Commentary
Publishers, Take Back Your Data!
- by February 17, 2009
Although this may have sounded like news to some--including many publishers--this practice has been going on for a while. Whether in the form of retargeting or behavioral targeting, cookie data on site specific ad interactions has been an increasingly important media planning and optimization tool. And, as network targeting technology becomes more sophisticated, and publishers more aware, the activity is poised to become another sticking point in Ad Network-Publisher relationships.
But it doesn't need to be--especially in today's ever evolving data marketplace.
Brand publishers, pummeled by a new market reality that demands performance as well as prestige, are feeling the pinch of user-based targeting methods. All of these methods rely on the same thing, however, core, "cookie-based" user data that can only be garnered via a premium publisher site. And, in many cases, the best users (and data) come from the best sites. Hence networks often do an expensive "premium" buy with a top notch site, only to tag those users for targeting elsewhere on cheaper media.
Without that core site, there are no core users, no targeting information about those users, and put simply, no place to run ads in the first place. Doesn't it make sense that publishers should have a right to manage and monetize the visitors to their site as well as the data about them?
It's time for publishers to get more proactive.
1)Demand that networks pay you to drop their cookies. Tacoda was an early leader in driving home the concept of the value of data by paying pubs for their user info, whether or not ads were run on their site. All ad nets should follow their lead and bring the practice above the radar. Publishers should prod them along.
2)Develop a data strategy. Make sure that you know who, why and how your users are being leveraged. Review your IOs and see what they say about data--who owns it, and what rights advertisers have. Determine what info you are comfortable giving up, what you aren't and to whom.
3)Take control of your data destiny through a data exchange. There are a growing number of venues through which to monetize your data that don't take a great deal of time or effort to manage. Like ad networks, data exchanges (such as eXelate and Blue Kai) allow publishers to access multiple network data revenue streams via a single account.
4)If you can't get paid, get info. If a network or advertising partner is reluctant to pay for cookies they are dropping on your site, push for an information share. More data on how your visitors are performing can help your sales team refine their pitch and discover potential new targets.
Context and placement have always been the most critical factors in any media buy, either on- or offline. But as behavioral optimization techniques become more refined, an imprint of the person that is seeing the ad is starting to eclipse where they are seeing it as a bottom line performance factor.
Publishers hold the key to recognizing this imprint and need to begin taking stronger steps to managing and monetizing this data. Stronger data strategies from publishers, in which control and monetization are key, are not only critical in helping publishers stabilize their business and extend their audience relationship but also help create an open, equitable information landscape which benefits marketers and consumers.
Mark - Thanks for the article. Curious if you see the recent T's & C's data grab by GroupM as a threat to your model. It should be evident to all that enabling the publisher - through data and ad exchanges - ultimately benefits the advertiser, too.
As you point out, premium content sites can potentially find new sources of revenue through network relationships or by mining their own data and reselling through companies like yours and Bluekai.
But, if I were a publisher and pushing for a Tacoda-like model from my networks, I would not be surprised to see my display eCPMs decrease in order to compensate for the payout of the new revenue stream. Perhaps, again, this is why a separate data exchange makes sense.
Let the networks make their money and pay the publisher as a high CPM as possible. And then the premium pub goes to the data exchange and generate cookie revenue.
Thanks for the comment Joe. Before we get to the agencies, nets and pubs, I think first you need to start with the premise that ultimately the consumer owns the data.
The players that are currently jockeying for position all need to treat the consumer as an equal, if not the greater partner in the equation who is “loaning” their info in exchange for a better web experience. Once that is settled, it has less to do with the specific type of data rather than how the data is gathered and will be used. In the cases in which an advertiser or its agency is collecting interaction data on a specific campaign for internal analysis, it seems fair to make that the purview of those parties; sharing it in the aggregate with publishers at their option.
However, the usage should really stop there (which is what I am focusing on in this piece). If data is accumulated in the form of tracking cookies dropped on users so that they can be retargeted later on cheaper media outside of the originators site (broadly known as behavioral or re-targeting), it is clear that the publishers need to be compensated for this. Currently they are not, which we believe is inherently unfair. In many cases publishers don’t even know this is happening, compounding the issue and eventually creating more friction between network and publishers.
So, I believe the Group Ms of the world definitely have a right to a certain type of acquisition and usage -- but not a retargeting or reuse right - without comping the pubs.
It will certainly continue to drive pubs toward a performance based world -- which they may fear -- but quality data (and pubs) will derive the highest yield from a set of marketplaces that are open and afford them access to all of the potential rev streams they should enjoy.