Axel Springer recognized early on how important it is to digitize advertising in order to remain competitive in the digital age. An AdStack, which combines various AdTech systems to display the most profitable ads and maximize revenues, plays a central role: Carlos Bracho, Vice President Global AdTech Axel Springer, and his team have developed the advanced AdTech management and optimization tool AdLib. a_inside spoke with him about AdTech, AdStacks and AdLib.
Some of you may remember the days before digital: advertising was an integral part of the business model of printed newspapers and a significant source of revenue. As the media transitioned to digital in the 2000s, Axel Springer quickly began managing, analyzing and optimizing ads using “AdTech” systems, collectively referred to as “AdStacks”. At Axel Springer, this AdStack was built by Carlos Bracho, Vice President Global AdTech, and other experts from our media brands.
There are four things you need to know about an AdStack:
- Integrated systems: An AdStack combines various systems and platforms that help publishers improve their ad revenues by maximizing the revenue generated from each page impression (i.e., the number of times a user views a page). An ad stack includes ad servers (which serve ads), demand-side platforms (which buy ad space), supply-side platforms (which manage their own ad space), and data management platforms (which collect and analyze user data).
- Efficient targeting: AdStacks enables companies to target ads more precisely by analyzing data to deliver personalized and relevant ads that speak directly to users.
- Automation and optimization: An AdStack automates many aspects of advertising campaigns, from bidding strategy to ad delivery, resulting in more efficient use of advertising budgets.
- Transparency and control: With an AdStack, advertisers have more control over their campaigns. They can monitor performance in real time and make adjustments to continually improve the effectiveness of their advertising.
Carlos and his team recognized the need for a more flexible and efficient solution to manage Axel Springer’s ad tech systems. AdLib is the result of this realization: an overarching system that manages and optimizes the multitude of ad tech systems in the AdStack in a unified way. More than ten years of experience and over 100,000 hours of continuous development have gone into the current version. “AdLib provides a central platform that can be seamlessly integrated into websites, automating many processes and greatly simplifying ad management,” says Carlos, explaining the system’s advantages over manual solutions. René Baudisch, Lead Developer on Carlos’ team, adds: “This allows our brands to optimize their ad delivery, manage user identities and increase their ad revenues without having to invest large development resources.”
The most important AdLib features you should know about:
- Multi-vendor integration for “header bidding”: Header bidding allows publishers to offer ad space on their sites to multiple ad networks in parallel. Advertisers can then bid for the ad space in real time.
- Easy control and quality assurance of the ads that appear on your sites – your ad inventory.
- Automatic ad updates and intelligent, personalized ad placements.
- Support for first-party identifiers in preparation for the impending end of cookies – the small text files stored on users’ devices by various advertisers to identify them will soon be disallowed by all major browsers due to privacy regulations and will need to be replaced by other solutions, such as centralized databases.
- Integrated video player to generate additional revenue from video.
Who is Carlos Bracho?
Carlos Bracho is Vice President Global AdTech at Axel Springer National Media & Tech, the product development arm of Axel Springer’s German media brands. In this role, he is responsible for the AdTech systems and strategies of all German and, as of this year, some US Axel Springer brands. Carlos has been with the company for 12 years, having started his career in marketing at Coca Cola. Born in Ecuador, he came to Germany to study for a Master’s degree in Science Marketing at the Technical University of Berlin, originally intending to stay for only two years. He lives with his wife and son in Berlin.
By the way: Carlos was a BBQ influencer for a long time under the Instagram name “brisketberlin”. Before Carlos unfortunately closed the page (to focus on his work), it had gathered 100,000 followers.
AdLib on an expansion course
AdLib and its predecessor are used by all of Axel Springer’s German media brands, some external customers and, since this year, also by POLITICO in the USA. AdLib was integrated on-site at POLITICO in a total of six weeks of intensive collaboration between Carlos’ team and POLITICO’s AdTech teams. The interdisciplinary project was supported by CTO Jeremy Bowers, COO Mark Dekan and Walt Houseknecht, Executive Director Ad Technology & Operations, who said of the integration: “Working together to integrate AdLib at POLITICO was a real game changer for us. Since the integration, we have been able to make better, data-driven decisions. This has helped us improve the quality of our inventory and its monetization. Although the integration with AdLib is relatively new, we have already seen significant performance improvements. We are confident that AdLib will help us maximize the revenue potential of our online advertising as we test new features.”
The goal is to further optimize AdLib and roll it out to other international brands, including those not owned by Axel Springer. Business Insider US is currently preparing to test the ad tech management system.
“The feedback from our brands on AdLib has been extremely positive. AdLib significantly reduces the workload for advertisers and publishers. However, the benefits are primarily reflected in the revenue, which AdLib increases by a double-digit percentage. This benefits all participating brands of the entire Axel Springer Group – and we are pleased to test AdLib at Business Insider after its successful implementation at POLITICO,” said Valentin Schöndienst, CTO and CPO of Axel Springer. Carlos emphasizes that the internationalization of AdLib is also beneficial for Axel Springer’s German brands, such as BILD and WELT: “Through international use, we get additional ideas for further development, which ultimately benefits all our brands.
What else is on the agenda for AdLib besides further internationalization? That’s hard to say, but one thing is already clear: if anyone is up to the challenges of the ad tech sector, it’s Carlos Bracho and his team.
