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‘Google is really nailing us’: Publishers re-shift commerce strategies after platform releases flurry of algorithm updates

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By Kayleigh Barber

As always, Google can cause chaos for publishers depending on the digital behemoth’s whims.

This autumn was a whirlwind for publishers as Google released not one but three algorithm changes over the course of a month that affected content rankings, specifically of product reviews. It’s another example of how the tech giant can cause disruption for publishers that have built businesses around trying to take advantage of its algorithm to reach people.

Timeline of Google’s recent algorithm changes:

•August 25: helpful content update •September 12: core updates •September 20: product reviews update

“Google is really nailing us,” said a media exec candidly in exchange for anonymity at the Digiday Publishing Summit last month.

Google claimed the algorithm changes were intended to prioritize search results considered the most helpful to internet goers, or content that’s “written by people, for people.” This means articles with expert insights, as well as original photography and original content descriptions (not regurgitated from the manufacturer’s website), will be ranked higher in search results. A Google spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment on the record.

Already facing a number of challenges in the commerce revenue department, several publishers like 360 Reviews and Hunker have expressed that they’re still trying to fully unpack to what extent these algorithm changes have impacted their search traffic and how to accommodate Google’s latest content guidelines in their edit strategies. Meanwhile, other publishers, like CNET, said their businesses experienced no ill effects from these rollouts, in part because their editorial approach to commerce content already follows Google’s guidelines.

“It’s been a choppy 90 days in some of our product categories but in others, it’s been totally flat. We’re not too far off from where we were 90 days ago,” said Amro Naddy, vp and general manager at U.S. News & World Report’s 360 Reviews, during a panel at StackCommerce’s Activate event earlier this week. He did not disclose which categories were impacted, but jokingly added, “I burned some extra candles on my altar last night and prayed to the oracle to save us.”

CNET has focused on expert insights and original photography that shows the products have been reviewed by experts — the secret sauce for keeping its content ranked high through the updates, said Lindsey Turrentine, evp of content and audience at CNET.

One new reviewer in the television category was trained for nine months to learn about all the criteria considered when reviewing a TV and how to effectively assess this technology under executive editor David Katzmaier. While this isn’t something that Google can see or take into consideration in the rankings, Turrentine said that eventually Google will register “that the same name shows up against the content over a long period of time and that the quality of the content itself is very high” bodes in the publication’s favor when it comes to ranking that author’s content more positively.

It’s unclear the impact the changes have had on Leaf Group’s Hunker but featuring snippets and video in traditional commerce articles have caused a drop in rankings, said svp and general manager Eve Epstein.

The media brand, like other publishers, is also focused on creating original content. Much of its holiday shopping content will be created in the brand’s Hunker House showroom and event space, which is on occasion transformed into a production studio, Epstein said.

What’s one to do?

Be flexible.

“You need to be able to absorb a 10 [to] 25% fluctuation [in search traffic] pre- and post- an algorithm change,” said Naddy, who did not share what these figures have looked like at U.S. News & World Report. There, internal SEO experts are explaining what these changes could mean to the commerce team, though Naddy was sheepish to say more about how his team was modifying its strategy to appeal to Google’s new standards.

This isn’t the first time Google targeted product reviews on its platform. The latest batch of algorithm updates comes a little over a year after an April 2021 product reviews update, which favored content that compared products to one another as well as content that expressed expert knowledge.

The change was welcome at the time by one publishing exec from company with a large commerce operation, who spoke anonymously to Digiday last year. They added that they were hopeful it would clear out some of the “shitty” commerce content from the top SEO rankings because a lot of it was starting to feel “very pay for play.”

“There’s definitely been a big flurry of updates. Our SEO team has been quite busy,” said Turrentine, who oversees a team that does exactly what Naddy was suggesting.

Once a Google algorithm update is live, Turrentine said an executive summary is created by the SEO team, which then spends a week or two fully understanding the update and noting which pieces of content or subject matters have been impacted. From there, recommendations are made by the SEO team to the edit team regarding headlines, keywords and format, if necessary.

