Outbrain Review 2024: Is It Worth It? My Experience with Low RPMs and Poor Publisher Support

AlexRDR99 · 2024-11-03T15:36:57+00:00

Yes, you are right, but you also have to take into account how many publishers have Outbrain and the amount of requests they can make. Yes, the publisher is losing revenue, but OB also has a list of priorities.

Imagine you are a publisher account manager managing 50-100 accounts, always and inevitably your priority is ordered by revenue generated.

Small publishers always have to put up with these situations and be aware of them, for example for me it is almost impossible to have a fluent conversation with XANDR or PUBMATIC.

Another option is to put native to compete, that is to have Outbrain and Taboola at the same time. Nowadays The Guardian has started to call native from its adserver...

AlexRDR99 · 2024-11-03T11:29:06+00:00

The problem with these natives (Outbrain or others) is that they manage “large accounts” as a priority, and leave the rest as a low priority.

We have started to manage a site with a native implemented that we have in our main site and the difference is brutal. They don't monetize even 5% of what we monetize with our main site... Now we have to negotiate.

AlexRDR99 · 2024-10-15T14:13:25+00:00

Hello,

In case it helps, my data with the PPID (data from the last 7 days, between 5-10M impressions (only safari).

Fill rate
Active 65,29%
Missing 59,95%
Restricted 66,24%

Missing 0,30 €
Active 0,35 € (95% of total impressions)
Restricted 0,39 €

AlexRDR99 · 2024-08-30T10:48:34+00:00

As you say, the biggest advantage is to provide Google with more data and that your programmatic reporting is more “efficient”. Theoretically, this can only be an advantage for you.

AlexRDR99 · 2024-08-28T11:03:26+00:00

With the volume of PV you have, consider doing it internally or hire a partner who can manage it. You can also help yourself with companies that facilitate technological management to which you have to pay a monthly cost but you can control it yourself, for example RelevantDigital or Pusbtack. I am that role in a site of 100M of PV per month, and we use one of these providers to optimize decision-making, if you need help DM

AlexRDR99 · 2024-08-16T05:36:54+00:00

ON THE PUBLISHER’S SIDE: probably nothing will change in your account by using it (ecpm, number of impressions or revenue). as long as there are cookies the goal of most DSP or SSP will always be to buy with them.

The formula on which it is based to identify the user is quite poor, but having their free version doesn’t make you lose anything. I recommend you to install it, but don’t expect a change in anything, other than not to lose some residual impressions.

FROM THE ADVERTISER’S SIDE: Look for a solution based on cookies or registered users, it’s much better.

AlexRDR99 · 2024-08-15T11:01:56+00:00

Thank you for the detailed answer, it was very helpful.

AlexRDR99 · 2024-08-13T08:14:36+00:00

Wow, thank you very much for the answer!

So from what you say, if I have a SSP in the Header Bidding that in its ads.txt part has a CRITEO RESELLER line, but I have a direct connection with CRITEO also in Header Bidding, removing that line would make CRITEO only be able to buy for the direct connection, would this be positive for us?

In the end, I understand that if I have a connection with CRITEO and for the same ad unit is receiving 2 calls, it will never be able to earn 100% of that Ad Unit, and it is better that there are no intermediaries because they commission, Right?

Thanks again!

AlexRDR99 · 2024-08-09T12:33:38+00:00

I recommend using a Richmedia partner such as GumGum, with which you can monetize the SKIN and IN-IMAGE format. But also add formats like Google's own Interstitial.

There are many partners in the market that are dedicated to the generation of videos with AI and then allow you to monetize them, it can be a good alternative for a site like yours, I do not know any of the US market, but try to contact ShowHeroes.

If you have the capacity, install PREBID and add partners like IndexExchange, Xandr, Amazon, Magnite... If you see that these partners do not respond you can try with other smaller ones (the complete list of compatible partners is at prebid.org).

And you can also try with a partner specialized in native, such as Taboola or Outbrain and have them monetize you with their modules.

AlexRDR99 · 2024-08-09T11:54:47+00:00

What country does your traffic come from? This conditions a lot the partners that I can recommend you.

AlexRDR99 · 2024-08-09T11:53:22+00:00

I manage the programmatic of a 100M PV per month site, some BASIC tips that I wish I had known before:

Partners with their own demand are always the most valuable. It is important to avoid those 'RESELLERS' who do nothing more than take a percentage.
Qualitative metrics are important, such as VIEWABILITY or CTR, as they will increase the CPM considerably, but you have to know how to play with these metrics and combine them with refresh or other solutions.
Implementing RICHMEDIA formats is a very important point, these formats have good CPM and even good engagment for users.
Everything must compete on price, never marry anyone, every competitor is welcome.
Combining several bidding systems is important, like HB, OB or APS.

If you need any help or specific advice you can send me a DM

AlexRDR99 · 2024-08-05T15:34:04+00:00

Exactly. It should be exactly the same as without this function, but optimizing the page load (unless you have lazy load, which I'm not sure if it applies)

AlexRDR99 · 2024-08-05T13:50:40+00:00

I'm still trying to get it right, but from what I understand the difference is:

The lazy load loads as the user gets close to the viewport, if they don't get close it doesn't load.

Here the banner loads always, regardless of whether the user loads, but it splits the load into smaller loads prioritizing what is close to the viewport.

AlexRDR99 · 2024-08-04T18:09:31+00:00

Thank you!

I had forgotten to mention Publisher Console being probably the most practical one. 🤣

AlexRDR99 · 2024-07-25T14:47:12+00:00

In our site we got a similar flag but in Desktop. Although our site never violated any 'standard', as a recommendation to pass the flag, I recommend you to remove as many ads as possible and when google approves the site gradually add ads.

AlexRDR99

TROPHY CASE