Q&A with Sam Marc, the Senior Director of Addressable Solutions at PubMatic, who discusses why they have partnered with Eyeota, as well as key future data trends.
Hi, Sam! Can you introduce yourself and your platform?
I'm Sam Marc, the Senior Director of Addressable Solutions at PubMatic. PubMatic (Nasdaq: PUBM) is an independent technology company maximizing customer value by delivering digital’s supply chain of the future.
PubMatic’s sell-side platform empowers the world’s leading digital content creators across the open internet to control access to their inventory and increase monetization by enabling marketers to drive return on investment and reach addressable audiences across ad formats and devices. Since 2006, our infrastructure-driven approach has allowed for the efficient processing and utilization of data in real time. By delivering scalable and flexible programmatic innovation, we improve outcomes for our customers while championing a vibrant and transparent digital advertising supply chain.
Integral to PubMatic’s SSP is PubMatic’s Media Buyer Console, a self-serve deal setup and management UI for buyers that connects them to publishers to simplify deal transactions, increase control, optimize communications, and deliver brand-safe, end-to-end transparency in omnichannel auctions.
Why have you partnered with Eyeota?
PubMatic collaborates cross-functionally with market leaders to develop and deploy transparent and scalable audience and targeting segments that address the needs of buyers and sellers in a cookie-agnostic world. That’s why PubMatic created Connect, an audience and addressable product designed for data owners to expose their valuable segments and for buyers to activate against them at scale.
Through Connect, we’re enabling buyers to confidently reach their audiences irrespective of the data currency. As such, PubMatic is partnering with best-in-breed data partners to deliver on this mission. With Eyeota, the PubMatic team was very interested in partnering due to:
- Eyeota Audience Marketplace’s robust set of audiences across demographics, intent, interests, past purchases, industry vertical and more
- Eyeota’s level of service in timely supporting standard and custom audiences
- Quality of Eyeota’s data segments verified and certified by accredited bodies
- Eyeota’s flexibility in working across diverse signals – first-party cookies, mobile/universal IDs, contextual signals, etc; a trait that’s shared with Connect.
In which markets does your platform operate?
PubMatic is a global company and invests in the technology and resources to help buyers and publishers succeed now and in the future. As of December 2022, PubMatic has 18 offices and 12 data centers across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC markets.
What percentage of your business is managed service vs. self-serve?
PubMatic offers buyers a self-serve tool with direct access to premium inventory where they can plan and curate marketplaces, to better scale programmatic activations. Within the platform, there are audience planning, inventory discovery and curation features to optimize supply requirements. In addition, buyers can onboard 1st party data as well as utilize 3rd party data sources from trusted vendors, all in one place. This is all underpinned by reporting and analytics tools for measurement across programmatic executions.
Across the different regions, we provide various levels of managed and self-serve support. PubMatic offers in-market, local servicing teams for both publishers and buyers, allowing for more efficient and effective service.
What key verticals (B2B, FMCG/CPG, Finance, etc.) does your platform provide solutions for?
PubMatic’s omnichannel sell-side platform leverages a specialized infrastructure built to deliver scalable and flexible innovation, helping our clients realize the full potential of their digital advertising strategies. We bring premium inventory, next-gen addressability, and transparency to buyers across the channels and formats that matter: CTV, online video, mobile app, web and beyond. Our curated inventory can be accessed through multiple existing vertical packages, including eCommerce, Retail, Financial Services, Cultural, Entertainment, and more.
With the end of third-party cookies fast approaching, what are your solutions for audience targeting?
PubMatic leverages a portfolio approach to addressability to build a stronger more sustainable addressable advertising ecosystem that delivers superior monetization to publishers, increased ROI for buyers, and invites the consumer back into the value exchange. One of the key addressable products we offer to both publishers and advertisers is access to PubMatic’s Connect. Connect combines platform technology and dedicated service to enhance how inventory and data are packaged and transacted — putting you ahead of the competition, today and tomorrow
We utilize leading identity solutions, and we work with 15+ of the leading solutions in market today, including LiveRamp, Lotame, UID, ID5 and others. Additionally, we are building first-party data targeting capabilities leveraging customer first-party data and services like clean rooms to offer safe, privacy-forward mechanisms of identifying consumers. We're currently testing passing first-party data segment targeting in the bidstream to facilitate targeting in the open exchange. We can also ingest cookie-less taxonomies from publisher's that have adopted alternative IDs. Lastly, we are also dedicated to building new innovations in contextual advertising, empowering publishers to increase the value of their own first-party data and media buyers to create high-value auction packages with granular contextual targeting attributes.
What are the key data trends you’re excited about in 2023?
As we look forward to 2023, there are various external factors such as, the global economic situation and new privacy laws across several U.S. states, that will impact how advertisers will utilize digital and programmatic media to find and engage with their customers and consumers. Because of this, it’s essential for advertising technology companies to deliver innovative audience and targeting capabilities to help advertisers manage this changing landscape.
Sell-side data targeting has emerged as a privacy-safe tactic—and it will continue to help advertisers stay ahead of operational- and performance-related changes in 2023. Irrespective to third-party cookie deprecation, PubMatic has been partnering with a growing number of advertisers on how to use sell-side data activation to build channel-agnostic and impactful audience strategies. Within sell-side targeting, PubMatic is excited for the following data trends to take the lead: more effective use of omnichannel video signals (OLV, CTV, OTT) for programmatic targeting, and increase of contextual and content object-style targeting as privacy laws take shape.
For more information about accessing Eyeota Audiences on Pubmatic reach out to our Audience Specialists at datadesk@eyeota.com
