Why The Need To Pivot To Data For Publishers

For any digital publisher, keeping your audience and growing revenue is the Holy Grail. Google, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram contributed to 67 per cent of digital ad spend in Asia-Pacific in 2018, and 66 per cent worldwide. As per reports, APAC will continue to lead global ad spend growth in 2019, contributing 42 per cent of the global increase and the dominance of Facebook and Google isn’t changing. Moreover, new threats seem to emerge daily, whether from Amazon or buzzy mobile-first players like ByteDance.

- Fred Marthoz

Publishers have responded to advertising challenges by testing new inventory strategies. Typically these include more video ads, more podcasts, and more branded content. Some have even formed off-platform partnerships with the duopoly. Each new endeavor requires significant investment, and each comes with a level of risk. The recent news cycle reflects this trend. Simply expanding inventory and ad opportunities isn’t necessarily a magic bullet for a publisher.

This is where first-party data plays a critical role. Rather than developing entirely new inventory strategies, which is a heavy lift, publishers can look to what they already have rich behavioral, subscriber and social data, most of it seriously underleveraged. When used properly, first-party data can help publishers drive revenue in two ways -- directly and indirectly. It can help them to stop working harder and start working smarter.