To quote Warren Buffet, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” Time and again, this maxim has governed the success and failure of individuals, organizations, and industries alike. Ad technology, an industry that barely existed 20 years ago, is certainly no exception.
Digital already accounts for billions of dollars of worldwide advertising spend. Magna Global goes as far as to predict that 2016 will mark the year when digital ad spend eclipses total television ad spend in the United States. However, issues surrounding inventory quality — challenges unique to digital advertising alone — remain. As the world’s leading independent advertising platform, AppNexus has taken it upon itself to create greater levels of trust and accountability throughout the entire digital ad industry — not merely in word, but in deed as well. One of the new processes adopted by AppNexus that’s meant to deliver that kind of industry-wide change is a practice known as AppNexus Spend Protection.
Previously announced as Certified Supply in its alpha phase, Spend Protection is a program that extends a money-back guarantee when 3rd party verification partners do not certify inventory purchased on the AppNexus platform. By working with companies like DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science, AppNexus Spend Protection protects buyers so they only pay for impressions that comply with the program’s evaluation criteria. These can include illegitimate and non-human traffic, misrepresented URLs, and websites containing pornographic content. Sellers who aren’t able (or simply aren’t willing) to comply don’t get paid for their non-compliant impressions. As Sanjiv Ghate, VP Product Management at AppNexus, states, these measures help create financial accountability, improve trust between buyers and sellers, and help pave the way for a trustworthy future for programmatic.
Buyers immediately get the benefits: holistic protection in how they were able to spend their budgets. AppNexus Spend Protection shields AppNexus buyers against budget wastage. Another great benefit, adds Sanjiv, is that the Spend Protection verification and data processing occurs in near real time, allowing AppNexus to make financial adjustments flexibly and ably, without the need to wait for end-of-the-month reporting (as is common right now among many digital advertisers). This ensures that the campaign budget remains on track and is fully delivered.
Sellers who play by the rules have a huge upside as well: namely, the chance to distinguish themselves from competitors by providing buyers with inventory that is certifiably high quality. As buyers target Spend Protection-enabled impressions, participating sellers stand to benefit from greater monetization of their inventory. Furthermore, and similarly to buyers, the automated nature of Spend Protection lets sellers “get the goodness” without having to work overtime at achieving it. Even when some inventory is found to be non-compliant, sellers will not need to issue credits; Spend Protection already handles reconciliations and adjusted the payments in real time so that it’s all automatic.
Sanjiv emphasizes that AppNexus Spend Protection isn’t merely about combating a problem that’s related to AppNexus alone. By adopting commonsense but stringent measures, AppNexus is effectively addressing — and solving for — a huge issue of trust that’s become all too associated with digital advertising. As Sanjiv spells it out, by using a financial framework to inject accountability in online ad transactions, AppNexus is revolutionizing the digital ecosystem and creating a much-needed trusted marketplace for programmatic buyers and sellers alike.
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