Publishers Unable to Offer Audience Targeting Capabilities Expected by Advertisers

Although it is a relatively new method, advertisers are adopting real-time bidding more eagerly than publishers. This may result in loss of significant earning opportunities for publishers.

PubMatic and DIGDAY surveyed publishers, advertisers and ad agencies in North America in this regard. The results of this March 2011survey indicate that 47% publishers have had to decline RFPs (requests for proposals) because of inability to provide the targeting capabilities expected by advertisers. The remaining 23% were unsure, while 30% did not have to turn down RFPs because of this reason. Also, around 65% publishers reported an increase in the RFPs with viewer segment targeting. The percentage of publishers, who had not received any such requests, was just 3%.

Almost 97% of the advertisers, agencies and PPC companies in the survey reported plans to use audience targeting in 2011. Around 47% indicated plans of using it for most of their internet advertising spend.

Advertisers seem to be giving audience targeting more importance than content targeting. When asked to make a choice between the two, nearly all the advertisers picked audience targeting. 90% agency trading desks, 72% agencies, 71% advertiser-brands, and 70% advertiser-performances and advertiser-mix felt that audience targeting was more important than content targeting.

Most of the agencies and brand marketers were ready to enlarge their real-time bidding spend if publisher sites provided direct access to platforms for real-time bidding. Around 6 out of ten advertisers had taken advantage of real-time bidding, while only 1 in 5 publishers offered it. This may result in major loss of ad dollars for the publishers.