BLOG
A Look Back at 2020: COVID-19 Recap
COVID-19 has thrown normal seasonal patterns out of the proverbial window. Need a refresher on the typical seasonal patterns? Here’s A Seasonality ...
How to Secure a Website in the Chrome Browser
With Google’s help, finding answers to our problems is easy — and typically possible within a matter of seconds. However, if we’re not, ...
What are interstitials in web advertising?
In October 2020, Google launched web interstitials for mobile and desktop web, and allowing publishers using Google Ad Manager can easily activate ...
Life at Sortable: Meet Lindsey
Another month, another member of the Sortable team for you to meet! You’ve already met several members of the team like Jamie Murphy from Product, ...
How to improve your website traffic
Looking to monetize your website? Take a look at your data. Do your analytics indicate that your website traffic is high? I ask because website ...
The difference between client-side and server-side header bidding
Header bidding is a large component of programmatic advertising. Less than ten years ago, it was unheard of, but now, about 79% of publishers are ...
Seasonality and the Rise of the CPMs
Nowadays, we have to work harder to find hope when it seems like there are so many things to worry about. We find ourselves gravitating towards ...
Life at Sortable: Meet Daniel R.
You may encounter the Sales team, work directly with Onboarding and Sales, but behind our products is the team who builds it. We wouldn’t be ...
Breaking down ads.txt
Our team at Sortable sends out regular emails to let our publishers know to update your ads.txt — some of you do and some of you don’t. For those ...
Maximize yield in Q4 2020
This pandemic threw us all in for a loop. When we were planning our 2020 projections, we didn’t see COVID-19 on the horizon or how it would have ...
Life at Sortable: Meet Julie
When you decide to partner with Sortable, one of the first teams you’ll encounter is our Onboarding team. They help you get ramped up to ...
Sortable 101: Sorta-What?
We know there are a lot of different ad monetization solutions out there, even under the Sortable umbrella, so we wanted to take the time to ...
Sortable 101: Sorta-Who?
Ad Ops can be a very confusing industry — from AdSense to header bidding, to staying on top of industry changes and events, it can get overwhelming! ...
What is Ad Experience and Why is it Important?
Ad experience is one of those terms that can mean different things to different people, so the best place to start is by defining what it means to ...
Life at Sortable: Meet Jamie
You may have read or heard us saying the “Sortable team” or “our team” and we thought it was time that we started introducing you to various ...
July COVID Update
As promised, we’re here with the latest installment in our COVID update series, designed to keep you and our publishers up to date on the latest ...
What is Brand Safety? Why Knowing Your Partners is Important.
Brand safety. Two words that marketers, advertisers, and C-suite executives tend to throw around, but how many people actually know what it means, ...
June and Q2 COVID Update
As we enter Q3, it becomes crucial to look back and see how the markets are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated downturn of the ...
Three Ways To Optimize For Mobile
In 2012, a report conducted by IAB found that only 9% of internet advertising revenue was a result of mobile. Since then, mobile ad spend (including ...
How To Improve Viewability
Viewability is a hot topic for every publisher as it’s a key metric for improving your ad revenue and maximizing the content that you work so hard ...
Seasonality And The Summer Slowdown
Last updated on June 2020 We’ve always discussed how it’s important to understand how seasonality affects CPMs in order to effectively benchmark, ...
How to Improve Your Site Traffic With High-Quality Traffic
Every publisher knows that in the world of ad monetization, traffic is king — and monetizing that traffic can mean major revenue. The challenge is ...
May COVID-19 Update – Current Trends
Publishers and marketers alike have been laser-focused on the market and current trends as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as promised — we ...
Not Updating Your Ads.txt Is Costing You New Ad Revenue
As a refresher, let’s start with what an ads.txt file (or just ads.txt) is. Already an expert? Perfect. Scroll down to learn how you’re not ...
What’s The Sortable-hosted Quantcast CMP?
