Problem
Sharethrough for Publishers—the supply-side native advertising platform from Sharethrough—offers users an ocean of data. It provides an incredible depth and breath of information that many of our competitors can't match. But that scale makes it difficult to find specific problems with inventory. These problems often go unnoticed and result in lost sales.
Sharethrough operates a two-sided marketplace—a place for advertisers to buy inventory and a place for publishers to put their inventory up for sale. If inventory doesn't perform well, advertisers will stop buying. If advertisers stop buying, publishers will leave. This means we need to control the quality of the ads and the inventory as best we can. As the business scales, this becomes very difficult. It's hard to manage inventory quality across hundreds and hundreds of sites and apps.
How might we make it easier for publishers to understand inventory quality and take action themselves? What if we scan the publisher's inventory and send them a note about problems and opportunities?
Our objective for this feature was to see if we can build something that got publishers to resolve problems and take opportunities.