an ever more engaging and impactful way."
Emma Winchurch-Beale, President, World Media Group & International Sales Director, Washington Post
The return of the news site
"The news sites that are reporting what is going on will be rewarded, as the advertising community will recognise the value. Since news sites are seeing record traffic, and some brands are running away, other brands will run towards and thus help journalism."
Marc Goldberg, CEO, Trust Metrics
Telcos will drive mobile publisher diversification
"The trend towards publisher content being discovered by new tech and UI/UX built directly into our phones will require publishers to understand and build monetisation strategies via these new telco-oriented opportunities."
Greg Wester, CMO, Mobile Posse
Increased investment for in-app inventory
"Next year will witness a further move towards unified auctions, striving towards a fair marketplace. We will see all demand sources participating in a single auction at the same time, resulting in a level playing field between different classes of buyers. In turn, this will eliminate the 'waterfall' that exists in most mediation solutions for in-app inventory."
Shalom Michaeli, Director of Publisher Development Europe, Fyber
Publishers can't rely solely on ad revenue
"Moreover, publishers will struggle to survive on ad revenue alone in 2019. A diversified revenue stream will, therefore, become more essential, with e-commerce likely to deliver one of the most lucrative opportunities for publishers. Content created by publishers drives exceptional interest in consumer purchases, yet many remain unrewarded for this. So, could 2019 be the year publishers get paid more based on the value of their audience?"
Andy Evans, CMO, Sovrn
Leverage engaging, well-formed content
"Publishers that leverage highly engaging and well-formed content, without disturbing the user visiting the site, will see the best monetisation value. Brands want to be amongst the 10 to 15 ads people recall; and you have more of a chance of achieving this by creating visually pleasing content for the user. This will create an overall improvement in both engagement and revenue and give your brand a voice amongst the noisy world of advertising."
Eric Visser, CEO, JustPremium