By Reza Amiri-Garroussi, Head of Media, UK and MENA, LiveRamp
In the race to attract advertisers and drive revenue, open web publishers face a sprint. Having long faced tough competition with social media platforms for transparent performance and scale, retail media, commerce media, and other platforms have entered the scene and are quickly gaining traction with their offer of closed-loop measurement.
The figures may seem stark. Social and retail media spend are expected to reach over £10 billion and £1 billion this year respectively. In contrast, according to research from the AOP and Deloitte, digital advertisers saw an 11.4% decrease in display revenue for Q3 2024, continuing a trend of year-on-year decline in this category.
While troubling, AOP’s research also illuminates how publishers can push through and offer greater value to their brand partners. There was an increase in subscriptions and a 66.3% increase in the miscellaneous category, with the latter partly attributed to publishers making their data available to partners. In the same vein, off-platform revenues saw a substantial Q3 increase at 60.7% YoY.
While they may not have the same scale or operational capacity as other platforms, the first-party data publishers hold from their loyal, authenticated, and engaged audiences presents formidable fuel for growth. By connecting rich insights into consumer behaviours and interests with that of their partners, publishers can transform the value of their audience network.
As the ecosystem becomes increasingly data-and-outcome-driven, publishers that prioritise collaboration with partners will stand out and reap the rewards of greater monetisation. The problem, however, is that these data assets are often fragmented across the organisation, so their potential to propel revenue lies dormant. Indeed, activating them isn’t a one-step process. It takes a crawl, walk, run approach, backed by strategic leadership and advanced technology for collaboration.
The result will put publishers back in the race.
Tech foundations
Alongside developing first-party data through clear authentication strategies with their users, publishers also need to make their audiences – and insights – transactable for marketers. This means implementing an interoperable connectivity infrastructure that will help publishers build a unified view of their consumers and enable custom audiences across their portfolio of inventory.
With this strong connectivity foundation in place, publishers can then make more efficient use of data collaboration, specifically clean rooms. Reducing the costs and time needed to break down internal data silos, audit permissioned data and deploy it, data clean rooms are empowering publishers to unlock their data’s potential for insight, activation and validation. They also critically facilitate connections with a range of partners, presenting a safe and neutral space for partnerships to exist without either party having access to the other’s data. This includes multi-party collaboration, which can allow publishers to layer data providers’ insights into their network, powering marketers to target their campaigns with more precision – and better results – than ever before.
For instance, by partnering with a retail media network and a consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand and leveraging a data clean room environment, a publisher can help the brand achieve an omnichannel view of shared customers. Access to publishers’ exposure data, combined with holistic measurement thanks to the retailer’s conversion data, can empower the brand marketer to better understand and target high-value audiences end-to-end across channels.
Brands will pay a premium for this ability to reach real, engaged audiences with cross-screen, tangible outcomes. It’s therefore in publishers’ interest to adopt interoperable, flexible connectivity and clean room solutions that allow them to collaborate with any advertiser or partner and enrich their network.
It takes a village
Technology can only go so far in producing results without the right conditions to propel its success. This begins with leadership and organisational collaboration. Publishers should champion those individuals who can interpret the advertising value of data and align it with growth goals. Chief Information Officers, Data Protection Officers, and data scientists can play pivotal roles by articulating the importance of prioritising data and its value to the business, but it usually starts with a champion and an immediate use case.
The work doesn’t end there; the industry is continually evolving. Publisher teams should stay agile and proactive to adapt to shifting consumer behaviors and new regulations. They should also be aware of the latest technological developments and experiment with different technologies, exploring all possibilities to gain an advantage.
Winning the revenue race
The growth potential of open web publishers will lie in the amount of work they can put in. It’s going to take adaptability, proactive engagement in data strategies, and a willingness to evolve. But having the right internal language, the right talent, and the right tech partners will raise the ceiling of what’s possible from this first-party data.
Ultimately, by connecting data across partners and platforms, publishers can transform their network’s advertising value.
