Analytics - Freestar https://freestar.com Publisher First Thu, 26 Sep 2024 22:39:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 https://freestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/cropped-Icon-32x32.png Analytics - Freestar https://freestar.com 32 32 Top 10 Reasons ID Solutions Help Publishers Leverage First-Party Data for Increased Ad Revenue https://freestar.com/top-10-reasons-id-solutions-help-publishers-leverage-first-party-data-for-increased-ad-revenue/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=top-10-reasons-id-solutions-help-publishers-leverage-first-party-data-for-increased-ad-revenue Thu, 26 Sep 2024 22:37:11 +0000 https://freestar.com/?p=17372

Publishers are increasingly reliant on first-party data to drive ad revenue and deliver personalized experiences to their audiences. However, effectively leveraging this first party data can be a complex task. This is where identity solutions (ID) come into play and create efficiency. By providing a unified view of users across different devices and platforms, identity solutions enable publishers to maximize the value of their first-party data.

Rich Audience Segmentation

This allows for more personalized ad targeting and content delivery, leading to improved user engagement and higher click-through rates allowing users to spend more time on the website which in any intent signal tracking and push them to come as returning users to the site. This increases quality traffic on the site which helps in organic ranking across. 

Addressable Inventory Across Browsers

With identity solutions, publishers can track users across different browsers and devices, ensuring that their ad targeting remains consistent and effective. This enables publishers to reach their audiences on a wider range of platforms, increasing their potential ad revenue.

Improved Data Privacy

The lack of consent from IOS users including Safari have hit eCPMs hard, with revenue dropping drastically across the board. Survey data shows that eCPMs on an average, 70% lower than those from publishers’ addressable inventory. These impacts depend heavily on the percentage of traffic coming from non-Chrome browsers, which can make up about 40-50% of total traffic in regions like the USA, UK, and Australia.

Identity solutions can be implemented in a way that respects user privacy by obtaining explicit consent for data collection and usage. This helps publishers comply with data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, mitigating the risk of fines and penalties.

Enhanced Contextual Targeting

Identity solutions can be combined with contextual targeting to deliver ads that are highly relevant to the content users are consuming. This improves user experience and leads to higher engagement rates and better ad performance on the site creating an overall positive user experience for visitors.

Increased eCPMs

By delivering more targeted and relevant ads, publishers can command higher eCPMs from advertisers. This translates into increased ad revenue for publishers, ultimately improving their bottom line.

Better Measurement and Data Attribution

Identity solutions provide more accurate tracking of user behavior and ad performance, allowing publishers to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. Publishers are in need of a secure storage solution for their growing first-party data, and a data lake is often the go-to choice. Unlike traditional databases, data lakes can handle both structured and unstructured data. Publishers can safely store all customer information and easily create custom datasets when required.

Improved User Experience

Identity solutions enable publishers to deliver personalized content and recommendations based on user preferences, improving the overall user experience.

Enhanced Ad Fraud Prevention

Identity solutions can help detect and prevent ad fraud by identifying suspicious patterns and malicious activity. This protects publishers’ ad revenue from fraudulent traffic and ensures that their campaigns are delivering genuine results.

Advertisers and publishers can work together through data clean rooms, enabling them to share data in a privacy-compliant manner. Stand alone  clean rooms, in particular, allow data owners to match similar audience segments and improve user profiles using look-alike modeling, while personal information remains anonymous. 

Greater Ad Inventory Monetization

Identity solutions enable publishers to optimize their ad inventory by matching the right ads with the right users. This maximizes the revenue potential of ad inventory and ensures that publishers are getting the best possible rates for their ad space.

Long term viability

Identity solutions are designed to be adaptable to future industry changes, such as the evolving landscape of data privacy regulations and technological advancements. This ensures that publishers’ ad revenue strategies remain viable and effective in the long run and thus being able to be agile in motion. Through a definite ID framework publishers can collect data in the way they observe it from users’ behaviors and actions on their sites, while advertisers can collect it to help with targeting and campaign measurement which as mentioned above will increase user engagements, eCPMs, inventory management and higher ad revenue. 

What does it mitigate?