“We follow Google’s guidelines as they provide them, to the extent that they do, which is not very much,” said Turrentine, but despite the lack of insight from Google, CNET avoided taking a rankings hit this time around. “If we saw any change, it was really cantered around that [Sept. 12] core [algorithm] update [and] it was a positive change for us.”

A a diversified approach to content distribution is critical, Jessica Spira, vp of commerce at Hearst Digital Newspapers, said during the StackCommerce Activate event. To avoid getting slammed by algorithm changes, she works with websites to understand where brands can create direct relationships with users that are off platforms, including commerce-focused newsletters and boosting commerce content on the sites’ homepages.

Spira, who only recently joined Hearst in the same week as the Activate event, only spoke at a high level about strategies for avoiding a reliance on Google traffic.

“While Google traffic is so performative and so successful in terms of converting users into actual purchasers, you are dependent on that algorithm, and you are like an algorithm change away from missing your quarter and it’s a bloodbath,” Spira said.

Feature Image Credit: Ivy Liu 

By Kayleigh Barber

Sourced from DIGIDAY

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How creators have become strategy consultants for publishers on TikTok

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By Kayleigh Barber

TikTok can be a scary place for publishers.

Its algorithm segments audiences into interest-based groups, making best practices for the social video platform antithetical to best practices publishers have successfully honed for the other platforms and channels.

“Traditional video publishers have an editorial team, they have a content calendar, they’re producing and editorializing video content based on different stories or trends that are happening, and it’s typically a little bit more polished and far more regimented,” said Nick Cicero, vp of strategy at streaming and social intelligence company Conviva, which works closely with publishers, brands and independent creators on tracking post-performance on social media. “TikTok does not follow the same methodology as traditional video platforms that publishers [use].”

With that in mind, some publishers have turned to creators native to the fast-paced and rough-cut platform to help guide their strategies. Publishers including BDG, Team Whistle and Gallery Media Group, have grown their followings by doing so — and have incorporated TikTok into their daily output and distribution strategies.

“A lot of our foundation was built on working with creators who we thought aligned with our brands and were people that we would post naturally, learning from each other,” said Wesley Bonner, BDG’s svp of marketing and audience development. “And a lot of them were very eager to get into an opportunity to make money from their work.”

Since first posting on its TikTok channels in May 2020, BDG’s lifestyle brands have accrued between 440,000 to 2.7 million followers each, largely by forming deep relationships with creators, including through its TikTok Creator Network, which pays TikTokers to produce content for the company’s handles. The model is structured the same way it pays freelance writers to produce content for its websites, Bonner said, but would not disclose the range at which the TikTok creators are paid per post.

Right now there are 100 creators in the BDG Creator Network, all of whom are in the early stages of building their online presence since their rates tend to be lower than creators with millions of followers, and they are eager to grow online, Bonner said.

And other publishers agree that giving creators the driver’s seat is the correct strategy.

“The companies that are winning right now are allowing talent to do that super nimble work” of identifying their audience, figuring out what they want to see and how much of that content they want, said Owen Leimbach, evp of strategy and innovation at Team Whistle.

Here are some of the strategies that publishers have learned by collaborating closely with TikTok creators:

Give the ending away

By working closely with creators, Bonner said he has learned to share the end result with the audience immediately. Whether the video is about a beauty hack, a coffee recipe, a dress-up fashion video or an interior design reveal, a key way to get viewers to stop on your post is by making the attractive end result the first thing that catches their eye.

“I find [it] just a fascinating human tick where we’re scrolling so quickly, if you start a 15-second video that’s [about] the perfect eyeliner, but we don’t show you the eyeliner [in the beginning] you’re not likely to make it to the 15-second mark,” said Bronner. “That’s a unique strategy that we apply a lot to our videos of incorporating whatever the finale is first in the title, and then show them how you got there. It works quite well.”

Stop romanticizing brand image

TikTokers “are not romantic about their brand or voice the way that a lot of Fortune 500 brands and publishers are,” said Ryan Harwood, CEO of Gallery Media Group, which publishes PureWow and ONE37pm. They “have taught us that it’s OK to have multiple personalities depending on where you are.”

Because of how rapidly the platform develops — and with how solo creators operate — creators can hop on trends as they emerge and post several times a day because it’s their full-time job and their living depends on it, he added. But TikTok’s audience also appreciates the authenticity that comes from creators not taking the time to overproduce a video.

