Survey of 300 digital media executives finds that half are seeing payments delayed due to challenges with billing reconciliation
DoubleVerify (“DV”), a leading software platform for digital media measurement, data and analytics, today announced the results of a new study examining publisher challenges amid COVID-19. For the study, DV’s Publisher Division commissioned a survey of 300 executives in the digital media sector, including digital publishers and supply-side platforms. The survey was conducted online from September 11-18, 2020.
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Nearly half struggle with billing management, delaying payments
As a result of the coronavirus pandemic impacting marketing plans, many advertisers have paused or reduced campaign spend. While publishers are facing revenue pressure, DV found that payments are being delayed due to challenges with billing. In fact, nearly half (47%) of all respondents stated that their organization “lacks the resources to support the billing and reconciliation process across our customers, causing payment times to increase.”
“Closing the books is one of the biggest operational drains for publishers, seriously impacting revenue and cash flow at the worst possible time,” said Steven Woolway, EVP of Business Development, DoubleVerify. “Publishers and advertisers need to work together to streamline pacing and delivery discrepancies, and to reduce billing cycles.”
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Three-quarters say they spend too much time processing data
Data management remains a key operational and revenue hurdle for publishers. Nearly three-quarters (73%) indicated that their organization spends “too much time manually processing inventory performance and revenue data.” Similarly, 80% stated the excessive time spent on data collection and processing “limits our ability to optimize inventory performance and revenue.”
“Publishers have to pull disparate data from all of these scattered connections, including DSPs, SSPs, and exchanges, then they have to consolidate, organize and normalize that data,” said Woolway. “It’s a cumbersome and repetitive process that takes resources away from more revenue-producing initiatives.”
Communication is biggest campaign delivery challenge
While the majority (67%) of respondents rated their organization’s campaign delivery process (the management of developing, running and measuring campaigns) positively, one-third (33%) described it negatively, as either “poor” or “fair.” The greatest campaign delivery challenges cited were “communication and synchronization across internal and external parties” (3.63 average ranking with 1 being the most challenging and 7 the least) and “not enough time to focus on analysis and optimization” (3.83 average ranking).
“From pre-launch planning to troubleshooting, communication misalignment on campaign delivery can undercut a publisher’s ability to meet the buyer’s goals,” said Pieter Mees, VP Video & Publisher Product, DoubleVerify. “Publishers, advertisers and vendors need to be clear and transparent with one another to satisfy objectives and expectations. Publishers also said they don’t have sufficient time to analyze and optimize campaign delivery, which is critical. This could stem from time spent on onerous, manual activities, like data processing.”
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