This October was one of the strangest I’ve seen in a long time. If you felt like the ground was shifting under your feet as you navigated some unusual ad spend patterns, you were not alone. When things get unpredictable, it’s easy to want to throw your hands in the air and say, “Well, the market sucks, that’s just life.” A small piece of me certainly felt that way.
But a quote I came across recently from Alfred Wainwright really resonated in light of all that is going on: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.”
It’s the perfect metaphor for our world. We can’t control the macroeconomic headwinds or the shifting budgets of advertisers, just like we can’t control the weather. But we can prepare for it. We can choose the right gear, the right partners, and the right strategies to not only survive the storm but thrive within it. People learned to build igloos to live in the harshest of climates, so we can certainly learn to weather the ad tech storms by focusing on what we can control and building a solid foundation.
A Blip, Not a Trend
The story was consistent in every conversation and piece of information published related to October: Q4 got off to a slower start than usual. The data backs this up, with the latest IAB 2025 Outlook Study noting that ad buyers pulled back a bit.
But knowing what I know now after years in this industry, I see this as more of a bump in the road than a new trend. We are already seeing signs of life in November, and it feels like the winds may be changing. In these moments, we have a choice. We can look at what is admittedly a bit of a bleaker landscape than we would prefer and say, “Horrible market, no one is spending,” or we can say, “Huge opportunity here, publishers need our help more than ever, what else can we do for them.”
I’m betting on the latter. A challenging market underscores just how badly our partners need sophisticated tools and deep relationships to make the most of every impression.
Putting on the Right Clothes: How to Prepare for the Rebound
During any market lull, the smartest thing to do is a little internal maintenance to ensure the house you’ve built doesn’t fall down. For publishers, this is the perfect time to tighten things up and prepare for the rebound we hope is coming.
Focusing on the fundamentals is always the right move. This includes:
- Ad Block Recovery: Maximizing revenue from existing traffic without adding more ad units, leveraging a multi-layered approach.
- Audit High-Traffic Pages: Ensuring your most valuable pages have an optimal ad layout and user experience.
- Check Crawler Access: Making sure demand partners can crawl your site to properly value your inventory.
- Pass Hashed Emails: Unlocking people-based targeting and increasing the value of your audiences.
- Refresh Seasonal Content: Driving engagement by updating content relevant to the holiday season.
- Leveraging High-Impact Formats: Capturing user attention and higher CPMs with more engaging ad experiences.
Looking Ahead with Optimism
Despite the October softness, the outlook for the rest of Q4 remains positive. We are already seeing things pick up and fully expect strong momentum around Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the final holiday push.
Our commitment is to be the partner that helps publishers build their igloo. We build and work with companies that create technologies to help us all weather the storm, navigating everything from market volatility to the latest shifts in AI. The goal is to ensure our partners are always ready to capture revenue as it flows back into the market.
The ground may be shifting, but our mission remains solid. If you want to talk through the right strategy for your site, just reach out. We’re in this together.
