And all this manual work needs to be done without compromising the publisher's revenue. "We have to make sure when they've switched over that revenue streams for all channels are maintained," said Nevins. "So that means making sure the RTB [real-time bidding], header bidding, direct - whatever channels they have going - are maintained and don't have any sort of dip because of the changes we're making".
Nevins also said that they have to make sure all the functionality available on the old platform works on the new one, and migrate current campaigns as well, which involves "checking the tags, the data, moving deals over, setting up floor prices, creating special templates etc."
Not all publishers will necessarily be well equipped for this. "If you're going to move ad servers, you're going to need people to be dedicated to that project, and naturally most companies don't have spare capacity in their workforce," said Gilbert. And even those which do have a dedicated team might require a bit of retraining, especially if they're migrating away from Google. "Because DFP has been so entrenched, let's say for coming on to twenty years now, you'll find that for a lot of campaign management or ad ops teams, it's actually all they know."
Fears of Compromised Demand
There's undoubtedly a lot of heavy lifting involved - Nevins described the process as "a bit like switching planes while you're flying" - but that's not to say it's an unmanageable task.
Carsten Schwecke, MD of Axel Springer's sales house Media Impact, said that while publishers might find the transition intimidating, the process hadn't been too burdensome for his company. "Our speedy implementation is proof that migrating ad servers isn't something to be afraid of - so long as you have the right technology partners at your side," he said.
But the manual effort of changing ad server might not be the only concern. When it comes to migrating away from a larger player like DFP, publishers might be concerned about losing out from Google's demand sources.
"I think the biggest concern that publishers across the board have with switching is the misperception that they'll lose revenue coming from Google. So it's the perceived loss of demand that feels like the biggest risk to them," said Nevins. "But the truth is that AdSense and AdWords are generally low CPM demand for publishers anyway, and at least when they're working with us, AdX can remain as a backbone".
This isn't necessarily only a worry for those working with Google. "It's a very market specific feeling, because of course it depends naturally on what the balance of demand is within your market," said Gilbert. "If it is quite skewed towards certain partners, then of course that's going to be challenging if you move away from that partner."
But Gilbert agreed with Nevins that some publishers overestimate this danger. "If things are managed correctly, you shouldn't see any compromise in your demand," he said. But where publishers don't properly understand their demand sources or have a clear strategy in mind, things can be more problematic.
