33Across Blog | Programmatic News & Trends

What was the buzz around the office last week? MoPub gets more measurement tools, Buzzfeed opens their site up to display advertising, and the new ad-blocking Chrome. 

1. Measurement tools coming to Twitter-owned MoPub  

Twitter-owned MoPub has recently updated their software, allowing publishers to provide better measurement to advertisers. With advertisers under intense pressure to measure performance, MoPub has integrated with Integral Ad Science as well as Moat to provide specifications. With viewability being a top metric, The Drum details how ad tech is shifting towards more measurement standards.

What was the buzz around the office last week? Google issues refunds from fake ad traffic, the FTC tells Amazon and Whole Foods to move forward, and mobile programmatic's expected rise. 

1. Google refunds advertisers for fraudulent ad traffic  

As Google works towards offering marketers more transparency, they are issuing refunds for ads that  ran on websites with fake traffic. These ads were brought using Google’s DoubleClick Bid Manager. Google has also offered to reimburse its “platform fee,” which typically accounts for up to 10% of a total ad buying purchase. While this may seem like a honorable move by Google, The Wall Street Journal details how some advertising advertising are unsatisfied with the gesture.

Last week in sunny Scottsdale, myself as a few other members of our sales team attended our first Digiday event- Digiday Programmatic Summit. While experiencing the humidity-free heat of Arizona I enjoyed connecting with brands and agencies throughout the three-day event. Discussions surrounding transparency, metrics, and artificial intelligence dominated numerous conversations. Unfortunately I could not bring back the amazing “lazy river” ride I went on however here are a few of my takeaways.

Transparency Is the New Black
Apart of nearly every conversation, transparency was the top buzzword during Digiday Programmatic Summit. Ever since the YouTube debacle, transparency is now demanded across the board. Brands are learning that successful partner relationships stem from consistent communication and the ability to have the curtain pulled back. With this, publishers should understand that media spend will indeed follow transparency.

Simplicity Works Best
There was quite a bit of a debate regarding the use of multiple SSPs, DSPs, and vendors; versus using only one.  Similarly there were several discussion surrounding brands that may have multiple KPIs. When looking at
30 different KPIs it is nearly impossible to determine campaign results. The consensus during Digiday was to nurture the KPI conversation by choosing to blend optimization metrics or to simply focus on 1-3 metrics. This enables a clear optimization path for vendors and simple determination for ROI.

Robots Will Not Take Over
We are hearing more and more about artificial intelligence within the digital landscape.  While it's certainly a part of our future it will not completely replace the human component of media planning. The digital advertising community should understand that AI will be used to make media buying smarter.  A robot is able to ingest and compute more data than a human however campaign initiatives will always need human consideration.

Getting It Right With Mobile
Mobile advertising has had its share of challenges including the fact that cookies do not work with mobile. Fortunately for all of us, mobile devices are not going away therefore we as an industry need to get smarter. Accurate device IDs, location targeting, and monitoring mobile ad performance more strategically will all help to improve mobile advertising.

What's the buzz around the office this week? Publishers can benefit in new ways from adding video, using programmatic advertising to attract loyal customers and a new mobile PMP enters the programmatic space. 

What's the buzz around the office this week? How programmatic advertising could work with luxury brands, the dominace of mobile display and Facebook entering the world of header bidding. 

We're excited to announce the addition of Mobile In-Feed placements to our outstream suite of video products. With the addition of this in-article mobile placement, 33Across publishers can now monetize the mobile web at programmatic scale. With mobile video slated to outpace desktop and reach $6.82 billion in digital ad spend by 2019, we're excited to introduce this product to help our publishers monetize such a highly demanded inventory source.

What's the buzz around the office this week? More opportunities for small and medium-sized publishers; engagement may soon take priority over viewability and everything you need to know about programmatic tv. 

What's the buzz around the office this week? Thanks to mobile and social, digital ad spending has hit an all time high; viewability is increasing in popularity in the UK and Facebook steps up their third-party verification game. 

What's the buzz around the office this week? Our own Eric Wheeler breaks down the digital advertising profitability for the 2016 election; thanks to the success of programmatic, publishers must now assess productivity among other housekeeping items; and video is leading the pack in programmatic advertising.