How advertisers can drive mobile performance after iOS Privacy Manifest enforcement
It’s official: Apple will begin to enforce privacy manifests on May 1, 2024. Apple’s new policy will shake up mobile app marketing in particular, because privacy manifests serve Apple’s end goal of restricting probabilistic attribution and ending fingerprinting.
Why CTV will be the channel to watch in the 2024 US elections
The 2024 US election cycle will look unlike any that have come before it, right down to the ways in which political advertisers will reach and influence voters. While past election seasons have been defined by new and deeper investments in mobile and social channels, 2024 is poised to be the year connected TV (CTV) reshapes the political landscape, particularly among regional advertisers.
What’s next for the mobile in-app marketplace: Verve’s 2024 outlook
As we step into 2024, we’re reflecting on our key product achievements from 2023. Last year was a period of significant growth for our in-app marketplace, PubNative. This has set the stage for a stronger path to value for our demand and supply partners in 2024 and beyond. Highlights from 2023 Topping the charts for mobile scale and quality The Pixalate SSP Market Share Report ranked Verve as North America’s top mobile SSP for both Apple App Store and Google Play. Verve maintains this lead for the third and second consecutive quarters for Google and Apple, respectively. Notably, Verve’s market share in Apple’s platform rose from 17% to 28% between the second and third quarters. Globally, Verve now ranks first in APAC on Google Play, second in LATAM, third in APAC on the Apple App Store, and fifth in EMEA. In 2023, Jounce Media released a benchmarking report that ranked Verve as the leader in providing premium mobile app supply, ensuring quality ad experiences at a lower cost. Verve delivers 79% of premium mobile app supply — more than any other SSP. Jounce Media is one of ad tech’s most authoritative voices in programmatic supply chain management. Performance powered by interstitial units The interstitial ad inventory on PubNative (our in-app marketplace) increased by 115% in ad request volume. This growth is thanks to our expanding footprint of SDK publishers from a wide range of mediation and bidding platforms. This surge is also due to an increasing demand for high-impact performance ad units (especially interstitial video) on the marketplace. Advertisers prefer these ad formats because they help drive better conversions. Our revamped interstitial suite now supports multiple performance-first features including SKOverlay and Storekit Auto Open. You’ll also find a completely refreshed ad template that balances user retention and conversion goals. Verve’s in-app marketplace, now on Ironsource Verve is a key demand partner for top monetization platforms, including Applovin Max, Google Ad Manager, Google AdMob, DT Fairbid, Amazon Transparent Ad Marketplace, Prebid, and Nimbus, to name a few. This year, we broadened our publisher footprint by partnering with Ironsource, a significant expansion that lets publishers (especially in the gaming vertical) access diverse demand sources from PubNative’s exchange. Thanks to the integration, publishers connected to Ironsource can now efficiently monetize their interstitial inventories through both waterfall and bidding demand. More transparency and easier optimization with bid stream enhancements As an ad marketplace, we strive to improve our bid streams continuously to help buyers optimize towards their goals efficiently. In 2023, we introduced a few significant updates, including “minimum bid to win” and “bid loss notifications” to drive better transparency for your bid decisions. These additions also give DSPs crucial insights into the competitive landscape of ad auctions and detailed reasons for lost bids. What’s ahead in 2024 The year ahead will pack some significant updates relevant to our publishers and demand partners, beginning from Q1 2024. Below are some of the highlights to keep an eye on in our in-app marketplace. Powerful SDK Updates: In the upcoming SDK updates in Q1, we will continue to make improvements that are performance-focused, while introducing new SDK modules that are critical for privacy-first monetization. More ID-less scale with ATOM: We are making significant upgrades to ATOM to help publishers and demand partners make use of the on-device cohorts at scale to recapture unaddressable users. A new powerful version of ATOM (or Anonymized Targeting on Mobile), with updated cohorts, will be available to our publisher partners to integrate, very soon. Privacy Manifests: Privacy manifests are essentially files (created in Xcode) that every SDK and app developer will need to fill and add to their app. These files describe which user data the app is accessing and how the app developer is intending to use it. Moving forward, whenever an app developer prepares to upload an app to the App Store, Xcode will combine Privacy Manifests from all third-party SDKs used by the app into one comprehensive privacy report. PubNative, an in-app marketplace, is addressing this change by preparing our SDK to support Privacy Manifests. Our upcoming iOS SDK will be completely compliant to the Privacy Manifest requirements, well ahead of Apple’s enforcement. More tests with Google Privacy Sandbox: Google is finally phasing out third-party cookies for 1% of the world’s Chrome users. Verve will build on our 2023 momentum and continue to work closely with Google and other ad tech partners to test the Sandbox APIs and share results as we make progress towards a more privacy-conscious approach to targeting users on mobile. Advertising is on the brink of a privacy-first era filled with potential and promising opportunities. 2024 could not be more exciting, and we are confident that the foundation we built in 2023 has positioned us to support and drive our client objectives and growth.
Addressability in CTV: In conversation with Davide Rosamilia, ID5’s Director of Product Management
The CTV space has historically positioned itself as primarily branding-focused. As the industry matures, this approach is no longer sufficient. A significant shift is taking place, especially in how users engage in transactions through CTV. Open Measurement (OM), extended to support television for viewability purposes, is a crucial aspect of this evolution.
