MGID, the global pioneer in native advertising, has become an exclusive native ad provider for Newsweek – a premier news magazine and website with the monthly readership of more than 30 million visitors that has been bringing high-quality journalism to readers around the globe for over 80 years.

Newsweek will implement MGID’s content recommendation units across all GEOs on desktop, tablet and mobile/AMP to reach the media’s monetisation, user engagement and new visitor acquisition goals.

Additionally, Newsweek will use MGID’s internal recirculation technology to strategically manage and optimise the traffic flow across its pages.

“We recognise the value of MGID’s technology aimed to provide our readers with a highly targeted and engaging experience,” commented Alvaro Palacios, COO/CFO of Newsweek.

“MGID offered a well-thought-through alternative solution, allowing us to not only meet our financial targets but also maintain control over our monetisation and brand strategies,” he continued.

“MGID works with thousands of publishers globally, providing monetisation solutions, whistle ensuring users non-intrusive interaction with the brand and publisher content. We are very excited to partner with one of the world’s most reputable media outlets,” said Michael Korsunsky, CEO at MGID NA.

“Our core value, as a company remains to be providing flexible, technologically innovative revenue options, without infringing on publishers freedom to execute their brand’s vision. We are confident this will be a long-lasting partnership and look forward to supporting Newsweek’s growth and continued success” he added.

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Following Rakuten Marketing’s announcement to serve as the exclusive ad-seller for Rakuten TV’s new ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) service in Europe, the company has confirmed seven internationally-renowned brands ready to use its innovative advertising service across Europe as Founding Partners.

Brands including Nissan, Booking.com, ING, Paco Rabanne, Danone, MSC Cruises and Perfetti Van Melle will become Founding Partners for the AVOD service.

As Founding Partners, these brands will be amongst the pioneers utilising advertising opportunities available on the first pan-European VOD platform that provides ad-supported channels offering Hollywood, local and exclusive content for free.

Part of the Rakuten group of businesses alongside Rakuten Marketing, Rakuten TV is the first platform to combine transactional-based video-on-demand (TVOD) and AVOD products across Europe. 

Creating the availability of advertising-funded, on-demand media content helps meet the constantly evolving consumer demand for high quality, affordable entertainment. In turn, advertisers can take advantage of exclusive inventory, through Rakuten Marketing, allowing them to engage new audiences across the globe.

“Video-on-demand is quickly emerging as a powerful media channel, and Rakuten TV presents a singular opportunity for our clients to reach a highly engaged pan-European audience. We strive to be the first to offer advertisers new products and audiences, and are proud to bring this ground-breaking advertising opportunity across the continent,” said Nick Stamos, CEO of Rakuten Marketing.

Rakuten TV’s new AVOD service launched in October with an initial offer of Hollywood and local content. This will be expanded upon in the coming months in a combined linear and on-demand offer, including exclusive Rakuten content, TV series, documentary series, news and sports channels.

The post Nissan and Booking.com Amongst First Advertisers on Rakuten TV’s New AVOD Service appeared first on PerformanceIN.

When it comes to leveraging the full power of native advertising, look no further than Outbrain. The native advertising platform, which was founded in 2006, has been leading the charge in providing a non-disruptive content experience for online users looking to discover something new on the open web whilst also working with brands to execute and deliver effective native campaigns with measurable results.

With peak Q4 in full swing and planning for the holiday season a top priority among retailers, Outbrain has released a new webinar How to Generate Traffic and Turn it into Sales for the Holiday Season to urge and ensure e-commerce and digital brands are thinking strategically about the holiday sales period and how native advertising as a channel can  effectively extend their reach with sales-generating results. 

“By 2025, we predict Native will reach its tipping point and be the preferred form of advertising,” – Huffington Post.

Prepare NOW for the holiday season

Watch the webinar to get your holiday season campaign to a great start. Hosted by Kelly Hayes, account manager at Outbrain, the webinar provides a full deep dive into why as an advertiser, you need a seasonal e-commerce strategy driven by native advertising. In addition, Hayes runs through three core strategies to set up your campaign followed by key points on how to optimise your landing page to generate sales and success — supported by case studies and best practices that are relevant for running your campaign.

“We published a study this week that showed that native ads shown on premium news sites are more likely to be trusted (+44%), clicked on (+21%) and lead to future purchases (+24%) than ads that appear on social media platforms. If you aren’t spending on Native, you really should be looking at it as a critical part of your marketing mix,” said Faye Liddle-Moore, Commercial Director for Northern Europe at Outbrain. 