What is a consent management platform (CMP)? Just to review, a consent management platform (CMP) is a way for publishers to collect and manage ...
What’s Happening with Data Privacy in 2020
Data privacy has always been a hot topic, but as the age of big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence gets into full swing, it’s never ...
Need-to-know SEO tips and trends
In today’s highly competitive digital world, there are numerous factors that contribute to a successful web presence — search engine optimization ...
What is Sponsored Video?
Publishers everywhere are consistently looking for ways to improve the user experience for their readers, while simultaneously optimizing and ...
Top virtual Ad Ops conferences to attend in 2020
At Sortable, we value our participation in conferences and industry events. This year the conference scene looks a little different with many events ...
5 Quick Wins to Boost Your Website Monetization
If you’re a publisher who’s been wondering what else you can do to monetize your website, there may be a few tactics you haven’t thought of. Today, ...
COVID-19 update: April CPMs, trends and more
At the end of the first quarter, we discussed the effect that the pandemic has had on publishers in Q1 and, as promised, we’re here to keep you ...
Helping out in a crisis
Here at Sortable, we’ve been keeping a close eye on the effects the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the markets, but more importantly to us — on our ...
Third-party cookies: then and now
The great cookie countdown: What’s next for advertising without third-party cookies? How publishers are planning for the end of the third ...
5 activities to do with your kids while staying home
When the terms coronavirus and COVID-19 became commonplace in our houses, so did terms like ‘social distancing,’ ‘self-isolation,’ and ‘quarantine.’ ...
Things you can do to make the most out of physical distancing
With the introduction of the term social, or physical, distancing, we’re all getting a little bit more familiar with the inside of our homes. Some ...
How COVID-19 has impacted Publishers in Q1
We all know that certain businesses and industries have a seasonal component to their ebb and flow, but the introduction of the novel coronavirus, ...
Top 10 tips to make working from home efficient
Remote working is something of a hot topic in the job market these days, with upwards of 56% of companies offering a work from home, or “work from ...
Demand Partners 101
If you’re new to Ad Tech and Ad Ops, you’ve probably heard the phrase “demand partner” being thrown around. It could be an Ad Ops partner saying ...
How to minimize the COVID-19 impact on publisher revenue
Coronavirus USA. Symptoms of coronavirus. Coronavirus testing. Corona virus news. What is corona virus. Corona virus relief. Corona virus curve. ...
COVID-19 keyword block list terms
Last updated: April 7, 2020, at 10:38 am As the coronavirus pandemic continues, some advertisers are tasked with quickly adding keywords ...
The first 90 days: Transitioning to Sortable
At Sortable, creating a smooth onboarding experience for our new publishers is important to us, which is why we’ve decided to share our 90-day ...
Why publishers choose Sortable
We value the publishers we work with. When we see them succeed, we know we’ve done our part in helping them get there. When publishers choose to ...
Counting what counts: CPMs, eCPMs, and revenue
It’s common for publishers to use a metric like CPMs to compare the performance of ad partners on their site. However, CPMs may not account for ...
Finding the right Ad Ops provider for you
Are you looking to monetize your site or switch Ad Ops providers, but can’t figure out how to choose the right Ad Ops provider for you? How do you ...
10 Google AdSense alternatives to consider in 2020
As a publisher, you probably think a lot about optimizing and improving both your advertising operations and the revenue that you generate from ads. ...
A seasonality primer
Have you been affected by seasonal trends? Unsure of what it is or how to address it? We go into the basics of seasonality. What is seasonality? ...
Seasonality, CPMs, and you (updated for 2020)
Last updated: January 2020 As the new quarter begins, you may have noticed a drop in your CPMs. Seasonality (looking at how you—and the ad industry ...
8 ways to address Google’s Two-Click Penalty
We know that seasonality can impact your site traffic but a significant decrease is a cause for concern. More notably, when your ad click-through ...
