The Future of Native Ads: Much More Use of Data, Analytics and Programmatic

"With growth always comes growing pains," says Eugene Malashenia, Director of Business Development at Voluum DSP, who was an official speaker at Native Advertising DAYS 2018. And the native advertising industry is, indeed, growing. So what are the dark sides to this?

In this Q&A, Eugene talks about the growing pains and obstacles in the native advertising industry and what he sees as solutions in the future.

Tons of money is being wasted on poor inventory and we need a way to navigate buys more effectively.

The rise of native advertising is a good thing for the industry, but is there a dark side to this growth as well?

The native industry is poised to reach $41B in spend by 2019, but with growth always comes growing pains. Lack of quality inventory, fraud, margin deterioration, etc.

All of these are issues of scale that keep performance advertisers and brand marketers from growing their native ad campaigns effectively.

Tons of money is being wasted on poor inventory and we need a way to navigate buys more effectively.

We need the ability to pay for the true value of an impression and to also know when it makes sense to bid higher, for better-converting inventory.

What do you see as the biggest obstacle to native advertising today?

The ability to segment quality inventory from the junk, high visibility from low, quality session depth from poor is by far the largest obstacle in the native space.  

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We need the ability to pay for the true value of an impression and to also know when it makes sense to bid higher, for better-converting inventory. That means taking into account the context, sessions depth, and viewability of the impression, in real time- running on a dynamic CPM with a second price auction.  

This way, advertisers will not overpay for junk impressions and have money reserved for the higher converting impressions.

I believe the industry will adopt the same programmatic tools that are used to manage the overall display and video marketplace.

How do we as an industry overcome these obstacles?

I believe the industry will adopt the same programmatic tools that are used to manage the overall display and video marketplace, in order to achieve scale. This is the only way to manage all these moving parts.

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Also, more accountability comes into play because you can manage all of your inventory sources under one login, and make decisions on conversion data in relative real time.  

Integration of data from DMPs, CRMs will also be commonplace so that even more data is informing the buying DSP.

Publishers will find a way to work with DSPs so that content does not need to be directly laid on their site.

How do we make sure as an industry that programmatic native advertising is still native to the platforms that it will be distributed to?

Any publisher that is not inside the walled gardens (i.e. Facebook) will adopt any technical capabilities needed to be able to handle native ads.  

Publishers will find a way to work with DSPs so that content does not need to be directly laid on their site, and can be done programmatically. In short, there is too much money at stake for them not to evolve.

 I see much more use of data, analytics, and programmatic targeting.

Where do you see native advertising going in the future?

I see the adoption from advertisers, specifically brand advertisers, growing as they become more comfortable with native. Instagram and Facebook have really helped pave this road. On the targeting side, I see much more use of data, analytics, and programmatic targeting.

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Having your DMP or Tracking system hooked directly into your buying platform so that it can inform the buys in real time will be commonplace. Making decisions based on segments, inventory, and conversions on a daily basis, all flowing out of your tracking system/DMP.

Large brands already do this now on their display and video buys. It is even coming to TV buying. Look at the success of Adobe and Oracle in recent years.

I would love to share our experiences scaling native programmatically.

Voluum is an official sponsor at this year’s Native Advertising DAYS and you’re an official speaker at the conference. Why should attendees absolutely not miss your presentation on the rise of programmatic?

I would love to share our experiences scaling native programmatically. It was a long road on which we learned many valuable lessons about how to scale native in a tightly constrained marketplace.

I look forward to hearing what everyone is up to.

What do you look forward to the most at this year’s Native Advertising DAYS?

I look forward to hearing what everyone is up to. 

There are so many great people to learn from in our industry. I guarantee someone is here who came up with a new type of engagement, or has created an audience source that was previously unavailable. 

It will be exciting to be there, knowing I will have those conversations.