Is RTB good for the publisher? Can it really result in better returns for the publisher? Will the technology leave publishers open to “cherry picking” DSPs and ad networks, who are only interested in buying slivers of juicy inventory? These are questions which continue to cause heated debate among Europe’s top publishers. Given all this apprehension, it is interesting to see a majority of UK publishers saying that RTB could help increase the price paid for non-premium inventory.

The Improve Digital report was carried out at a recent AOP event with over forty UK premium publishers. Over 51% of respondents thought that RTB could help increase the pricing for unsold ad inventory. It’s a slim majority granted, but that number is impressive given some of the misguided coverage of late in the space. Despite all the misinformation in the industry, publishers remain a practical lot, and are likely to try RTB to see if it actually works. If it does work then they will pile into it. I have no doubt about that.

Another key finding from the report is that 80% of publishers surveyed expect the number of mobile ad networks to increase considerably over the coming three years. This thinking is motivated by the explosive growth of content creation in the space and the subsequent ad inventory that is now available to buy. You can see why the yield optimisers are moving aggressively into mobile. The market is beginning to mature. With Google offering DFP for mobile (and possibly DFA?), you’d expect the media spend to flow into this marketing channel and the number of ad nets to arrive en masse. And who will the publishers turn to manage these multiples of new ad networks? You guessed it: the yield optimisers.

Other noteworthy bits of data include:

- 22.5 percent do not feel that the difference between an ad exchange and ad network is clear
- 62.5 percent work with multiple ad networks to monetise their unsold inventory
- 55 percent did not agree that ad exchanges that enable agencies to book media directly with publishers will - decrease the need for them to have large internal sales teams
- 37.5 percent think that publishers should start their own ad networks to take advantage of performance budgets
- 55 percent do not believe that exchanges will increase the prices for display adverts