Chances are a lot of you have heard the acronym CCPA in the news lately. If you haven’t, well, now you have. What is CCPA and why should you care? Glad you asked. The California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, is a privacy and consumer protection bill (AB-375) for residents of California. It officially goes into effect on January 1, 2020. CCPA regulations are designed to enhance privacy and data protection for California residents, much like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) last year. What is CCPA? Is it the same as GDPR? CCPA is in many ways similar to the GDPR, which went into effect in the European Union in mid-2018. However, there are significant differences beyond the obvious geographical ones. The key takeaways for Mediavine publishers are as follows: CCPA is opt-out Unlike GDPR, CCPA regulations are structured on an “opt-out” basis. […]

As the programmatic advertising ecosystem evolves and becomes increasingly efficient, it’s also becoming more consolidated, and rapidly so. While more efficient markets have many obvious benefits, the downside of consolidation is that more than a few companies are crowded out. This week, IgnitionOne – along with Netmining, one of its properties and itself a programmatic solutions provider – became such a casualty. What is IgnitionOne? How did it go out of business? IgnitionOne is a DSP that has been around since 2004. (See our article on what is a DSP for the basics on how they work.) Fifteen years in ad tech makes IgnitionOne, which wholly owns Netmining, one of the early pioneers in the ad tech space. What brought about its downfall in 2019? In a letter to shareholders last week, IgnitionOne announced it sold its last assets and would “ultimately dissolve the company.” […]

What is Q4 and what does it have to do with digital advertising? Short for quarter four, Q4 is common shorthand for the fourth quarter of the calendar year – October, November and December. Also known as the three months when the magic happens. If you’ve been at this for awhile or are even slightly familiar with how ad revenue changes by season, you probably know that a large portion of advertising spend occurs during the fourth quarter. Advertisers pay more for impressions as demand increases, making publishers more money. Average CPMs, fill rate and therefore, RPMs, are typically the highest of the year. Why does advertising demand increase in Q4? There are several factors that contribute to increased advertising demand in Q4. The two biggest: 1. Budgets are tied to calendar years Many (probably the majority) of advertising budgets are allocated for calendar years, […]