This Week in Digital Advertising: Weed Wins the Election. Plus: CCPA Upgrades & How to De-Stress

This Week in Digital Advertising: Weed Wins the Election. Plus: CCPA Upgrades & How to De-Stress

by | Nov, 2020 | Content, Native Advertising

Hello Bidtellectuals!

Congratulations to Bidtellectual of the Week TJ Krzyzanowski!

The Latest:

Americans turned out in record numbers on Election Day: percentage-wise, this is the highest voter turnout rate among eligible citizens since 1900. Yet the outcome of the election remains uncertain. If you’re feeling anxious or just exhausted from this week’s news cycle, try these resources to unwind:

The Clear Election Winner? Weed

On Tuesday, voters made history by legalizing weed in some form in five states. In Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota, voters legalized marijuana for recreational purposes. Obviously, these states also have legalized marijuana for medical purposes, as well as recreational, and this is now widely available and easy to find. For example, Arizona residents can get their MMJ card online. In Mississippi and South Dakota (separately), voters legalized medical marijuana only. The addition of these markets means that 230 million Americans – 70% of the population – live in areas with medical or recreational weed sales. The results are so definitive that they could accelerate the push for federal legalization. However, this must be made clear that though there is a legalization of marijuana, it must be understood that this must not be misused in any way. Marijuana might have medical properties, but due to its psychedelic effects, it may turn into an addiction for many, which might lead some towards centres similar to Discover Recovery Treatment.

There are several other advantages to marijuana that may not be obvious from a distance but may have contributed to its legalization. For instance, many studies have found that psychedelics such as marijuana and magic mushrooms may help in overcoming depression. On that note, nowadays people can order marijuana online for medical purposes as long as they are from a state where it is legalized. For other countries, let say Canada, one can visit weed smart or other such websites where they can easily order marijuana and get it at their doorstep. Coming back to the advantages, the Farm Bill allows hemp and hemp-derived products as long as they contain less than 0.3 percent Trusted Source tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). CBD, unlike its sister compound tetrahydrocannabinol, does not get people high. Rather, experts claim that CBD oil can help with chronic pain and stress relief. Besides, CBD can be used as a skincare product because it has anti-inflammatory properties that soothe acne and may aid with the treatment of hyperpigmentation. Another CBD product that might help people who want to smoke weed but with a lower risk of developing lung problems might use vape cartridges. People who want to try vaping can go to websites such as getkush. The main advantage of vaping marijuana is that it contains fewer toxins than smoking it. Another advantage of vaping is that you don’t have to roll joints every time you want to get high. Because there is little to no smell, vaping THC cartridges is also a great way to remain discreet.

Now let’s start advertising.

CCPA Gets an Upgrade

The Consumer Privacy Rights Act – affectionately referred to as CCPA 2.0 – has been approved by voters in California, passing with 56.1% of the vote. The amendment bolsters CCPA by both instituting a handful of new privacy rights for California citizens and making it more difficult for regulators to weaken privacy laws in the future.

Unifying the Unified ID

The Trade Desk is on a mission to achieve industry-wide adoption of their Unified ID, what they hope will be a standard-identity replacement for third-party cookies. In just a week, they announced partnerships with LiveRamp, Criteo, and Nielson. “The more collaborators join this initiative, the more critical mass it will achieve in the market,” said Michelle Hulst, EVP of global data and strategy at The Trade Desk. BTW, Bidtellect has adopted the use of TTD UID as well as Liveramp’s Identity Link (IDL).

Good News: Record Number of Women Elected to Congress

Results are still coming in, but so far there will be at least 131 women in the next Congress, setting a record that surpasses the one set in 2019 (127 elected). The number includes as many as 106 women in the House and 25 in the Senate, representing 24.4% and 25% of all members respectively. Of the women elected so far, 83 Democrats and 23 Republicans will serve in the House and 17 Democrats and eight Republicans will be in the Senate; 43 are women of color.

Stay safe, friends!

Charlotte

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Charlotte Otremba is Sr. Manager of Communications and Marketing at Bidtellect.

Why You Should Factor Diversity Into Your Strategy This Black History Month

by | February 8, 2023 | Content, Culture | 0 Comments

How and why you should make diversity your advertising priority.

