As Marketers Seek Diverse-Owned Media Buys, Some Dollars Directed to Unwanted Sites
4 min read
14 Sep 2023, 11:15 PM IST
Marketers paying to programmatically advertise on websites and apps with minority, LGBTQ and women owners can find their ads ending up running in unwanted places, including sites that buy much of their traffic, according to a new report from Jounce Media.
PremiumMarketers paying to programmatically advertise on websites and apps with minority, LGBTQ and women owners should be able to find enough space to meet their diverse-owned media spending goals, which have been on the rise in recent years as brands up their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.But marketers should also be wary of who they work with to place those ads, to avoid having ads end up running in unwanted places, including sites that buy much of their traffic, according to a new report from Jounce Media.
The report by the digital marketing consultancy examined data across the advertising supply chain on over a million websites, nearly 800,000 mobile apps and more than 30,000 connected TV apps, focusing on lists marketers use to ascertain the ownership of media sites and apps. The report said the lists can often omit major diverse-owned media properties or include properties that don’t actually have diverse ownership.
Marketers in recent years have been pledging to spend more of their ad budgets on media with minority, LGBTQ or female owners, among other groups. Walmart, for instance, said in 2021 it would spend at least 2% of that year’s ad budget with Black-owned media businesses, and 4% in 2022. The retailer didn’t respond to requests for comment on whether it met those goals or set a target for 2023.
Although 56% of diverse media suppliers—including agencies, media companies and other companies—said marketers’ interest in their properties increased between 2021 and 2022, just 38% said investment from the marketing and advertising community grew in that time, according to a survey by the Association of National Advertisers, a trade group for marketers, released earlier this year.
Some marketers say they can’t find enough, for instance, Black-owned outlets with ad space to meet spending goals on diverse-owned media. The Jounce study said that shouldn’t be the case in the programmatic category, which involves automated purchases of digital ads.
“I think the narrative in the industry is there is just simply not enough supply to fill these budgets, and so marketers need to then go through a whole bunch of acrobatics to figure out how to achieve their DE&I spend targets," said Chris Kane, founder of Jounce Media. “That is not true in programmatic advertising. There is supply that is sufficient to meet and exceed any DE&I spend target we’ve ever seen."
The Jounce study said that on the programmatic side, marketers can find enough diverse-owned media if they place ads through companies such as Mediavine, which represents more than 10,000 content creators and publishers. Mediavine allows publishers to self-identify as diverse- or women-owned, among other categories, but it said it plans to begin third-party verification in 2024 to ensure accuracy.
“As an advertiser, the [task] of trying to not only find where to spend, but also verify where to spend is fairly tedious," said Amanda Martin, senior vice president of partnerships and business strategy at Mediavine. She said the company and other industry players hope to help advertisers fulfill diversity, equity and inclusion spending commitments without the risk of being placed in low-quality environments.
There isn’t as much available ad inventory on media platforms with owners from the LGBTQ community or who are veterans or disabled, the Jounce report noted. The report added that if marketers turn to partners that it doesn’t list as “trusted," they could risk ending up on sites engaging in ad arbitrage. That means the sites often extensively advertise their content elsewhere, hoping to manufacture enough page views to make money off ads they sell.
The Jounce report said relying on paid traffic acquisition “fundamentally undermines the purpose of DE&I initiatives" because of money flowing to players such as Facebook instead of diverse-owned publishers.
Because diverse-owned media properties often have smaller audiences, advertisers look to smaller sites, and more of them, to reach those spending goals. Though there are plenty of high-quality properties, including ones focused on niche topics, some are less desirable for brands.
“You’re going into the longer tail of the publisher world, which is perfectly OK," Martin said. “But it does have the drawbacks, like not everything is created equal in quality."
Such problems extend beyond the topic of diverse-owned media. A June report from the ANA found 15% of advertiser spending was going to placements on “made for advertising" sites with low-quality content.
Horizon Media has seen increased interest and spending from marketers in recent years, said Karina Dobarro, executive vice president and managing partner of multicultural at the media agency. “But I will also say that only a handful of brands are really making meaningful investments in diverse media," Dobarro said. “So while we are growing investment, there’s still a gap that needs to be closed as it relates to what diverse media offers to advertisers."
Some of the gap likely could stem from concerns about reach and scale, and whether the industry can measure and track placements, Dobarro said. But there are many more resources and tools for buying diverse-owned media than three or four years ago, including lists for agencies and advertisers to find vetted publishers, she added.
Though advertisers can find vetted placements using certain partners, they should still be checking on those placements themselves, said Nick Drabicky, a senior vice president and general manager of client services at January Digital, a strategic consulting and digital media firm.
“The [programmatic] space has been clouded for a very long time," Drabicky said. “You need to be more explicit with your actions. Go and really find out and do your research. Don’t just take it at face value."
Write to Megan Graham at megan.graham@wsj.com
