Down But Not Out: Publishers And Ad Tech Punch Back In 2025

The first half of this decade left publishers reeling from a pandemic hit and rise that rearranged our reality and brought us to our knees.

Some publishers have not survived these challenges, but the grind has chopped those that remain into lean, mid-EBITDA machines that are more nimble and able to scale new growth.

Publishers crawl off the mat and check back into the fray. Macro-market sentiment for 2025 is generally positive, meaning marketers will have more money to spend on advertising. Simply put, CPMS will go up.

Some are calling 2025 “The Year of Results.” But for publishers, it will be a “Year of Discovery”.

Vertical video is coming to the party

In 2025, more publishers will experiment with vertical video formats and more vendors will provide the infrastructure for the video player and monetization engine. Meanwhile, buyers will benefit from being able to spread their budgets outside the walled gardens.

Note that not a single digital publisher bemoaned Tiktok’s “outage”. They saw it as an opportunity.

Publishers create great video content, but their distribution product has always lacked scale. The feed switching video format popularized by Tiktok has proven to be engaging and profitable. But it has always been mired in the problems of other platforms: monetization is meager, tools are sparse, and the fear of a Koberen move weighs heavily on the soul.

Now that users are expected to engage with feed-style carousels, publishers should absolutely emulate this highly addictive feature. In addition to keeping the order in place, the publisher can run their own monetization pile on the content as well. It’s time to upgrade this sticky player unit and provide a unique, familiar and engaging experience.

Supply-side advantage

In 2025, we will see buy-side technology continue to gravitate to the supply-side for its vastly better signal granularity and specificity. We’ve already seen a trader (TTD) pick up a sicera for its ability to provide sight of supply-side signals, which gives TTD the next best thing to actually being supply-side.

However, the ongoing shift to supply-side decision-making means that we have not yet hit the maximally curated discourse.

Supply-side curation within SSPS has staying power because it will tap into a central concern in all ad tech: the battle for control over how and where media is transacted. Not only does the supply-side curator rebalance Dynamics for Media Decisionsit also provides renewed confidence in open auction, private marketplaces and proprietary data solutions. Publishers who benefit from the curtailment will naturally have cleaner power paths.

Expect significant DSP movement going directly into publisher packaging with varying degrees of success. With his new Sincery eye, the trading board will increase confidence moving forward OpenPath integration. If the curator becomes large enough, publishers will start shrinking their ADS.txt files in favor of SSPs who can bring them unique demand. Curators should build relationships with these publishers before they get out of premium inventory.

Multilateral exchanges, especially those with managed services functionality, will rely on their delivery advantage to sell their vertically integrated operations. Closing the buy-and-sell gap not only compresses buy-side margins; I wash away the entrenched need for outdated styles of brand appropriateness and fraud management.

Fingerprints on the cookie jar

It’s hard to ignore the ubiquitous practice of probabilistic comparison when talking about cookie replacement solutions. In 2025, we will find out to what extent these solutions are affected supported by fingerprintsas the big tech companies continue their crusades.

In pursuit of durable workarounds, vendors engaging in any means of probabilistic comparison with deterministic IDs have left their prints all over the cookie jar. Specifically, when it comes to bid enrichment, the ad tech center loves the sweet high of fresh-baked “cookie” sales, and publishers don’t mind the additional revenue that comes with these improved bid requests. But all is not well. The buy side has yet to form an opinion on the value of enrichment, and publishers are completely apoplectic about the cost models of most black box enrichment services.

Expect ID chart providers to directly offer publishers a do-it-yourself solution that is more transparent and affordable (i.e. SaaS model). This new approach will enable vendors to more precisely control their enrichment practices and lay the foundation for a comprehensive addressability strategy that supports persistent identity solutions, data collaboration and measurement solutions.

This year will also bring privacy legislation, a river of state laws for Muddying publishers, and a flurry of lawsuits exploring every angle imaginable. Make the resolution to start a data diet and get your privacy habits under control.

Don’t just trust the IAB Technology Lab – get involved!

The IAB Tech Lab recently made significant releases that directly impacted publisher revenue streams, including its guidance around the new OpenRTB.plcmt Video Spec and ID Bridging.

Tech Lab plans more releases around CTV’s curators, retail media and workflows.

Since the tech lab is “of the people” it functions like a local government, with all sorts of cities vying for their POV to win the day. Don’t sit idly by and assume you’ll like the eventual outcomes dictated by these motivated parties.

Publishers of all shapes and sizes must Show up and participate in the Tech Lab working groups if they want ad tech tools that can collectively move publishers forward.

Ad Tech Brings Revenue to Retail Media

Marketers are very comfortable with ROAS as a metric for clients, but are not as familiar with the term “revenue” when it comes to their own sites.

Yield it’s about squeezing more juice out of the machine and helping sellers understand monetization on a more holistic level. Yes, you need to deliver ROAS for your client. However, you need to manage revenue to achieve your own company goals.

The most advanced and successful retail media networks hire sell-side ad tech talent because publishers are obsessive about operations that drive revenue. This means that 2025 is a great year to move into retail or rental from advertising equipment. Your CFO thanks you.

More quick hits for 2025

Here are some other micro-trends and emerging challenges for publishers:

• It’s still early days for ads in the big language models, but there’s traction. Publishers should lean into coexisting with generative search and AI.
• Stacks of monetization become commoditized. This will be the biggest year for the disconnection of in-house programmatic teams and the rise of managed services.
• Certain paid traffic will get a payback in 2025. MFA Made-for-arbitrage model It won’t come back, but there are other, more legitimate and godlier reasons for publishers to pay visitors.

Down but not out

The second half of this decade couldn’t be any wilder than the first, and publishers have seen the worst the market has to throw at us.

Meanwhile, M&A heats up, DSPS devote themselves to quality inventory, marketers stretch budgets, and publishers explore new digital frontiers. It’s time to get back in the ring because we’re not done yet.

See you in the tables!

“Seller of cider” is a column written on the sell side of the digital media community.

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