“Focus on the ultimate goals” – Vitaliy Ivashchenko

Vitaliy Ivashchenko, Head of Sales Europe of MGID, joins the latest series of affiliate interviews on Affiliate Grand Slam

Vitaliy Ivashchenko, MGID’s Head of Sales Europe, tells us that at MGID they target 850 million unique readers with 185 billion recommendations monthly and that they partner with clients in over 200 countries and deliver their advertising services in more than 70 different languages. They localise all business processes in each of their local markets and they have an exclusive local inventory. He adds that MGID empowers advertisers and publishers with technology, yielding outstanding advertising experiences, for both product and consumer – follow his story below.

How did MGID take off?

MGID was founded in 2008. Back then, we were a small, yet ambitious startup of just 6 employees. It was an exciting time for all of us because we knew we were on to something totally different. We were the first platform to introduce content discovery through a native widget.

Over the years, we’ve managed to become one of the largest native advertising platforms in the world, targeting 850 million unique readers with 185 billion recommendations monthly.

MGID has grown to 700+ employees, operating out of our 11 offices around the world. We partner with clients in over 200 countries and deliver our advertising services for more than 70 different languages.

Tell us a bit more about your concept, culture, and vision.

MGID’s solution mimics human-like interaction between brands and consumers online, using advanced advertising technology. Our “big idea” is that consumers, content creators, and brands deserve to engage with each other in meaningful and positive ways. MGID is helping to usher in a new age within digital media.

What is native advertising?

Native ads are built to match the form and function of the environment in which they’re hosted. This form of advertising is non-intrusive; in fact, users actively choose to consume it. These ads reach their audience seemingly organically, finding users as they are consuming related content online.

Can you tell us more about MGID’s native advertising platform?

MGID is a global innovative pioneer in native advertising, driving revenue growth for advertisers and publishers. We help businesses with brand activation and awareness that simultaneously encourages users to interact with the brand in specific ways. MGID understands that content is vital for modern marketing success, which is why we focus our advertising efforts around consumer needs, ensuring content is both relevant and valuable at every stage of the funnel.

How do you deliver the right native ads worldwide?

To do this efficiently and compliantly, MGID stays quite flexible in its policies, adjusting them to the local laws and regulations of each country where it operates.

What is more, we localise all business processes in each of our local markets. This includes everything from legal entity registration to contract terms adaptation, making the launch process for publishers in each country as seamless as possible. Because of this, MGID is the go-to partner for quality country and regional media. We have exclusive local inventory at our disposal.

What is programmatic advertising?

Programmatic advertising involves using artificial intelligence and real-time bidding in the ad placement process to get the most accurate targeting at the lowest price. Rather than buying ad placements manually, marketeers can transfer all the repetitive and time-consuming tasks to dedicated software solutions.

Programmatic vs. Native Advertising: how do they differ? What are the pros and cons of each?

There are undeniable benefits to both native and programmatic advertising. Native ads are a form of digital advertising. They aren’t disruptive and offer additional value to the users, while building their relationship with the brand at the same time.

Buying ads programmatically ensures automation, cost-effectiveness, and enhanced customer insights. However, I wouldn’t contrast these two approaches. IAB’s OpenRTB 2.3 protocol, which came out in 2015, included the Native Ads API Specification. This married programmatic and native advertising, and created a new powerhouse of digital marketing: programmatic native advertising.

Native ads can now be reshaped automatically to match the layout of the target web page, allowing you to get the best of both worlds — automatic real-time bidding with native ads that convert.

Native Ads vs. Facebook Ads: how do they differ? What are the pros and cons of each?

There’s a subtle difference between these channels. When choosing the best-fit solution for your campaigns, you have to focus on the ultimate goals you want to achieve.

Facebook ads rely more on reaching specific users, while native ads are focused on both, finding the right context and tailoring the advertorial content for a particular audience.

What’s more, with Facebook ads, you have to fight for user attention and aggressively pitch your product. If you want to achieve higher CTR, the creatives have to stand out from the content feed. They also need to elicit strong positive emotions from users.

On the other hand, native ads rely on a subtler, non-intrusive way of selling. This format integrates into the user’s normal content consumption, allowing advertisers to foster more natural relationships with their audience.

Can you tell us more about MGID’s technology?

MGID empowers advertisers and publishers with technology, yielding outstanding advertising experiences, for both product and consumer. By ensuring audiences are met with relevant ad recommendations, publishers and advertisers are given the ability to earn more, without impeding their consumers’ interests.

What incremental value do you provide to advertisers and publishers?

MGID’s native advertising platform enables its advertising clients to stimulate the growth of both brand awareness and sales.

From a performance perspective, MGID advertisers win audience accessibility, measurability, AI-based optimisation, and scalability of their campaigns. Branding objectives are achieved through the contextual side of native ads, as it enables the cost-efficient placing of well-tailored assets that attract interest and consideration.

We also understand that realising inventory potential, enhancing audience connections, and attracting new users are paramount for publishers. Taking that into consideration, we have built up our yield optimisation ecosystem. This allows us to combine different types of demand (direct and programmatic) and formats (native, display, and video) within one ad placement. Its AI-based algorithm then optimises the placement to be most efficient for both the publisher and its audience.

Can you mention some case studies that prove your success?

We’ve been in this market for a while, and we know how to work with different types of brands, e-commerce projects, and affiliate marketeers. We have quite a few case studies to brag about. So if your readers are interested in any particular product category or approach, contact us, and we’ll be more than happy to tell you more.

How can MGID benefit Affiliate Grand Slam’s attendees?

I hope those who have read this far have already found the answers to this question. To sum it up, we have the technology, reach, and expertise to effectively build and grow any business with native ads.

MGID has won two Bronze Stevie® Awards in 2021 Asia-Pacific Stevie Award. Congratulations! Tell us more about it. What does it mean to you?

We won one Asia-Pacific Stevie® Award for our yield optimisation algorithm, which I’ve already mentioned. It helps to ensure the highest revenue for a publisher by optimising ad placement.

Another MGID product that was also acknowledged by the award is our in-content impact widget. Its AI-based algorithm identifies the highest performing placement within the article and automatically displays MGID’s widget with relevant ad content to viewers.

The industry acknowledgment means we’re not working in vain. We are being recognised as a front-runner in technology innovation.

Have you ever been to SiGMA? SiGMA Europe, Africa, Asia, or Americas – which of these four expo shows would you likely book in your diary for 2021, COVID-19 permitting?

Unfortunately, I haven’t. However, considering our business interests when it comes to our global expansion, we sure would be interested in attending your events in the future, in any country.

Tell us a bit about yourself – after all, business is done with people, not just companies! Your hobbies, favourite book, favourite quote, etc.

I joined MGID 7 years ago as a Sales Manager and went on to lead the company’s expansion within Europe as Head of Sales.

Rock music is my passion (starting from classic rock bands from ’60-70s and up to alternative metal). I play a little bit of guitar and drums myself. I love to travel in my spare time and hang out with friends, but family comes first. It’s been almost 2 years since I became a father, so most of the spare time I try to devote to my wife and my daughter. Oh, and I can watch Tarantinos’ movies all day long.

Malta Week – Save the dates:

For the first time ever SiGMA Group is bringing its 4 leading shows together for the mother of all conferences. From the 15th to 19th November, SiGMA, alongside AGS and AIBC will bring the best in the business to a first-class meeting point at the Malta Fairs and Convention Centre (MFCC). Malta Week is a chance for investors to leverage the significant crossover potential for multi-faceted business deals and to double down on opportunities to connect with some of the leading affiliates, policymakers, thought leaders, suppliers, and operators in the industry. Register now!