By Tim Cronin, Senior Director, Ad Serving at PubMatic
We have been catapulted into the era of mobile and programmatic. A recent study by Pew Research found that 39 of the top 50 U.S.-based news sites now see more visitors engaging with their site’s content on mobile devices than on the desktop. Mobile is also projected to account for 72% of U.S. Digital Ad Spend by 2019. And when it comes to programmatic spend specifically, eMarketer projects that mobile will surpass desktop as early as this year, accounting for 56.2% of all programmatic ad expenditures.
The challenge for publishers is clear: adapt your content and monetization strategy to take full advantage of a mobile and programmatic world. For many publishers, this shift will require rethinking a lot of what they have been taking for granted for the past decade – including their technology infrastructure.
One of the key pieces of infrastructure that needs to be reconsidered is the ad server. A mobile-first world calls for an ad server that was built for the unique challenges and opportunities that mobile offers publishers. A mobile-first world that is also shifting to programmatic requires an ad server that helps publishers effectively manage the massive amount of ad spend that is coming from their direct sold and programmatic campaigns. It’s an enormous opportunity for publishers and therefore getting it right will be crucial.
Here are three ways publishers benefit from using a mobile optimized ad server:
1) Geo-fencing – By now everyone understands that a significant part of the value of mobile is the ability to target consumers based on location. The ability to do this as precisely as possible is a critical differentiator. Indeed, PubMatic’s research into monetizing mobile impressions demonstrated that publishers that offer this data can see a 600% jump in mobile eCPMs. Mobile ad servers with geo-fencing capabilities can effectively target consumers who are in a specific location, whether that location is a coffee shop, the World Cup Final or the middle of Times Square.
2) Rich Media, Native, and your SDK – In a mobile first world, every publisher needs the ability – in both its mobile application inventory and mobile web inventory – to deliver everything from rich media to native units. Consumers and advertisers now expect a full rich media experience on their mobile devices. An ad server that is able to standardize rich media across ad units is able to meet the expectation of a more dynamic and interactive experience on smartphones and other mobile devices.
3) Advanced Server Integrations –The mobile world has been quicker to adopt server-to-server integrations than the desktop world. This creates a much more efficient and less error-prone environment. This is especially crucial in the complex mobile environment with so many different types of devices.
At PubMatic we offer publishers an ad server that is designed to meet the challenges of a mobile-first programmatic world. Last week, we celebrated the one-year anniversary of PubMatic’s acquisition of Mocean Mobile, an enterprise grade ad server and mobile monetization platform. PubMatic now offers an end-to-end solution for managing and monetizing publishers direct sold, programmatic, and third-party campaigns. Our comprehensive solution allows publishers to maximize their revenue, improve operational efficiency and “future-proof” their advertising business.
Learn more about our mobile solutions for publishers here.