This reduces all risks involved in the mapping of audiences and segments between advertisers and publishers, in the programmatic ecosystem where there are many intermediaries and bidders.

At Freestar, we specialize in helping publishers navigate these complexities and optimize their monetization strategies. Don’t let the competition leave you behind—contact us today to learn how we can help you implement an ID Graph solution and unlock your full revenue potential.

 

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What You Need to Know About GA4 https://freestar.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-ga4/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-you-need-to-know-about-ga4 Wed, 17 May 2023 14:00:08 +0000 https://freestar.com/?p=16624 Next week, Google Analytics Universal will stop tracking new data. For the past year, many publishers have been running code for both GA-UA and the new system Google Analytics (GA4). GA4 is the latest version of Google’s web analytics platform, officially launched in October 2020. 

What is happening to Universal Analytics?

Google Analytics 3 (also known as Universal Analytics) will stop processing data, be phased out, and be replaced by Google Analytics 4 entirely. Publishers who still need to will need to switch to Google Analytics 4 to continue tracking your site’s performance. Since announcing GA4, Google has stopped developing new Universal Analytics features and has focused on improving GA4. 

What new features are available on GA4?

GA4 has several new features that offer improved analytics capabilities and more comprehensive insights into user behavior across multiple channels. Here are some of the critical features of GA4:

  1. Event-driven data model: GA4 introduces an event-driven data model, which allows businesses to track specific user interactions and events on their website or app. This enables a more granular analysis of user behavior, allowing companies to gain deeper insights into how users engage with their content.
  2. Enhanced machine learning: GA4 includes more advanced machine learning capabilities than its predecessor, allowing businesses to use predictive analytics to identify trends and patterns in user behavior. This can help companies to make data-driven decisions and improve their marketing strategies.
  3. Cross-device tracking: GA4 makes it easier to track user behavior across multiple devices, including mobile phones, tablets, and desktops. This provides a more comprehensive view of user behavior and allows businesses to optimize their content and marketing strategies accordingly.
  4. Privacy-centric approach: GA4 has been designed with privacy in mind, giving users more control over their data and allowing businesses to comply with privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA.
  5. Customizable reporting: GA4 allows businesses more flexibility in creating customized reports and dashboards, allowing them to focus on the metrics that matter most to their business.

Overall, GA4 offers a more comprehensive and flexible approach to web analytics, with enhanced machine learning, cross-device tracking, and a focus on privacy.

Is moving to GA4 mandatory?

Yes. If you want to keep processing your website data, it’s essential to move to GA4. As mentioned, Universal Analytics will stop processing data on July 1, 2023, so publishers need to upgrade to GA4 to continue tracking website performance. 

Alternatively, you could find a new website analytics solution instead of GA4. However, upgrading to GA4 is recommended, as it provides powerful features, prioritizes user privacy, and can help comply with international data protection regulations. GA4 can be added to an existing account and collect data alongside the current account until Universal Analytics is completely deprecated. 

What do I need to do?

To set up your GA4 account, you must follow these instructions to create a new GA4 property that collects data in parallel with your existing Universal Analytics property. Thankfully, Google has created a GA4 Setup Assistant wizard to help with the process.

As a Freestar publisher, you must provide Freestar access to GA4 with the email account you previously used.

Log in to GA-UA, and click on Account Access Management in the admin section. Locate the email address associated with Freestar and provide that same email address access to your new GA4 account. Once this is complete, please confirm with your Customer Success Manager or email our team. If you need additional assistance, don’t hesitate to contact your CSM; they would be happy to assist you further.

Can I track AMP pages in GA4?

Until last month there wasn’t an official way to add tracking to GA4 for Google’s accelerated mobile pages, but there is now!

Here are the requirements and basic implementation instructions.

How do Universal Analytics and GA4 differ?