If you’re looking drive your budget now and in Q1, this webinar is for you. Watch on-demand here.

The post Webinar: Driving Traffic and Sales for the Holiday Season with Native appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Outbrain has launched a new extension of its native placements into publishers’ owned newsletters. The integration enables publishers to create and monetise the best online experiences for their audiences across all content formats, including web pages, mobile apps, and newsletters. 

With newsletters forming a key part of publisher audience loyalty and retention strategies, the Outbrain newsletter solution enables publishers to avoid reliance on intrusive advertising formats and monetise in a non-intrusive, user-first way.

This new extension of the Outbrain network comes as part of a technology partnership with Ividence, a European newsletter ad tech company. What’s more, publishers can use the Outbrain Newsletter to unlock revenue streams from out beyond their owned and operated sites via non-intrusive native discovery ads. Publishers also have access to the full suite of OUtbrain demand. 

&The industry has a problem – increasingly, premium digital publishers cannot rely on digital display advertising alone to cover the cost of producing quality content. The duopoly has continued to dominate advertiser budgets while disrupting online user consumption patterns. Thus, publishers must expand their monetisation channels and grow new revenue streams to support their business,” said Victor Charpin, head of platforms at Outbrain. 

With the integration of placements in newsletters, we are creating a unique opportunity for advertisers to have direct access to a highly engaged publisher audience when they are in a prime content consumption mode,” commented Charpin.

Outbrain to merge with Taboola 

In more news, Taboola is expected to acquire Outbrain in a deal set to create a new digital publisher powerhouse. The deal hasn’t yet been fully approved but it is believed that both firms will combine forces. Taboola commented that the deal will “provide enhanced advertising efficacy and reach to marketers worldwide” and help news organisations more effectively find growth in the coming years.

The post Outbrain Powers Native Discovery for Publishers’ Newsletters appeared first on PerformanceIN.

The UK’s online advertising sector is only 25 years old yet it is worth over £13bn, with digital ad spend now accounting for the majority (57%) of all UK advertising.  

As the sector has matured and become a key part of UK PLC, it has increasingly come under scrutiny both here and abroad. For instance, YouTube was recently fined for £135 million by the US regulators for collecting children’s personal information without parental consent. Closer to home, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) released a scathing report which questioned the legality of real-time bidding (RTB) under GDPR. ICO said the online ad ecosystem, paid “little or no consideration” to privacy, defied GDPR requirements and ignored the rules governing the transfer of data offshoring. ICO considers RTB to be a problem because consumers haven’t given informed consent to their data being used (and probably have no idea about exactly what info they’ve shared or how they’ve to shard it).

ICO gave ad tech companies six months to comply with GDPR regulation, saying that this was to protect publishers.  Even so, some parts of the sector have been slow to respond. However, with eye-watering large potential fines of €20 million or 4% of annual global turnover CMOs and performance marketers are now looking for privacy-safe advertising options. 

Native to the rescue

Something that’s being looked at anew is contextual, native advertising. This is where relevant ad experiences are delivered in real-time to people depending on what they’re focusing on at that point in time. As it’s native- the ad experience seamlessly melds with the editorial style of the publication (although it is clearly marked as paid content). 

Due to technological advances, digital native advertising has significantly improved. Not only can native be bought programmatically and thus at scale there’s now true contextual matching which uses machine learning and natural language processing, so no more Apple ads being served next to pieces about fruit growing. 

This translates to higher engagement rates and more enjoyable reading experience. 

Contextual campaigns, when compared with audience-targeted ones are more effective, delivering industry-beating engagement rates. This is because they’re directly and immediately relevant to people. For instance, the Smartology London Business School campaign outperformed all MOAT (measurement of advertising) benchmarks. Viewability was 81% (over 50% higher than the MOAT average). The campaign generated an impressive overall engagement rate of 1.03%, over twenty times the industry standard of a display ad.

This offers many advantages to brands, publishers and of course consumers. Not only are engagement rates higher, but consumers also get a better reading experience and publishers benefit from a more loyal readership and the ability to more effectively monetize their sites. And everyone benefits in the post-GDPR era from the fact that because it’s contextual, no user data is stored.

Safety first

Another major challenge when using RTB on an open exchange is brand safety. Because ads served following an RTB bid can use audience segments, they can be shown where-ever these people are online. Some people have unsavoury interests and thus there’s a risk your family-friendly brand could appear on an extremists’ website. Blacklisting sites aims to stop this, yet this involves constant monitoring. According to a study from Global Disinformation Index, at least $235 million in revenue is generated annually from ads running on extremist and disinformation websites. Added to this is the well-documented problem of ad fraud, due to the fragmented, cross-border, black box driven nature of much digital advertising. The recent Cheq report said that a third of online ads are affected by fraud, costing $23bn.

