B2B Sites are a Safe Haven for Brands

What do digital advertisers prioritize when deciding where to buy placements?

While return on investment has always been the main priority for advertisers, it has faced stiff competition from transparency, safety and efficacy in recent months.

This can be attributed to the brand safety scare which sent shockwaves through the digital ad landscape in late March, early April.

It forced advertisers to take a deeper look into exactly where their brand was being placed.

The key takeaway for many, was that they couldn’t.

The only clear part of the market was that there was a lack of clarity and transparency. Advertisers felt adrift at sea, and decided to take the necessary steps to ensure their brand was safe.

Brand Safety

Digital advertising plummeted across the board in April, as brands deliberated on how best to proceed.

The market bounced back in May, and as you can see below, brands decided that B2B sites were the safest choice.

More brands ran on B2B sites in May and June than any month prior:

The most telling part, is that this was an intentional move by brands.

As you can see below, in the months prior to April, the number of brands placing programmatic outweigh the number of brands placing direct. This flips in the following months, however, with more and more brands looking to place on B2B sites.

How has this affected the B2B market?

The number of advertisers placing direct on B2B sites has increased by 12% year over year in the first half of 2017. Programmatically, the numbers of brands remained steady.

Overall, digital spend in the B2B space has increased 6% year over year.

But why are advertisers moving towards the B2B space?

In the wake of concerns around brand safety, B2B sites are in an interesting position. With advertisers across the spectrum valuing both specific demographics and curated content, there really is no better place to advertise.

As you can see in the graph above, however, the market is beginning to return to the mean, and the onus now falls on to publishers, to prove their unique value prop to potential clients.

Brands clearly value the B2B space – publishers can leverage that for bigger buys.

Interested in hearing more about brand safety? Check out MediaRadar’s recent panel, Transparency and Trust: What the Future Looks Like in a Programmatic World, and our takeaways from the event!