Measurement: Closing the identity loop
As the digital ecosystem shifts to privacy-first technologies and approaches, measurement tactics that rely on identifiers will evolve or disappear. Many marketers worry about what that will mean for the precision of their measurement and attribution — and, no doubt, the marketplace is shifting. But where are we headed?
Unlocking customer personalization with identity graphs: A visual guide
In the digital age, delivering personalized experiences has become the holy grail for businesses. From emails that address you by your first name to ads that eerily know your shopping preferences, the art of personalization is no longer just an added touch — it’s an expectation. The secret weapon behind this phenomenon? Identity graphs. Let’s delve into how they work and why they matter for modern advertising.
Ad tech privacy: How DSPs are navigating the evolving landscape
As we approach 2024, data privacy takes center stage as a primary concern in digital marketing. For SSPs like Smaato (part of Verve), it’s about leveraging the power of technology to redefine industry standards, driving campaigns to new heights of success.
Explained: What are iOS 17 Privacy Manifests, and how do they impact app developers?
Apple is further expanding on providing app store customers with more visibility into the use of their data. The end goal is to make sure that an app user has full understanding and control over what data they share, and that users aren’t unwillingly paying with their data for the app content they consume. Below, we explain how this is achieved by Privacy Manifests, required reasons API process, and other privacy tools included with iOS 17. We will take a look at the implications around third-party SDKs, both from an app developer’s and an SSP’s perspective, and provide examples as Verve is getting ready to support the new privacy measures.
Contextual isn’t new, but advancements will solve marketers’ headaches
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared in AdvertisingWeek. It was the rise of behavioral targeting, which tracks users’ online activities and personal data, that saw contextual advertising dethroned as the industry’s default targeting method. Fast forward to today and behavioral targeting is facing serious limitations, while significant developments in contextual are bringing this approach back to the fore. Here’s why . . . In the ever-evolving digital advertising landscape, marketers will face periodic challenges in effectively reaching and engaging their target audiences. Privacy is the latest challenge – and it’s a big one. The focus on privacy began in 2018 with the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe. This was followed by similar initiatives worldwide, such as Apple’s App Tracking Transparency, Android’s Privacy Sandbox and Google’s upcoming phasing out of third-party tracking cookies on Chrome by the second half of 2024; beginning for 1% of users as early as the first quarter of 2024. Having to navigate restrictions that govern the collection and use of consumer data has left marketers frantically searching for alternative approaches. The advertising industry must go back to the drawing board, and the easiest way to start is by revisiting existing approaches that offer compliant targeting at scale. Contextual is emerging again as the dominant solution for marketers. The drawbacks of conventional approaches Contextual marketing revolves around understanding the environment where an ad appears and tailoring the content based on the relevant factors surrounding the user’s browsing experience. This approach leverages factors such as website content, keywords, location, and device type to deliver relevant and timely ads to users. However, recent research by TPA Digital has found some contextual solutions fall short of meeting their basic campaign goals. Advertisers often find themselves wasting significant spend on ads that fail to reach their target audiences. Inaccurate keyword analysis, limited contextual understanding, and insufficient real-time optimization are contributing to suboptimal campaign performance. The other issue is the growing problem of next-generation “content farms” created to hijack programmatic advertising revenue. An internet trust tool, NewsGuard, is tracking an increasing number of spammy, AI-generated news sites. They expect that generative AI will cause more of the estimated $2.6 billion of advertising revenue per year unintentionally funneled toward misinformation news sites. With this boom in the number of irrelevant, misleading and valueless articles published daily, advertisers now find themselves between a rock and a hard place when it comes to getting quality results from ad spend using conventional contextual targeting. AI-optimized contextual tools offer better targeting The good news is that machine learning, natural language processing, and data analysis are driving innovation in contextual targeting. These new technologies enable advertisers to analyze and interpret vast amounts of data to deliver highly targeted ads to the right audience. By considering the context of where an ad appears, marketers can target the user’s immediate needs and interests with specific messaging, leading to improved engagement and conversion rates. Through these advancements advertisers are able to reach consumers with accuracy and speed, maximizing the chances of engaging them in meaningful ways. Advertisers can also ensure they are able to deliver the personalized and engaging experiences consumers expect. For example, natural language processing technology is enabling hyper-accurate cohort targeting capabilities. There is also the potential for contextual solutions to “understand” and mine content beyond text content, such as brand audio, videos, and apps. Models are also being built on contextual capabilities that understand affinity and match content with the open web. Contextual empowers marketers to leverage their most valuable currency — attention. By moving away from clicks towards attention and reaching consumers in the moments that matter to them, they can fine-tune campaigns at any time towards their desired metrics – and ultimately improve outcomes. This real-time contextual analysis and AI-driven optimization means brands can advertise alongside highly relevant, fresh content, at the precise moment that it is attracting large audiences. As with many evolutionary matters, change can be painful, but also necessary. As the industry is pushed relentlessly towards the edge of the third-party cookie tracking precipice, innovations in contextual are ensuring that marketers can meet and engage with their audiences in the new privacy-first world.
