In our communications with publishers we receive a lot of questions regarding Sovrn and the ad tech industry. Here are a few of the more commonly asked questions we see and associated answers:
What attributes or characteristics make Sovrn publishers successful in your exchange/network?
This is one we hear a lot from Sovrn publishers. Conveniently the practices and characteristics that correspond to a site performing well in our network are no different than what should already be done on a high-quality site. A few of the attributes that stick out to us are:
Original and Fresh Content
People crave new and intriguing content and they won’t keep coming back if they aren’t satisfied. Keep up to date with who your audience is and what sort of content they are reading/sharing and use that information to plan future posts.
Copied content will not only turn users away but it can actually prevent us from serving ads on your site! Before approving a site into the Sovrn Exchange, our operations team checks to make sure we can work with it, meaning no copied or inappropriate content.
User Engagement
Along with engaging content comes having engaged users. Engagement is based on the number of pageviews per visit, time on site, and social media/community interaction. Basing content around what will keep people on the site is a great way to start but there is more that can be done to sustain and build loyalty. Providing a way for users to interact with the site and each other creates a community and will help with converting first-time visitors to loyal readers.
Replying to comments is a simple way to show visitors you are paying attention to their voice and will increase connection readers have to you and your site. In addition, be sure to track Reader Engagement metrics so you can unearth your baseline for “What does good look like?”
For more information on reader engagement metrics, check out this blog (we help you calculate things like Revenue Per Visitor, Revenue Per Audience, Revenue Per Page, and many more).
Reach in terms of number of unique visitors
The number of unique visitors on a site is the best way to measure reach. A steady growth in unique visitors means new people are consistently reaching the site which advertisers love to see.
Social media will be one of the main ways publishers reach new users. Having a good social media presence will make your site easier to find as well as easier for your community to share. Read more here on how to leverage Facebook to capture more traffic.
Traffic Quality
Our commitment to working with legitimate sites means we are on the look out for suspicious traffic. As long as you aren’t buying fake traffic you shouldn’t be hindered in our network.
These four characteristics are all representative of the user experience on a site. If readers enjoy your site then they will keep coming back and bringing others, meaning more traffic and more money!
What audience attributes do advertisers look for in Sovrn publishers?
One of the reasons our buyers favor Sovrn publishers is that we are capable of targeting a very specific niche of readers and publishers. Desirable demographics vary depending on who the advertiser is but there are a few general characteristics that will increase value to most advertisers. English speaking sites tend to perform the best on our network as well as sites that have strong communities and reader engagement.
What new trends in the buying and selling of digital advertising is your company focused on, that you expect will have impact in 2016?
Viewability is becoming an increasingly important metric for advertisers. Desktop display ads are currently defined as viewed if 50% of the ad unit’s pixels are in sight for 1 second (2 seconds for video). These measurements are still discussed and may change but that doesn’t mean you should wait to work on viewability. Placing ad units inline with content or above the fold will help keep them in view and thus increase their value.
Hope you found these questions relevant and the answers informative! We are always happy to answer any questions you may have so don’t hesitate to reach out! If there is a topic or question you want us to address here on the blog you can email me at wkertzman@sovrn.com or tweet us your question @sovrnholdings using #sovrnword