Universal Analytics and GA4 are different versions of Google’s web analytics platform. While they share some similarities, they differ in several key ways. Here are some of the main differences between Universal Analytics and GA4:

  1. Data model: Universal Analytics uses a session-based data model, while GA4 uses an event-based one. In Universal Analytics, a session is a group of interactions a user has with your website within a given time frame. In contrast, in GA4, events are individual user actions or interactions with your website.
  2. Machine learning: GA4 incorporates more advanced machine learning capabilities than Universal Analytics, allowing businesses to use predictive analytics to identify trends and patterns in user behavior.
  3. Cross-device tracking: GA4 makes it easier to track user behavior across multiple devices, whereas, in Universal Analytics, cross-device monitoring can be more challenging.
  4. Privacy controls: GA4 prioritizes user privacy and provides granular data collection and usage controls, whereas Universal Analytics focuses less on user privacy.
  5. Reporting: GA4 provides more flexible and customizable reporting than Universal Analytics, allowing businesses to create reports and dashboards focusing on the metrics that matter most to their business.

Overall, GA4 is a more advanced and comprehensive analytics platform than Universal Analytics, with enhanced machine learning, cross-device tracking, and a focus on privacy. Publishers that want to stay ahead of the curve and take advantage of the latest analytics capabilities should transition to GA4. 

If you have any questions about GA4, don’t hesitate to contact our team at info@freestar.com

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Top 5 Ad Reports You Should Be Using To Study Your Data https://freestar.com/top-5-ad-reports-you-should-be-using-to-study-your-data/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=top-5-ad-reports-you-should-be-using-to-study-your-data https://freestar.com/top-5-ad-reports-you-should-be-using-to-study-your-data/#comments Wed, 19 Jan 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://freestar.com/?p=4238 It is no secret that there are a lot of different variables that you need to measure to ensure that your ad revenue is on track and optimized to drive your business forward. In our opinion, too many of these variables are hidden in the dreaded “black box” — which is how we came up with the idea for Freestar Analytics in the first place. In the end, it all comes down to transparency, so we want to show you exactly how you can use Freestar Analytics to your advantage so you can make evidence-based decisions for your business.

To kick things off, we’re going to start by going into the basics of Freestar Analytics, then showing off the real power of our analytics platform.

The basics of Freestar Analytics

First, we’re going to get our initial look at the Freestar Analytics dashboard. Here is where you can see the high-level metrics that are most important for your business. The best part about our dashboard is that it is completely customizable to your needs. As you can see, you have full control over the widgets that you wish to display on your homepage.

Freestar Analytics gives you the power to create and generate reports with your data. Learn what is working and uncover opportunities to improve and grow your revenue. Complete with data visualizations and new dimensions, you get the tools to do deeper analysis than ever before.

Some of our dimensions and features include:

  • Timezone options in a date range
  • Report level filters
  • Metric level filters
  • New data dimensions (Buyer Relationship, Connection Type)
  • Hourly reports
  • Bar and donut charts
  • Visualize up to 25 data points
  • Save reports

When you work with Freestar, you get access to our Publisher Success team who will recommend reports to be run regularly. They’ll also help you customize your dashboard so the most important widgets for you are available as soon as you log in.

As you can see — from this ad revenue report, the options for metrics to track are virtually limitless, as are the number of permutations you can make for evaluating one metric against another.

For those who are focused on data, the Freestar Analytics platform will be your best friend! It was built around the idea of transparency — so we’ve gone out of our way to make it clear how you’re making your money, and how your ad units are performing. Your data is just that, yours. Better yet, you don’t need to rely on anyone other than yourself to get the answers to questions that mean the most for your bottom line.

Top reports to pull in Freestar Analytics

Speaking of your bottom line — let’s take a look at what Freestar Analytics has to offer that other platforms don’t. 

Here’s a perfect example of something that you can get out of the Freestar Analytics platform that is hard, if not impossible, to get out of Google Ad Manager. To our knowledge, we are the only Ad Ops management solution in the industry that gives you all-encompasing access to your data. 

The following images you’ll see throughout this webinar are example reports.

Header Bidding report

As you can see, this report provides data on the partner level — and it allows you to evaluate multiple metrics at the exact same time. You can evaluate your partner based on win rate and participation rate to determine whether or not they’re a good fit. Let’s look at an example.

Win Rate vs. Participation Rate

In this visualization of your data, you can see that this partner doesn’t have a very high participation rate, which might lead you to think that they’re not a great fit for your business. But when you evaluate that next to their win rate — which is particularly good — it allows you to see that they may not participate often, but when they do, they win. This means they’re paying top advertising dollar for your ad slots, and that’s more money in your pocket. 

