So far in Ad Ops Insider’s conversations with leaders in the mobile ad ops space, we’ve discussed developing holistic mobile strategies with Bryan Moffett, VP of Digital Strategy and Ad Operations for National Public Media and difficulties with in-app rich media intergrations with Brian Hoskins, Senior Manager of Ad Services for Disney Technology Solutions & Services. As AdMonsters’ OPS Mobile conferences approach (April 19 in NYC and May 16 in London), we reached out to BabyCenter Global Director of Ad Operations Spencer Owens, who recently gave an excellent presentation on ad operations’ role in selling mobile products at the Publisher Forum in Palm Springs.
From an Ops perspective, what’s your biggest challenge in mobile right now, and do you see that changing in the next 6-12 months?
For a publisher Ad Ops team, the single biggest challenge around mobile is monetizing inventory. From tagging mobile apps and web pages to creating and modifying mobile ad products designed for our direct sales efforts to partnering with mobile ad networks on unsold impressions, improving yield is the primary objective. The lack of standard ad formats can seem like every new mobile campaign requires multiple development and discovery cycles, adding complexity and friction when marketers are already hesitant to buy mobile impressions at scale. Over the next 6-12 months, formats and specifications will be much more stable, easing that burden on publishers.
We’re also on the cusp of widespread advertiser adoption of mobile as a valid and essential marketing platform, but that timing is less clear. It is imperative that Ops teams are prepared for the inevitable migration of spend to mobile, so now is the perfect time to experiment. Figure out what does and does not work, develop an attractive suite of ad products, get the technological pieces in place, and be easy to buy for those marketers who are ready today.
One of the pain points I hear publishers talk about is the SDK process, and how time consuming it is to maintain vendor releases, and support multiple versions while consumers update. How do you address in-app rich media creative executions, and to what extent if any have you found the SDK aspect of mobile to be a challenge?
For the time being, we have opted out of the SDK process. We treat our app impressions just like our mobile web impressions. We have not been able to find a partner that can consistently and reliably ensure our directly sold impressions are prioritized over what a mobile ad network wants to serve. In many ways, this has simplified our process when offering rich media to our partners. We have built the same rich media capabilities and specs into our apps and mobile web pages and provided a consistent ad experience across our mobile products.
Any other learnings or best practices you would share with the Ops community around vendor selection, or SDK workflow? Do you think it’s effective to work through an optimizer and let them deal with the SDK updates, or have you found it better to deal with the vendors directly?
I am optimistic an optimizer can be the solution here and have spoken with other publishers who have had success with that route.
Specific to SDKs,have you seen any movement on the MRAID front for the vendors you work with to get compliant? Are you considering adding MRAID compliance as part of your mobile ad spec?
We have not been hearing much on MRAID from either vendors or our advertising partners. We are keeping a close eye on the evolution of MRAID but have no immediate plans to add this to our specs.
Compared to in-app advertising, what’s your perspective on mobile web? Do you consider that separately from in-app, or is it all mobile? Is your approach more to do with the technical aspects, or based on how you’re selling mobile ads right now?
As much as possible, we speak about apps and mobile web as part of a single mobile advertising strategy. When we talk about differences between apps and web, it is around targeting and audience, rather than one being more effective than the other. Even for campaigns where the objective is to drive app downloads, we encourage advertisers to take advantage of OS targeting on mobile web. We have found our users don’t distinguish much between app use and mobile web use, so they are still receptive to downloading a new app they discover via a mobile web ad.
How much does your organization think about HTML5? Are you planning any update or release that will move your content into an HTML5 format? If not, why not – if so, what’s been the driving factor?
Our conversations around HTML5 are part of larger strategy discussions on what the experience on our site should be, no matter the platform or device. Mobile adoption continues to grow and tablets will likely be the dominant form factor in the very near future, so it is clear publishers need to adapt and offer a seamless experience that simply works.
If you are adapting your content to HTML5, do you think that will enable true cross-platform campaigns in the next 12 months for your business, or are you looking at HTML5 to solve other issues for your business?
It is really both. If HTML5 will allow for a better cross-platform experience for our users, we firmly believe advertisers will follow. Publishers know their audiences better than anyone, and can reach the right user with the right marketing message at the right time. Platform or device does not matter to users – they just want good, reliable, trustworthy content and to engage with it with whatever screen they happen to be looking at or holding in their hand. Publishers already know a mobile user is just as valuable as a desktop user and perhaps more valuable. That user is engaging with mobile multiple times a day: at home, at work, while shopping, while seeking entertainment or an answer to a pressing question.
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Interested in learning more about mobile advertising? OPS Mobile will bring digital advertising leaders and ops professionals together to discuss and develop best practices for operational excellence in a world of connected devices. Register today for OPS Mobile, AdMonsters’ mobile advertising conference, which will be held April 19, 2012, in New York. |