Opting for native advertising where you know which titles will be showing your ads means you won’t end up in the headlines for the wrong reason. 

Premiumisation

Location matters, we know that.  A recent study by the World Media Group shows that campaigns run with quality titles outperform Moat’s benchmarked figures by between 13% and 144%. Thus clients are increasingly looking to premium media titles for better campaign effectiveness as well as the reputational halo benefits that being in a quality environment can deliver. Thus native advertising on premium media titles offers significant campaign effectiveness compared to display advertising. 

Unsurprisingly native ad spend is on the up and projected to reach to $41.1 billion this year, accounting for 61% of US total digital display ad spend. CMOs don’t want to annoy their consumers and want their budgets to be invested effectively. The native approach looks like it may be the best. 

The post Native Advertising and the Opportunities for Ad Targeting appeared first on PerformanceIN.

As digital continues to rise, and mobile ad spend is increasing, should advertisers prioritise this format for the best performance?

Blair Robertson: Audiences now consume all types of media no matter where they are – at home or on the move – so brands should naturally cater to this growing trend. An advertiser’s first priority should be to understand the format and channel best suited to these audience patterns, from this point campaign KPIs can be set. Mobile ad spend is continuing to rise, yet TV is recognised as an influential advertising medium, driving effectiveness by 40% over time – TV on mobile, now that’s a combination. 

The optimisation process starts with TV campaigns. By measuring online activity following a TV ad being viewed – and attributing that action to a particular ad placement – brands can see which are driving the most digital response. As a result, advertisers can make informed media buying decisions across desktop and mobile that increase the efficiency of each campaign. Deploying digital advertising in harmony with consumer activity maximises conversions. 

What should advertisers consider before allocating ad spend across platforms?

BR: Advertisers need to know how each platform drives their ad campaign effectiveness. What is it they are looking to achieve? And in what timeframe? What benefit will the campaign bring to the wider marketing activity? The answer will lie in the data – measure, analyse, attribute and optimise. Only then will advertisers have a clear picture of what’s working, what’s not and where the opportunities lie. 

Since the advent of digital, businesses have focused on the short-term returns of their ad campaigns, as they’re most obvious. TV, however, is not only a primary driver of online activity – being responsible for 62% of all advertising-generated profit in the short term – but also creates 71% of total advertising-generated profit in the long term as well. So it’s not just the “safest” platform to drive return on investment (ROI), but the one that offers the highest of any media, at £1.73 for every pound spent in the short term, and £4.20 in the longer term.

How can advertisers stay ahead of competitors and hit brand objectives as the digital market becomes more aggressive?

BR: Ultimately, advertisers need to look into how their ad spend delivers on business objectives. Brands should start by assessing the strength of their core proposition in comparison to competitors, along with their messaging, and from this point, focus on how best to engage with target audiences. It’s in every advertiser’s interest not to waste money, which means setting key performance indicators (KPIs) from the outset of an ad campaign, to accurately measure performance. A food delivery service, for instance, might set the objective of boosting app activity, which can be measured by monitoring downloads following an ad spot airing. 

Whatever the desired outcome of a campaign is, brands can access a wealth of granular audience data through linear TV, to measure impact across the aggressive digital market. It’s essential for advertisers to capitalise on the areas where they can outperform the competition. 

How can teams use AI and machine learning to further develop advertising strategies?

BR: We’ve only scratched the surface of the capabilities linked to machine learning, but automation is a key component for optimising ad campaigns. When coupled with strong data analysis, it offers more advanced methods of gathering consumer data, which is crucial for delivering tailored ads that drive engagement. There are many ways to score media – from traditional reach/frequency metrics, who’s watching, to the context or emotional response – and machine learning can provide advertisers with a holistic view of these results.

Thanks to digital, brands have an appetite for transparent, actionable consumer insights – in near real-time – and machine learning developments allow media planners to utilise these effectively in linear TV campaigns. Gone are the days of waiting six weeks or more for out-of-date results on broad audience segments. Linear TV provides the granular results data that advertisers need now, to enable them to build comprehensive measurement and modelling tools.

What does the future of ad spend look like considering 5G and connected devices?

