Navigating Ad Quality in 2022: Age of The Audience
As we turn the page and head into 2022, the digital media industry truly is marking a new chapter for ad quality and user experience. Through the pandemic, cybercriminals and spreaders of disinformation have increasingly pivoted to psychological tactics to entice users to click on ads with sensationalistic creativity. It’s a significant difference from the cyberattacks digital companies had been accustomed to – those that launched malicious code through unsecured ad slots. Complex, intricately-written code is no longer necessary to steal users’ personal information and financial details.
It’s clear now that deceptive ad campaigns that prey on the user’s psychology are not simply a pandemic phenomenon. That’s why the industry needs to begin a new chapter. In 2022, the Age of the Audience begins. Publishers must adopt a user-first approach to monetization.
Find out more about user-first approach.
What does a user-first approach mean?
Publishers have understood for years that user experience and monetization go hand in hand. 76% of publishers say their sites’ user experience has been impacted by ad quality-related challenges. As 66% say those challenges had an impact on their revenue, maintaining ad quality keeps audiences engaged, returning over time, and monetizing your site.
What’s changing is that we need to think of the audience’s relationship with advertising as active, rather than passive. Their state of mind is being attacked and engaged directly by scammers and fraudsters. Today, your ad inventory is the vector of attack. Online users willingly click on clickbait create or a misleading ad and come to a harmful landing page where they can be phished or prompted to buy counterfeit or non-existent products.
Digital publishers have undertaken great effort to secure their ad inventory from threats in the programmatic ecosystem and beyond. Now it’s time to ensure we, as an industry, secure the audience. Yes, the audience now sits at the most vulnerable point in today’s digital scams and frauds. But they are also the most powerful element in the digital ad ecosystem, carrying the influence to make or break a publisher’s brand. Consider the risk in the app arena: 78% of app publishers say they’ve been delivered low-quality ads that risked damaging their own reputation, 93% say they’d received negative reviews in the app store on account of bad ads, and 71% say bad ads led users to uninstall the app.
This year, ad quality is a strategic differentiator for publishers
Publishers that serve safe, clean, trustworthy, and relevant ads win the engagement, trust, and loyalty of their audiences. In today’s digital advertising landscape, no publisher can assume their advertising will meet those standards without effort and vigilance. Deceptive or misleading ads can easily slip past lower-tech creative scanners by appearing legitimate, and the programmatic market offers points of entry for bad actors looking for the most reach at the most affordable cost. Publishers and their advertising partners need granular controls for their inventory, to accurately and consistently match ad content to relevant, specific categories of page/app content. Nuanced controls also give publishers the power of both automation and manual review, to speed the QA process and allow human verification to address the complexities of brand suitability and safety.
User experience that not only meets but exceeds audience expectations
In 2022, the publishers who win in digital will provide a user experience that not only meets but exceeds audience expectations. Standing out in this crowded media market means upholding an ad experience that surpasses industry standards.
Publishers must safeguard programmatic as a strategic revenue channel. However large or small a role programmatic plays in the publisher’s overall revenue strategy, publishers need to be able to monetize with confidence and integrity using any demand sources that fit their business and goals. Secure your audience’s trust in your brand, and that of your valued advertiser partners. High-quality, brand-suitable advertising encourages audience engagement with your content – while low-quality ads only increase bounce rates and audience churn.
In 2022, publishers must adopt an ad quality strategy that incorporates automation – to detect and block threats and uphold inventory integrity without added strain or stress on your team. Publisher protection is supported by an additional and final manual review to uphold the most nuanced of your and your ad partners’ standards.
Programmatic Monetization in the Age of The Audience
Today’s deceptive ads, and the psychological tactics they ply against users, must be kept off the page in order for publishers to uphold and exceed truth-in-advertising expectations and the audience’s trust in your content. Publishers in 2022 must meet action with action, to truly join and flourish in the Age of Audience.
GeoEdge’s advanced security solutions ensure high ad quality and verify that sites offer a clean, safe and engaging user experience, so digital publishers, app developers and ad platforms can focus on their business success. GeoEdge promises more than just technology, GeoEdge provides true partnership. Let’s start the new year- together.