“Brands need to act more human because humans are winning on the platforms,” said Harwood. “We have teams set up that are spending a large portion of their time on the platform, which allows for us to be well versed on what’s culturally relevant and understand what our audience wants to see. TikTok is one of the greatest avenues to find out what consumers are thinking, saying, consuming, buying — which is something we haven’t seen since the early days of Facebook.”

Post fast and post often

Because TikTokers are less romantic with their image online, they’re able to post faster and more frequently than many publishers had previously been comfortable posting on their owned and operated channels, as well as on social media.

But this is also partially because TikTok’s algorithm itself doesn’t penalize the creators for using the platform at a higher volume. Unlike Instagram, which penalizes accounts with low engagement on some posts, getting 1,000 views on one TikTok won’t prevent you from getting 5 million views on the next, according to Harwood.

“The key trait[s] among all of the top-performing industries on TikTok right now [are] strong personalities that do bring a voice to the platform and posting fairly consistently, which means that for a publisher, you actually have to react to trends, produce something meaningful and get it out onto the planet a lot faster than your typical editorial cycle might entail,” said Cicero.

Publishers might have to hire dedicated TikTok managers or create a separate editorial calendar that is updated on a regular basis. And content guidelines might need to be updated as well to allow for more flexibility in language and voice.

Harwood’s team has been applying these practices to their organic channels as well. “For us, it encourages volume. Back in the day, [high volume] used to have this connotation with [low] quality. It doesn’t have to be one or the other at this point. Creators have taught that to brands and publishers quite a bit. Plus, it’s very clear that the more volume you do, the more at-bats you’re getting to find virality and organic reach, which means the more chances you have at growing your following massively,” he said.

Keep it familiar to the platform and natural for the creator

Team Whistle was first established as a YouTube channel in 2014 and considers its editorial team to still operate with a creator mindset, according to Alex Korn, vp of strategic partnerships at the company. Now, however, the third-party partnership team works with creators outside of its in-house talent in a number of ways, from creating co-branded content to managing the distribution and syndication of creators’ content on channels that aren’t their primary platforms.

“[We’re] taking a co-creation role with [creators], where we will help [by providing] larger resources that might be just out of the reach of their nimble style,” said Leimbach. This includes providing commercialization and distribution services, as well as including them in networks to secure premium media sales that creators can’t hire the staff to do on their own. That is the monetization strategy that is the most organic and works the best for Team Whistle, he said.

This business has taught Korn’s team to be very cognizant of which platforms creators shine on and where they have the most audience, especially when creating new content that features their likeness.

“Doing a YouTube series with a very well-known TikToker may not necessarily relate to the audience as well as doing an original series with a well-known YouTuber,” said Korn. “Taking that and programming our original content has been really beneficial.”

Translating editorial expertise into brand deals

Ultimately, the close collaboration with creators all ladders back up to publishers’ confidence and knowledge in the platforms as well, which ultimately enables more experimentation and innovation in the social offerings they can provide brand partners.

All three publishers have branded content businesses that connect clients with content creators, and Gallery Media has even launched and operated white-labeled TikTok accounts on behalf of clients — which is approaching the 8-figure benchmark for revenue, Harwood said — as well as created a business where they compose original sounds for brands to use in TikTok campaigns.

The company has run influencer marketing deals for over seven years now — amassing hundreds of campaigns per year and working with thousands of influencers during that time — but in just a few years’ time, TikTok has risen to account for the lion’s share of those campaigns, he added.

That said, brands are in a different business than media companies. “The thing that [brands are] selling is a physical product. As a publisher, you’re really selling information and entertainment. Your product is the TikTok,” said Cicero. There is a “natural fit for more branded content and ways to really well integrate that that, [but] also co-sponsorship [posts] have seen a ton of success.”

This article is part of a cross-brand Digiday Media series that examines how the creator economy has evolved amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Explore the full series here.

