Nielsen Expands Digital Ad Ratings; Axel Springer Blocks Ad Blockers
ExchangeWire rounds up some of the biggest stories in the European digital advertising space. In this week’s edition: Axel Springer blocks ad blockers; Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings for Europe; Mobile CPMs are rising; Facebook goes for Youtube; BidSwitch welcomes new General Manager.
Axel Springer fights back
It did not take long for German media group Axel Springer to react to its defeat in a court case against ad blocker developer Eyeo in Germany last month. In order to protect its advertising revenue, the media group’s tabloid Bild, Germany’s largest newspaper, has stopped displaying its content online to users who have installed ad blockers.
Users who want to read the tabloid’s online news, can choose between disabling their ad blockers, or receiving access by paying a fee. For €2.99 per month, 90% of the ads on bild.de will be eliminated, the tabloid says. As a side effect, this will also result in faster loading times.
In a statement, Donata Hopfen, chairwoman of the Bild Group management board, said: “Even on the internet, journalistic services need to be financed via the two well-known income streams – advertising and subscriptions – in order to continue to offer independent journalism. Bild is responding to the increasing ad blocker usage by testing a new service. In this way, we are meeting various user requirements and the requirements of the advertising market, which is very relevant for us.”
Bild‘s is the most drastic reaction to the defeat in an ad blocking case in Germany yet. Despite having lost similar cases, fellow publishers have so far not implemented any measurements that deny access to readers who use ad blocking software.
Nielsen expands mobile measurement to Europe
Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings will now also enhance the insights of European agencies and platforms into their campaigns. The mobile measurement metrics will be expanded to include clients in France, Germany, Italy, and the UK, as well as Australia and Brazil.
“We have enabled the marketplace to transact on media with the highest quality, independent, apples-to-apples metrics across all devices,” explains Megan Clarken, EVP Global Watch Product Leadership, Nielsen. “Adding mobile measurement to Digital Ad Ratings allows us to bring this same level of comparability to more markets, enabling a deeper understanding of campaign effectiveness.”
With the Digital Ad Ratings, Nielsen analyses mobile campaigns, offers insights into online-mobile interaction based on video and display ads for iOS and Android platforms, and aims for a digital picture of audiences and campaign effectiveness.
Further mobile measurement solutions are expected to be introduced by Nielsen in the coming year.
Mobile ad performance drives growth for publishers and advertisers
Increasing mobile consumption in 2015 will result in growing revenues for advertisers and publishers, globally. The key areas of this mobile monetisation growth have been identified in a study by martech company PubMatic.
According to the study, mobile CPMs have surpassed desktop CPMs by 34%, drawing on the wealth of mobile data, especially user ID and location. The scalability of mobile in a mature market such as EMEA has allowed CPMs to increase by 47%.
The study found that CPMs on private marketplaces are higher than non-PMP CPMs, by a factor of 5 to 6 for mobile PMP; some of which is due to the more transparent buying and the availability of premium inventory on PMPs.
Moreover, mobile ad campaigns in general are still the focus of advertisers, with Apple app ads growing the fastest in price and volume, the study reveals. Monetised mobile impressions increased by 133% on iOS apps, 42% on Android apps, 24% on mobile web, and 44% on tablet web.
With the progress of mobile optimisation and the concurrent improvement of inventory, average CPMs for mobile-optimised inventory grew 48% in Q3, year-over-year, while non-optimised mobile inventory decreased by 26%.
“From our perspective, the ‘mobile gap’ is closed”, says Rajeev Goel, co-founder and CEO of PubMatic. “Improved mobile infrastructure, advanced targeting capabilities, and better overall customer experience offerings, have enabled media organisations to take greater advantage of their mobile revenue opportunities.”
The first Quarterly Mobile Index focussed on Q3 2015 and analysed billions of daily impressions.
Facebook zooms in on video
Facebook want to attract advertisers with a video-centric approach that looks to rival YouTube’s dominance in video advertising. The company recently announced plans to test a new video section on its social network which will make videos more discoverable and keep users watching.
Accessed over an icon in the Facebook menu, users can scroll through video content vertically and skim the videos on offer. Horizontal swiping displays other clips by the same publisher.
While a dedicated video stream within the network is aimed at increasing the time users spend on Facebook, the social network can also create new ad spaces between the videos – and generate revenue.
According to the BBC, YouTube remains unperturbed by the potential competitor since the demand for video content is still growing. However, with additional premium video content on their site, Facebook may also be able to charge higher prices for advertising on the network.
Leadership changes at BidSwitch
BidSwitch announces changes in the company leadership. Replacing Bob Walczak, Scott Neville joins BidSwitch as general manager from his previous position as chief strategy and marketing officer at Iponweb. Neville’s role at BidSwitch focuses on scaling and managing the global operations and services.
Joining Neville in the BidSwitch leadership team is Ilya Martynov as CTO. Like Neville, Martynov previously held a position with Iponweb where he acted as CTO since 2002. Martynov will be in charge of the technology side of BidSwitch.
“Both Scott and Ilya, with their extensive experience working on the Iponweb side, are best positioned to navigate the next stages of BidSwitch growth and development”, says Boris Mouzykantskii, CEO, Iponweb. “We feel they are not only the right executives to lead us forward, but as they were centrally involved in the early stages of creating the BidSwitch business, they will also allow us to ensure continuity with both the existing teams and our partners.”
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