Media Unite to Fight Internet Giants

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Social networks, search engines and other Internet services have become effective channels for disseminating information from the point of view of advertisers. But the earnings of publications and other media representatives also depend on the loyalty of advertisers.

And since Facebook and Google began to actively post news content on Facebook Instant Articles and Google News, the situation has become even more tense. Advertisers felt that it makes no sense to advertise on media sites if the advertising campaign can be done more efficiently by ordering it from Facebook or Google.

Instant Articles was launched in May 2015. After that, Facebook brought together several hundred publications around the world to use their materials.

The Instant Articles platform is intended for users of mobile devices so that they can quickly open materials downloaded by the media without leaving the social network.

After that, the media realized that they have a chance to receive monetary compensation for this as a consolation prize in connection with the loss of advertisers.

Unexpected turn

But in June, Facebook decided to push media outlets in the News Feed into the background. The company gave top priority to updates from friends and relatives.

According to representatives of Facebook, they thus took into account the "wishes" of users: the number of reposts decreased almost twice. Because of this decision, referral traffic going to publisher sites has decreased. However, the same can be said about the income of advertisers. However, even in the event of a drop in user interest in the news feed, the results would only get worse.



For publications, the situation is contradictory: on the one hand, now the social network is not trying to claim the role of the media; on the other hand, there are losses due to falling traffic, at least in the short term. Publications that consider their presence on social networks to be profitable will focus on other partners - Instagram, Snapchat and Google News. This will allow the media to attract new users.

Some advertisers will also have to think about changing the site. But, good, Facebook has them - you don’t have to go far: the same, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook Live, Facebook Messenger.

In addition, Facebook CFO David Weiner said that starting in 2017, the amount of advertising that the social network will show to each user will not be a significant factor in predicting the company's revenue. ByAccording to Recode, Facebook, which earned $ 6.2 billion in advertising in the second quarter of 2016, is running out of advertising spots (it's about the social network itself, and not all the sites owned by Facebook).

Ideally, Facebook should increase the number of users and create more effective advertising that will bring more money, the publication said.

Google principles

If someone doubted the good intentions of Google, the company dotted all i about its advertising monetization strategy. She reflected her position in a special message :

Today, it would seem, you can buy everything. Why can't advertisers simply pay to get information about their business at higher positions in search results? The answer is simple: we want to be trusted. Therefore, Google is always committed to providing users with the most relevant results. They reflect the preferences of the entire audience, not ours and our partners.

Advertising on Google is marked accordingly, so it's easy to distinguish it from other information. By paying more, advertisers can improve the position of their ads relative to competitors, but this cannot be done in the search results. Moreover, advertising is shown on Google only if it meets the user's request, which means that it can be really useful for him.

Therefore, the publications have a chance that their high-quality materials will occupy high positions in the issue. And this will ensure their attractiveness to advertisers.

Advertising monetization of publications and big data

Despite disagreements, German publications came together to compete with Google and Facebook, which control the distribution of 85% of all advertising in the world. Axel Springer, Gruner + Jahr and the Bertelsmann Group began using the unified Emetriq platform, created by the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom.

“It’s difficult for German publishers and trading houses to create competition because they don’t have enough data about their readers and customers. Thus, just by joining forces, they will be able to get closer to such giants as Google and Facebook, ”said Daniel Neuhaus, CEO of Emetriq.

Each publisher has a certain amount of information about users in terms of targeting, segmentation and behavioral factors. But the demands of advertisers are constantly growing: they need to reach the desired segment of the audience at the same time on many sites.

A separate media outlet and even a publishing house alone cannot solve this problem. Modern media needs big data, but often they don’t have so much finance and specialists with sufficient technical qualifications in analyzing big data.



The project is at the initial stage of development, but 1000 sites, including the largest tabloid Bild, began to exchange data sets. Axel Springer, Gruner + Jahr, Bertelsmann Group and Der Speigel forgot the old feud and began to share with each other valuable information about their readers.

“Our biggest competitors are not conservative publishers. Together we must join forces against Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook, ”said Karsten Schwecke, CEO of the sales house Media Impact, owned by Axel Springer.

“Emetriq’s concept is to help people be innovative wherever data is needed, and to make it a reality,” said Neuhaus. According to him, the fact that Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple collect data and store it at home, without sharing with anyone, "will ultimately kill innovation."

How it works

Raw information from publishers is delivered to a single Emetriq platform. It sifts and cleans up data to create narrowly targeted, high-quality segments of the audience. Based on these segments, publishers create better advertising offers. Publishers can choose which segment to run through their own data management system (DMP).

Each publisher pays a fixed amount for using data segments from € 4,000 ($ 5,000) to € 15,000 ($ 17,000). The price depends on the page impressions on the sites and the amount of data used from the general “bank” when displaying advertisements.

Such data may include social and demographic information about users, data about their online behavior, purchases, as well as the semantic core and the context of websites.

All segments created by Emetriq are checked against the consumer panels of the GfK research group. Deutsche Telekom may add its own data in exchange for being the only advertiser with access to it.

Daniel Neuhaus claims that they managed to achieve an accuracy rate of 87%.

Combining data as a new trend

In 2010, the country's seven largest publishing houses, including Axel Springer, created a joint venture, AdAudience. It sells ads based on the Programmatic direct principle.

Many direct-selling commercial brands also come to combine data. For example, at the end of last year, the UK affiliate network Skimlinks launched a “data cooperative” called Audiences by Skimlinks, which brings together more than 55,000 publishers and about 20,000 retailer sites.

The association gives them the opportunity to target and retarget customers, receive information about their purchasing interests and when they are ready to make purchases, as well as what devices and equipment they already have in their homes.

According to the creators of the project, it led to an “almost unbelievable” increase in conversion.

Alicia Navarro, CEO and co-founder of Skimlinks, says: “The more data we have, the more accurate we can be.” According to her, the Audiences by Skimlink project is also unique in that the participants of this “cooperative” see “all the way from content to a commercial transaction”, while other data providers, as a rule, have only retailer data or only customer data intentions.



The American company Bombora monitors searches, downloads of documents, webinars, registration at exhibitions, viewing articles and blogs, consumption of videos, likes and reposts in social networks and other evidence of activity of entrepreneurs who are looking for certain goods and products.
In this project, Forbes, Aberdeen Group, and some 2,500 other sites shared data on more than a billion monthly interactions with their visitors. This information is used for marketing and sales, it is provided based on targeting to interested business companies.

Bombora claims that it was their company that became "the first aggregated source of behavioral data for B2B, which created" the first of its kind "data cooperative" of premium media companies. "

Pangaea Alliance project participants also decided to combine their data for successful advertising targeting. The Pangaea Alliance was created last year by the world's leading media companies - The Guardian, CNN International, Financial Times, Reuters and The Economist.

“Data is crucial,” said Pengaea Project Manager, Guardian News & Media Revenue Director Tim Gentry. According to him, by exchanging primary information about their users, media companies create "unique and attractive segments of the audience." For example, subscription information from one publisher can be combined with behavioral information from another. As a result, a detailed user profile is created for which advertisers are willing to pay.