This is a prime example of how you can use your own data, in real-time, to make evidence-based decisions in the best interest of your business. You may be able to speak to a partner to see what they would need to increase their participation rate, or see if there’s a way to optimize your site to maximize their involvement, and therefore your revenue.

Next, we’re going to dive into some other reports to really make the best use of your own information!

Ad Quality

Here’s a quick look at one of the ad quality reports that you can run with Freestar Analytics. It allows you to understand what we here at Freestar are doing for you on the ad quality side of things.

As many of you probably know, ad quality is a top priority for us here at Freestar. It’s why we’ve partnered with several ad quality solutions to block malicious ad content — like redirects, bad links, etc. This report allows you to validate that our ad quality solution is working for you and your business, as well as evaluate how much traffic is being blocked from specific sources.

Need an example? For those of you who may be purchasing traffic, wouldn’t you like to know how much of that traffic is being blocked due to bad ads? You can see that by analyzing your blocked impressions. It’s a great way to truly evaluate your return on investment and re-target your audience.

Ad Revenue (Top 100 URL)

Some of you might be wondering why this report is particularly useful. If you’re planning on accepting guest content on your site or creating and evaluating a new content strategy, knowing which pages are performing particularly well can help you identify guest blog posts that were effective. It can also help you tell if your content strategy is panning out as you had expected when it comes to generating ad revenue.

An added bonus of knowing which content is performing really well in terms of ad revenue is it can inform your backlinking strategy. You’ll want to backlink to that content regularly and often to make sure traffic is being driven to those pages — it’ll help drive that ad revenue!

UTM Code

This is a high-level report that shows you where to drill down on your data to get more specific. Partnered with this report is our data on UTM Parameters, so we’re going to look at that next – this is one way to get more granular with your data.

UTM codes are what help you track campaign-level data — like what exactly your revenue sources are? I’m not just talking about geographically (though that information can be important too), I’m talking about whether that social media strategy you’ve been implementing on Quora is really paying dividends.

Like any marketing guru, you want to be able to properly evaluate the ROI of your hard work and effort. If most of your ad revenue is coming from traffic from your Facebook page, then you know that your social strategy is working. On the other hand, if you’re receiving next to nothing from the hours you’re spending creating well-crafted answers on Quora, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate that part of your strategy.

The best part about the way Freestar Analytics works with this information is that it’s auto-digested, meaning any UTM codes that have been assigned, either by yourself or the platform the traffic is coming from, will be tracked automatically by Freestar Analytics and can be visible in a report.

CPM by Key Value Pairing

For those of you who might have some direct deals of your own, you might be interested to know that not only is Freestar able to flight those deals for you, we can also help you identify opportunities for additional deals. 

Now keep in mind, we’re not a dating service — so we can’t help you negotiate and manage your direct deals. We’re more like a relationship coach — we can show you your best possibilities so that you can go out and find the right person to make the magic happen all by yourself.

As you can see here, this publisher gets a lot of interest in their Brand A ads, even though they don’t have a ton of Brand A content on their website. Not only does this point to the fact that they could adjust their content strategy to include more Brand A content, but it highlights that Brand A may have a vested interest in giving them a good deal for advertising slots.

That’s some solid evidence-based, decision-making data that should make approaching Brand A with a relevant sales pitch, a breeze. Next, we’re going to look at some ad unit-level data.

Revenue by Ad Unit

This report shows you the breakdown of how each of your ad units are performing on a unit by unit basis. It’ll also show you viewability by unit. 

For those of you who are particularly user experience focused, this data can be really useful when trying to optimize your site for UI and UX, as well as helping you understand the effectiveness of your ad layout. You might have space that you’ve dedicated to an ad slot that could be better used elsewhere if it’s not performing well!

That’s just a sneak peek at just some of the computing power and data analysis that you’re capable of with the Freestar Analytics platform. As we said in the beginning, the number of reports you can run is almost endless, so we’ve narrowed it down to the ones our experts feel are the most useful.

