Is GDPR Affecting Publisher and Blogger Monetization?
How Is GDPR Affecting Publisher and Blogger Monetization?
Are most publishers and bloggers in compliance with GDPR?
I can ignore GDPR, right?
How is GDPR affecting ad rates?
Overall, has GDPR affected website earnings?
Early data says, yes.
CPM data standardized and served as a baseline to show the rise and fall of rates across thousands of websites
That effect will largely depend on the location of your visitors.
Early GDPR data suggest that CPM rates have now shifted for different geo-locations.
Whether this has a positive, neutral, or negative impact on a certain site will depend solely on the types of visitors that site attracts.
More specifically, ad rates have gone up when visitors are coming from some locations and gone down when targeting others.
Will these trends continue?
Let’s look a little deeper at this…
How is GDPR affecting ad rates in the United States?
rates standardized to show the rise and fall of rates across thousands of websites
**This is likely due to of two factors:**
1.) Advertisers have pulled inventory from the EU and are investing in the U.S. more.
2.) This is a natural marketplace reaction inside of the programmatic ecosystem
It may even be a bit of both. And honestly, it could be something else too. It is too really early to tell.
Nevertheless, early data shows that GDPR has improved U.S. ad rates. However, at this juncture, it is impossible to project how things may continue to unfold for the rest of the year.
How is GDPR affecting publisher earnings and ad rates in the EU?
While US ad rates seem to be on the rise, post-GDRP, EU ad rates seem to be on the decline.
This was predicted in many industry circles.
rates standardized to show the rise and fall of rates across thousands of websites
Again, it is still too early to make any strong statements about why we are seeing some of these shifts, and if they will be something we continue to see trending long-term, but we are indeed seeing ad rates decline in the EU.
How is GDPR affecting publisher monetization in the rest of the world?
What does the early GDPR data tell publishers and content creators?
The early data tells us that ad earnings are affected.
It is hard to make a stronger statement than that.
Depending on where your visitors are located, this might positively impact you, or negatively impact you. More likely, it does not affect you at all (consider it all a wash).
This is the EU. These website visitors must be treated according to GDPR guidelines.
No one knows how the ecosystem is going to respond long-term.
There may be some kneejerk reactions from advertisers causing a few overcorrections in the marketplace that will even out soon.
However, one thing is clear.
This is a data-driven marketplace. Succeeding as a publisher without the power of data is going to get harder and harder.
Being able to [make sense of this data](/?page_id=1761) can be a huge advantage.
Understanding your visitors — and the [role they play in your traffic and revenue](https://blog.ezoic.com/website-traffic-behavior-impacts-total-session-revenue/) — has never been more important.
Wrapping it all up
Are you GDPR compliant?
_It is impossible to say._
Does the average blogger, publisher, or content creators need to be GDPR compliant?
_Almost certainly, yes._
Has GDPR affected global ad rates?
_Yes._
Is this good or bad?
_It depends. And, it is impossible to project how things will unfold over the course of the next few months._
Thoughts, questions, opinions?
Leave them below and I’ll do my best to provide answers (note: I can’t provide legal advice or any clarifications on GDPR law; nor do you want me to).