• by Sara Guaglione , November 13, 2020

Nearly half (47%) of the 300 digital media executives included in the survey say their organization “lacks the resources to support the billing and reconciliation process across our customers, causing payment times to increase.” 

“Closing the books is one of the biggest operational drains for publishers, seriously impacting revenue and cash flow at the worst possible time,” stated Steven Woolway, executive vice president of business development at DoubleVerify. 

“Publishers and advertisers need to work together to streamline pacing and delivery discrepancies, and to reduce billing cycles,” he added.

Three-quarters (73%) of publishers in the study say they spend too much time processing data from ad tech vendors (DSPs, SSPs, etc.). Some 80% say it's hurting revenue and inventory performance.

“Publishers have to pull disparate data from all of these scattered connections, including DSPs, SSPs, and exchanges, then they have to consolidate, organize and normalize that data,” noted Woolway. “It’s a cumbersome and repetitive process that takes resources away from more revenue-producing initiatives.”  

One-third (33%) rated their own organization’s campaign delivery process negatively. 

Publishers also say ad fraud is one of their top inventory quality challenges.

“Ad fraud isn’t just a buyer issue — it also eats into a publisher’s resources and monetization opportunities,” stated Pieter Mees, vice president of video & publisher product at DoubleVerify. 

“Like advertisers do, publishers also benefit from technology to easily identify and act on invalid traffic to prevent fraud in real-time," he added.   

In August, DoubleVerify announced it had created a division to lead product innovation efforts specifically for publishers. DoubleVerify serves over 110 publishers. 

The survey was conducted online from September 11-18, 2020.