Contextual targeting: friend or foe of publishers?

A POOR UNDERSTANDING OF CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISINGContextual advertising is at the heart of many debates. British people recently claimed that AdTechs selling contextual advertising are using their data unfairly. Publishers feel threatened: they create digital content and feel that contextual advertising actors are using this content to target specific audiences without their consent. The question of intellectual property is then raised. This technology is revolutionizing the world of paid advertising. She reads articles in the same way as a user in order to understand their meaning and de facto, does not reuse them or sell them. This method of targeting is therefore perfectly integrated into the context of distribution of a publisher. The idea of contextual targeting was therefore never to take control of the content generated by publishers but to enrich it and thus add value to the content. It is therefore understood that publishers remain 100% owners of their editorial content. At the time of the end of users' personal data, contextual targeting is a win-win solution, both for AdTechs and for publishers. Due to the drop in consent rates and the disappearance of third-party cookies, at least 50% of content is no longer or only slightly monetized and therefore becomes obsolete. The technology associated with contextual targeting makes it possible to give this content a new role. It is important to note that contextual advertising does not rely on a user's browsing history but on their immediate interests.A BENEFICIAL ALLIANCE FOR PUBLISHERS, ADTECHS AND ADVERTISERSThe monetization of inventories is becoming an essential element in a post-cookie world in order to offer the user an advertising message in accordance with their interests and their immediate reading context. At the same time, the advertiser's message is highlighted because it is addressed to the right person at the right time. It is indisputable that the content comes from publishers, this is their added value. However, that of a contextual actor is to provide a beneficial solution for publishers as well as advertisers. We increase the value of inventories read by Internet users and therefore directly increase the income of publishers. Contextual advertising is therefore at the side and at the service of publishers, not against them. To date, there is no appropriation of content or URLs with or without consent. It's simply a matter of categorizing publisher inventories in the service of independent targeting of personal data. This process makes it possible to strengthen the reach of publisher content, because without user data, their inventories lose all their value. Thanks to semantic data, editors' CPMs are multiplied by three, four or five. It is for these reasons that a large majority of French publishers are aligned with this approach. However, it remains necessary to continue to demonstrate the added value of this technology and its desire to remain a win-win model.