Feature Image Credit: Ivy Liu 

By Kayleigh Barber

Sourced from DIGIDAY

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If Publishers Want To Stay Competitive, They Need To Prepare For The Cookieless Future Today

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By Todd Tran

In preparation for the cookieless future, publishers have made strong improvements to their business models. Some are focusing on higher-quality content, while others are collecting first-party data from users who log into their sites. At the same time, advertising and buy-side platforms are attempting to develop solutions for the cookieless world.

While these developments are no doubt encouraging, they’re not a panacea.

If publishers want to ensure they’re set up to succeed by the end of next year, they need to take their fate into their own hands right now – and that means offering users true value.

Two steps to cookieless success  

To prepare for the future, some organizations are congregating around unified IDs, which are anonymous IDs that track users across the web.

Personally, I do hope more publishers sign on to the unified ID initiative. In my opinion, it’s a really good solution. But it’s an incredibly hard solution, too.

To be able to achieve workable scale with unified IDs, publishers will need to create a strong value exchange to persuade their users to log in, which can take years. What’s more, unified ID initiatives will need to get to a point where a large volume of publishers have opted in. Not to mention there are several competing solutions that are currently not interoperable.

While I believe unified IDs will have a place in our ecosystem in some form, if you’re relying solely on them to rescue you in the cookieless world, you’re out of luck.

Still, the arrival of the cookieless world is an opportunity for publishers to win business from competitors that aren’t ready. And it just takes two steps to effectively prepare for the inevitable.

1. Provide true value

While having logged-in users isn’t the only way to leverage first-party data, it provides a greater depth of information. But, like unified IDs, it’s an uphill battle to get users to register. To get the sign-ups they desperately need, publishers must develop a content and monetization strategy based on a strong value exchange. Users need a strong reason to register and log in. There are plenty of successful examples of this value exchange already on the market, such as The Independent, which offers subscribers “limited access to premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalists.”

2. Account for anonymous users

Since most publishers won’t have enough logged-in users to scale to the same level they had using third-party cookies, they need to use technology that enables them to gain insight into anonymous user behavior, too. Primarily, this includes solutions that anonymously track movements on a publisher’s site, but not anywhere outside of it. Contextual signals and AI or predictive audiences can help, too.

By prioritizing these two steps, publishers are giving advertisers the best possible opportunity to buy sustainable media that delivers real business outcomes.

Prepare for the cookieless future today

As cookie deprecation nears, publishers need to prioritize user identification and targeting. And they need to do so today. Failure to adjust business models ahead of time will almost certainly have an adverse impact on the bottom line.

On the flip side, the faster publishers tackle the problem head-on, the sooner they’ll be in control of their own destinies and gain a competitive advantage. Where there is danger, there is most certainly opportunity.

By Todd Tran

Chief strategy officer, Teads. 

Sourced from ad exchanger

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Study: Publishers See Global Economy As Biggest Future Challenge

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Publishers rate the global economy, not the decline of display advertising, as their biggest future threat, according to “The Future of Publishing,” a study by Akamai.

Rated on a scale of one to 10, publishing executives see these issues as the biggest challenges to their success going forward:

Global recession/depression—7.3

Continued dominance of tech platforms in advertising—6.9

Competition from the media companies—5.2

Collapse of market for display ads—4.9

Competition from VC-funded start-ups that can lose money—3.7

In addition, using the same rating scale, they see data as their biggest revenue opportunity, based on a small number of write-ins: 

Data—8.5

Events—7.9

Digital subscriptions or membership models—7.6

Branded content or ad creation (studio models)—7.4

Digital commerce affiliate deals—6.7

Video advertising (pre-roll, outstream)—6.3

Podcasts—6.2

Direct digital commerce—5.3

The study does not describe its methodology except to say that it is based on a qualitative survey of publishing executives.  It is not clear if the survey can be applied to the entire publishing universe.

