Mike Seiman's Blog

Over the past few years, the publisher ad network relationship has changed, as it should, but that doesn’t mean we can’t adapt to this ever-changing landscape together.

When I started my very first ad network, it was clear that, although the main purpose of an ad network was to aggregate publishers so that they could monetize some of their unsold inventory, it wasn’t going to stay that way.  And sure enough, it didn’t.  Today, publishers have so many choices, they can not sell their inventory to ad networks and monetize everything through in house sales, they can use an exchange, or they can even use a supply side platform so they don’t have to deal with any of the hassles.  While these new options certainly give the publisher choices to have their inventory for sale, none of it allows the publisher to truly understand the exact way his inventory is being monetized and how he can do it better.  The truth is that it's the ad networks that messed up by looking at inventory as our commodity rather than the publishers' commodity, and now it’s just that, a commodity. But, it doesn’t have to be.  

The roots of what should be underlying the ad network and publisher relationship are about partnerships and service. Any piece of technology on the market today (exchanges, supply side, marketplaces) can put your inventory up for sale, but to truly extract the real value needed, a relationship must be created.  By creating a close relationship with your ad network, you can be in control of how your inventory is being sold, for example: What channels it’s being sold on and for what prices,  what units will bring you the most value,  how you can offer outside the box deals to close more sales, how cpa deals can be arbitraged to make you the most money, on your terms, not just un-approving creative, but by working with the ad network direct to change those creative to what you need while getting the visibility into how that will change pricing.   Together with an ad network, you can create value on new ideas that they may be able to monetize for you, you can start a new unit and have a full sales team behind you, and so much more.
 

At CPX, we value our publisher relationships, and we challenge our publishers to prove that a quality relationship with your ad network won’t bring you increased cpms, increased revenues, and new ways to monetize your sites.  No technology can replace the true value in a dedicated sales partnership between a publisher and his ad network.