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spk05: Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the IAS Q1 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, please press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Jonathan Schaefer. Senior Vice President, Investor Relations.
spk13: Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to the IAS 2024 First Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. I'm joined today by Lisa Utschneider, CEO, and Tanya Secor, CFO. Before we begin, please note that today's call and prepared remarks contain forward-looking statements. We refer you to the company's filings with the SEC posted on our investor relations site at investors.integralads.com for more details about important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. We will also refer to non-GAAP measures on today's call. A reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is contained in today's earnings release available on our investor relations site. All financial comparisons, unless noted otherwise, are based on the prior year period. So with these formalities out of the way, I'd now like to turn the call over to our CEO, Lisa O. Schneider. Lisa, you may begin.
spk11: Thank you, Jonathan. Welcome, everyone, to our 2024 first quarter call. Revenue in adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter exceeded our prior expectations. Revenue grew 8% to $114.5 million last year. ahead of our prior outlook of $111 to $113 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $33.1 million at a 29% adjusted EBITDA margin. As we moved through the first quarter, we benefited from increased advertiser demand for our industry-leading products, particularly in social media. Our first quarter performance includes the previously discussed factors within measurement and optimization that we anticipated. We expect favorable demand trends for our products in the second quarter, and we are increasing our full-year outlook. On today's call, I'll address the importance of data integrity and our trusted AI-backed technology, the strong momentum in social media cross-platforms, our robust product pipeline in both measurement and optimization, and several high-growth opportunities that we continue to prioritize. Marketers trust IES to protect, measure, inform, and optimize their brand campaigns. Their trust is based on the accuracy and reliability of our data. Data integrity is critical and inherent in all the reporting and insights we provide in every aspect of our business. Data science is at the heart of our business strategy. Our AI systems enable models that deliver classifications and analytics at greater speed that are scalable with extremely high precision. This, in turn, helps deliver the most actionable data to our clients. In a recent IAF study, our AI technology delivered up to 74% more accurate brand suitability measurement across social media platforms when compared to other providers' solutions. While IAS is focused on harnessing the power of AI, we are committed to doing it responsibly. We are investing in explainable AI, which ensures that our customers can trust our models. The accuracy, reliability, and integrity of our data is anchored in our AI innovation, as well as in our critical role as an independent third-party provider. This allows us to maximize the value we offer, all while maintaining and growing the trust customers have in IAS. A few weeks ago, I presented a TikTok second annual Beyond Brand Safety Summit, along with TikTok's Head of Global Ad Tech Partnerships and Brand Innovation Product Lead. TikTok selected IAS as the only third-party measurement partner to speak at the event, highlighting the essential role IAS plays in supporting TikTok's advertisers. Our leading partnership with TikTok, as well as our recently announced exclusive first-to-market partnerships with Axe and Snap, demonstrate the trust major platforms place in IAS, which fuels our innovation. At IAS, we lead with customer obsession. Putting the customer first and ensuring we're at the forefront of innovation has resulted in a highly sticky customer base with an average tenure of eight plus years for our top 100 marketers. We have increased wallet share with our large customers as a result of organic volume growth, upsell, cross-sell of new products, expansion into new global markets and channels, as well as land expand within existing customer brand portfolios. Since 2019, we've seen a 55% increase in average annual spend in year two of new contracts based on our advertiser customer data. We're pleased to have secured several recent wins in renewal expansions across industry verticals, including CPG, telecommunications, automotive, and financial services. We have also proven our ability to grow with our customers as they shift advertising budgets to capture the explosive growth of social media, including short form video. Social media measurement revenue represented 21% of total revenue and grew 40% in the first quarter due to the rapid adoption of our total media quality TMQ product suite. IES is leading in social media with integrations across the major social platforms, including