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Competing with Big Tech COMPETING ABOUT WITH BIG TECH: LINEUP SYSTEMS Lineup Systems caters to many of the biggest, most 4 STRATEGIES TO WIN MORE SALES iconic and innovative media organizations in the world. Our first-of-its-kind media he relationship between Google and results is now increasingly taken up by links sales solution, Adpoint, is T news media publishers has historically to Google-owned platforms like YouTube, credited with transforming media companies by helping been symbiotic: publishers allow Google to and paid ads take up most of the space to increase revenue, improve aggregate their content for free and in “above the fold,” pushing organic results productivity and reduce costs. exchange, Google makes that content further down the screen. Additionally, Adpoint combines order accessible to the billions of people using Google has started to publish snippets from management with a media- the search engine every day, also for free. news stories directly at the top of search focused CRM, finance and analytics suite. No more In return, Google gets usage and clicks on results, diverting traffic and ad revenue “swivel chair syndrome” — paid ads adjacent to its search results, and from the news publishers. instead, manage your ad news publishers get traffic and, by proxy, All this adds up to the potential for Big sales from lead to billing from one easy-to-use, clicks to their advertisers’ websites. Tech to manipulate ad buyers who base customizable solution. But over the past decade, this relation- their strategies and budgets on certain ship between publishers and the search expectations, only to have the platforms platform has evolved into a vicious cycle. change the rules of the game to extract Prime screen real estate on Google search more ad spend. 1 PUBLISHERS TAKING AIM AT BIG TECH Now publishers are taking Google forcing companies to out-bid Organizations like the News Media to court — or, at least, trying to in competitors for the use of their own Alliance have worked with legislators the United States. As of last week, brand names. in the House and Senate to introduce 50 states attorneys opened an According to anti-trust laws, the the Journalism Conservation & investigation into Google’s advertising publishers can’t band together as an Protection act, which will “provide a policies, such as requiring companies industry to demand fairer policies from safe harbor for news publishers to wanting to advertise on one of its Big Tech companies. So they’re finding collectively negotiate with tech platforms to use its own services and ways to change the law. platforms.” AN OPPORTUNITY TO SELL BETTER? While anti-trust investigations may But the media attention surrounding We’ve long advocated for a signal fairer policies for publishers Big Tech presents an opportunity for consultative selling approach toward in the future, for now, they are still ad sales teams to point out the biggest ad sales, and this recent news is a in an odd “frenemies” relationship differentiators between their fantastic opportunity to discuss the with Google. publication and Big Tech: trust and following points with prospects: audience data. THE IMPACT OF TRUST ON CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT 1/ Share with advertisers who are considering putting all their ad spend into digital. Research shows consumers respond to certain ad formats over others. Relying solely on Big Tech PPC ads can be a missed opportunity for advertisers. ● According to Neilsen’s Trust in ● As Big Tech platforms cover ● Traditional media ads continue to Advertising report, local media people’s screens with ads and cut through the clutter of intrusive receives three times higher deliver the same ads repeatedly advertising. In fact, according to a consumer trust and 2.5 times through retargeting, they 2018 study, magazine, outdoor, higher positive sentiment to ads undermine trust through over- TV and newspaper ads still rank compared to platforms like targeting and ad saturation. at the top of the list of places Facebook. people are open to looking at ads, with online search ads getting low ratings globally. 2 THE EASE OF DOING BUSINESS WITH FORWARD-THINKING PUBLISHERS 2/ Share with small business prospects that desire easy-to-understand campaigns and clear ROI. Many small business owners prefer social media advertising because of the ease of set up and clear analytics and reporting. Publishers must communicate to these advertisers that they are easy to do business with and more effective than social media alone. ● One major advantage that Big Tech ● The majority of local media ● With a more streamlined ad platforms deliver is convenience. publishers still have a top-heavy infrastructure and ad sales tools The biggest market of ad buyers sales process using legacy created for multichannel buyers, – SMB companies – value features technology that creates a barrier to your publication has the like accessibility, analytics, entry for small business advertisers opportunity to offer smaller reporting, and a results-driven and who would benefit from the traffic companies Big Tech convenience frictionless sales process. (Are you and trust of local publications. with traditional local media results. prepared to deliver these to your advertisers?) THE DECREASING EFFECTIVENESS OF SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING 3/ Share with advertisers who insist PPC is the only way to grow web traffic. Search engine marketing alone cannot accomplish web traffic growth — organic results are still critical and require a multichannel strategy. ● Google and Facebook currently technology that creates a barrier the top three results, paying have a 90% share of pay-per- to entry for small business advertisers and content click advertising, but a recent advertisers who would benefit publishers alike are being study shows that the top three from the traffic and trust of local gamed. organic results on Google still publications. get 75% of clicks. ● Take this as a chance to talk with ● If Google is only delivering your advertisers on the reliability of ● The majority of local media content from Google-owned multichannel advertising paired publishers still have a top-heavy search engine properties like with publisher marketing services. sales process using legacy YouTube and Google News as 3 THE IMPORTANCE OF BRAND SAFETY TO AD PLACEMENT 4/ Share with large brands concerned with their long-term consumer reputation. Campaigns via Big Tech platforms can show up in undesirable places. Choosing to work with reputable publishers mitigates this risk (see also point one). ● In 2017, Google lost millions of appear, the scale at which new purchasing products that are advertising dollars after high- content is added to Big Tech advertised near extreme or profile advertisers like Walmart, platforms means programmatic dangerous content. AT&T, and Pepsi discovered their ad delivery simply cannot shield ads were running on YouTube advertisers from showing up in ● As a publisher with control over videos featuring violent hate undesirable places. your platform, you have the speech. opportunity to seize on brand ● This poses a huge risk for safety as a selling point. Take ● Although some attempts have advertisers: More than 80% of time to make your approach to been made to give brands more consumers in a 2018 survey said ad delivery and content, both in control over where their ads they would reduce/stop digital and in print a part of the conversation with advertisers. IN SUMMARY There’s a David and Goliath battle playing out on the public stage between news publishers and Big Tech. The good news is there’s a reason people root for the underdog: because the underdog is trustworthy. The more you leverage your organization’s commitment to holding up their end of the bargain, the longer and more fruitful your relationship with advertisers will be. Find out how Lineup can transform your media business Email: [email protected] Visit: www.lineup.com Lineup Systems is a leading provider of advertising sales technology with headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado. Our cloud-based solution Adpoint is the world’s #1 media sales system. Adpoint optimizes business performance and enables media companies to grow ad revenue..
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