BR: The growth of connected devices – from smartphones and connected TVs, to smart speakers – means there’ll be greater capacity for rich environments to place high-quality content. Advertisers need to consider, how consumers interact with these new viewing opportunities and what impact second-screening habits have at each point in the marketing funnel. 

With the arrival of new technology, comes new innovative formats, which in turn will drive premium pricing and increase ad spend. To optimise campaigns for effectiveness in a 5G world, advertisers will need the means to gather and analyse in-depth consumer data and to attribute action to ads no matter their platform.

The post TVSquared on Making the Most of Your Ad Spend, No Matter the Platform appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Performance-based native advertising platform Outbrain has announced that it is the global leader in total digital reach for April, within key markets including the US, Spain, Germany, and the UK.

In the US, Outbrain accounted for 88% of the total digital population, surpassing Facebook and other advertising platforms, according to Comscore Media Metrix Key Measures rankings in April 2019. Outbrain reached 229 million unique visitors within multiple channels across Outbrain’s premium publisher network. In addition, Outbrain has highlighted growth in the past quarter, with its US audience reach increasing 6% since January 2019.

Meanwhile, across Europe, Outbrain captured 84.3% of the market in Germany as reported by AGOF, and 88% in Belgium, as estimated by Space, based on CIM Internet 2019. According to Comscore Custom Reporting in April, OUtbrain led in total digital reach of 95% in Spain and 76.8% in the UK and potential reach of 94.3% in Italy. 

“Consumers on the web are becoming disengaged with the saturated news and information feeds of the closed web and turning to the open web for a better exploration and discovery experience,” said Eytan Galai, CRO, at Outbrain. “We are the best alternative to advertisers who are actively looking to diversify their media spend outside of the closed web, better engage with audiences, and drive significant return on advertising spend.”

Since the acquisition of native advertising platform Ligatus earlier this year, Outbrain has seen significant growth across the globe. 

The post Outbrain’s Digital Audience Reach Surpasses Facebook and Google appeared first on PerformanceIN.

A recent report has found global ad spend will increase by 17% to $333 billion in 2019, yet many marketers still struggle to accurately measure campaigns – making it difficult to justify ad spend. A quest for accountability is driving a shift towards more measurable performance marketing tactics, with native advertising becoming a major part of performance-driven strategies.  

Performance marketing is evolving

Performance and brand marketing used to be viewed as opposite ends of the scale and managed by entirely separate teams. Brand marketing focused on the narrative, building long-term customer relationships and loyalty through creative and engaging storytelling. Tactics such as loyalty programs, out-of-home advertising, and slogans were used to paint a picture in consumers’ minds, nurturing familiarity and a positive perception of a company. But the impact of brand marketing was always tough to quantify with brands paying for the entire campaign, rather than its results, and hoping the gamble would pay off. 
 
Performance marketing, in contrast, traditionally focused on short-term revenue goals. By using tactics centred on product value, such as search engine and affiliate marketing, brands only paid for achieved results such as clicks, sales, or customer acquisitions, with tracking data used to prove effectiveness. Unfortunately, the results-based model of performance marketing was a contributing factor to a decline in digital ad quality. Consumers were bombarded with intrusive, uninspiring and irrelevant ads designed purely to drive action, leading to banner blindness, ad fatigue and ultimately the rise of ad blocking.          

But this situation is changing and the lines between brand and performance marketing are blurring. Brands are beginning to appreciate the combination of creativity from brand marketing and results-driven strategy from performance marketing, delivering engaging storytelling supported by real effectiveness data. And at the centre of this convergence sits native advertising.   

Native bridges the brand-performance gap 

Native advertising is technically a performance marketing method as brands only pay when customers engage and click through from a native ad to a landing page on their website or online store. However, it has many features of brand marketing, allowing content or products to be transformed into creative, engaging ads that build the brand story and drive long-term customer relationships as well as short-term performance. Across the marketing department, brand managers can reinforce brand values while media buyers meet their performance goals.    
 
Native ads are designed to adapt seamlessly to the environment in which they are displayed, so they feel like a natural part of that environment and don’t intrude on the user experience or contribute to ad fatigue and blocking. This capability is particularly crucial in mobile environments where slow loading, screen-dominating formats such as pop-ups and interstitials are incredibly disruptive, and users have a low tolerance for ads that get in their way. Custom in-feed ad units, for instance, provide a far better experience. Because native ads adapt automatically to their environment, they are the perfect choice for an omnichannel strategy and work across multiple devices, platforms and websites. 
 
