2020 has hit many publishers hard. Nonetheless, there are ways to re-group and minimize the damage. 

As the April 2020 study by IAB unveiled, the majority of publishers expect their digital ad revenue to decrease in 2020, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, subsequent lockdown and economic crisis. 

First, in the light of uncertainty of how the events would unfold, most brands have either cancelled or postponed their online advertising campaigns, cutting their marketing budgets to the minimum until things improve, especially in the video ad segment. More importantly, widely-applied blacklisting practices have also taken a huge toll on the editorial publishing niche. 

Well, now that Q3 is already here, the digital advertising industry is seemingly starting to re-group and slowly recover after the first aftershocks. According to the latest eMarketer study, for instance, the B2B digital ad spend is surging over 20%, especially in the tech, healthcare and financial sectors, and is likely to exceed $8 000 000 000 in 2020. 

This, undoubtedly, means new revenue opportunities  for publishers are being unlocked, as long as they’re willing to embrace these. 

Check out the AdPlayer.Pro tips on how to monetize editorial content more efficiently in 2020.

Leverage your Audience & Increase Subscriptions 

Now is definitely the right time and place to analyze your audience not only in terms of demographics, but also their subscription intent. While hiding the COVID19-related news behind the paywall isn’t perceived as the best practice, finding content creatives your readers will eagerly pay for, on a regular basis is a key. These may imply launching engaging webinars, offering insightful research, sharing on-topic podcasts (and repurposing the audio into written content using a podcast transcription service, if needed), but the list of top-of-funnel content options may vary. You can also use remote interview recording to reach your audience in new ways.

Note! If you’re offering third-party content to your readers, always ensure it’s checked for plagiarism prior to publishing.

In this respect, you might even consider integrating rewarded video ads on your web properties to monetize audience segments, who can’t or aren’t willing to apply for a paid subscription at the time.  In addition, consider using a special content marketing calendar to plan and organize everything in advance.

Strengthen your Reputation by Mitigating IVT

It’s essential that you familiarize yourself with your traffic sources and patterns, and review them on a regular basis to identify unusual or suspicious activities in a timely manner.

In this respect, if you’re working with a third-party ad verification vendor, it’s possible to drill down to more detail on particular domains or IPs being the source of IVT, if any. 

It may happen so that anti-fraud software falsely flags genuine traffic as IVT, if it’s impossible to identify its source. In this case, you need to contact your ad verification provider directly to resolve the issue.

In addition, it’s vital to ensure the proper ad tag integration, so that video ad creative isn’t overlapping the main webpage content. 

Leverage Direct Partnerships

If you’re facing programmatic ad revenue downfall, consider extending your monetization practices by partnering directly with brand advertisers (small or mid-sized companies) in your specific niche or some of the currently hot verticals, like the financial, pharmaceutical, or tech.

A/B Test Outstream Video Ads on Mobile Web

Outstream advertising has been on the rise over the past years, and if you have been reluctant to integrate outstream video ads on your website, it’s time for a change.

Namely, since the smartphone/tablet traffic on mobile websites has soared in 2020, try experimenting with various outstream video ad formats on mobile web, conducting a/b tests to select the most efficient ad placements.