10 Questions Every Publisher should ask when selecting an Ad Network / Demand Partner

Publishers are trying to increase monetization of their website with Programmatic advertising, header bidding, direct campaigns, with the help of their sales and ad ops teams. To do so Publishers are always in search of a good Ad Network / Demand Partner.

Publishers first need to understand various aspects of their inventory. To achieve this, Publishers must answer following questions with detailed analysis.

1. How much daily inventory they have (volume)?
2. What type of inventory they have (Video/Display/Rich Media)?
3. Which device type is having more inventory on daily basis?
4. How much inventory they have by Geo location, by inventory sizes, ad Placement (ATF/BTF)?
5. What is their typical audience profile?

Based on above information Publisher can do audience-driven inventory packaging to get better revenue with higher eCPM.

Below are some important questions which Publisher should ask before selecting Ad Network / Demand Partner.

1. How will an Ad Network help me, as a Publisher, improve revenue opportunities?

Publishers should identify the reasons for onboarding new Ad Network. They should evaluate the potential revenue they can get for an Ad Network. Publishers must check the Ad Networks customer list as background check. Publishers should check for payment terms as well.

2. What will be the fill rate?

Publisher have to check the fill rate and CPM’s that the Ad Network is committing to provide. Sometimes fill rate is inversely proportional to CPM. Hence, as fill rate increases, CPM goes down and vice versa. Publisher can do a round of analysis and will come to know if fill rates vary based on inventory type and geo location. It helps if both the parties agree on some fix fill CPM rate. The discrepancy should not exceed above 10%. If the fill rate is low, Publishers can provide pass backs to the ad networks to monetize those unfilled impressions.

3. Is there any fixed CPM?

It will be good for a Publisher to work on fixed CPM pricing model as it will be helpful for identifying monthly projected revenue. For a Publisher with large impression volume, fixed eCPM model will be an easy way to monetize his site and have more visibility on revenue.

4. Is there any revenue share?

Publisher has to clarify regarding revenue share on a signed contract about the revenue share before onboarding the A Network. Hence, both the parties will be aware about the impression’s distributions. Along with that Publishers must also clarify payment terms.

5. Does Ad Network / Demand Partner have specific preference in the monetization flow set up by Publisher?

Before signing the contract, Publisher needs to clarify inventory type (Display, video, mobile, in-app), inventory sizes, inventory positions, any geo targeting, any impressions goals with Ad Network. Also, Publisher need to clarify what kind of priorities they want to provide to the Ad Network, First look / Top Priority / Remnant.

6. Ad formats allowed (pop ups, expandable, flash ads, takeover ads)

Publisher has to confirm with Ad Network types of ads they want to show on their site. Publishers should ensure that ad formats don’t compromise on user experience of their website / app visitors.

7. What is their payment structure?

Publisher needs to clarify the payment structure and also how the ad network will make payments. Is it postpaid OR prepaid? If postpaid are they working in net 30 or net 60 model? This information needs to be added on BO / IO.

8. Policy guidelines

Publisher should acknowledge his new ad partners with ad policies structure. Publisher needs to make sure that if advertisers running Google AdX on their end then they need to apply same blocking as Publisher AdX have. Same is applicable to pixeling policy. Publisher must clarify it upfront and share the implications of pixel policy violations.

9. Implementing ads.txt

Publisher has to update his ads.txt file before doing monetization with the ad partner. If it is not implemented, then ad network will not able to show ads on publishers’ site. Implementations should be done as per IAB guidelines.

10. Reporting

After onboarding new Ad Network to track the performance, Publisher should have access to Ad Network’s reporting portal OR there should an arrangement of daily reports which are sent by client. This report will help a publisher to check the performance, discrepancies and fill rate.

Following data elements must be shared by the Ad Network / Demand Partner:

1. ad requests sent FROM Publisher Ad Server TO Demand Partner
2. ad requests received by Demand Partner from Publisher Ad Server
3. bid requests sent to the Demand Partner to other Partners
4. bid responses from other Partners
5. ad requests matched with a buyer
6. impressions that were monetized
7. impressions passed back to Publisher Ad Server

This data should be available by at least Device type, Geo, Ad size, Ad unit (Placement) in the time zone of Publishers choice.

If you have any queries, questions or suggestions, feel free to share on info@webtest.yuktamedia.com

Happy to help!