Weekly Roundup: Opt-in Rates for Ads, Google Vs. Identity Solutions, Prebid Updates.

Summary

• Fewer than 20% of the users have updated their devices to the new OS and less than 20% of them have allowed tracking. – Singular
• 19% of Apple users have disallowed all the apps from sending the tracking prompt.
• The travel industry is facing 20% higher post-bid frauds compared to other major industries. Brand suitability violations are also up by 82%. – DoubleVerify
• Google once again said that it won’t support identity solutions. It won’t also build any backdoor for targeting in the Privacy Sandbox. But the advantage of millions of logged-in users on its platforms cannot be ignored..
• For the post-cookie world, Liveramp is expanding its offering with a new product called Portrait Engine. It is developed for marketers to build identity graphs using their first-party data. Adform and Smart are integrating with Lotame Panorama ID, an identity solution from Lotame.
•  20% of HBR’s subscribers opt to pay 50% more and enroll in its top-tier program to access its ebooks and case studies. The publisher considers the archived content as “gold”.
• Meredith is selling its local media business and using the profits to build its national media business. It’ll focus on growing organically into more of a multi-platform publisher. 
• Prebid is coming up with its 5.0 release on 9th June 2021. After the update, all bidders need to support a stub (placeholder) for Advertiser Domain (meta.advertiserDomains) in the bids they send in the auction. It’ll help publishers to control and report accurately on which Prebid buyers are running ads on their sites.
• UID 2.0 officially goes open-source with The Trade Desk committing the code to IAB Tech Lab’s Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM). Prebid will also work as an operator.

Latest Adtech Trends for Publishers

IDFA Adoption and Opt-ins

Another week has passed since Apple released the iOS 14.5 update. We are seeing many reports analyzing the impact of the new changes on Apple devices. This week, Singular, a marketing intelligence provider, has published its findings from 10 different markets. Here are the highlights:

• Fewer than 20% of the users have updated their devices to the new OS and less than 20% of them have allowed tracking.
• Germany is leading with the highest percentage of its users on the new OS whereas China is at the last.
  
• The iOS users can also choose whether apps can request tracking. If a user doesn’t allow it, they’ll never see the prompts from any apps. Globally, there are 19% of such users.
  
• 19.4% of all the users see the prompt and allow tracking.

Ad Frauds in Travel and Hospitality Sector

DoubleVerify has released its Media Quality Report for the Travel and Hospitality industry for the period between Jan 2020 and Jan 2021. It finds that the industry is facing 20% higher post-bid frauds compared to other major industries. Brand suitability violations are up by 82% with APAC witnessing 52%, EMEA seeing 87%, and NA experiencing an 88% increase. The ad viewability is also falling in the industry with an 11% decrease in display whereas a 15% decline in video ads.

Post-Cookie World

Google vs Identity Solutions

Google’s stance against identifiers was clear since it announced that it won’t build any such solutions nor it’ll allow them in its products. Last week Google’s VP and GM of ads Jerry Dischler gave another statement that casts shadows of doubts on solutions like the Unified ID. He says,

“Third-party cookies and other proposed identifiers that some in the industry are advocating for do not meet the rising expectations that consumers have when it comes to privacy. They will not stand up to rapidly evolving regulatory restrictions. They simply cannot be trusted in the long term.”

Digiday reports another statement from the VP of Ads where he says Google won’t build a backdoor for itself in the Privacy Sandbox that gives any targeting advantage to the company. “We’ll be using these [Privacy Sandbox] APIs for our own ads and measurement products just like everyone else, and we will not build any backdoors for ourselves,” says Dischler. But, this statement doesn’t hold much weight for the industry because Google already has the edge over its competitors with millions of users logged in to its products.

New Offerings and Partnerships

The launch of new identity solutions continues and this week we saw Liveramp expanding its offering with a new product called Portrait Engine. It is developed for marketers to build identity graphs using only their own first-party data. It is currently in public beta stage and it’ll be available later this summer.

Apart from new products, we are also seeing the trend of adtech companies partnering with each other to make identity solutions widely applicable. Recently, we saw Adform and Smart integrating with Lotame Panorama ID. It’ll help Lotame in expanding its reach further. Smart and Adform will be joining Magnite, Advance Local, Sovrn, Eyeota, and Lotame’s other data partners supporting the ID.

Strategies from Top Media Publishers

Harvard Business Review

Harvard Business Review considers its archive as gold. And why shouldn’t it? 20% of its subscribers opt to pay 50% more and enroll in its top-tier program to access its archived content in the form of ebooks and case studies. Its Director of Consumer Marketing says HBR focuses on serving its superusers and a superuser of its content will benefit from any of the ebooks and case studies.

HBR shows us a great example of creating value to command a premium in the market. Its case studies are popular all over the world and they are taught in college syllabuses. The publisher has kept creating them in such a way that they are always useful to its audience. The volume of the archive also plays a big role in its success. 640 ebooks and thousands of case studies are more than enough for any business person to solve his problems.

Meredith

Meredith is selling its local media business and using the profits to build its national media business. It’ll focus on growing organically into more of a multi-platform publisher. The presidential elections gave a boost to the viewership and the political ad spend was also at its highest during the same time, helping the local media business achieve a valuation of $2.7 billion. It can be difficult for the publisher to reach such a valuation in the coming years until the next election, so it is making the best out of the situation.

The earnings from the sale will help the publisher reduce its $2.6 billion debt. It’ll improve the company’s balance sheet to a great level. Having less debt will also make it easier for the company to make growth plans for its remaining portfolio. In this way, paying attention to the financials of the business will help Meredith in strengthening its position in the market.

Updates from Prebid

Prebid is coming up with its 5.0 release on 9th June 2021. After the update, all bidders need to support a stub (placeholder) for Advertiser Domain (meta.advertiserDomains) in the bids they send in the auction. This implementation will help publishers to report accurately on which Prebid buyers are running ads on their sites. The publishers will also be able to exercise effective control over them.

You can check Github to know the adapters that do not support the stub so far. If you are working with any of them, reach out and ask when they’ll start supporting the initiative. But why should you care? In an email sent to its users, Prebid says, 

“Bidders that do not support the new architecture risk not having their adapter ported to the newest version of Prebid.js in the coming weeks — which means that in order to keep using their bidder you will not be able to upgrade your Prebid version.”

So, go and check out the list if you wish to upgrade your Prebid version at the earliest.

UID 2.0 Officially Goes Open Source

Back in February, Prebid assumed the place of operator for Unified ID 2.0 to make sure that the solution remains open-source. Last week, The Trade Desk took the next step for the same objective by committing the open-source code to IAB Tech Lab’s Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM). Earlier, The Trade Desk gave the code for review to PRAM back in January.

Open-source solutions are more likely to take off for wider adoption when compared to proprietary solutions. It is so because anybody can adopt an open-source product and make changes as needed. As a result, a large number of parties freely use and improve the solution, making it more attractive for future adopters. Prebid is an example of a successful open-source solution and The Trade Desk hopes to replicate the success for its UID 2.0. 

Moments that Matter

Verve Group Launches ATOM Targeting By Cohort For iOS – AdExchanger.

Adtech Company OpenX Explores Possible Sale – Business Insider.

It’s Time To Say Goodbye To VPAID, For Real This Time  – AdExchanger.

How publishers can build sustainable businesses in the era of platforms – WNIP.