What happens when Facebook opens up their Audience Network to mobile publishers who use header bidding? Well, for one, there’s instantly more competition amongst the major players – and publishers are rejoicing. The mobile advertising landscape just shifted dramatically with Facebook’s latest announcement.
With Facebook advertisers able to take advantage of advanced audience targeting through the Facebook Audience Network (FAN), mobile publishers can now cash in on header bidding. This substantially raises publisher ad opportunities by allowing multiple buyers to bid on the same ad space at the same time. Advertisers are also able to find the right high-value consumers at the right time.
Header bidding is still difficult for publishers to implement, even though it is a far more efficient and lucrative alternative to tag-based auctions. Up until now, there was little incentive to facilitate the process. Now, with a behemoth like Facebook expanding its audience reach and teaming up with the likes of Amazon, the once-monopolized playing field is up for grabs – and so is the ad space.
Adding to competition, it also makes ad tech accountable for ROI—which the industry is in dire need of—and empowers the marketer and publishers with expanded options. In the past, if you, as a publisher, wanted to participate in header bidding, you had many partners to choose from, each with their own technologies, but small revenue gains. Significant development and testing upfront, pagespeed/privacy concerns increased the risk when choosing partners.
Who really wins? The publisher. With more competition for ad space—since it is now being offered to multiple parties to bid on at the same time—the value of the ad placement will rise, increasing revenue to publishers.
Higher cost for marketers? Not entirely. While the cost per impression may rise, the return on ad spend (ROAS) to the marketer will also rise. Better audience data and better targeting opportunities thanks to the FAN, Google, and others who may follow will ensure more high-value consumers will actually see the ad.
Whichever way you look at it, it’s bound to significantly change the relationship of publishers and marketers for the better, offering endless new opportunities for the digital advertising trade.
Chris Loretto, Executive Vice President, Digital, leads digital strategy for Digital First Media, driving innovation, revenue growth, and audience development across all properties. Prior to this, Chris spent several years at the Los Angeles News Group as the Vice President of Digital, where he architected the digital strategy and led the team to create innovative solutions and deliver revenue performance. Chris sits on the Executive Committee for the Local Media Consortium, the Board of Directors for Digital Content Next and is active within the IAB.