Short-form and long-form content monetization
You’ve probably heard the debate between short and long-form content or asked yourself how you can improve content monetization. Bite-sized blog ...
Optimizing your SEO – A step-by-step guide
When we’re trying to learn about a topic, our default action is to go to a search engine. With millions of searches conducted every day, it’s ...
GoodWell certifies Sortable for humane workplace practices
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GoodWell Certifies Sortable for Humane Workplace Practices KITCHENER, ON (September 17, 2019) – Sortable announced today ...
The value of exchange bidding
Exchange bidding, also known as Exchange Bidding in Dynamic Allocation (EBDA), is a server-side unified auction. It’s where ad exchanges and ...
How to optimize user experience with lazy loading
A webpage downloads and renders its ads as soon as a user opens a new page. This will allow the browser to cache the whole webpage. But, there’ ...
What you need to know about header bidding
What is header bidding? Header bidding is a programmatic advertising technique. It allows publishers to offer their inventory to multiple ad ...
Ad refresh, reconsidered
There are a lot of tools and techniques that web publishers can use to maximize ad revenue. This includes A/B testing, header bidding, and lazy ...
Everything you need to know about first-price auctions
A few months ago, Google announced that they would be transitioning Google Ad Exchange to a unified first price auction in Google Ad Manager. In ...
Let’s talk about session RPM
As a publisher, you understand how important it is to measure the performance of your website(s). This allows you to see if your users are loving ...
The Fundamental Value of Implementing Desktop Anchors
Ad placements, like desktop anchors, tend to be one of the most overlooked aspects of running a website. When publishers place banner ads wherever ...
Top tips for optimizing your ad sizes in 2019
Your website may look fantastic with a 970×250 banner ad, but it may not be the best size for monetization. Optimizing ad unit sizes based on ...
4 Questions Every Publisher should ask when selecting an Ad Partner
At Sortable, we believe a trusted ad partner can be extremely beneficial for your business, taking the stress out of selling ads, allowing you to ...
Top 5 Ad Ops conferences to attend in 2019
At Sortable, we value our participation in conferences and industry events. They are crucial for Ad Ops and our publishers. Especially with the Ad ...
The buzz on viewability and optimizations for revenue
Viewability is one of the most important metrics publishers can optimize towards. The first step in driving brand engagement for advertisers is to ...
Bad actors, bad ad quality, and just plain bad UX
User experience (UX) refers to an end user\'s interaction with a brand, its products, and/or its services. For publishers, good user experience ...
Five ways to increase CPMs
At Sortable, our Customer Success teams spend a big chunk of their time looking for ways to optimize our publishers\' performance, which often comes ...
Sortable announced as one of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Companies
Kitchener, November 15, 2018 — Sortable is presented the Deloitte Technology Fast 50TM program award for its rapid revenue ...
It’s a Three-peat! Sortable Achieves Deloitte Fast 50 Ranking Three Years in a Row
Sortable\'s ability to provide deep insights using our industry-leading technology platform and big data has been resonating with our customers. The ...
A UTM primer
Do you know where all your traffic is coming from? Sure, you know a percentage is from social media, but which platform? Which article? If you are ...
Building a smart place to work and proving it
Building a company is more than just creating a product and hiring people to sell and maintain it. (This is a simplistic way of looking at it, I& ...
Sortable is the first Canadian company to receive the GoodWell Certification
KITCHENER, ON – JANUARY 9, 2018 – Based on quantifiable data and firm methodology, GoodWell has certified that Sortable is a fair, ...
Looking ahead to 2018: the future of e-commerce
As the new year approaches fast, we\'re thinking about what trends will surface in 2018. In this instalment, Jennifer Fields, Head of Publisher ...
Looking ahead to 2018: the year big media fights back
As the new year approaches fast, we\'re thinking about what trends will surface in 2018. In this instalment, Ryan Fuss, our Chief Revenue Officer, ...
