How Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Ads are Increasing Ad Revenue for Publishers

When Google launched the AMP project in 2016, it had a single goal in mind: to provide users with a better mobile web experience. While it was a moderately successful venture, it was not without its share of difficulties when it came to monetization.

One more issue with the software was that it did not support header bidding, which is an important tool for publishers to increase the amount of money they make from programmatic advertising.

Google worked on improving the AMP format in response to these concerns. As a result, here's how AMP has affected publishers so far:

• Complex Networks achieves a threefold increase in revenue as a result of AMP.
• The Times of India reports that using AMP results in 1.5 times higher revenue yields and 3.6 times faster load times.
• With AMP Ads, Triplelift and Cloudflare help Time Inc. increase its revenue.

There are currently over 100 ad networks that have a demand for AMP advertisements. Additionally, AMP ads now include the following features, which elevate the overall project to a higher level of importance:

1. The following are the benefits of using AMPHTML ads on all pages

They are faster, lighter, and more secure than standard ads. They are built using AMP-HTML and make extensive use of the smart components that help to make AMP pages load as quickly as possible.

Some of the advantages of implementing amp advertisements are as follows:

• Up to six times faster than standard ads in terms of load time. These ads are requested earlier in the page rendering process and are displayed just before the user is about to view an ad, which is why they appear earlier in the process.
• Lighter: AMPHTML ads consolidate commonly used ad functionality in order to reduce the file size of the ad itself. Once on the page, AMPHTML ads use fewer resources than standard HTML ads. For example, AMPHTML ads collect all of the data once and distribute it to any number of interested trackers, as opposed to regular ads, which collect data from 10 different trackers each requesting their own information.
• Malware is not a threat: Before the advertisements are displayed, they are checked for accuracy. As a result, publishers can provide a secure user experience while also promoting a positive brand perception.

AMPHTML ads are designed to work on both AMP and non-AMP web pages, on any device, and in a variety of standard and creative formats. They are available in a variety of sizes and formats (like carousel, parallax, lightbox).

2. Real-time configuration and fast retrieval

Fast Fetch, which was first announced in 2017, is the mechanism that allows ads on AMP pages to load on average 2.7 seconds faster than legacy ads, according to Google. How? It does this by allowing the page to make ad requests as soon as possible and retrieving the ads, but only rendering them when the ad slot is visible to the user

A new feature called Real-Time Config (RTC) has also been announced by AMP, which allows publishers to run targeted auctions by calling out up to five demand sources (servers) at once.

A bonus is that RTC is integrated with Prebid Server (Prebid.org's server-to-server header bidding offering) for ads on Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) pages. Through the use of AMP's Fast Fetch capability, publishers will be able to access header bidding demand.

According to Adam Leslie, Head of Commercial Operations at Metro.co.uk, the publisher saw a 6X increase in AMP revenue on their site after incorporating Prebid Server into their AMP monetization mix after implementing Prebid Server.

3. S2S Header Bidding in conjunction with AMP Ads

Enabling server-to-server wrapper is the next option available to publishers who want to experiment with header bidding on their AMP pages.

For the most part, a wrapper allows you to connect to multiple demand partners through a single wrapper interface and dashboards. Furthermore, it can assist you in overcoming the limitations of RTC.

With wrapper-based integration, you have the flexibility to call out to as many demand partners as you want for an auction. The way it works is as follows:

1. A single call to the wrapper's server is made as your AMP page loads in the user's browser, and the defined AMP ad element receives a response (such as prebid server).
2. Afterwards, the server organizes a server-to-server auction, inviting demand partners who are looking for AMP inventory to participate.
3. The auction concludes when the timeout period has expired, and the winning bidder is awarded the right to display the advertisement.

The best part is that publishers can use Google's Open Bidding (previously known as Exchange Bidding) to bid for AMP inventory, which is an added bonus.

Once wrapper-based S2S header bidding is enabled, publishers will no longer be required to deal with any of the development and implementation related work – which will have already been completed by your in-house development and implementation teams.

For those who work with a managed header bidding partner (such as AdPushup), the development and implementation aspects are taken care of on your behalf.

4. Consent Element that is pre-installed

In April and early May 2018, the AMP Project released two updates that allow publishers to create user controls and manage the choices made by users through the use of a new AMP component called amp-consent>, which was introduced in April.

This enables publishers to do the following:

1. Determine whether or not the user should be prompted to interact with the control by asking the following questions: A remote URL or another amp component can be specified to determine if the user will be prompted to choose whether or not to proceed with the request.
2. Capture the user's decision on whether or not to consent: Accept or reject are the options available to the user; if the user does not make any choices, the option is "unknown." Another option available to the publisher is to implement a "dismiss" action (such as a "close" button), which will result in neither state being set and the user control remaining unresolved.
3. Ensures that elements on the AMP page have access to the user's setting in order to modify the page's behavior: Publishers can configure AMP elements to be prevented from loading if the user setting is undetermined or in a negative state by including an HTML attribute (that is, the user rejected).

This makes it possible to only load advertisements and/or analytics when the user has given their permission. Additional customizations are possible by vendors, allowing elements to have more sophisticated behaviors that are dependent on the user's settings. The official documentation for implementation can be found here.

Due to the support for <amp-consent> in DFP/AdX and AdSense, publishers can choose to serve non-personalized ads to users or they can choose to serve ads selectively based on consent. More information can be found on the DFP help page.

5. AMP pages with video advertisements 

Fact: AMP pages are designed to load quickly, whereas video advertisements cause web pages to load slowly. However, with the rise of video advertising, AMP developed a solution that allows video advertisements to be displayed on AMP pages.

Video advertisements can be displayed both in-stream and out-of-stream using AMP. The amp-ima-video> extension can be used to render in-stream video advertisements. It comes with all of the essential features, such as auto-play, docking on scroll, and analytics reporting.

In addition, the basic <amp-ad> extension should be sufficient for outstream video advertisements. To show video advertisements, you would still require advertisers who were looking for AMP inventory.