The best part about working with an Ad Ops partner, like Freestar, is that you get access to the experts behind the scenes that can help you determine which data is the most important for your business, and help you set up your custom dashboard.

Get more out of your Analytics

Now, last but not least, let’s take a look at who has access to Freestar Analytics when you work with Freestar.

The answer to this question is fairly simple — every Freestar publisher!

Like we’ve said from the beginning, transparency is the name of the game here at Freestar, and a big part of our mission here is to empower publishers so you can focus on what you do best and continue growing your business, and ensure the Internet stays a diverse and interesting place to be.

One of the ways that we feel we’re best able to accomplish that mission is to provide every publisher, regardless of how big or small they are, with access to the kind of information they need to monetize their traffic and make a living off of the kind of content they love to create.

As always, feel free to ask any questions that you might have and we’ll do our best to answer each and every one of them. For those of you who’d like your own walkthrough of the Freestar Analytics platform and want to learn more about how to become a publisher with Freestar, feel free to email us at pubops@freestar.com.

Note: All data provided is demo data to be used for product demonstration.

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What You Should Know About Ad Seasonality https://freestar.com/what-to-know-about-seasonality-and-cpms/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-to-know-about-seasonality-and-cpms https://freestar.com/what-to-know-about-seasonality-and-cpms/#comments Mon, 16 Nov 2020 23:56:44 +0000 https://freestar.com/?p=713 In this post we will attempt to answer the commonly asked question, “Why did my CPMs suddenly drop?”

It’s no secret that seasonality plays a large role in the digital advertising industry and has a direct impact on CPM performance. However, it is important to note that a site’s CPMs can fluctuate due to a variety of factors. Not to mention 2020 circumstances throwing everyone for a loop. However, we are going to focus on a typical year’s spend, and consider 2020 an outlier. That being said, numbers will vary by site and vertical so it is unrealistic to assume every site’s performance will be affected by the same things. In fact, 2020 might not have had that much of an effect on your site if you were in the home and gardening space but could have been drastically impacted if you were in the travel or entertainment industries. That being said, reports will show that most advertising companies tend to follow a consistent spend pattern throughout the year. In this post, we will share valuable data-driven insights for publishers that will unveil when and why there are performance highs and lows and how to maximize revenue when it matters most.

Typical Buyer Behavior

One of our Senior Yield Managers has a great deal of experience having worked on both the buy and the sell-side of the advertising spectrum and they were able to give authentic insight as to why advertisers behave the way they do.

A majority of spend behavior correlates with online traffic trends. Essentially, when online traffic is high, spend rises with it and as online activity dips, so does spend.

It should also be noted that companies typically have quarterly evaluations which require them to exhaust their budgets by the end of the quarter. This is why the end of a quarter is notorious for high CPMs and large revenue bumps.

Within each quarter, advertisers usually buy on a 30 day spend. Since the typical timeline is 30 days rather than 31 days, the 31st of the month may show poor performance due to budgets resetting.

When Should I Expect CPMs to dip?

While everything in this post can vary, the graph below suggests rough industry trends using Freestar’s network data from 2018. We will use this data to delve into potential CPM drops in the upcoming year.

Quarterly Trends

As you can see, CPMs tend to rise as the year progresses. Q4 is notorious for high performance due to the holiday shopping season, whereas Q1 drops off tremendously as annual budgets reset. Even though the last quarter typically produces the highest CPMs, it is important to remember that during the beginning of all quarters, regardless of the time of year, CPMs will typically dip.

Monthly Trends

While a majority of advertising companies evaluate on a quarterly basis, we should also be aware of trends happening month over month. Publishers historically see their CPMs dip at the beginning of each month, regardless of the quarter.

What might come as a surprise to some is that not all the highest performing months were in Q4. It is important to note that vertical will also have a large impact on CPM fluctuation. Verticals whose endemic seasonality is the best during other parts of the year may find different results. For instance, playoff sports in May/June will impact websites tailored to sports fans. Home and garden sites may find the winter months produce some of their lowest numbers due to the nature of gardening falling in the spring/summer. With that said, according to the data we pulled above, the months with the highest average ad spend in 2018 were as follows:

Daily Trends

To get as granular as possible, we pulled an Ad Exchange report across the Freestar Network broken out by day of the week going back until October 2018. As you can see, CPMs dip Sunday-Wednesday and tend to rise over the weekend, with the highest CPM typically falling on Saturday.

