The Evolution of Advertisers

The advertiser is the whoever purchases ad inventory from the publisher, and uses it to promote a product or service to their desired audience. The typical advertiser has changed, too – whereas in the past, advertising was limited to larger companies with dedicated budgets and creative teams, today almost anyone can advertise anything, thanks to the proliferation of self-serve advertising platforms (more on that soon). 

Getting Creative

Advertisers don’t just buy the ad inventory, they also create the adverts. Usually they do this in-house with their own marketing teams, or they work with third-party agencies who assist with messaging, positioning, and creative direction. The larger the advertiser, the greater resources they have access to when creating adverts. Sometimes publishers have in-house teams that help advertisers to tailor their ads for the publisher’s specific audience and brand. 

Affiliates and Influencers

One effect of the booming creator economy is that advertisers increasingly purchase advertising (of a kind) from affiliates. An affiliate, or influencer, doesn’t typically own any ad inventory themselves, but they can share content through a platform (social media) and reach a large and / or targeted audience. These tend to be direct deals, either through the affiliate or through an affiliate programme or network that provides access to a curated list of affiliates.

Programmatic Exchanges

In the past, ad deals were complicated and time-consuming processes involving a large number of resources on both the sell and buy side. As online advertising exploded, programmatic advertising became the norm: an automated system connecting ad sellers and buyers on a digital marketplace.

In recent years, however, programmatic has faced challenges and criticism. A common critique is that too much value disappears in the murky “black box” of programmatic exchange. A study by ISBA found that half of ad spend in programmatic never reaches publishers, and around 15% disappears without clear attribution. Another issue for programmatic advertising is the crumbling cookie; programmatic is highly dependent on third-party cookies for accurate targeting. As cookies are phased out for better user privacy, advertisers are looking for alternatives. 

Self-Serve Advertising 

Partly as a response to the problems associated with programmatic advertising, publishers have invested in new solutions to sell their ad inventory directly to advertisers. One example is self-serve advertising: a technology that allows advertisers to purchase inventory straight from the source, but without the traditional negotiation of direct deals. Early pioneers in self-serve were the tech giants; Meta built their advertising empire on small business ad deals and Facebook’s enormous first-party data.

Today, digital publishers like Tripadvisor, Disney+, Soundcloud, and Roku all offer self-serve advertising. As competition for ad dollars increases, publishers want to improve the profitability of their ad operations. Self-serve offers compelling value, as it allows publishers to effectively trawl for long-tail advertisers at scale without investing more man hours. When Tripadvisor launched their self-serve platform, for example, they captured more than 3000 new SME advertisers. Diversifying the client base to include both enterprise and SME advertisers is an increasingly popular strategy for publishers as they adapt to a tougher and more unpredictable market.

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