That said, here is how they see the display advertising market over the next two to three years relative to its pre-COVID-19 position. The respondents expect it to:

Significantly improve—7%

Slightly improve—20%

Stay about the same—12%

Slightly deteriorate—52%

Significantly deteriorate—7%

However, they have a much more optimistic outlook about their own advertising revenue compared to the overall industry. They say it will:

Significantly improve—44%

Slightly improve—50%

Stay about the same—6%

Slightly deteriorate—0%

Significantly deteriorate—0%

In terms of future revenue models, they agree with the following, one a scale of 0 (disagree) to 1 (agree): 

For most consumer publishers, a hybrid model involving ads, ad-lite, and subscriptions is likely to be the optimal strategy—0.97

Digital subscription services will only work for a small number of content verticals (e.g.,, business, finance, politics)—0.47

Digital advertising will steadily decline as a source of income for most consumer publishers during the 2020s—0.41

Multi-title aggregators like Apple News+ will be a major new source of revenue for consumers in the 2020s—0.30

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Publishers are using a Starbucks Wi-Fi program to hunt for new readers

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By Max Willens.

These days newspapers are scrupulously focusing on eliminating the ways that people can circumvent their paywalls. But some news publishers are finding that a Starbucks pilot program that launched late last year appears to be a worthwhile exception to that rule.

The test, which began as a response to a Starbucks decision to stop selling physical newspapers at its stores, lets anybody who logs into the Wi-Fi service at a Starbucks venue free access to several newspaper websites; many of them usually maintain a paywall.

The program launched in October with seven titles, including The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, as well as local titles such as the Seattle Times and the New York Daily News. In November, the program expanded to 23 titles, including five papers of the McClatchy chain, the newly independent Los Angeles Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune, plus additional titles belonging to the owners of some of the program’s inaugural participants such as Gannett, Dow Jones and Tribune Publishing.

While Starbucks isn’t paying the participants, the publishers involved said they see the program as a good source of new readers. For example, Megan Parzych, vp of marketing for the Philadelphia Inquirer, called the pilot program a way to put Inquirer content in front of new audiences. A McClatchy executive said he envisioned the Starbucks program as a small source of new readers that are arriving through a unique front door, giving the company the chance to observe a specific cohort of people that it hopes to eventually turn into subscribers.

News publishers have begun spending more money to hunt for subscribers among individuals who are not currently visiting their owned and operated properties. Yet many publishers might prefer to add subscribers by building on the direct connections they have with readers. Partnerships like the Starbucks program give news publishers a way to put their product in front of new readers in a setting where they can spend a lot of time reading it and hopefully form a habit.

“We’re really trying to give [these readers] an opportunity to kick the tires,” said Grant Belaire, McClatchy’s vp of digital audience growth. His team is using with the Starbucks program-associated readers less aggressive marketing tactics and waiting longer before attempting to gather customers’ email addresses, for example. “This has helped us build up some benchmarks,” Belaire added.

While the number of visitors the Starbucks program attracts is small — typically in the low thousands each week for a publisher — they have qualities that make them attractive to the participating publishers. In McClatchy’s case, most of the Starbucks visitors tend to be totally new ones, meaning they haven’t visited McClatchy sites in the past, Belaire said.

A source at one publisher said that the program’s lack of geotargeting options, combined with the low traffic, have made his company’s participation a low priority. That same source noted that his team had to expend significant technical effort to make sure the paywall was properly lowered for Starbucks readers.

But with so many publishers now operating tighter paywalls, some of them are happy for a chance to show off all the work their publications produce. “Our website and app have been vastly improved within the past six months, and we’ve made significant investments in our journalism,” said Josh Brandau, the chief revenue officer of the Los Angeles Times. “A big part of what we’re doing is reintroducing people to our product.”

By Max Willens

Sourced from DIGIDAY

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How Publishers Can Find Pockets Of Growth Amid Drop In Ad Spending

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Many media channels can expect a banner year in 2020. The Summer Olympics and the presidential election will help drive ad spending to new records. Unfortunately, newspapers and magazines won’t participate in that growth without developing their digital outlets.

Magazine ad revenue will slump 9.7% this year to $9.8 billion, a steeper decline than the 9.1% drop to $11.8 billion for newspapers, according to estimatesconsulting firm Winterberry Group published last week.

The forecast shouldn’t surprise anyone in the publishing industry, following a year of consolidation, widespread job cuts and dozens of stories about the threat of “news deserts.” The trends are disheartening, but there are some pockets of opportunity for publishers, as the Winterberry report also suggests.

U.S. digital ad spending will expand by about 15% to $166.4 billion this year. It is becoming more fragmented as newer categories such as influencer marketing and digital video carve out a bigger share.

