{"id":28404,"date":"2021-05-13T11:14:28","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T09:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/?p=28404"},"modified":"2024-07-22T19:27:12","modified_gmt":"2024-07-22T17:27:12","slug":"assessing-your-inventory-quality-programmatic-how-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/assessing-your-inventory-quality-programmatic-how-to\/","title":{"rendered":"Programmatic How-To: Assessing Your Inventory Quality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">A high quality website will attract not only users but also Advertisers, who will be willing to pay for your advertising space. There are a lot of factors that could be undermining your inventory\u2019s value, but sometimes it can just be the case that your competitors are managing their inventories better. So how can you assess your performance in relation to your competitors?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">There are no ads without the content surrounding them. Depending on what network you are working with, policies regarding ad serving may vary; but usually they point to the same unwanted categories. Shocking or adult content or photos, fake news, gambling etc. may drive some Advertisers away, as they do not want to be associated with such topics.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"><strong>When it comes to ad banner metrics, viewability is one of the most important, as it indicates whether a user has seen the impression and interacted with it<\/strong>. Directly related to this is viewable time, which can be interpreted as how long an ad is present in the user&#8217;s viewport. If you are using Ad Exchange, you can use an Ad speed report, which will show you the reason for low viewability issues.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/non-viewable-impression-google-admanager.png\" alt=\"programmatic metrics \" class=\"wp-image-28407\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">There are a number possibilities as to why slots never enter the viewport, the most non-optimal ad grid where low-engaging banners are placed in the parts of the page: usually somewhere near its bottom. It might also be the result of low engagement; as what is present above the first or second floor has not caught the user\u2019s attention. One more common thing is the illusion that the first viewport is a complete page even though there is much more content below. This can be fixed by redesigning the website.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">If the problem is related to the low-page speed, <strong>you can seek help with Page Speed Insights<\/strong>. PSI\u2019s report was recently expanded with Core Web Vitals to show metrics like FIB, CLS or LCP.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 style=\"font-size: 20px\">Your inventory from the Advertiser\u2019s perspective<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"><strong>An Advertiser\u2019s goal is to reach their target audience via your inventory<\/strong>; and the milestone goals of their campaign involve clicks, conversions, recognition etc. The more that user interests coincide with an offer, the more likely it is that users will invest in the impression. But that is not the only factor, as the ad needs to be seen by users. As mentioned before, <strong>Viewability is one of the primary metrics<\/strong>. Equally important is ad density, which influences user behavior. A high ad-to-content ratio may lead users to dodge the website, despite the value of its content. It might also decrease the probability of the same users interacting with the advertisement, commensurate with low click-through rates and conversions.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<!-- Begin Mailchimp Signup Form -->\n<link href=\"\/\/cdn-images.mailchimp.com\/embedcode\/horizontal-slim-10_7.css\" rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\">\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; width:100%;}\n\t\/* Add your own Mailchimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.\n\t   We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. *\/\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"mc_embed_signup\">\n<form action=\"https:\/\/yieldbird.us7.list-manage.com\/subscribe\/post?u=0a65a0626fcc516279eb5d544&amp;id=53c5dbaf01\" method=\"post\" id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" name=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" class=\"validate\" target=\"_blank\" novalidate=\"\">\n    <div id=\"mc_embed_signup_scroll\">\n\t<label for=\"mce-EMAIL\">Would you like to get the latest AdTech &amp; Digital Marketing news &amp; insights delivered right to your inbox every Friday? Subscribe to The Yieldbird Digest!<\/label>\n\t<input type=\"email\" value=\"\" name=\"EMAIL\" class=\"email\" id=\"mce-EMAIL\" placeholder=\"email address\" required=\"\">\n    <!-- real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups-->\n    <div style=\"position: absolute; left: -5000px;\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"b_0a65a0626fcc516279eb5d544_53c5dbaf01\" tabindex=\"-1\" value=\"\"><\/div>\n    <div class=\"clear\"><input type=\"submit\" value=\"Subscribe\" name=\"subscribe\" id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe\" class=\"button\"><\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n\n<!--End mc_embed_signup-->\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 style=\"font-size: 20px\">How to identify your programmatic competition\n<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Your competitors are websites offering similar types of content; and they are looking to capture the same users. You need to be fully aware of user demographic and goals; and the reasons which users may have for entering your site. This knowledge will work to your advantage.