Transparency in digital advertising is a journey. We discover new requirements for clarity along the way. Fee transparency, which has been a clarion call from marketers for the last few years, can mean much more than simple disclosure. Fee ambiguity and opacity within the digital advertising marketplace experience – no matter how well disclosed – may feel just as hidden.
TRUSTX was founded on the principle of 100% transparency. So, imagine our surprise when some prominent media buyers confided that even our disclosed 12.5% sell-side fee still could feel hidden. Although the way we described our fees was standard industry practice, these Transparency 1.0 disclosures were apparently not enough.
As a result, on January 1, 2019, TRUSTX eliminated our fees entirely from the media buying supply chain. We have unbundled our fee from the media transaction. A dollar bid from any of our connected DSPs now buys a dollar of media from all of our publisher-members. Advertisers and agencies now get 12.5% more media buying power from every dollar they spend with TRUSTX. And our publishers still cover the cost of TRUSTX services, however now as a separate line-item on our payments to them at the end of each month.
Let me explain this in practical terms.