Meta, YouTube, and TikTok. IAS has also established industry-first partnerships with X and Snap, further validating the superiority of our social media offerings. With Meta, we've achieved strong adoption of our AI-driven TMQ brand safety and suitability measurement product across Facebook and Instagram feed and reels. Total volume of impressions on META increased more than 50% in the first quarter since brand safety and suitability measurement launched on February 5th. We're delighted to announce that we've expanded availability of our brand safety and suitability measurement on META to include 21 new languages for a total of 28 supported languages. In April, we've also expanded to include our GARM-aligned misinformation measurement to meet growing advertiser demand ahead of the upcoming U.S. elections. With TikTok, we expanded our global industry-leading brand safety and suitability measurement to 12 GARM categories and 15 vertical sensitivity category exclusion segments in April. We added 11 countries for total coverage of over 60 countries. We also expanded our measurement ease of activation with automated suitability profiles and enhance reporting capabilities, validating that our customers' ads are appearing in brand-suitable environments. With YouTube, we earned MRC accreditation in March for our integrated third-party calculation and reporting of YouTube video viewability for desktop and mobile, including web and app, using Google's Ads Data Hub for measurement partners. In February, IES launched its exclusive pre-bid product with X, providing the opportunity for U.S. advertisers to opt in to activate pre-bid IAS optimization for X on the vertical video product. IAS classifies vertical video ad adjacencies for brand safety and suitability aligned to the GARM framework, giving advertisers maximum control over where their ads appear on the X vertical video feed. Our relationship with X is based on trust and transparency. with a foundation built on the accuracy of our data. In March, IES announced a first-to-market partnership on Snap to provide AI-driven brand safety and suitability measurement for advertisers. By integrating our TMQ product suite, advertisers on Snap will have access to increased transparency across their Snapchat campaigns. We're currently in development and expect to go live later this year. This announcement expands our partnership with Snap, which dates back to 2018 in which IES launched viewability and IVT measurement. We are prioritizing offerings in measurement and optimization that drive superior results in ROI for our customers in an increasingly cookie-free world. We are expanding the reach of our quality sync product to new DSPs, which simplifies activation for our pre-bid optimization products. QSP revenue more than tripled year over year in the first quarter. In the first quarter, we increased adoption of our total visibility product. Total visibility enables customers to connect performance metrics such as conversions and sales lift, supply path, and cost of media to IAS's media quality metrics. In April, IAS expanded our MFA AI-driven solution to GA after an extensive beta that spanned over 100 campaigns. Our MFA solution is the first to measure and optimize against both MFA and ad clutter sites to drive maximum efficacy across the programmatic buying process. Our quality attention solution went live in early January, and has experienced significant growth in active customers since launch. Our differentiated approach unifies media quality and eye tracking with machine learning to deliver proven results for advertisers. Higher attention drives better sales performance. In a recent study in partnership with NC Solutions on behalf of a major CPG client, we found that impressions with higher attention scores drove an increase of 157% in incremental sales versus impressions with lower attention scores. Ahead of this year's U.S. elections, IAS is helping protect brands by enabling them to identify and avoid misinformation using a combination of AI-backed technology and human detection. IAS has been combating misinformation on the open web since 2021 in partnership with the Global Disinformation Index, or GDI, and aligned with GARM standards. We've significantly enhanced our misinformation offering to include TMQ in leading social platforms. During the quarter, we realized double-digit revenue growth with our mid-tier clients. We have established new partnerships with mid-tier DSPs, including two in the important pharmaceutical sector. We also signed five mid-tier agencies as their preferred or exclusive partners. Lastly, we continue to invest in high-growth opportunities, including CTV, retail media, and gaming. During the quarter, Publica by IES partnered with CNN and Turner Sports and EMEA. Both publisher partners used Publica by IES' unified ad auction solution to increase yield and guarantee the best viewing experience for users. We are delighted to announce that Cam Milley will be joining IAS as Chief Revenue Officer at Publica. With over 12 years in sales leadership roles at Freewheel and OpenX, Cam possesses deep knowledge of the CTV and publisher landscapes. We look forward