Native advertising can also adapt contextually to the content of the page on which it is displayed. This means marketers can ensure real-time relevance by aligning ads with the topics and trends on the web pages consumers choose to view and are already interested in. Native ads offer highly relevant and useful content consumers want to engage with. The content-led nature of native advertising makes it a powerful tactic for brands, with almost two-thirds of consumers happy to read content marketing and over three-quarters experiencing an uplift in brand positivity. By providing genuine value, content-led native advertising engages the user in the brand story.   
 
Using real-time data signals, native can target niche audiences and significantly boost the effectiveness of an ad, allowing maximum relevance and deep personalisation. Of course, in the age of data privacy and regulation, marketers must be careful how they use personal data, but if they are transparent in their practices and offer users a clear value exchange, this can help to build a reputation as a responsible and trustworthy brand. Content will, therefore, be more meaningful and it will help to increase consumer engagement.
 
Performance-based native campaigns allow the brand story and product value to be marketed together, driving both creative storytelling and monetisable outcomes. As their investment in digital advertising continues to grow, marketers can use native to bridge the gap, achieving both brand and performance goals across the marketing plan and ultimately maximise ROI through campaign success. 

The post Performance Marketing: Leveraging the Power of Native appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Global native advertising platform, Adyoulike has launched a Black Friday campaign that targets digital advertisers. The campaign, titled Native Advertising Works, highlights five points for advertisers looking to achieve native success during the global retail event.

This follows on from Adyoulike seeing a 30% increase in ad calls on Black Friday weekend, including Cyber Monday last year. Over the same period, average CTRs on retail brands increased 0.5%, while Black Friday related deals increased on average 1% over the same weekend.

The majority of the spike was recorded in the US, where ad calls increased in all markets, in particular, the UK, France and Germany – signalling that Black Friday is increasingly becoming a global phenomenon thanks to digital.

Mobile shopping picks up pace

Mobile made up of 64% of all shopping visits in the US last year, and mobile saw a 41% increase in generated revenue across Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Native advertising ad format works well on mobile, with infeed native advertising particularly effective and this year is set to be another hit for the growth of mobile shopping.

“The effectiveness of infeed native advertising formats – whether run by managed bookings or increasingly via Programmatic Native Advertising through DSPs and Trading Desks – is undisputed. Mobile shopping is going to be big this Black Friday weekend globally. Advertisers looking to promote their Black Friday campaign are missing out by failing to invest in native advertising,” commented Dale Lovell, chief marketing and partnerships officer at Adyoulike.

“Our quick tips for advertising success, combined with easy activation via direct or programmatic, means that advertisers can unlock the benefits of native advertising easily for their Black Friday campaigns,” Lovell concluded.

The post Adyoulike’s Black Friday Campaign Highlights the Capability of Native Advertising appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Despite consumers in the UK interacting with mobile ads, just one in 10 (11%) actually find them helpful while the average person ignores over seven mobile ads a day – equating to 20 million ads being ignored very hour or 5,5000 every second.

According to location-based mobile marketing platform, Verve, who did a survey on 2,000 UK adults responses to mobile ads found that over half (56%) think most ads they see on their mobile device are either boring or dull.

78% also said they view ads that are simply too small or bloating with too much text, leaving questions for advertisers on whether their ad campaigns on mobile are fit for purpose or in the right format.

“Too often people are either ignoring ads because they are simply not relevant or they find it difficult to see creative on their mobile devices,” said Ian James, GM International at Verve; “It is evident that more needs to be done to ensure advertisers are making full use of the data sources available to create exciting ad experiences on mobile.”

Location insights drive interaction

However, despite these finds, UK consumers are twice as likely to interact with mobile ads informed by location insights than with generic ads. In addition, ads that are relatable, such as hobbies and interests are likely to see engagement with 33% interacting with a mobile ad related to their future plans.

When it comes to interacting with an ad on mobile, 20% of consumers are like to respond if they can play with their device through mechanics, such as tilt, tap, zoom or change point of view. 19% said they would interact if the ad was like a game or encourage navigating through while 21% would respond if an ad asks questions or expects a response.

James is urging the industry to work together to ensure advertisers are using data effectively to inform their creative campaigns for the mobile screen.

“As an industry, we need to be working together,” he said; “Firstly, to ensure advertisers are unlocking the power of various data sources, including location insights, when producing their ad creative. Secondly, to make brands aware of how to identify data that is both accurate and precise to make sure ads are as relevant as possible. Finally, to educate brands on the multitude of creative formats that work specifically for mobile.”

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