Read More

Behind the Platform: Using Peer39 For Brand Safety & Keyword Targeting

by | January 31, 2023 | Product and Technology | 0 Comments

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the three key uses for the Peer39 integration in Bidtellect’s DSP, while offering helpful tips for traders and advertisers to get the most out of Bidtellect’s product.

Read More

Behind the Platform: Tracking Emissions With Bidtellect Scope3 Integration, Plus What to Know About Supply Path Emissions

by | January 12, 2023 | Product and Technology | 0 Comments

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the new Scope3 integration in Bidtellect’s platform, how you can take actionable steps to reduce carbon waste, and the current state of the industry’s wasteful supply path emissions.

Read More

Bidtellect: Contextual Targeting and the Cookie-less Advertising Future

Bidtellect: Contextual Targeting and the Cookie-less Advertising Future

by | Jul, 2020 | Content, Native Advertising

With an ever-changing digital landscape, Bidtellect continues to innovate, advance, and adopt technology to support advertising future. Bidtellect’s contextual targeting and programmatic platform initiatives for the evolving privacy-first future.

​Current Events: Privacy and the Cookieless Movement

Since new privacy regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the U.S., the number of third-party cookies used per webpage declined from about 80 in April to about 60 July 2019. The number of third-party cookies found on news websites (major advertising publishers) in Europe declined by 22%. Apple released IntelligentTracking Prevention (ITP) software; Firefox and Safari browsers have blocked third-party cookies. Google Chrome announced it will do the same by 2022. The power has shifted. Consumers are gaining greater control over their own privacy and transparency into how their data is used. Advertising technology has to adapt to this new era. This includes contextual targeting and (one step further) contextual optimization.

​What About Bidtellect?

As the Cookieless future advances, Bidtellect has a good starting point. Our technology is built to be inherently different from traditional omnichannel platforms, built around context. We are ahead of schedule by supporting industry technologies like Universal ID solutions. Our focus around the cookieless future is broken into three buckets: Performance & Optimization, Targeting, and Attribution.

Performance & Optimization: Context-First, Contextual Targeting

Bidtellect’s context-first buying platform utilizes multiple context signals (placement, type of ad, device, surrounding context, channel, viewability) and non-PIIidentiers/Cookies to identify where certain subsets of audiences frequent. Our algorithms then make intelligent decisions as to the value of those placements.

This is layered with a refined approach to contextual targeting utilizing natural language processing technology at the page URL level. We offer brands the ability to discover, align, and optimize against the true meaning of the content on any webpage with smarter cookie-less targeting and unrivaled accuracy and scale.

READ MORE: In a post-cookie world, RTB is key to effective digital marketing on TechCrunch

Universal ID: Audience Targeting

Bidtellect’s primary focus has been around building a differentiated context platform not reliant on the cookie. At the same time, we understood the market demand for audience solutions and have offered data providers within our platform. With challenges cookies face from dissipating to matching, Bidtellect is integrated with two of the largest companies in the space, LiveRamp, and The Trade Desk, to support Universal IDs. These solutions allow us to almost completely negate match rate when there is participation from DMP and SSP partners, as well as grow and expand audience-targeting capability beyond Bidtellect’s own universe. We believe these advanced ID technologies are leading the industry in 1st and 3rd party audience targeting into the future, and we will look to advance alongside them.

READ MORE: Major Regional Grocer Exceeds Video Goals Thanks to Contextual Targeting

Attribution: Measurement Solutions

Attribution is more complex. Bidtellect has developed advanced measurement solutions based on user engagement with content and will continue to develop solutions around conversion events within our platform. With that, we find advertisers rely and trust their third-party attribution partners vs “grade your own homework” approach. We will work to continue to advance our attribution solutions and continue to support Analytics partners as they develop theirs.

READ MORE: Forecasting 2.0: The Future of Contextual Targeting

As the industry continues to evolve Bidtellect will continue to provide solutions, innovation, and results for our advertisers.

Stay up to date via our newsletter and by checking Bidtellect.com.

Want more need-to-know info? Subscribe to our monthly Bidtellectual newsletter!


Charlotte Otremba is Sr. Manager of Communications and Marketing at Bidtellect.

Why You Should Factor Diversity Into Your Strategy This Black History Month

by | February 8, 2023 | Content, Culture | 0 Comments

How and why you should make diversity your advertising priority.

Read More

Behind the Platform: Using Peer39 For Brand Safety & Keyword Targeting

by | January 31, 2023 | Product and Technology | 0 Comments

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the three key uses for the Peer39 integration in Bidtellect’s DSP, while offering helpful tips for traders and advertisers to get the most out of Bidtellect’s product.

