Monetizing Mobile – Three Key Insights

We’re deep into mobile at Rubicon Project these days, and we know that our technology platform is going to help drive the automation of advertising in a huge way for years to come.

But there are three key insights to keep in mind as the industry tries to figure out how to monetize mobile:

• First, you can’t copy and paste what we’ve done in display and just apply it to the mobile landscape. Not surprisingly, the key drivers of mobile at Rubicon Project are re-thinking everything mobile, and seeking to come up with the right format, right ad pricing units, and right method of buying and selling. It’s about creating the right model for mobile.
• Second, automation will be driving mobile faster than it did in other markets, such as display 10 years ago. In financial services, it took 100 years for NASDAQ to emerge; in the travel industry, it took 50 years for SABRE to automate all travel; in search, it took 10 years for automation to take hold; and, in display, it took five years (automation wasn’t an industry conversation before we started the Rubicon Project). My prediction is that it will now take just 2.5 years for mobile automation to become mainstream.
• Third, mobile has become a point of concern for many publishers; even though their audiences are rapidly embracing this medium, they generally don’t have the requisite knowledge, data and experience to move in this direction right now. By contrast, advertisers have many choices. They can spend money on TV, print, and radio, and on the Internet in display and search, so mobile is just another option. That’s one of the reasons why there’s a real disconnect between publishers and advertisers in terms of mobile. We need to re-think the mobile model so it can be as, or more, effective than any other advertising method. And, until we do this, we have to face facts – advertisers aren’t going increase their mobile spending in super-significant ways.