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Chief executive Rupert Hodson is excited about the prospects for the group amid the demise of the third party cookie
Thursday 23 Sep 2021 Author: Mark Gardner

The CEO of digital advertising firm Dianomi (DNM:AIM), Rupert Hodson, tells Shares the group is benefiting from the demise of third party cookies that has prompted many advertisers to embrace contextual advertising, and its cost per click model.

Contextual advertising is when the content of an advertisement is directly linked to the content of the web page a person is viewing.

Dianomi is a provider of so-called native digital advertising services. Native online ads match the form and function of the platform on which they appear.

Its customers, both publishers and advertisers, are concentrated in the financial services and business sectors but it has recently moved into the premium lifestyle space, bringing on board publishers like CNN and Conde Nast.

The company joined the AIM market in May 2021 through a listing which valued it at £82 million. Dianomi’s clients include seven of the world’s largest asset management companies, and half of the top largest banks in America.

CONTEXTUAL ADS SOLVE PLACEMENT ISSUES

A frequent problem encountered by publishers occurs when viewers scroll down to the bottom of a news website to find a random amalgamation of irrelevant adverts. Dianomi’s technology enables brands to place adverts alongside financial news to generate impressions in a contextually relevant setting.

This is important because the adverts are more likely to resonate and gain traction with readers, and in contrast to randomly placed adverts, do not detract from the experience of consuming the content.

Hodson says Dianomi’s proprietary algorithm can determine which publishers’ sites are delivering the sales conversions, ‘this enables an advertiser to optimise their campaigns by specific areas where success is tangible’.

FROM COOKIE TO CONTEXTUAL

There has been a phenomenal increase in the growth of contextual advertising. The market is currently worth $4.5 billion and is expected to experience double digit growth to 2025. This growth is being driven by the increasing importance being placed on consumer privacy, and explains Google’s decision to discontinue third party cookies.

This will limit the availability of tracking data used by advertisers. Companies like Dianomi are well positioned to benefit from this trend. Contextual advertising offers advertisers a reliable alternative to understand consumer interests while targeting priority audiences.

COST PER CLICK

Dianomi operates a business model where adverts are priced on a cost per click basis, or in other words the number of times visitors click on a display ad, as opposed to a cost per thousand model, with a site’s publisher charging a certain amount for every 1,000 impressions of the ad, or in other words how often a specific page is loaded up by web browsers.

By adopting a cost per click pricing model Dianomi’s interests are aligned with those of advertisers and publishers. If the advert performs well and gets lots of readers to click through, further sales are generated by advertiser and the publisher.

Dianomi collects the payment made by the advertiser, retains a share, and passes the rest on to the publisher, typically 30%/70% in favour of the publisher. This model offers advertisers a transparent return on investment for their digital marketing spend.

‘MULTIPLE CONVERSATIONS WITH OTHER BIG PUBLISHERS’

Dianomi has traditionally been focused on the financial and business advertising segments. However it has started to enter the premium lifestyle segment and is having ‘multiple conversations with other big publishers’. Hodson emphasises the broad nature of the category that has a plethora of sub-verticals within it, saying it can be anything from luxury watches to cars.

Dianomi has been able to establish itself in this new market without having to bring in new demand and distribution resources. ‘We had financial publishers saying you are doing a great job for us monetising our financial content but can you help with our lifestyle offering?’

This has enabled Dianomi to leverage the innate demand from existing publishers.

Dianomi recently announced a new partnership with CNN as the exclusive content recommendation partner across CNN Business, replacing the incumbent provider Outbrain. Hodson says: ‘This is hugely exciting for us, it is a big size with significant distribution. When you look at the potential of lifestyle, CNN is a top 10 news and media site.’

The group has also successfully developed its relationship with the Wall Street Journal. In April Dianomi was rolled out across all of Wall Street Journal’s pages, and the group is in discussions about being this being extended to its app. Previously Dianomi featured only on its market quote pages.

After a strong recent run for the shares they trade on 51 times forward earnings. 

The structural growth drivers for the group look compelling and, reassuringly, the shareholder register includes Amati Global and Crux Asset Management, both seasoned investors in the AIM market.

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