Dear community,
I’m Uwe, and this is my first post in this community. I work as a developer for ad technology at an ad network based in Germany. Recently, when we wanted to collaborate with a publisher who uses Discourse, we encountered the following problem.
With the Ad Plugin, you can deliver advertising via the following networks/AdServers:
Google AdSense 565
DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) (aka Google Ad Manager 145), including custom targeting
Google Double Click for Publishers 89
Amazon Affiliates 137 - Banner and Product Link Ads
Carbon Ads 140
The problem: The selection by far does not cover the full potential of monetization. This is not intended to be criticism of the plugin; I would like to initiate a discussion about website monetization using Discourse and explain why it makes sense to use 3rd party scripts from ad networks such as Mediavine (US market) or Symplr (DE market).
Why is this important?:
Ad networks are connected to a variety of SSPs (Supply Side Platforms). They are requested for an auction alongside Google and can submit bids. This increases competition and advertising pressure on Google, ultimately leading to a higher TKP (Thousand-Contact-Price) and more revenue than with just Google AdSense or Google AdManager.
Advantage for the publisher:
More revenue due to increased competition and advertising pressure on Google.
Technical hurdles:
Monetizing single-page applications requires additional technical effort.
The Ad Plugin cannot easily implement custom logic for every marketer/ad-technologie-partner.
Possible solution:
One possible solution could be to create a way within Discourse or the ad plugin to reload 3rd party scripts on every page load or route changes. This would give all advertising networks the opportunity for monetization and would be more advantageous for Discourse users, with a focus on monetization.
Question: Is such a feature available already?
Why do advertising networks need to execute their custom scripts?:
They all work fundamentally on the same technology (also known as header bidding) but they are implementing additional logic such as targeting audiences, ad refreshes, lazy loading of ads, implementing special formats, and integrating user ID solutions. That is why it is really difficult to deliver a one-fits-all solution.
Advantage for the Discourse user through the use of an ad-technology partner:
The publisher can focus on creating their content while the AdTech partners handle the technical implementation for optimized ad delivery.
I look forward to your opinions and suggestions on this topic!