Posts Tagged ‘Lijit Advertising Services’
Many of you are witness to a shift in the world of online advertising that sees ad networks being replaced by programmatic buying technologies like real-time bidding (RTB) and private exchanges. Technologies like these deliver greater return to both advertisers and publishers by enabling them to connect directly to each other. Advertisers set a price for what they’re willing to pay to access a publisher’s audience, and publishers gain greater control over their inventory while at the same time exposing it to a larger pool of demand sources. RTB is what enables this interaction between advertiser and publisher to take place.
Publishers are the core of our business, and because of that we are constantly looking for new ways to deliver higher CPMs and fill rates. When it comes to RTB, the more DSPs we integrate with, the more access brand advertisers have to our publishers’ inventory. The more demand from brand advertisers, the higher the return we can deliver to publishers.
Today we are pleased to announce our latest RTB integration with XA.net, our newest partner. The partnership with XA.net comes on the heels of a handful of other recent integrations with industry-leading DSPs including MediaMath, m6d, Chango, and MyBuys. With these and many more planned for the coming months, publishers should continue to see higher returns from Lijit’s online advertising services.
Tags: industry, Lijit Advertising Services, Lijit publishers, new features | View Comments
Why Publishers Should Embrace Programmatic Buying
Nov 30th
by mpuentes in Company, Lijit publishers, industry, technology
Those who “own” inventory are concerned that through exchanges, advertisers and trading desks have access to the same premium placements at lower CPMs, thereby diluting direct sales opportunities.
As a premium publisher, you probably invest in a sales team to monetize your inventory. You sell a unique readership, social engagement capabilities, contextual relevance, and other site-specific aspects that help value premium inventory at premium prices. Your team works hard to close direct deals with high CPMs to make sure the value of the inventory is not diluted so they can keep cash in their pockets!
On the other side of the coin is the brand advertiser. Brand advertisers also have concerns about exchanges because they are hyper-sensitive to brand alignment. They work hard to protect their brand from the “Wild West” we call the Internet, and are über-sensitive to the variability of content across the web.
Buying direct from premium publishers ensures contextual relevancy and protects against brand conflict. It’s the safe route that allows a brand advertiser to lock in contextually relevant real estate and track ROI.
A “true” private exchange turns potential dilution of inventory, internal struggles with the sales team, and contextual awareness into a big-time publisher opportunity. In a true private exchange, the sales team continues to work with advertisers to sell premium inventory. Let’s not forget what’s important to advertisers: (1) contextual placement and (2) guaranteed inventory/unique(s).
A “true” private exchange gives priority bidding to the select advertisers that have negotiated a higher mid-tier CPM. The CPM is higher than on an open exchange because it’s backed by data, yet lower than a premium CPM because it’s not guaranteed.
The industry needs to embrace true private exchanges. A “true” private exchange solves a real business problem for both the publisher and advertiser:
(1) Publishers can place inventory on a private exchange at a $3-$10 CPMs and offer it to a “select” set of advertisers
(2) Publishers can use the private exchange to build a process and compensation plan for the sales team
3) Advertisers feel safe using a private exchange that guarantees contextual placement and protects against brand conflict.
The private exchange is a true private marketplace where the prioritized advertiser with the highest bid wins.
Tags: ads, blogging, industry, Lijit Advertising Services | View Comments
On Tuesday, September 20 Lijit’s CEO and Founder Todd Vernon had the privilege of speaking at Federated Media’s Signal Chicago conference. His presentation, titled “Using Supply Side Platforms, Real-Time Bidding, and Private Exchanges to Reach the Independent Web at Scale,” provides a brief overview of the latest technologies in online advertising.
In this session, Todd discusses the following:
- How to use SSPs (supply side platforms) to source inventory
- How brand marketers can use audience analysis to reach desired themes and conversations
- How to expose audience and content segments to automated buyers
- How to use audience futures to reserve media through private exchanges
Check out his quick, 10-minute presentation below. Enjoy!
Tags: events, industry, Lijit Advertising Services, speaking, Todd Vernon | View Comments
How to turn your hobby into a business: lessons learned from Lijit publisher Kurt Kohlstedt
Sep 13th
Longtime Lijit publisher Kurt Kohlstedt is the Founder and Executive Editor of Webist Publishing and Misnamed Media. His collection of sites include WebUrbanist, WebEcoist, Dornob, and Gajitz – which each have their own theme relating to creative, innovative, and sustainable art, architecture, and design.