Read More

Behind the Platform: Tracking Emissions With Bidtellect Scope3 Integration, Plus What to Know About Supply Path Emissions

by | January 12, 2023 | Product and Technology | 0 Comments

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the new Scope3 integration in Bidtellect’s platform, how you can take actionable steps to reduce carbon waste, and the current state of the industry’s wasteful supply path emissions.

Read More

Shifting With the Times and How Brands Can Help

Shifting With the Times and How Brands Can Help

by | Mar, 2020 | Content, Native Advertising, Product and Technology

People worldwide are caring for loved ones, experiencing financial distress and making sure their families are safe and provided for. Corporations have transitioned their workforces to the homes and apartments of millions across the globe. At the same time, marketers are tasked with ensuring the future health of their business. When thinking about brand messaging, there’s a fine line between engaging consciously and pushing an agenda. The answer isn’t to ignore the problem, but work within this new world.

The Realities of the Current Media Landscape:

Traditional advertising channels that brands normally use to engage simply won’t reap the same reach and results due to current events. OOH is challenged with a stay at home mandates and major live TV events are being canceled globally. As millions are getting used to this new reality within their homes and apartments, digital and internet-connected devices have become the farthest-reaching and most consistent avenues for reach. Online meetings are becoming more common. Corporates are using Event Software to host live dealer meetings and other collaborations. Technology and connectivity have gained new momentum in business sectors.

In the wake of 2020, all ventures, new or old, have begun to develop websites for the purpose of marketing and driving sales. Since everyone is mostly at home, online sales have become much more popular than in-store sales. Web design companies that can provide help with branding and website creation, such as this web design Cardiff company, can also be seen gaining more popularity as compared to previous years.

Looking at the digital advertising industry holistically, we see two key changes happening:

(1) A surge in traffic due to increased internet usage, creating more overall digital ad supply.

(2) A decrease in ad buying demand as travel, entertainment, sports, airline, hotels, hospitality, and tourism digital spending seemingly grinds to a halt.

Major Internet service providers like Verizon are reporting huge spikes in device and internet usage thanks to home office work and social isolation. Between the weeks of 3/12 to 3/19, Verizon saw web and internet traffic climb 20%, streaming services increase 12%, and online gaming skyrocket 75%, while social media usage didn’t change compared with the prior week. (CNET).

As more inventory becomes available and fewer brands are competing to drive prices up, this creates a unique price efficiency situation within digital and programmatic ad buying channels. Bidtellect ran an analysis of the publisher inventory accessed and bought across 30+ SSPs:

⇒ From February 2020 to March 2020 alone, we’ve seen a 9.59% decrease in average impression cost. When Comparing March figures to January, that decrease jumps further to 17.1%.

⇒ Looking back at 2019 was a different story, where we saw a 15.79% increase from February to March.

⇒ Comparing March 2019 to March 2020 we see a 10.6% decrease in impression costs.

⇒ Meanwhile, comparing February 2019 to February 2020 we saw a 40.35% increase in impression costs, which can be attributed to overall increases in demand for programmatic media and shifts from 2nd price to 1st price auctions.

This means: While seasonal and monthly trends usually play a role here, there is certainly an uncharacteristic drop in cost when looking at February to March MoM & YoY – most logically due to an influx of total impressions and decrease in total demand. While digital ad investments will certainly go further today, how do marketers go about messaging in an ethical, brand-safe, and impactful way?

How Your Messaging Can Weather the Storm

How do marketers go about messaging in an ethical, brand-safe, and impactful way? There’s a fine line between engaging consciously and coming off as insensitive or product pushing.

(1) Think of Your Employees & Brand Advocates First
Is your brand currently helping its employees through tough situations (Kohls), helping schools (Zoom) or citizens nation-wide (AT&T/Comcast)? People today view brands as living, breathing entities, so sharing earned or owned content that demonstrates how they’re doing their part to support, inspire & help can go a long way towards building brand equity.

