Exploring the latest mobile publishing solutions with the best programmatic ad marketplaces and Google’s latest big splash; plus, print magazines as innovative content marketing?
It could be argued that mobile publishing solutions are digital publishing solutions, period, as online magazines move closer and closer to a mobile-dominated industry landscape.
But that doesn’t mean your options are much winnowed. What is the right course of action when it comes to content, advertising, and technology? Apps people want are one thing, as is responsive vs. fluid design. There is however a lot you have to have to keep track of in between.
Business2Community.com does its best to help us do just that. Let’s take a look at what they’ve come up with!
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Top RTB Mobile Publishing Solutions
We won’t reveal them all here, but Business2Community gives mobile publishers a good look at the best RTB marketplaces for your purposes. As programmatic has gained steam across the industry, it’s important to take stock of your options and separate the charlatans from the stalwarts.
“RTB isn’t just for advertisers – it’s also some really cool benefits for publishers. With an RTB marketplace, a publisher can offer a certain amount of their traffic for real time bidding, while also setting a price floor that prevents their RPM from dropping below what they can achieve using an ad network. The end result is that advertisers can programmatically buy the traffic they need at a competitive price without any of volume restrictions set by a network and publishers can increase their ad earnings by selling ad impressions through a real-time marketplace that can maximize yield per each ad impression,” Eyal Katz writes.
“Smaato is the world’s largest independent mobile ad marketplace, with over 260 demand-side platforms and 190+ integrated ad networks in addition to its private ad marketplace. Publishers have full control over monetization, with minimum pricing options and built-in optimization. One of Smaato’s biggest benefits for publishers is that it works extensively to optimize for the highest possible RPMs. SPX uses ‘super auctions’ to find the best demand source for every impression, letting publishers get the highest possible yield for each pageview.”
Should Regional Magazines and Local Publishers Embrace Google AMP?
Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages is eating up almost as much copy as Facebook Instant Articles, and there are almost as many opinions as to its usefulness for publishers. Business2Community.com drills down to the regional and hyperlocal level in a recent post, and it’s worth checking out.
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“Between the ads you are running on every page, to your hosting provider, to the large amounts of javascript you load, your sites load too slowly. Page load is actually a fairly large ranking factor for SEO as well. Just because you have a responsive website doesn’t mean your site will run well on mobile, it just means it should be a better user experience on mobile. And it’s likely that you aren’t doing anything specifically to optimize for mobile today, right?” Scott Barnett writes.
“It’s likely that nearly 70% of your readers are on mobile devices. And going back to #1, if you aren’t doing anything to optimize the mobile experience specifically, this is a pretty easy way to try something new. … We always warn publishers to make sure they have their own platform. Renting instead of owning is almost never a path to long term sustained success, and it’s guaranteed to be a path where you will have to compromise, since you aren’t in control of the platform. It’s this main reason that we aren’t wildly bullish about AMP, but it does appear for now that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.”
Some Brands Banking on Print Magazines for Content Marketing
Interesting phenomenon developing in the brands-as-publishers business: Companies are investing in print magazines to establish their voice, and Business2Community.com examines the trend.
“Big brands such as Red Bull, which publishes The Red Bulletin, and the Four Seasons have embraced the world of print in the past few years. But magazines aren’t just for the big guys. Smaller businesses, like Dixon, a company that manufactures valves and couplings out of Chestertown, Maryland, has had huge success with its quarterly magazine, Boss. The magazine has nothing to do with valves or couplings, but rather ‘explores the world and its industries,’ and captivates the Dixon audience,” Yvonne Lyons writes.
“All of these ‘brand publishers’ say that offering quarterly or monthly magazines helps them connect more deeply with customers, establishes thought leadership in a more meaningful way, and distinguishes them from competitors.”
Which mobile publishing solutions are you making a play for? Let us know in the comments!
To read more about mobile publishing solutions and other industry trends, visit Business2Community.com.
