Ad Refresh’s tendency to be considered as a shady practice often leads to publishers being reluctant to use them. The impact it may have on their relationships with demand partners plays an important role in their decision. It is without a doubt one of the deepest fears that publishers face while considering implementing an ad refresh solution. Many of them are not sure whether or not they should mention it to their partners, and they usually don’t know what their reaction will be. There is no short answer to these interrogations, but we have gathered some important best practices that we will share in this article in order to help publishers maintain good relationships with their partners while running Ad Refresh.
As a publisher that has implemented ad refresh, when focusing on maintaining good relationships with your demand partners, it is important that you take into consideration the fact that some partners are more premium than others. For the most premium buyers, you should consider disabling ad refresh. They are paying a high price for the inventory and should get their money’s worth. (this includes direct deals, but also rich formats such as skins or out-stream videos)
While it is preferable to simply disable Ad Refresh for the premium partners, for some other partners, it can be useful to set up specific refresh rules instead of cutting them completely. You should think about adjusting the refresh rule based on buyer expectations and how much they are willing to pay for your inventory. For example, you should apply some more conservative rules for the more conservative buyers. Often times they will be willing to pay a good price for the impressions. Therefore, there is no need to be refreshing them too aggressively.
We recommend that you always keep an eye on how ad refresh is impacting your demand partners. By doing so, you will be able to spot very quickly any change in your partner’s bidding pattern. This requires publishers to have access to very granular data that can be provided by solutions like Pubstack.
Even when applying all the best practices mentioned above, it is possible that you will one day receive a call from one of your demand partners to complain about Ad Refresh. In this situation, being able to react almost instantly is crucial. This is why having full control over your ad refresh rules is mandatory. When relying on a third-party actor, your control over the rules is limited and the delays to adjust the rules will be longer. With such a system in place, you should be able to explain to your partner how your ad refresh solution works, and prove to them that you are delivering very viewable and high-quality impressions that are valuable to everybody.
It is common for publishers to fear what their partners might think of ad refresh. But in reality, there are many ways to maintain good relationships while running ad refresh at the same time. Knowing how to reassure your demand partners is important. It should be clear for them that even if the ad is only visible on the screen for 30 seconds, this exposure is more valuable than buying 10 below-the-fold impressions that will almost never be seen. It can also be very profitable for SSPs as they will have access to highly viewable inventory. Furthermore, they will be able to sell this inventory to buyers at a higher cost. As long as it is properly implemented, ad refresh should be considered a win-win situation.
On top of maintaining a good relationship with your partners, Ad Refresh can also be a factor of your website’s UX (user experience) improval. Despite being somewhat considered as a “UX killer”, Ad Refresh can in fact boost your inventory’s viewability, as we’ve displayed in this post.
Finally, if you’re still on the fence regarding who should handle your Ad Refresh, we are firm believers that publishers should be able to manage their rules in-house, but with the ease of use of a no-code platform supplied by a external platform such as Pubstack’s Performance module. Learn more about the pro’s and con’s of the different types of Refresh by reading this article : Business Case : In-house Ad Refresh solution vs Pubstack.
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