Following DoubleVerify’s launch of Navigator earlier this week, I had a Q&A session with Oren Netzer, the company’s CEO, who explained the product in more detail.
Otilia Otlacan: You have just announced the launch of Navigator, an end-to-end monitoring and reporting solution for ad networks and platforms. What would you say was the #1 driver behind the launch, what in the current landscape has made it a necessity?
Oren Netzer: Ad networks and ad platforms operate at tremendous scale. They serve billions of impressions every month, and they can do this by continually adding valuable online media inventory for advertisers to buy. However, when operating at this scale, it’s virtually impossible to monitor for compliance of every single impression you serve ads to, while also reviewing new sites and publishers you may want to ad to your network or platform. Navigator is a technology solution necessary to maintain the hi-growth of these types of businesses while minimizing costs. Networks and platforms can use it to maintain the quality of publishers they work with.
Otilia Otlacan: We’re seeing a trend in switching advertisers / agencies from networks to exchanges. Do you think ad networks could catch up with exchanges in terms of transparency, with the help of Navigator or similar solutions?
Oren Netzer: I think advertisers are pushing for more transparency on all fronts, from both networks and exchanges. Navigator provides the best solution for this issue. For DoubleVerify, it’s not about networks catching up to exchanges. It is about the whole industry catching up to agency and advertiser expectations. We can help these companies boost transparency by monitoring for fraud, review existing inventory and generally ensuring that ads are where they are supposed to be.
Otilia Otlacan: Navigator’s benefits for ad networks and exchanges are quite straightforward. What’s in it for publishers, can they also leverage Navigator?
Oren Netzer: Navigator ensures that quality publishers and web pages (brand-safe, above the fold, etc.) are monetized at the highest level. Navigator offers ad networks and exchanges transparency and insight into each publisher through in depth analyses and categorization. When publishers are classified at premium or acceptable tiers for advertisers, demand, monetization and CPMs for those publishers increases as well as the overall revenue opportunity for all involved.
The reality is that advertisers and agencies, which are employing ad networks and exchanges, value transparent and quality impressions. Additionally, ad networks and exchanges are more inclined to onboard publishers that are classified within the premium or acceptable tiers, because Navigator makes it easier and faster to sell inventory via networks and platforms.
On a secondary level, because we carefully classify the nature of content, we can discern, down to the page-level, if certain impressions within a publisher are compliant or not. Even if a publisher has non-compliant content on certain pages, we can ensure that the brand-safe pages get ads and are fully monetized. This is a boon for news, entertainment and UGC publishers, whose content will vary greatly.
Otilia Otlacan: I understand that DoubleVerify Navigator is tracking the ad placement (i.e. above the fold) as part of the publisher screening process. What other factors should we look at when deciding if a publisher is trustworthy?
Oren Netzer: Sometimes, ads are delivered in undesirable environments so the nature of the content has to be considered – is it unsavory or illegal? Does the publisher condone bad activity? Another factor is the method of serving ads. Do publishers stack ads on top of each other to get multiple impressions with the same space? Do they minimize the size of the ad to hide it, essentially, but still get credit for the ad serve? Do they put competitive brands on the same page because they both pay high CPMs? It is important to see if all of these parts are taken into consideration.
Otilia Otlacan: The demand for ad and media verification services appears to accelerate day by day. Can you share with us how does DoubleVerify fit in and what’s in the pipeline for the remainder of the year?
Oren Netzer: DoubleVerify is the worldwide leader in online media verification and compliance verifying over 35 billion advertising impressions per month for hundreds of the leading Fortune 500 marketers. With the opening of our UK office in June, we are expanding our business there. Our clients in the UK currently employ our solutions to narrow non-compliance due to inappropriate content and irrelevant international audiences.
Later this year, you can expect updated industry-wide reports that measure how industry players are handling trust and compliance for advertisers. Additionally, we will continue to offer the Ad Options Icon as the industry’s easiest solution for adopting consumer protection and privacy on behaviorally targeted ads.
Find out more about DoubleVerify Navigator here: http://www.doubleverify.com/solutions/ad-networks/.
About Oren Netzer, Co-Founder and CEO of DoubleVerify
Oren Netzer founded DoubleVerify in 2008 determined to bring needed accountability and transparency to online advertising, believing revenue and profit would flow throughout the system once all players could be assured of its integrity.
A 10-year veteran at the executive level with leading online advertising technology firms, Oren was General Manager and Chief Operating Officer for CheckM8, an online ad serving and rich media technology provider, overseeing product development, operations and customer support, as well as managing its Israeli product development offices.
Oren graduated from the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel with a degree in computer science and studied electrical engineering at The Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.