Looking ahead to 2018: give publishers the data they need to thrive
As the new year approaches fast, we\'re thinking about what trends will surface in 2018. In this instalment, Ashly Knox, our Head of Sales ...
How OpenRTB 3.0 can clean up the programmatic ecosystem
2017 is shaping up to be the year programmatic tightened its bootstraps. Earlier this year, the IAB Tech Lab led an initiative to help combat fraud ...
Just keep swimming: maintaining momentum with your content
Have you ever thought of a website as a shark? Some species of sharks ” like the salmon shark and the great white shark ” need to keep swimming in ...
Startups and Beer returns November 30 for community-building and craft brews
The Waterloo Region tech community is rallying together again to put the fun in fundraising: Startups and Beer returns Thursday, November 30! From 5 ...
Creating a blockbuster: how website layout affects revenue potential
The prolific film writer and director Alfred Hitchcock once said he liked to play his audience like a piano, meaning he\'d push their buttons and ...
Canadian Business: PROFIT 500: Sortable named #12 fastest-growing company in Canada
The 500 companies listed here vary dramatically by region, industry and size, but they have one thing in common: They’re in serious growth mode at a ...
Mediashift: Sortable Analytics helps publishers optimize their revenue faster
Publishers need to be able to wring every dollar out of their content, and the quicker they can access performance metrics, the better they are able ...
What’s going on with Google Chrome in 2018?
You\'ve likely heard buzz about an update coming to Chrome in 2018 that will block bad and intrusive ads in desktop and mobile versions of the ...
Shining a light in programmatic’s darkest corners with ads.txt
Programmatic advertising is a very smart, efficient, and cost-effective way to deliver highly-focused personalized ads to web audiences. ...
On Analytics
Before we get going here, I\'m going to provide some context around how I view digital publishing. I\'m an engineer, and Sortable got into the ...
Media In Canada: Sortable dives into analytics with new launch
Automated ad operations company Sortable has jumped into analytics. Publishers can use its newly launched service, called Sortable Analytics, to ...
Track what matters with Sortable Analytics
Sortable Analytics is here! We\'re excited about the launch of our comprehensive dashboard and how it can empower publishers and make their lives ...
Betakit: Sortable launches analytics tool
This week, several Canadian startups have made announcements, launching new features, partnerships, and more. Here’s the latest on Canada; ...
Sortable nominated for Employer of the Year in the DigiDay WorkLife Awards
KITCHENER, ON — AUGUST 16, 2017 – Sortable is the only Canadian finalist for Employer of the Year, Tech Platform in the first annual ...
Betakit: Sortable begins growth of Toronto team
Two Canadian startups announced major additions to their teams; BetaKit pulled together this roundup to give you the latest on these company ...
Ad Exchanger: Tickld makes content promotion a science with better analytics
Publishers paying to promote content on social platforms need to determine the return on their ad spend, just like marketers. The sites Tickld, ...
Media In Canada: Sortable opens Toronto office
Sortable, an automated ad operations company, is expanding into the Toronto market with two hires. To help drive that expansion with client and ...
Site speed and user experience drive performance: Washington Post’s Zeus and Vice’s redesign
In what is becoming a common refrain among large publishers, Forbes reports that the rollout of a new internally developed ad tech product Zeus by ...
Facebook enforcing policy change to crack down on high ad-to-content ratio web pages
Facebook is cracking down on publishers with low quality web page experiences, and this will have a big impact on publishers running content ...
What does Facebook’s rise in Ad Tech mean for the open web?
The reality is that Facebook is one of the most powerful companies in the tech industry - and arguably, the world. The rise of Facebook The ...
Sortable ranks among Canada’s top small & medium employers
We\'re excited to share that we\'ve been named one of Canada\'s Top Small & Medium Employers (SME), part of Mediacorp\'s annual ranking of\ ...