Holiday Trends

Advertising spend in June was likely as high as it was because it falls at the end of the second quarter. However, the drop off heading into July is noteworthy for a few reasons. Not only are budgets resetting, but advertisers may also be lightening their spend due to the Fourth of July. Being a cherished American holiday, most people typically spend their time off with friends and family and not sitting in front of a computer screen. In short, advertisers won’t exhaust their budgets during periods where their ads won’t get in front of enough viewers.

On the other hand, November shows an incredible increase in spending towards the end of the month. The biggest days for online shopping happen to fall at the end of November: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Advertisers wait until internet usage is at its highest to drop the big bucks, making it a win-win for all parties involved.



How Can I Offset These Dips?

Now that you’re aware of the effects of seasonality, we’ll discuss some things you can do to counteract the cost of a lower CPM. There are things you can do to raise CPMs, like taking an ad unit off your site, however, this isn’t necessarily recommended because it could have a negative impact on overall revenue. We suggest shifting focus from the lower CPM and taking steps to maximize revenue during these times.

One of the ways you could do this is through direct deals. If you have direct campaigns, you should always try to sell those towards the beginning of the quarter to offset lower programmatic spend. One of our publishers has had tremendous success using this method. They sold a large campaign and set it to go live on January 1st, and when programmatic dropped off, they were still getting $9 CPMs!

Another optimization to consider is talking to us about lowering price floors during lull periods. By lowering your floors, it allows for a higher fill rate since bids are coming in lower. As the month/quarter continues, slowly ramping up price floors as buying goes up can be a good way to keep revenue as consistent as possible. At Freestar, we can monitor your floors and adjust as needed if this is something you would be interested in trying.

Lastly, another great resource Freestar can provide publishers is a one on one meeting with our yield team. They’ll introduce the best opportunities for new ad units on a site by site and page by page basis, suggest the products most practical for your site layout and can walk you through ways to maximize your revenue all while keeping the experience of your audience top of mind.

Photo Credit: Isaac Smith on Unsplash

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Analyzing Bad Ads by Bid Bucket https://freestar.com/analyzing-bad-ads-bid-bucket/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=analyzing-bad-ads-bid-bucket https://freestar.com/analyzing-bad-ads-bid-bucket/#comments Fri, 30 Mar 2018 15:45:42 +0000 https://freestar.com/?p=420 Price floors have been around since the inception of programmatic advertising.

Publishers and their ad operations teams put price floors in place to increase revenue for highly viewable inventory, increase competition between bidders, and help mitigate ad fraud. Using price floors to combat fraud, however, goes hand-in-hand with the long-held belief that ad fraud is perpetrated mostly against lower value impressions. The accepted logic is that by setting a price floor at the lowest CPM you’re willing to accept for your inventory, you’ll not only drive up your eCPM but weed out a lot of the bad ads in the process. Seems like a sound plan, right? Not entirely.

To better understand if setting arbitrary hard price floors could, in fact, weed out bad ads, Freestar dug into our data analyzing 200 million impressions filled by 11 different bidders across our sites. We discovered that each bidder had distinct variances in bad ad frequency by bid bucket. Not only that, each bidder saw spikes in bad ad frequency well above the low CPM price floors set by many publishers.

The graphs below show the frequency of bad ads (y-axis) by $0.10 bid buckets ranging from $0 to $50+ CPMs (x-axis).

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What this data tells us is that while setting price floors at sub $1.00 price buckets can weed out some bad ads, this strategy is largely ineffective in stopping ad fraud from getting through to publisher’s sites. As seen above, ad fraud is perpetrated at all different bid levels with strong variances from bidder to bidder. Not only that, publishers are potentially decreasing their fill rates, and ultimately their net profit,  by utilizing hard price floors at lower CPMs. Not all bids at low CPMs are fraudulent, and by flooring, publishers lose out on those impressions ever being filled.