While search and paid social will be the biggest categories, publishers can find room for growth in display ads and possibly in digital audio formats like podcasts.

Winterberry forecasts that digital audio advertising will expand by 15% to $3.4 billion, a market that publishers are well positioned to dominate by repurposing written content as spoken-word audio.

Even in the realm of offline advertising, publishers can find growth in experiential marketing and sponsorships of live events, where spending is forecast to grow by 3.1% to $48.5 billion, making it the second-biggest category after linear TV.

Aside from offline and online advertising, publishers can build their revenue from subscriptions, paywalls, licensing and affiliate fees from online marketplaces. Building those businesses requires specialized expertise, but it can be done.

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‘It’s always a struggle with reengagement’: How publishers rely on email

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By Kayleigh Barber

A constant for many publishers is email. But challenges including lapsed subscribers and the challenges of including traditional advertising in an email strategy, publishers can have a hard time justifying investment in the platform. Here’s some candid thoughts from publishing executives at the Digiday Hot Topic: Email for Publishing event held yesterday.

Limiting sign-up friction gets you more emails
“We stopped requiring first and last name at sign-up. It limits personalization, but there’s also less friction at sign-up. We missed having that information though.”

“You don’t want to ask for 15 things off the bat — just get their email. But on the second interaction, you can ask for more personalized information to get more data.”

“For now, my vision is to make the user journey a priority. User data will trickle in, and we can use that to make inferred relationships.”

Your most valuable subscriber is your brand evangelist
“A brand lover is worth 100 times more to you than a casual reader.”

“We get more than 1,000 views a day based off our referral program, and the referrals are incredibly high quality.”

“Thirty-seven percent of [paid] members were free newsletter subscribers first, and 10% of members subscribed directly from a free newsletter.”

“Four percent of our audience is a habitual reader who has seven or more sessions per month, but the average revenue per user in that group is five times that of a reader with one to four sessions [94% of their readership.]”

30 to 90 days is the best time to attempt reengagement
“Our retention program works best, we found, at 30 days, but we’re predominantly a daily newsletter company.”

“It’s always a struggle with reengagement. Is it worth the effort to reengage someone versus the value that you get from them after they are reengaged? Because we typically find that if they disengage, they don’t really want to come back.”

“Old subscribers for us, we find that since more often publishers are landing in the promotions folder, an email coming from a different email address than they normally receive the email from is really effective in reengaging people.”

“What we started doing is actually buying their, what we call singles, so we’re able to see and match up in real time against their database when a user is opening and clicking other emails from other brands and then being able to trigger reengagement emails then, and that gives us a much better open and click-through rate.”

“We tend to look at it more of how we on-board people better to prevent them from disengaging. I think a lot of people are scared to ask upfront why you’re starting to disengage, but it’s about flagging it early so you’re not waiting for 90 days.”

Finding a place for affiliate links can increase the value of your newsletters
“The beautiful thing about affiliate data is that it can be used in many ways, but you can take it out to new advertisers to prove that there is an engaged audience getting to the point of sale in that email list.”

“We have 42 newsletters that we’re tapping into that have a highly engaged audience; 10 are relevant for commerce on average, but depends on the time of year.”

Include the editorial staff in your newsletter strategy
“For editors, being in the weeds helps them learn more about the audience than they would normally on the site, and that’s where we’re getting the ideas to create new newsletters — in the weeds.”

“Voice emails that utilize editorial talent build personal relationships with readers.”

“It’s important on the product-side to make the tools as easy as possible for editorial use and learn.”

By Kayleigh Barber

Sourced from DIGIDAY

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Publishers Need To Adopt Strategies To Better Optimize Mobile Header Bids

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Digital technology company PubMatic saw an uptick in mobile ad spend and a need for improvement in mobile in-app header bidding among other trends in its first “Quarterly Mobile Index” of 2019, released this week.

According to the index, several key trends were evident during the quarter.

Aside from the acceleration of mobile advertising — partly due to the promise of better video options with the launch of 5G technology and the issues around header bidding — advertisers are also moving to private marketplaces for Android inventory, due to app fraud.

