Rubicon Report Suggests UK Publisher Rate Card Prices Holding Firm And Revenue On The Rise

A recent report commissioned by yield optimiser, The Rubicon Project, suggests that UK publisher rate card prices are holding firm and online revenues are rising. The report - conducted by e-consultancy - questioned over 150 publishers between August and September. Some of the key findings of the report include:

- 61% of publishers surveyed say their rate card prices have stayed the same as they were a year ago, whilst 22% say they have gone up over the past year
- 28% of the traffic to publisher’s sites is international but international advertising only delivers 17% of publishers’ online revenue.
- 81% of publishers use targeting to increase the value of advertising on their web properties - 49% of publishers surveyed say they use contextual targeting and a fifth use behavioural targeting
- 63% of the publisher’s surveyed work with at least two online advertising networks, whilst 37% of the publishers questioned work with three or more ad networks and nearly a quarter work with at least five ad networks

The report makes for interesting reading. It is clear from the stats that ad networks still have a huge role to play in the display market. I’ve spoken to some top publishers recently and they’ve indicated they are planning to jettison their ad networks - but the e-consultancy stats are showing that this is not the case for a big portion of publishers

Lee Baker, Director of the AOP, sees some a lot of positives in the numbers, and believes the difficult climate has made publishers focus on technology to boost ad revenue:

There are some positive indicators in this research which confirm that the online market continues to be an area of growth for advertisers and publishers. The economic challenges this year have only confirmed publishers' ability to adapt their business models to their audiences - proving that with the right targeting, and appropriate appliance of technology, publishers can see a direct correlation to increased revenues.