See How to Cut B2B Digital CPM’s By Over 600%

In Part 1 we demonstrated that B2B brands are leaving real money on the table by buying digital media direct from publishers to reach their target audiences.  In Part 2 we will examine why this is happening and what you can do about it.

Insight  ⇒  Publishers Have No Incentive to Change

• As B2B magazine circulations have declined over the past 10 years, most publishers have been reluctant to transform quickly to digital, due to potential revenue loss, given print is their cash cow
• As the chart from Folio demonstrates, publishers still get the majority of their revenue from print, with only 13% coming from digital
• In fact, digital revenue has actually declined as a percent of revenue, for B2B publishers, since 2011

• They are in no hurry to slow the printing presses with print CPM’s averaging between $80-$160
• They are in no hurry to push big data, direct audience buying that move brands from $55 to $8 CPM’s
• In fact, many publishers still sell on a flat monthly rate vs. CPM’s,  as some have done little to develop robust digital traffic on their sites

Insight  ⇒  B2B Will Follow B2C Into Programmatic

• As big data usage continues to grow rapidly in B2C, this trend toward programmatic audience buying will begin to  bleed over to B2B, as clients begin to understand the potential savings
• Current programmatic networks and exchanges have major trade magazine inventory from all categories as B2B publishers continue to sell off their unused inventory
• B2B publishers acknowledge in the Folio research that digital media is their fastest growing revenue stream and anticipate strong growth in the future

Do This  ⇒  Add Programmatic Buying as a Portion of Your B2B Media Strategy

• Consider moving more dollars from print to digital to reach in-market buyers at the point of active purchase decision-making
• Start buying digital audience directly as part of your media mix
  • Commit 20-30% of next year’s digital media budget to testing direct audience buys via big data networks
  • Continue to buy sites directly from publishers for the remainder of the buy
  • Consider making mobile a strong part of this buy with both smartphone and tablet advertising
  • Reach out to various ad tech vendors and learn about their targeting capabilities and test several companies with short-term buys
  • Optimize continually in-campaign by measuring and changing different data layers
  • Optimize continually by using different ad tech vendors to see which ones work … and which don’t
• Start NOW and gain a strategic competitive advantage in media by effectively increasing the value of your budget in terms of media exposure (your CEO will love you for it)

Not That  ⇒  Stop Paying Excessive Premiums in Print and Direct Publisher Digital Buys

• Stop wasting precious media dollars by paying 6X more to reach the same audience
• Do not move all your digital budget to programmatic
• Do not stick your head in the sand with the oft heard excuse ‘my company is not ready yet’