The Index notes that Android app spend is down 17% year-over-year, while iOS saw an increase of 68%.

The also report at the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, noting the need for the adoption of automated ad buying strategies in other parts of the world.

The trends add up to a forward-looking vision focused on mobile and safety.

PubMatic notes that 2019 will serve as a turning point for future mobile growth; mobile devices are poised to overtake televisions regarding user time spent for the first time ever.

According to data collected by the company, handheld devices accounted for almost half of all video impressions served by PubMatic in first-quarter 2019. In 2018, those impressions numbered four in 10. Given this, PubMatic anticipates mobile devices will become the preferred platform for video ad placement.

Video ad dollars monetized on those devices increased from 31% in first-quarter 2018 to 43% in first-quarter 2019.

PubMatic also reported its mobile header bidding volume doubled during 2018 and 2019, with mobile devices making up nearly a third of all header bidding impressions this year. That number was less than a quarter in 2018.

Despite this uptick, the Index notes publishers need time to adopt strategies to better optimize mobile headers versus desktop.

“Mobile advertising continues to see monumental increases in spending, while still making strides towards greater transparency and returns, which is hugely important for publishers and advertisers. That said, the industry is only now learning how to properly take advantage of in-app header bidding, which has led to more obstacles,” Paulina Klimenko, PubMatic senior vice president, corporate development and GM, mobile, stated.

The full report is available online.

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7 pivotal trends in content marketing for publishers

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By WNIP

The Content Marketing Association (CMA) — the UK industry association for marketing, publishing, advertising and social agencies — has just released a comprehensive report on the Key Content Marketing Trends in 2018.

This report was developed in consultation with the top executives from 20 companies at the cutting edge of content marketing, and delves into the details of what they perceive to be the dominant trends in content marketing right now, and the way the discipline has evolved this year.

Here’s a snapshot of the key trends identified by CMA, relevant to the publishing industry:

1. The importance of authenticity and brand trust

In an era of fake news, readers are wary of the authenticity of online content, and brand trust has become ever more important.

Robbie Black, Managing Partner, The Moment thinks that the key is to move away from notions of factory lines of content and instead focus on producing quality content.

“The push-back has begun,” he says. “Consumers aren’t as gullible as we would like to think. And so in the future, only well-crafted, relevant, timely messages will gain any sort of cut-through.”

2. The continuing influence of automation and technology

Another major trend is the increase of automation and technology in content creation and distribution. By harnessing data capture tools, companies now have access to huge volumes of information on which they can base their content plans. How they use these data points to intelligently optimise content to suit the target readers is likely to be key for publishers now and in the future.

Sarah Lewthwaite, MD and SVP EMEA of Movio highlights the way that technology can be used to target consumers.

“One of the emerging trends for 2018 is using consumer data and insight to predict a customer’s specific content needs. What content is best suited to a person at any given moment? When are they most likely to engage? Which communication channel will be most effective to engage them? What factors will influence their decision to consume?

Achieving a successful marketing campaign is no longer about being the biggest, brightest or loudest brand on these channels, but instead, being the most relevant.”

3. The pivot to images and video

The CMA report talks about how a short while ago, publishers spoke enthusiastically of the pivot to video and how they were going to invest in developing channels on YouTube, Facebook and other platforms. While this may not have yielded the desired commercial benefits yet, executives still believe that video and still images are the most effective way to engage with consumers, especially on mobile devices.

Ben Wilkinson, Director, Bold Content believes that the traffic is only going one way.

“Young People are viewing YouTube more during peak hours than TV. By looking at 2016 and 2017’s stats, we can see that more young people are watching YouTube during prime-time TV hours than television. Due to this, content creators have used the live-streaming boom to tailor their sessions to prime-time to get the most viewers.”

4. Audio content strategies

Many companies are also working out how to respond to the growth of audio content, the report states. Smart speakers, like Amazon’s Echo range, have built upon the concept of voice control developed initially by Apple’s Siri and Google Now. Companies are still not entirely sure how to capitalise on the resurgence of the podcast.