to welcoming Cam to the team. In April, IAS received accreditation for filtration of sophisticated invalid traffic in CTV environments as applied to video impressions. viewable impressions, and viewability-related metrics. Our latest MRC accreditations demonstrate our continuing commitment to transparency and to the MRC process. In the last 12 months, we've achieved 10 third-party certifications accreditations, including four from the MRC. In April, IAS was one of the first companies to receive TrustArc's Trustee Responsible AI Certification demonstrating our commitment and alignment with the highest standards of AI governance. The certification validates our practices for the development and deployment of AI systems are secure, fair, and transparent. In retail media, IAS is a leader in independent verification with coverage for viewability, IVT, and brand safety with the top retail media networks. In the first quarter, volume from retail media networks grew 88%. Last week, IES announced a first-to-market integration with Roblox to provide 3D in-game viewability and invalid traffic measurement in the immersive environment. Advertisers can access best-in-class third-party measurement to verify that their immersive in-game advertisements on Roblox are driving engagement with real users. To conclude, first quarter results exceeded our prior outlook, and we expect accelerated growth in the second quarter. As previously discussed, we expect the measurement contract renewals to be net revenue positive in 2024. In addition, new products and recent customer wins, along with other contributing factors, reinforce our confidence in our increased full-year outlook. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Tanya to review the financials, and then we'll take your questions.
spk01: Thanks, Lisa, and welcome, everyone. We were pleased to see increasing business momentum as we moved through the first quarter and into the second quarter. We expect to benefit from multiple growth drivers in the second half of the year that I will discuss. As a result, we are raising our full year outlook. Total revenue in the first quarter increased 8% to $114.5 million, ahead of our prior outlook of $111 to $113 million. Increasing social media spend by marketers was the main driver of our better than expected performance in the period. Total revenue from advertisers, which includes optimization and measurement revenue, increased 8% in the first quarter and represented 86% of total revenue for the period. Optimization revenue grew 3% to $52.5 million in the first quarter. Optimization revenue growth in the first quarter reflects the implementation of previously negotiated pricing by one optimization client, as discussed on our last call, as well as softer demand, particularly in auto and T&E. Additionally, on a comparable basis, last year's first quarter benefited from strong seasonal campaign performance, as well as from carryover campaigns from the 2022 World Cup. We expect the growth rate and optimization to more than double in the second quarter from first quarter levels based on improving demand trends as well as the anticipated contribution from recent new logo wins. Measurement revenue increased 14% to $46.3 million in the first quarter. Measurement growth in the first quarter reflects strong demand for our social media products, including our premium price TMQ offering. Social media revenue grew 40% in the first quarter, with strength across platforms, including Meta, following the launch of TMQ, as well as YouTube and TikTok. Meta volumes overall increased more than 50% following the TMQ launch in early February, and we expect a similar rate of growth of Meta volumes for the balance of the year. Advertisers on Meta represent more than 40% of our social media revenue today. Social media revenue represented 21% of total revenue in the first quarter, compared to 18% in the fourth quarter of 2023. Social media revenue represented 52% of total measurement revenue, with the balance being open web, which saw lower demand as marketers shift spend to social. As a result of the strong growth in social media, video grew 27% in the first quarter. Video accounted for 53% of measurement revenue up from 47% in the first quarter of 2023. Measurement performance in the first quarter also included the expected impact of the previously discussed contract renewal. Publisher revenue increased 10% to $15.8 million in the first quarter. Publisher revenue reflects continued adoption of our publicist solutions by large OEM partners, partially offset by the performance of our non-CTV supply-side businesses. publisher revenue represented 14% of total first quarter revenue. Looking at our revenue performance by region, revenue in the Americas increased 6%. International revenue, excluding the Americas, increased 13% year over year and benefited from growth in social media spend, including TMQ in both EMEA and APAC. While international revenue represented 31% of total revenue, 42% of measurement revenue came from outside of the Americas. Gross profit margin for the first quarter was 77%, in line with our full year margin target of 77 to 79%. Gross margin