Kurt is the quintessential mid-size Lijit publisher who has used online advertising to successfully transition his hobby into a business. Read on to learn how Kurt got his start and how he built his business using analytics and online advertising.
How did you get your start in the world of online publishing?
I was finishing my graduate degree in architecture and slowly began to realize that I was equally interested (if not more) in writing about design as I was in becoming an architecture professional. It was at that point I decided to give online publishing a shot as a full-time career. I built an audience by testing out various topics and found a nice balance between what I liked to write about and what people liked to read. I launched my first site, WebUrbanist, in the middle of 2007.
Tags: ads, Lijit Advertising Services, Lijit publishers, lijit stats, publisher spotlight, publishers | View Comments
The economic rules governing the advertising technology industry can seem a little counterintuitive when referring to pixels and cookies versus physical goods or financial instruments. Further, when it is as easy as installing a snippet of JavaScript on your page to start making money, companies can seem more like pyramid schemes than players in a fundamentally sound market. However, believe it or not, the advertising technology industry is governed by the same economics that govern most every other industry. And supply, demand, price, and quantity are some of the most fundamental economic concepts that can be applied to ad tech with just a little translation.
Ad “inventory” is essentially synonymous with “supply.” This is the available ad space on a website. Thus, publishers are the suppliers of the industry. And the price a publisher is willing to accept varies depending on content, seasonality, audience, location of the ad zone on a page, and many other variables. Considering the way that ad serving works, with an individual advertisement being passed from advertiser to network, to exchange, to SSP, to publisher, etc, this might seem backwards. But the best way to think about it is the way the money flows. Ad “inventory” is available for purchase, just like product inventory in a store or a warehouse.
On the other side is “demand.” “Demand” is essentially advertising spend. “Demand” by advertisers also varies based on seasonality, content, audience, etc. for the same obvious reasons. Where the supply and demand curves meet is the nexus we use to identify “price” and “quantity.” Of course, we, the ad tech industry, have our own word for “price” which is “CPM.” And we express the concept of “quantity” with terms like “ad traffic” and “fill rate.”
Once you boil the industry down to these fundamentals, it seems less populated with buzzwords and more with terms reflective of actual economic opportunity. Terms like “demand side platform,” “supply side platform,” and “ad exchange” make sense despite the fact that they sound more like they come from Wall Street than Silicon Valley or Madison Avenue (or Boulder, Colorado in our case). In fact, these terms are reflective of a healthy and fundamentally sound (although ridiculously dynamic) market with incredible economic opportunity for years to come.
Just take a look at LUMA Partners‘ Display Advertising Technology Landscape to get a sense for the sheer number of companies involved in this highly competitive and fast growing market:
The latest numbers from eMarketer estimate that the US online ad market will see dramatic growth this year with spending to increase 20.2% to $31.3 billion. eMarketer also predicts that by 2015, total US online ad spending will reach $49.5 billion, more than 58% higher than this year’s estimate. Now those are some ad tech economics!
Tags: ads, Lijit ad network, Lijit Advertising Services | View Comments
Lijit Product Updates: Reader Demographics
May 9th
by Daniel in Company, features, release announcements
We just completed another round of updates and improvements to our publisher products. We’re putting a lot of energy behind building out our ad services and publisher analytics and we’re expanding our offerings with every software release. So what’s new?
Reader Demographics:
The most important part of being an online publisher, is understanding your audience. On top of all of the other great audience analytics we provide to help you understand your readers, we now offer reader demographic data right inside your Lijit dashboard. This new statistic allows you to see the overall makeup of your online audience, and further understand who you are creating content for, and the demographic distribution of people frequenting your site.
Why are demographics important?
- Understanding your readers
The best way to effectively create relevant content for your readers, and to attract new readers, is to know who they are. Understanding the makeup of your audience is key to ensuring you are producing content that will engage and resonate withyour audience.
- Monetizing your site
Advertisers looking to reach the right audience for their online display advertising campaigns always consider demographics when making targeting decisions. You will be better equipped to attract and sell advertising for your site if you understand the demographic makeup of your audience
Check out your dashboard to see the demographic makeup of your site and start down the path of better understanding your readers. Just goto www.lijit.com, login and check it out at the bottom of your Lijit dashboard.