Kim Willis of Cedar Communications is adamant that “If brands aren’t thinking about their audio content strategies, they should be. From podcasts to Alexa skills, audio now offers a range of brand engagement opportunities across the spectrum of practical utility to deeper storytelling. The only questions is, which approach is right for your customer.”

5. Reaction to GDPR

According to the CMA report, for many companies the first part of 2018 was dominated by preparing for GDPR. The rest of 2018 will see the dust start to settle and the impact of the legislation will gradually become evident.

Kim Willis of Cedar Communications thinks that one by-product of the legislation will be a coming together of content creators and paid content specialists ensuring that the quality content which brands create is seen by consumers.

“As shake ups in email GDPR, Google growth and social media algorithms reduce the organic power of owned and earned media, we’ll see content creators and paid media specialists working more closely together than ever to align content to audiences and media environments, and to ensure that engaging stories actually have the opportunity to be seen.”

6. Personalisation

The evolution from broadcasting to large audiences to that of narrowcasting to individuals will continue in 2018, says the report.

Christopher Baldwin of Selligent Marketing Cloud, thinks that the one-to-one experience of content is what companies need to be focusing on.

“The ONLY way to deliver true delight to today’s entitled consumer is to deliver awesome customer experiences. Consumers now expect personal engagement with brands in return for their data. It’s absolutely possible to do this over email, mobile or website. It’s the digital equivalent of the hotel manager at your favourite hotel greeting you by name as you walk in and showing you to your upgraded suite.”

7. Quality content

On the final point, the CMA report stresses on the need to move away from creating massive amounts of content to focusing on smaller amounts of higher quality content.

Brendan Judge, Planning Director, Bridge Studios, News UK, says quality content and advertising is what is going to come to the fore again in 2018.

“What we most certainly need more of is quite simply good content. Content that has to work. Work for the brand and work for the people who you are trying to reach. Because whatever cliché or buzzword or new tech is of the moment and “now”, one simple fact doesn’t change: there’s only so many hours in a day, and only so many eyes, ears and brains.”

You can download the full report from CMA here.

 

By WNIP

Sourced from What’s New In Publishing

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Facebook news feed changes shift publisher audience development priorities

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By Lucia Moses

Audience development pros have become critical to how publishers reach new readers and make money. But now that Facebook is all but turning off publishers’ reach in the news feed, audience development groups feel both vindication and new pressures.

For many, there’s a sense of relief and triumph. The role of audience development is often misunderstood as posting links to social platforms. Now, suddenly, audience development is seen as far more strategic. But with great power comes great responsibility.

For Kurt Gessler, deputy digital editor at the Chicago Tribune, there was “panic initially,” followed by vindication and, he allowed, “a little smugness.” That’s because the Tribune only posts about 10 percent of its content on Facebook, and its audience development experts do other tasks in the newsroom so they’re not isolated or working at cross-purposes with editorial.

“It reinforces a lot of the things we and others have been saying,” Gessler said of the news feed change, which Facebook said will prioritize users’ posts over news. “We were always much more interested in quality over quantity. We were never firehosing into Facebook.”

Arguably, the role of audience development — some prefer the fancier “audience engagement” — is more important than ever. The old time-tested practice of using Facebook to drive massive traffic on the cheap to build audiences and fulfill ad campaigns is going away. Building audience in a sustainable way means mastering other distributed platforms and getting direct traffic, too.

One audience exec at a major publisher likened the algorithm change to “the end of an abusive relationship. Facebook abused us for so long and we just kept going back to them, and you finally are like, ‘OK, I’m going to walk away.’”

“I think this gives them more freedom to not worry about the click but think about the engagement,” Keith Hernandez, svp of strategy at Bleacher Report, said of audience development teams. Audience development’s importance at the sports publisher has already been growing; the branded content team has been bringing audience staffers into its pitch meetings for the past six months to advise on editorial trends.

If audience people are more important, they also face more insecurity and pressure than ever. Some will have to answer for their reliance on Facebook. (Cue the schadenfreude among publishers that say they saw the writing on the wall and already weaned themselves off Facebook dependence.) They’re aware that some people think their jobs could be done just as well by tweet-writing robots. They have to figure out new rules for success at a time when Facebook reach is declining.

By Lucia Moses

Sourced from DIGIDAY UK

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