Curation’s momentum is hard to miss as advertisers buy-in, but some continue to be skeptical even with $100+ billion globally moving through PMPs. Audigent, a part of Experian, Co-founder and Managing Director Drew Stein, took the stage at IAB Tech Lab: Signal Shift to unveil never-before-seen data from five SSPs that prove when curation is done well, it is a win for all parties involved, including the publisher.
A recent Digiday article by Seb Joseph and Jessica Davies includes data from the presentation, saying, “...at this stage, sitting it [curation] out isn’t a statement, it’s a financial risk. Programmatic dollars keep slipping away and the evidence is piling up that, when done right, curation isn’t just a necessary evil — it might actually be smart business. Curation specialist Audigent’s latest data shows just how much.”
They later dug into the data, saying, “In OpenX, curation on global campaigns increased bid competition for impressions by 20% and led to a 118% spike in impressions won between November and December last year.
PubMatic saw similarly strong results: global curated deals delivered up to a 10% revenue boost on discovered inventory and a 25% average eCPMs increase.
It’s not just one-off gains either. In Sharethrough, curated display deals globally outperformed open auctions by 33% in eCPMs, while online video saw an even bigger boost — 55% over open auction sales.”
Even after applying data curation fees, the publisher has a net benefit. Jessica and Seb continued, “…five unnamed in the U.S. publishers working with Magnite have run the math, and walked away with results worth talking about (see table below).”
“Meanwhile, Audigent’s curation of Index Exchange’s impressions showed even more dramatic lifts depending on the channel and vertical — CTV revenue climbed 13% in the U.S., mobile soared 70% and health vertical revenue skyrocketed over 260% with eCPNs doubling.”
As leaders in curation, we are excited to see most of the industry leaning in, and others beginning to understand the value for themselves. As the open internet continues to evolve, curation’s full potential is just beginning to be realized. Andrew Casale, CEO of Index Exchange, previously said, “Curation will be bigger than header bidding and as big as programmatic or RTB." Jeremy Gan, EVP of revenue operations and data strategy at Daily Mail, echoes a similar sentiment in Seb and Jessica's Digiday article, saying, “Eventually, I think publishers will have to lean into curation in some shape or form as the reality is that the growth of curation could outweigh or even replace the open market in some shape or form over the long-term.”