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"><strong>One way of identifying your competition is to do market research<\/strong>. If you publish news content, you will need to check out other websites that produce news for the same locality, city or country. A helpful tool that will help you with this task is <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/similarweb.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\"><strong><span style=\"color:#ff2450\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Similarweb<\/span><\/strong><\/a><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Let\u2019s take for example The Washington Post, a site that covers a wide variety of topics &#8211; from breaking news to political analysis, reviews and weather. <strong>Similarweb\u2019s report will show you that viewership interests relate to News and Media, Law and Government, Science and Education<\/strong>. The Washington Post\u2019s viewers also visit websites like nytimes.com, theguardian.com or bbc.com.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/washington-post-1024x380.png\" alt=\"programmatic inventory - similarweb\" class=\"wp-image-28408\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">You can also simply create a list of your direct competitors for ranking and comparative purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/washington-post-similarweb-1024x570.png\" alt=\"programmatic viewability - similarweb\" class=\"wp-image-28409\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Another market research strategy involves looking for feedback from your users, which can also bring about unexpected results (especially if your content covers very narrow or specific topics). There are many other approaches, depending on what information you have regarding your users, and informational items such as email campaigns, house ads, surveys, social media, etc.<br>A simple solution that can also deliver valuable results involves running keywords in search engines related to your content and geographics. Analysis of these results will also give you an insight on how high your website places in search results and whether you need to improve your SEO.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 style=\"font-size: 20px\">Comparing your inventory quality ratio to those of your competitors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">You now know who your competition is, so what\u2019s the next step? Try to identify the techniques and solutions they have implemented. Find out where they have succeeded or failed in terms of UX, usability or ad grid. If they have fewer ads, or have placed them in a non-disruptive way, you can look to provide unique content, offer membership, or create a new layout.The same questions could be asked regarding UX and usability &#8211; are your competitors making their user journey shorter, or easier? This knowledge will provide you with some very important insights as to whether you need to improve certain aspects such as the design or the advertising offer.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">A tool that could give you answers to some of these questions is MarketScout. By running campaigns on chosen domains, this tool will gather information regarding their CPM, Viewability and win rate.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:39px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/marketscout-yieldbird-competition-comparison-1024x525.png\" alt=\"programmatic metrics - MarketScout\" class=\"wp-image-28410\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:39px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Such information will allow you to rank your inventory against your competitors. Let\u2019s take CPM for example &#8211; if other websites price their inventory higher when it comes to certain viewability ranges, this can be a sign that you are undervaluing your ad space. Besides the lower CPM, a situation like this will leave you open to bid shading &#8211; as the buyers will achieve a high win rate at low prices. You will also understand better how accessible your inventory is on the Open Market.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 style=\"font-size: 20px\">Summing up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">In order to optimise your inventory\u2019s value, audit both the content and the ad banner metrics. This will make it easier to tweak and modify, as you will be now more familiar with both your strengths and weaknesses. In order to rank your inventory against the competition, use tools available on the market &#8211; whether they be Simiarweb, Marketscout; or any other such tool that can provide reliable information. Then use all the gleaned knowledge to your advantage.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-text-color has-background\" href=\"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/marketscout\/#contact_ms\" style=\"border-radius:5px;background-color:#ff2450;color:#fffffa\">Schedule a consultation<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--1\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-text-color\" href=\"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/marketscout\" style=\"border-radius:5px;color:#ff2450\">About MarketScout<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A high quality website will attract not only users but also Advertisers, who will be willing to pay for your advertising space. There are a lot of factors that could be undermining your inventory\u2019s value, but sometimes it can just be the case that your competitors are managing their inventories better. So how can you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":18628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-28404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guides"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33355,"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28404\/revisions\/33355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28404"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=28404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}