Publishers rate Google's ad tech remedies a 5 out of 10

Digiday asked seven senior publisher revenue and sell-side ad tech executives to score the remedies in Judge Brinkema's Google ad tech ruling on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 means "materially changes how publishers can compete and make money." The average came out at a firm 5 out of 10. The one remedy that drew the most consistent enthusiasm was opening real-time AdX bidding to rival ad servers, scored 6 out of 10, followed by making header bidding trafficking available to everyone at 7. "There's a lot here that publishers should be encouraged by, particularly opening real-time AdX bidding to Prebid and competing ad servers," said Eric Hochberger, co-founder and CEO of Mediavine. But the source of the demand problem is untouched. "This ruling moves us toward the pipes flowing more evenly, but it doesn't do enough about the source of the water, which is Google's demand," said Amit Grover, CEO of KPI Village. Scott Messer's line lands the summary: "Don't expect your business to change overnight." Unbundling AdX from DFP scored just 4 out of 10, with Messer warning that ad serving fees could actually rise since Google had been crediting back fees on AdX-won impressions, in some cases more than half a publisher's monthly bill.

The crux

The remedies fix the plumbing Google built around its ad server, but leave the underlying monopoly, Google's demand-side leverage over open web display, largely intact, so publishers should treat the package as progress rather than a revenue reset.

Sell-side read

The two remedies with real teeth are AdX opening to rival ad servers and header bidding trafficking for everyone. If you have stayed on GAM out of fear of losing AdX demand, model the switch now, but do not bank the yield lift until enforcement is proven in live auctions.

Watch

Whether Google's own AdWords demand actually shows up and bids when auctions run through a non-Google ad server, and whether a monitoring trustee is ever appointed to verify it.