Back in March, Tribal Fusion sponsored the drinks following the first ever B2B Seminar run by the Association of Online Publishers. For the event, I wrote an article which featured in the conference handbook and that followed on from an earlier piece I’d written discussing the value or otherwise of real-time bidding for online display advertising inventory To RTB or not to RTB, which appeared on Exchange Wire. Here’s the piece that appeared in the conference guide for the event:
 

 
I recently wrote an article for ExchangeWire on the publisher question: to RTB or not to RTB? There’s no doubt that automated bidding has become the industry buzz word of 2012 and it promised publishers to remove the middle man and give them complete control of the price of their inventory.

But, as I’ve outlined, I don’t believe that RTB is the Holy Grail that was promised. The success stories and leading statistics are strongly weighted towards the advertiser, such as eBay reporting triple digit ROI on its advertising campaigns when using RTBs[1]. If the buyer gets a bargain at auction, the seller is rarely happy.

So what’s going on here? The AOP itself expects RTB sales to grow by 25% in the UK by 2015[2] and many publishers are simply jumping onto RTBs in the fear of being left behind. But, if publishers really looked at the strong partnerships around them, would RTB appear so attractive?

• Don’t cannibalise your premium inventory

RTB is an automated auction – plain and simple. The price is not determined by the quality of the inventory but by how many people want it. The risk is when selling display impressions on RTB it judges a standard MPU impression the same as a video impression, leaving your premium inventory at risk of being left vacant in favour of other inventory receiving the same impression.

• How certain can you be that quality brands are advertising on your site?

Impression goes to the highest bidder – not necessarily the bidder that’s the best match for your site or with the appropriate content. Network partners are just that – a partner – they aim to understand the content and aims of your site and work with you to maintain quality content and attract premium brands.

• Can RTBs offer you creative solutions to help you attract demand?

Short answer – no. An RTB is a forum to allow you to sell, it doesn’t take the time to help you develop the inventory on your site and expand your demand. Developing advertising solutions to attract premium brands to your inventory without compromising the quality of your site can be a balancing act. However, for smaller publishers the time and cost associated can make it prohibitive.

• ePrivacy: the unknown quantity

The EU Cookie Directive is a minefield and no one is completely sure what’s going to happen. While the UK government has taken a slightly less hard line than some other European countries, it’s going to be the publishers’ responsibility to make sure their site is compliant. An RTB takes no risk if a site isn’t adherent to the EUDirective.

Don’t misunderstand me – there is a place for automated bidding and some bigger publishers are seeing the advantages. But the thing not to forget that this is a forum, not a solutions partner whose objectives and goals are aligned with yours and it will never replace them.