By Kent Wakeford, co-Founder and EVP of AdSafe Media.
“Transparency.” It’s a word often heard in the discussion about Ad Exchanges.
Advertisers want more of it. “Can’t I just get a site list?” they ask. But while buyers are asking for “transparency,” those operating (and contributing inventory to exchange platforms) know that the very existence of the Ad Exchange business model depends on the choice to have opacity since many publishers want to avoid channel conflict issues with their in-house sales teams or being seen as “dumping distressed inventory.”
So what’s to be done to solve the logjam created by the clash of marketers’ demands for greater transparency and the inherent requirements for a certain degree of opacity on the part of the Exchanges? It’s obviously a problem which must be solved if the Exchange model is to enjoy further growth. Despite high levels of consumer engagement with the medium, only 5% of all brand dollars are today spent online. And according to a recent eConsultancy study, 65% of marketers say that the biggest gating factor preventing increased digital spending relates to the threat of their ads appearing adjacent to “unsuitable” content.
Online advertising in the age of media fragmentation does not have to be like a box of chocolates. Both advertisers and publishers should know exactly what they are going to get with every ad impression.