As the programmatic landscape continues to evolve, so to should the technologies and methods we use.

At Freestar, we’re utilizing data science to block bids at specific bid buckets based on the bad ad frequency by the individual bidder. This method results in no negative effect on fill rates, while allowing us to decrease the frequency of bad ads that ever reach our partner sites. Here’s how this works:

Site A makes a call to the ad server and Bidders 1, 3, 5 and 8 return the below bids:
Bidder 1 Bidder 3 Bidder 5 Bidder 8
$2.87
$2.61
$1.90
$3.07

Taking into account just the bid data it appears Bidder 8 would win with a CPM of $3.07.  However, utilizing the sample of bad ad data above it’s clear in the bid bucket of $3.00-$3.10 Bidder 8 is much more likely to deliver a bad ad than the other bidders. In this scenario, Freestar’s machine learning would have kicked in stopping only Bidder 8 from returning a bid at this price due to its high frequency of ad fraud at this level, while still allowing other bidders to step in to fill the impression.

Site A would still receive a $2.87 CPM from Bidder 1 in this auction, only $0.20 less than the revenue they would have received if Bidder 8 won, but with a far less likely chance a bad ad will have been delivered to their site. To verify our findings are correct, our algorithms continuously sample each bucket to verify which bids to block for each bidder decreasing overall frequency of bad ads by 50x across our partner sites. 

As the programmatic landscape continues to evolve, so to should the technologies and methods we use. Changing price floors to not only be dynamic but fluid by bidder and by price bucket is the next step in improving the digital advertising ecosystem for publishers.

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Freestar’s Partner Dashboard: Our Move Toward Revenue Transparency for Publishers https://freestar.com/freestars-partner-dashboard-our-move-toward-revenue-transparency-for-publishers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=freestars-partner-dashboard-our-move-toward-revenue-transparency-for-publishers https://freestar.com/freestars-partner-dashboard-our-move-toward-revenue-transparency-for-publishers/#comments Mon, 17 Apr 2017 17:36:38 +0000 http://freestar.wpengine.com/?p=19 How much revenue is my site really making?

It’s an elusive question for publishers of all sizes as they navigate the complex digital landscape. An entire economy has bloomed around the digital advertising world over the last decade as media buyers, agencies and publishers pieced together “solutions” with no real master plan in mind. This haphazard path has led to a question mark around transparency in publisher revenue with no clear answer.

Stories like The Guardian discovering as much as 70% of their revenue was going to third parties, and the World Federation of Advertisers echoing this sentiment stating nearly 60 cents on every dollar goes to agencies and tech providers have brought this issue front and center.

Larger SSPs and DSPs have responded, like AppNexus who introduced transparency tools into their dashboard for both publishers and advertisers to better see where their money is going. Yet, the majority of publishers work with multiple partners across different channels. This fragmentation and lack of an industry-wide standard around third party fees and revenue make it much harder for publishers and advertisers alike to distinguish where their money is actually going. We can all agree the growing call for revenue transparency for publishers is a hot issue, and it’s one we take seriously at Freestar, which is why we’ve introduced our new Partner Dashboard.

Freestar Partner Dashboard

In the first week of April we rolled out our dashboard allowing our publishers to track their site’s revenue net to them. Our transparent revenue share model means there are no hidden fees or additional cuts to be made. What is reported in the dashboard is their site’s true revenue.

Inside the Freestar Partner Dashboard

How is this different from other parties that offer dashboards? At Freestar, we holistically manage digital advertising operations for publishers – seamlessly maximizing revenue by utilizing our industry-leading technology, data, and experience. This means our dashboard encompasses our publishers’ total revenue in one single, easy to access place.

We’re working tirelessly to integrate even more features so our partners can hone in further on where their revenue is coming from. The next rollout of our Partner Dashboard will include: Revenue by Ad Size; Tracking of Direct Campaigns + Programmatic; eCPM.

Are you a publisher or advertiser? Let us know what features you think are important to add to our Partner Dashboard by emailing us at marketing@freestar.com.

The post Freestar’s Partner Dashboard: Our Move Toward Revenue Transparency for Publishers first appeared on Freestar.

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