Other News:
- Removed MyBlogLog support
We removed support for MyBlogLog and disabled it’s use as a content and network source for publishers who use our search engine services. MyBlogLog had a great run and was a key integration partner in the early days of Lijit. Yahoo is shutting down all MyBlogLog services at the end of May, so we decided to deactivate it on our side before that happened.
- Welcome Widget support
We made the difficult decision to “end-of-life” our Welcome Widget product. Publishers who previously used this feature will no longer see a UI to manage settings for the Welcome Widget, and we automatically disabled the functionality it provided. We’re always looking for ways to enable our publishers to better engage their readers, so keep an eye out for more site tools and functionality in the future.
Tags: features, Lijit Advertising Services, lijit stats, new features, publishers | View Comments
As Lijit’s Ad Services continue to grow, we’ve had a number of questions which we’d heard on more than one occasion…so time for an FAQ! Below find a list of the most frequently asked inquiries of our Ad Services staff. This list will grow over time so check back here to review the FAQ list and learn more!
What are Lijit Advertising Services?
Lijit makes websites more engaging, keeping readers on site longer, and uncovering rich and interesting content. At the same time, Lijit provides you, the publisher, valuable intelligence about what readers are interested in and searching for. Lijit Advertising Services helps publishers get more value from the unique audiences they attract with the great content they produce.
Continue Reading »
Tags: FAQ, Lijit Advertising Services, Optimization | View Comments
Come on in! We’re open!
That’s right, Lijit Publishers! Our Ad network is officially out of beta and we are rolling! We’ve invested a lot both in technology and people power to provide what we think is a great money making vehicle for you. Our Ad Serving Platform is world class and our direct sales force is working directly with the large premium brands and ad agencies to serve the creative you want and expect to match your site and your reader audience.
What does the Lijit Ad Network give you, publisher?
More money making opportunities! Lijit has historically provided you revenue share from advertising displayed and clicked through on your Lijit search results pages but our Ad Network is all new! What’s new for you:
- Front Page Ad Tags: Monetize your blog through the simple installation and display of front-page banners, skyscrapers or sidebar units.
- Premium Advertising: Lijit Network’s sales force works directly with major advertising agencies and brands to reach your readers with meaningful creative that your readers will appreciate…and be more likely to engage with.
- Better Performance: Knowing your site’s content, reader demographics and reader intent allows Lijit to yield better ad performance over prototypical ‘spray and pray’ ad networks. We want your site to have meaningful, contextually relevant and engaging creative your readers will appreciate and move to act on!
How do you install Lijit Ads?
Easy! We’ve made installing ad tags as simple as installing your Lijit Search Wijit. Check it out…
1) Opt in to share revenue with Lijit. You will see a new tab on your Wijits administration page called Ad Many of you have already taken advantage of this by opting into revenue share from your search page ads and if so, you won’t see this step. For newcomers, you will see this simple screen to fill in your account information (e.g. where we send the checks!) and the opt-in information.
2) Create an Ad Tag: With your registration complete, you are immediately presented with Ad Wijit (e.g. ad tag/ad unit) creation tools to post on your site. Creating one is super simple. You select from the styles we offer (e.g. a banner or a skyscraper or a rectangle), name it and you’re done! Create as many as you want!
3) OK, you’re ready to install! Simply save your wijit in the step above and you will be prompted to move to the install screen you see below. Just like your Lijit Search Wijit, we offer simple one-click installs for major blogging platforms like Blogger, WordPress and TypePad in addition to providing you the java script for proprietary CMS systems and web site platforms. Once the code is live on your site, you’re set and Lijit can get about its job streaming in ads!
4) You’re done!
With your ad tags installed, Lijit’ will take over from here. Our sales force as mentioned is queuing up premium brand and advertising campaigns which will be served directly form our ad serving infrastructure direct to your ad wijit tags. We stream in creative which will match the effective category, demographic and reader audiences who visit your site. Ads will rotate frequently as our model is to continually ensure 100% fulfillment. When a premium ad is not available, we will display remnant ads to ensure a continual money making stream for you.
How do I get paid?
All of the payment and accounting information is managed in your ‘Account’ management console on Lijit.com when you are signed in. Here you can visualize your ad performance, earnings, modify your account registration information and more.
Need Help?
Contact our Advertising team here in our offices in scenic Boulder Colorado. (advertising at lijit dot com) We’re ready to get your site dialed in and ensure you’re making money right away!
Tags: Lijit Advertising Services, release announcements | View Comments