How keyword-blocking continues to harm publishers — with Mantis EVP Terry Hornsby

Terry Hornsby, founder and executive vice-president of Mantis, joins Jack Benjamin to discuss how keyword blocklists remain in use by advertisers to the detriment of publishers.

Hornsby explains that blocklisting is being used irresponsibly by too many advertisers, many of which often add words to their blocklists without sufficiently checking which may be worth taking off.

These could include adding "Paris" after the 2015 terrorist attacks or "Taylor Swift" after her Vienna concert was nearly attacked, and then never remembering to take these keywords off.

The result? Publishers having much of their brand-safe work demonitised.

Hornsby also discusses why this keeps occurring and what needs to change for publishers to earn revenue on articles that brands would in fact want to advertise against.

This episode was recorded earlier this summer, before the Paris Olympic Games began.

Highlights

2:00: Why Hornsby founded Mantis

5:12: The problem with keyword-blocking

11:38: Are brands being too cautious?

19:54: The importance of contextual advertising regardless of the future of the cookie

26:41: Other brand-safety verification vendors

29:23: What needs to change?

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Thanks to our production partners Trisonic for editing this episode.

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