(2) Create Valuable Content
The internet is oversaturated with COVID-19 messaging. People are actively looking for positive and helpful content to consume and share. Can your financial product save people money to support their families? Can your B2B solution provide efficiencies for companies that are hurting right now? Can your business operate virtually since you may also have to adopt a hybrid or work-from-home work model? You can provide your employees with quality internet connection at home or reimburse them to set up the best satellite internet to ensure work doesn’t get hampered and the company keeps operating efficiently. Moreover, distribute effective and timely digital content across Native formats to maintain your client base while generating more leads online. Not to forget, OLV and CTV are excellent avenues to drive engagement with helpful video content.

(3) Refresh Your Creative
Ensure the tone of creative messaging and imagery is one of empathy. Are you taking into account the thoughts and struggles of the everyday American? Can you succinctly communicate how you can help them or provide value during this uncertain time?

(4) Brand Safety
Ensure brand safe and contextually relevant publisher environments. Companies like LightTag offer text annotation tools for natural language processing technology that tend to have the semantic intelligence at the page URL level to understand and block undesirable contextual environments. Remember not to go too far in blocking. Almost every news site is reporting on coronavirus right now.

(5) Plan for the Future and a World Beyond COVID-19
While the health and economic impacts on individuals in countries across the world cannot be downplayed, one thing is certain: this too shall pass. eMarketer is “cautiously optimistic” in their latest COVID-19 forecast that a potential global economic downturn could also be short-lived, mitigating negative impacts on the worldwide ad market on a full-year basis.

BOTTOM LINE: The brands that will make the greatest impact and weather the storm are those that can get positive, educational, and valuable content in front of people. Content that will educate them on how they can improve their current and foreseeable financial situation, provide stability for their families, improve their business- and professional lives, positively enhance their health and mental state, and empower them to excel in these uncertain times.

Read More:

CNET, Coronavirus transforms peak internet usage into the new normal

The Guardian, Vodafone reports 50% rise in internet use as more people work from home

Axios, Broadband providers brace for coronavirus stress test

eMarketer, How COVID-19 Has-And Has Not-Affected Global Ad Spending

Bidtellect, 2019 Native Report

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5 Key Takeaways from Bidtellect’s 2019 Report

5 Key Takeaways from Bidtellect’s 2019 Report

by | Mar, 2020 | Content, Native Advertising, Product and Technology

The important trends of 2019 to prepare you for a successful 2020.

Bidtellect’s Native Report was created to provide advertisers with important insights and trends in the digital advertising industry – specifically, Native Advertising.

Check out our 5 Key Takeaways

To download the full report, click here.

1. Dynamic Goal Setting Leads to Highest ROI

You can set the stage for ongoing success by planning, setting goals, creating a realistic budget, and preparing a financial forecast. Dynamic, multiple goal setting for maximum optimization consistently led to highest ROI, which you can achieve by using such services as onestream and others like it. Projecting your revenue and expenses will give you a good idea of what goals you need to set and how much you can expect to achieve. Also, financial projections should be made using data from the past income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements of the company with the assistance of accountants in birmingham (or elsewhere). This could help you set benchmarks for achieving goals and staying on the right track.

It is also important to note that Multiple Goal Types (measured as a goal type itself) Outperformed CTR by 32% in 2019

Multiple Goal Types’ average revenue increased 38% from 2018 to 2019 and increased 40% from Q1 to Q4

2. Contextual Targeting is More Than an Answer to Privacy: It’s a Performance Tool

​

Contextual targeting – long part of Bidtellect’s capability wheelhouse – is gaining value for more than a privacy solution, but a tool to close the engagement gap.

One client saw 88.3% VCR using contextual targeting.

Bidtellect announced a deepened partnership with Just Media, emphasizing the use of contextual-driven decisioning to reach decision-makers.

3. Video Ad Revenue is Growing Steadily

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Use of video – and its revenue – is steadily growing.

Completion Rate (Video) as a Goal Type increased in revenue by 19% from 2018 to 2019.

Video held a top revenue spot across all four quarters in 2019.

4. Creative Assets Are KEY According to Whopping Request Growth

​

Greater value is being placed on creative assets that factor in art + data to increase performance.

From 2018 to 2019 creative requests to Bidtellect’s in-house creative team, [b]+studio, increased by 134% in 2019

Education – the vertical with the highest growth – increased by a whopping 446%.

Best practice tip: Always Bring Value. Make sure a “call to action” is in your copy description.

5. Don’t Forget About Handheld Devices

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Meaningful, prolonged engagement across devices stayed consistent and comparable over 2019, proving the equal importance of content consumption across devices.

Average CTR for Tablet jumped to an average of 0.35% in 2019 – up from 0.28% in 2018.

