EPISODE 150: Marketer of the Month Podcast with Till Faida

Hey there! Welcome to the Marketer Of The Month blog!

We recently interviewed Till Faida for our monthly podcast – ‘Marketer of the Month’! We had some amazing insightful conversations with Till and here’s what we discussed about-

1. The challenge of finding a balance between acceptable ads and sufficient monetization for publishers.

2. Prioritizing unobtrusive ad experiences that don’t interrupt user activities.

3. The evolving landscape of ad filtering and its purpose in balancing user experience and monetization.

4. Apple’s impact on advertising privacy and the quest for relevant ad experiences.

5. Advocating for rules in online advertising governed by a diverse coalition.

6. The coalition’s structure involves profit entities, user representation, and academia.

About our host:

Dr. Saksham Sharda is the Chief Information Officer at Outgrow.co. He specializes in data collection, analysis, filtering, and transfer by means of widgets and applets. Interactive, cultural, and trending widgets designed by him have been featured on TrendHunter, Alibaba, ProductHunt, New York Marketing Association, FactoryBerlin, Digimarcon Silicon Valley, and at The European Affiliate Summit.

About our guest:

Till Faida, founder of Eyeo GmbH, oversees the business at Eyeo GmbH, focusing on the Acceptable Ads initiative. His extensive skill set covers entrepreneurship, online advertising, product management, startup development, and a wide array of marketing strategies in the digital realm.

Ads Interrupted: Eyeo’s Till Faida on Striking the Right Chord with Unobtrusive Experiences

The Intro!

Saksham Sharda: Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Outgrow’s Marketer of the Month. I’m your host, Dr. Saksham Sharda, and I’m the creative director at Outgrow. co. And for this month we are going to interview Till Faida who is the Co-founder of Eyeo.

Till Faida: Great to be here. Thank you.

Don’t have time to read? No problem, just watch the Podcast!

Or you can just listen to it on Spotify!

The Rapid Fire Round!

Saksham Sharda: Describe what your organization does in one sentence.

Till Faida: We create ad filtering software, which gives users the ability to browse the web without annoying ads while working on a healthy value exchange between users, publishers, and advertisers.

Saksham Sharda: How long does it take you to get ready in the mornings?

Till Faida: 15 to 20 minutes.

Saksham Sharda: The most valuable skill you’ve learned in life.

Till Faida: Don’t be afraid to be controversial.

Saksham Sharda: City in which the Best Kiss of your life happened.

Till Faida: A small German town called Oldenburg because that’s where I had the very first one which is the best.

Saksham Sharda: How many speakers can you name at this conference?

Till Faida: None.

Saksham Sharda: In one sentence, describe one problem that your organization is facing.

Till Faida: The challenge that we’re all facing is how high-quality content like good journalism can be monetized so that it’s accessible to everyone. And I think we have pretty good solutions for that.

Saksham Sharda: How do you relax?

Till Faida: I work out and I go for walks with my dog.

Saksham Sharda: I have a habit of yours that you hate.

Till Faida: Procrastinating.

Saksham Sharda: Work from home or work from the office.

Till Faida: Lately, I have been working more from home.

Saksham Sharda: Most embarrassing moment of your life?

Till Faida: I’m gonna use my pass on that one.

Saksham Sharda: How many hours of sleep can you survive on?

Till Faida: Four.

Saksham Sharda: Your favorite app?

Till Faida: Google Maps.

Saksham Sharda: Biggest mistake of your career.

Till Faida: Again, I’m going to use my pass.

Saksham Sharda: The first movie that comes to your mind when I say the word technology.

Till Faida: I don’t watch any movies.

Saksham Sharda: How many cups of coffee do you drink in a day?

Till Faida: Four.

Saksham Sharda: Favorite net Netflix show?

Till Faida: Ozark.

The Big Questions!

Saksham Sharda: Let’s go on to the bigger questions. The first one is, what are your views on the rise of acceptable ads being the downfall of Ad blocking? And in your opinion, how many ads do you think are not annoying and can be qualified as acceptable?

Till Faida: Well, I think this is exactly the key challenge, we need to find the right balance between what is acceptable to users and still provide sufficient monetization opportunities for publishers to support content creators and high-quality content like journalism. And I think many additional experiences are not only valuable but also enjoyable.

Saksham Sharda: Give us an example of one of these that stands out for you.

Till Faida: I think the key is to not interrupt the user from what they’re trying to do. So the more you’re staying out of the way of the user. And the more you’re letting the user decide to interact with your ad, the more acceptable it is, at least for the users that we represent.

Saksham Sharda: What do you think is the future of ad filtering technologies? How is ad filtering essentially different from traditional ad-blocking methods?

Till Faida: Well, I think more and more users want to be part of a healthy value exchange with publishers and content creators. Blocking all ads is a way for a user to have control over their browsing experience. At the same time, we have to ensure that great content still can be monetized. And this is what ad filtering is all about to figure out what that perfect balance is between monetization and a great user experience.

Saksham Sharda: Do you think ad filtering and machine learning can be correlated? And if yes, then what is the need for establishing and leveraging this relationship between the two?

Till Faida: Well, we are investing a lot in automating the ad filtering technology, which means we want to automatically detect what is an ad, what is an annoying ad and what is organic content.

Saksham Sharda: Recent reports have shown that YouTube’s ad business has been shrinking. So given the situation, what are your views on the scope of the online advertising market or business now?

Till Faida: I think they’re always fluctuating. But at the end of the day, we all have to realize how important the online advertising market is because it’s ultimately the backbone of providing access to free information.

Saksham Sharda: And what do you think of Apple’s crackdown on advertising within its iPhone?

Till Faida: I think it creates opportunities to rethink how we can ensure there’s privacy and transparency for consumers while at the same time ensuring there is a relevant ad experience. And that advertisers can target relevant audiences.

Saksham Sharda: And the next one is, according to you, what rules should govern an online advertising business?

Till Faida: Well, the key for us is that our rules are not determined by one entity, not determined by our company. It’s determined by an independent, nonprofit organization, which includes all the relevant stakeholders and figuring out the perfect balance between great user experience and monetization.

Saksham Sharda: So what are these organizations?

Till Faida: We ultimately have three coalitions: there’s a for-profit coalition that is made up of publishers, ad tech companies, and advertising agencies. We have a user coalition where we have digital rights organizations and actual users represented. We also have a more academic coalition with researchers from universities for example. And those three coalitions I think create the perfect balance that we’re aiming for.

Saksham Sharda: And how did the idea to establish such a diverse coalition come about?          

Till Faida: Well, the idea was always there, because it’s kind of obvious that we need to include all the relevant stakeholders and figure out what is the right ad experience. It took us a while to establish this body but for the last couple of years, we’ve been working very successfully with the Acceptable Ads Committee, which creates the rules for an advertising experience that respects the user’s quizzes.

Saksham Sharda: So the last question for you is, what would you be doing in your life if not this?

Till Faida: Do I still have a pass left?

Saksham Sharda: No.

Till Faida: One of the things that we have recently developed into as an organization is that when we now have a new management team in place, I as a founder get the chance to take a step back from the day-to-day of managing the company which allows me to spend more time with the family as well.

Let’s Conclude!

Saksham Sharda: Thanks, everyone for joining us for this month’s episode of Outgrow’s Marketer of the Month. That was  Faida who is the Co-founder of Eyeo.

Till Faida: Pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Saksham Sharda: Check out the website for more details and we’ll see you once again next month with another marketer of the month.