Dive Brief:
- PubMatic reported third-quarter revenue of $68 million, beating analysts' expectations, according to a press release. The total was down from $71.8 million in the year-ago period, which included $5 million in political advertising.
- CTV advertising was a bright spot for the ad-tech company. Revenue, excluding political advertising, from CTV grew more than 50% compared to last year. Revenue from omnichannel video, excluding political advertising, grew 21% year-over-year.
- PubMatic claims its partnership with artificial intelligence company Nvidia has resulted in processing that is up to five-times faster than traditional systems, making it a major factor in PubMatic’s growth. The partnership puts the company “years ahead of [our] peers,” said co-founder and CEO Rajeev Goel in a statement.
Dive Insight:
PubMatic’s earnings reflect a larger trend of ad-tech companies benefiting from how AI is driving more unified marketing campaign capabilities. In the quarter, the group of companies that includes The Trade Desk, LiveRamp, Magnite, PubMatic, Viant, DoubleVerify, IAS, MNTN and Nexxen, delivered average revenue growth of 13.5%, per a note from Madison and Wall shared with Marketing Dive.
Growth on the ad-tech side of the equation is outpacing publishers’ growth, which could be concerning, Madison and Wall noted. However, more dollars are being pushed through programmatic channels and ad-tech firms are keeping ahead of the game by selling data marketplaces, measurement products and campaign products that promise a more unified approach.
“Many platforms are rolling out AI-supported, unified campaign solutions that emphasize price, performance, and convenience, even as they demand tradeoffs in transparency and control,” according to the note. “And data and identity capabilities continue to matter more, especially as more premium inventory and major marketers shift more activity into programmatic channels.”
Other highlights from the third quarter that PubMatic called out include:
- Launching a unified, AI-powered publisher platform that combines automated revenue optimization, first-party data monetization and direct access to high-value media budgets. The platform cuts campaign setup time by 87% and speeds up issue resolution by 70%, according to PubMatic
- Increasing ad-buying activity from its Live Sports Marketplace by more than 150% from the previous quarter
- Launching a pause ads feature for CTV, through which advertisers can serve dynamic and contextually relevant ads when viewers pause content
- Increasing supply path optimization on its platform by 50% year-over-year
Overall, its infrastructure optimization initiatives drove nearly 87 trillion impressions over the quarter, up 24% from the same period last year, according to PubMatic.
The company estimated its Q4 revenues would be between $73 million and $77 million, “inclusive of an impact from one of our top DSP buyers.” That buyer went unnamed, though AdExchanger theorized it is likely The Trade Desk, which recently implemented a new buying platform called Kokai.