Mobile’s average CTR from 2018 to 2019 didn’t change: it stayed the highest of any device at 0.35%.

Download the Full Report here.

About the Report:

Bidtellect’s platform processes over 55 billion Native auctions daily across 58 million distinctly targetable placements, and this number continues to grow quarter over quarter. We analyze data from the start of an auction through post-click consumer activity including but not limited to the metrics captured in this report.

Want more need-to-know info? Subscribe to our monthly Bidtellectual newsletter!


How Contextual Targeting Puts Privacy First While Closing the Engagement Gap

How Contextual Targeting Puts Privacy First While Closing the Engagement Gap

by | Feb, 2020 | Content, Native Advertising, Product and Technology

Too good to be true? It’s not. Here’s why you need a platform that incorporates contextual targeting into your digital advertising strategy.

We’re Living in a Privacy First World

It started with GDPR. CCPA soon followed. Then Apple released its new Intelligent Tracking Prevention (IPT) in Safari placing restrictions on cookies. And most recently, Google made headlines when it announced it was doing away with third-party cookies altogether. 

Consumers are getting greater control and transparency into how their data is used. And not just once a year on Data Privacy Day – the trend of personal data empowerment is here to stay. 

Since GDPR became enforceable, the number of third-party cookies used per webpage declined from about 80 in April to about 60 in July, and the number of third-party cookies found on news websites (major advertising publishers) in Europe declined by 22%. According to a recent report by eMarketer, 30% of US companies currently comply with CCPA and 27% will be compliant sometime in 2020 (eMarketer, 2020)

But this doesn’t mean the end is in sight for real-time bidding (RTB) and all of programmatic. 

It does mean this is the beginning of a new era in digital advertising.

Contextual Targeting: More Than A Privacy Solution – A Strategy

If you’re not using a platform with contextual targeting capabilities, you’re behind. Bidding platforms can use contextual targeting to determine the value of the user and placement in the bidding process based on the information on the page, rather than the user. Understanding that we have enough information about ad space without user information means the industry can face the future of the industry with consumers’ privacy at the center of advertising strategy.

Not only are data protection standards changing, so are brands’ and clients’ unique goals. Contextual targeting – that is, targeting based on the information available of the site of the ad space, rather than user data – covers both. It’s possible to determine a unique ad space’s location, the time of day, day of the week, the size and location of the ad on the page, the site it’s on, the page of the site it’s on, and even specifics about what content is on that page. The look and feel of every single ad placement is unique, and can be correlated even more closely with user behavior.

Consider the recent announcement of the deepened partnership between Just Media and Bidtellect. Just Media initially noticed gaps in the B2B market, with DSPs often unable to penetrate the Native Advertising space and offer tangible analytics on engagements and conversions. With Adblocking and “banner blindness” becoming increasingly prevalent, content advertising with strong contextual-driven decisioning offers an alternative to close the engagement gap. 

“Intent has become an important part of our B2B campaigns across clients,” said Kathryn Nassar, Media Account Manager at Just Media. “Most of the data segments that judge intent do so by monitoring content registration, downloads, views and general consumption against certain topics. With Bidtellect’s contextual targeting we can strategically deliver ads next to the content helping to power that data, complementing our other intent strategies and delivering deep engagement with our content.”

Bidtellect’s contextual optimization capabilities enabled content to go beyond where standard banner and display ads can reach: in front of the eyes of decision-makers like CTOs and CIOs for meaningful engagement.

Consider this case study: a major university used contextual targeting to reach students, ultimately landing 88.3% VCR for the month. Contextual targeting allowed them to target based on location and categories like news and business, and science was ultimately the best-performing contextual category.

The value of contextual targeting cannot be understated. Context-driven optimization capabilities combined with post-click engagement measurement, creative services, unapparelled scale in consumer-friendly ad environments were all developed to drive performance for advertisers – without the reliance of traditional cookie-based advertising approaches. 

The result? Advertising intended to provide value to the end consumer. Not annoy them. 

Read more:

Just Media and Bidtellect Announce Deepened Partnership

It’s Data Privacy Day: So What?

Forecasting 2.0: The Future of Contextual Targeting

What You Need to Know About CCPA

“Bidtellect’s Brand Safety and Fraud Protection

Bidtellect Case Study: How A Leading University Targeted Content To Reach Students Across Multiple Geos