Why the Ad Tech industry should consider a move to first-price auctions
First, what is the difference between the two? The current industry standard is the second-price auction: each bidder submits their price for the ...
Advertising Age: Facebook launches header bidding, turns to partners for the tech
Facebook just executed what might best be described as a digital advertising coup against rival Google and its DoubleClick empire. The social media ...
Business Insider: Facebook made an unprecedented move to partner with ad tech companies including Amazon to take on Google
Facebook announced on Wednesday it is partnering with six ad tech firms to open up its Facebook Audience Network - which lets thousands of ...
Sortable selected as Facebook Audience Network header bidding integration
MARCH 21, 2017 KITCHENER, ON – We’re very happy to announce that Sortable has been selected as one of a handful of global Facebook ...
Header bidding and beyond – a Sortable Publisher Day talk with Christopher Reid
Sortable had the pleasure of hosting our first ever publisher event at Google New York this past February. In the first of our videos ...
Stats show viewability outlook still unclear
We\'ve taken a look at our desktop and mobile ad units network-wide to help our customers improve and understand their viewability performance. Here ...
How to Make It in Tech Sales | No Bullshit Sales Talk With FunnelCake, Shopify Plus, Georgette Packaging
Talk to tech sales people and ask any questions you have about working in the Waterloo Region tech sector. No bullshit. We promise. Finding a way to ...
Top 5 Ad Ops conferences to attend in 2017
We return with our second installment of ad ops conferences to attend for the year. Most of our picks from last year are back, and we\'ve updated ...
Betakit: Former VICE Canada Chief Revenue Officer Ryan Fuss joins Waterloo-based Sortable
Fuss will work in Sortable’s newly-created role of chief revenue officer, where he will be responsible for revenue-generating activities like sales, ...
Sortable: a 2016 Year in Review
It\'s been a big year - HUGE. And we have some numbers to share just how crazy things have gotten over here. We\'re growing fast, with no plans to ...
The spectrum of publisher ad stacks
One of the benefits of working with a large number of publishers is that we\'re able to gain a deep understanding of their unique needs. As we\'ve ...
CTV.ca: 7 local tech companies named some of Canada’s 50 fastest-growing
Deloitte’s 2016 list of Canada’s 50 fastest-growing technology companies contains no shortage of businesses based in Waterloo Region.Read more ...
Take two: Sortable joins Deloitte Fast 50 fastest growing technology companies
We\'re excited to share that we\'ve been named #8 on the Deloitte Fast 50, an annual ranking of the fastest growing tech companies in ...
BetaKit: Deloitte releases its list of Canada’s 50 fastest-growing companies
For almost 20 years, Deloitte has used the Technology Fast 50 program to celebrate Canadian companies that the firm says demonstrate innovation and ...
BoingBoing.net: Canadian tech firms will have their pick of overseas talent thanks to
The massive talent shortage in tech has all kinds of weird effects: the inability to outbid tech giants means that badly secured hospitals get ...
5 lessons from building Startups and Beer
We\'re prepping for 2017 and decided to go down memory lane for Startups and Beer and maybe be really honest about what makes Startups and Beer a ...
How AdX pricing rules can affect CTR
Have you ever wondered if the price floors and other preferences you set in your Google Ad Exchange (AdX) settings actually affect the performance ...
The Record: 7 Waterloo Region firms on Technology Fast 50 list
WATERLOO REGION — Seven Waterloo Region companies are on a new list of Canada\'s fastest growing technology companies. Sortable, Axonify, Clearpath, ...
It’s official! Sortable is one of Canada’s fastest-growing companies
We’re happy to share the news that Sortable is #14 on the 2016 PROFIT 500, with a five-year revenue growth rate of 4,653%*. It’s taken a ...
Startups and Beer is back Sept. 22 for a night of community, connection and craft brews
What do tech startups, craft brew and a former auto garage have in common? They\'ll be the featured elements of the next Startups and Beer on ...
