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Why Most Digital Publishers Struggle Without a Yield Team · The Yield Doctor with James Deaker

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  hi a question I get from time to time is
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  do I even need a yield team if I'm a
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  digital media company the question is
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  usually in the context of soand so
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  company doesn't have a yield team and
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  they seem to be doing great and the
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  example will be a company like Facebook
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  or meta who traditionally doesn't have a
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  yield team although interestingly now
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  does have a team with people who have
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  titles like
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  monetization so I'm going to approach
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  the question in two different ways the
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  first is to think about the types of
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  things that a traditional yield team
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  does and ask yourself could they be done
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  by a different group in a different
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  company or whether they even need to be
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  done at all so firstly if you have a
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  manage sales team you need someone to
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  create a rate card and usually that
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  would be a pricing and yield team they
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  would create an up update that rate card
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  and conceivably the rate card wouldn't
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  need to be created by a yield team it
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  could be created by Finance or by sales
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  or by product
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  management also if you're working with a
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  manag sales team there'll be exception
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  requests somebody needs to evaluate
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  those requests and approve them and
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  again if you have a yield team that team
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  is going to do it but potentially it
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  could be done by a finance or sales or
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  product
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  organization I would caution however
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  that the teams that I just mentioned if
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  they were to do it it would either be
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  tangential to their regular
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  responsibilities or they might do it
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  poorly if you have guaranteed delivery
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  you will need someone to forecast
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  inventory availability and work out if
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  to what to do if you have under delivery
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  potentially this could be your adops
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  team now let's consider the example
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  where if you have no sales team but
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  instead only have programmatic Partners
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  conceivably if you don't have a yield
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  team you could have your business
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  development do the deal and then work
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  with the ad operations team to set up
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  that deal and then either set it and
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  forget it or have adops or the product
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  organization manage the settings and um
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  over time
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  if you are a publisher and have a
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  publisher web page or different apps the
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  design could and probably should be done
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  by product
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  managers but they are likely to turn to
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  somebody else for support around the
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  estimates of how the financials would do
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  and how best to monetize that app or web
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  page maybe they turn to the yield team
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  or if there is no yield team they might
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  turn to operations Finance Finance or
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  try to build the capabilities themselves
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  in their
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  group if you're running an ad Network
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  you need to ensure that your
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  monetization is good and the margin is
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  consistent you need to be monitoring
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  your supply and your demand and again
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  that would be an area where
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  traditionally you would turn to a yield
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  management team to help but you could
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  potentially turn to an ad operations
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  team to get that done so in summary
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  there are tons of different activities
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  that could get done by the yield team
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  and almost every other one of them could
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  get done by a different team in other
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  words you can get away with having no
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  yield team if you only check a few of
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  the boxes that I have mentioned
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  already however if you are checking the
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  Box on more than one or two of those
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  activities then you quickly going to
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  find that you're going to need some
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  centralized team to manage many of these
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  functions that team is going to play
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  both a coordination role and a
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  leadership role in driving the economics
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  of the business and you may call that
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  team a yield team or you may call it
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  monetization or you may call it
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  something else so to recap from approach
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  one that I'm going to call Bottoms Up
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  look at all your functions and think
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  about who's best position to manage that
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  function it's a long name the answer is
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  you can get away with no yield team but
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  you're going to find that you've built
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  many of the components of a yield team
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  and that without formally endorsing or
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  anointing it that you may lack the
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  coordination that you would otherwise
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  have if you had a yield
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  team the second way to approach this
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  problem is to step back and ask
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  yourselves who is responsible for
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  matching supply and demand in my
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  organization and approach two then I'm
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  going to call top down supply and demand
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  matching a company like Facebook or any
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  company that owns the whole ad stack end
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  to end and owns the relationship with
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  their advertisers is extremely rare very
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  few companies have the resources and the
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  scale to have a direct relationship with
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  their customers meta and a number of the
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  other large tech companies also have a
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  unique organizing concept which is that
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  their product management organization is
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  the leading voice and decision maker in
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  a lot of the supply demand matching
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  they're the ones who are ultimately
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  responsible for ensuring there are
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  systems in place for connecting all
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  their advertisers to all their inventory
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  in an appropriate way in other words
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  matching the supply and the
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  demand in most companies there is a more
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  fragmented adtech stack there are
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  different intermediates that need to be
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  considered and there is no one group
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  responsible for matching supply and
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  demand in the absence of a good yield
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  management team it will get done if it
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  gets done at all it'll get done badly
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  now I want to be careful and point out
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  that I deliberately used the phrase
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  matching supply and demand if I had said
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  simply who is responsible for demand
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  generation and creation many people will
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  put up their hand and assert that they
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  are responsible that'll include people
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  like the head of sales the chief Revenue
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  officer lots of people love to own the
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  customer relationship and point to the
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  revenue that they are generating as a
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  result on the other hand if I said who
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  is responsible for Supply Creation in a
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  digital publisher there are many people
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  who have put up their hands that
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  includes the general manager of each
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  property the various Chief product
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  managers
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  Etc the challenge is that in the absence
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  of a coordinating function someone will
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  feel that the system is broken probably
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  correctly common rpes from the demand
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  side will include assertions that the
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  Publishers don't really understand what
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  the advertisers want and are creating
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  all of the wrong type of AD
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  experiences on the other side
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  particularly an environment where a
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  company owns a lot of digital assets
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  either different web Properties or
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  different ABS you will have supply side
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  property owners who feel like they
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  aren't getting their fair share of
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  demand from the sales team and they will
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  make the case that they need their own
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  Supply team
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  their own sales team I should say this
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  in turn can lead to further
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  fragmentation and dysfunction in their
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  frustration about trying to make this
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  system work you'll hear some people say
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  this is a mess let's just put everything
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  on a common auction and let the markets
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  decide rarely is that going to lead to
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  good
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  outcomes in short you can get away
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  without a yield team but you better be
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  really clear as to who is actively
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  managing supply and demand and creating
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  the rules and processes for Effective
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  optimization in most organizations there
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  is really nobody playing this role so
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  the answer to approach number two to
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  answering the question of do you need a
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  yield team is yeah you can get away
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  without a centralized yield team but
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  you're going to be suboptimal in your
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  monetization efforts thanks for watching
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  please subscribe and like