AdExchanger: In new sell-side push, Facebook trials header bidding and tie-ins with native SSPs
Facebook confirmed it’s “exploring header bidding with a small set of publishers.” Those partners may include USA Today and Hearst, according to The ...
Ad refresh and its effects on CPMs
TL;DR Many techniques are used to draw more value out of an impression on a web page. These can vary from placing more ads to the page, to adding ...
Google isn’t going anywhere
A few weeks ago, we contributed an article to AdExchanger\'s Data-Driven Thinking column about the civil war within the advertising industry. In the ...
How we hire developers at Sortable
Hiring is hard. Assessing technical proficiency, planning for the needs of individual teams, and feeling out culture fit company-wide means that ...
No Bullshit Sales: Sortable is hosting a tech sales networking and info session
If you\'re looking to jump into sales in the tech industry but don\'t know where or how to start, hear from the sale teams behind some of Waterloo ...
Sortable is now a Google Certified Publishing Partner
We\'re happy to announce that we\'ve been selected to join Google\'s Certified Publishing Partners program. With our expertise in DoubleClick Ad ...
AlleyWatch: NY AdTech panel hits heavy on pros, cons of header bidding, Google
Digital advertising is a heavily jargon-based industry, and the simplest of concepts can end up sounding complex. Specifically, the rise of header ...
AdExchanger: Sortable wants to automate your Ad Ops team
Optimizing a programmatic ad stack today involves constant manual adjustments. More demand? Move floor prices up. Less demand? Dial them back down. ...
Does above the fold really matter?
Above the fold (ATF) inventory has always been in high demand and at a premium. Advertisers want to ensure that their brand creatives are highly ...
AdExchanger: AppNexus strikes back against Google’s attempt to end header bidding
Since Google opened up its ad server and brought exchange bidding to dynamic allocation a month ago, publisher ad tech and media companies have been ...
BBC: A Trump presidency has Americans looking north
Every four years, terrified by a potential president, many Americans roll out a well-worn pronouncement: \"I\'m moving to Canada!\" However, this ...
Vox: The reasons Americans want to move to Canada are the reasons it’s really hard to do it
In 2016, you\'re not alone: The Canadian government\'s immigration website crashed the day after Donald Trump swept the Super Tuesday primaries, ...
13 Google AdSense alternatives
As a publisher, you probably think a lot about optimizing and improving both your advertising operations and the revenue that you generate from ads. ...
CBC News: Silicon Valley North? Toronto, Waterloo position themselves as next tech hub
\'Waterloo the sort of hacker, hustler, entrepreneurial mindset — but Toronto brings scale\' ...
Betakit: 20 Student Startups Compete For $125,000 at W16 #VELOCITYFUND Finals
The future of education is made up of three components: co-operative education, research intensity, and student entrepreneurship. At least, that’s ...
The Record: Kitchener firm wants Silicon Valley workers who don’t like Trump to come to Canada
Canada\'s technology industry has chosen a mascot for its latest campaign to poach Silicon Valley talent. His name is Donald Trump. Sortable, an ...
Bloomberg: Work in Silicon Valley and Spooked About Trump? Canada Wants You
Sortable, an advertising startup, has been running Facebook ads featuring a photo of The Donald with the tagline: “Thinking of moving to Canada? ...
Sortable housewarming party
Sortable would love if you\'d come join us to celebrate for a night. The last year has been a wild ride. Our team grew from a cozy four to 25 (and ...
Thalamus: sorting through a cornucopia of ad networks to monetize, with Sortable
For those of us that aren’t familiar with Sortable, please tell us a little more about your offering and audience. Sortable helps publishers ...
The Star: Mayor Tory aims to lure U.S. tech talent with mention of divisive’ politics
Move to Canada, and specifically southern Ontario, to get away from “divisive” U.S. politics, Toronto Mayor John Tory plans to tell high-tech talent ...