performance reflects investment in data infrastructure and increased hosting costs compared to the prior year. Sales and marketing, technology and development, and general and administrative expenses combined increased 14% year over year which includes the impact of higher stock-based compensation expense. We continue to invest in the long-term growth of IAS with particular focus in the areas of engineering, data science, and sales. We continue to capitalize internally developed software related to new product development and long-term investments in our technology. Stock-based compensation expense for the period was $15.7 million in line with our prior expectation of $14 to $16 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter, which excludes stock-based compensation and one-time items, was $33.1 million at a 29% margin, ahead of our prior outlook of $28 to $30 million, primarily driven by the higher-than-expected revenue. Net loss for the first quarter was $1.3 million, or one cent per share. Turning to our performance metrics, our first quarter net revenue retention, or NRR, was 113%, which reflects the trend of our overall growth rate for the period. The total number of large advertising customers, which includes both mid-tier and top-tier clients with annual revenue over $200,000, increased to 227, up 11% compared to 204 last year, and up sequentially from 222 in the fourth quarter of 2023. Revenue from large advertising customers was 85% of total advertising revenue at the end of the period, up from 84% at the end of the first quarter of 2023. The profitable nature of our business model results in strong free cash flow, which enables us to lower our debt and provides us with financial flexibility to invest in the long-term growth of the business. We maintain a healthy balance sheet with cash and cash equivalents at the end of the first quarter of $83.9 million. During the quarter, we reduced our long-term debt by $30 million to $125 million. As a result, our net debt at the end of the first quarter was $41 million. Turning to guidance. For the second quarter ending June 30th, 2024, we expect total revenue in the range of $125 to $127 million or 11% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter is expected in the range of $37 to $39 million or a 30% margin at the midpoint. For the full year 2024, we are increasing our revenue outlook to $533 to $541 million or 13% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. versus the prior range of $530 to $540 million. We are raising our full-year adjusted EBITDA range to $174 to $180 million, or a 33% margin at the midpoint, versus the prior range of $171 to $179 million. A few additional modeling points. Our gross profit margin outlook remains unchanged in the range of 77% to 79% for the full year, which reflects higher hosting costs related to our video offerings. Second quarter stock-based compensation expense is expected in the range of $15 to $17 million. Full year 2024 stock-based compensation expense is expected in the range of $63 to $66 million lower than our prior expectation of $72 to $76 million. We expect weighted average shares outstanding for the second quarter in the range of 160 to 161 million shares and 160 to 162 million shares for the full year. We are pleased to introduce a positive outlook for the second quarter with continued growth and measurement driven by strong customer adoption of our social media offerings The optimization growth rate year over year is expected to more than double in the second quarter from the first quarter. Publisher revenue in the second quarter is expected to include double-digit growth in Publica, consistent with Publica's strong first quarter performance. As we move into the back half of the year, we expect accelerated growth, driven by our robust product pipeline, including the ongoing TMQ rollout across social platforms, the scaling of our recently launched MFA and attention products, quality sync expansion, the contribution from new logo wins, and higher volumes from the recent measurement renewals. In addition, we expect profitable growth with expanded adjusted EBITDA margins as we move through the year, while investing in the growth of the business and reducing debt. Lisa and I are now ready to take your questions. Operator?
spk05: Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. One moment for questions. Our first question comes from Matt Farrell with Piper Sandler. You may proceed.
spk00: Hey, guys. Congrats on the really strong results. and the strong guide, maybe just getting this question out of the way on the pricing side of things. We'd just love to hear a bit more about the contract renewals and the new contracts you've signed since the last call, our conversations with advertisers around pricing, following the Q4 commentary.
spk11: Sure. Happy to take that, Matt. So a few things about the pricing dynamics. The first is, in terms of renewals, as anticipated, our average measurement ECPMs in the quarter were as we had expected and based into our guidance and forecast. And also, we saw measurement volume growth that was also part of our guide. In addition to that, our renewals in Q1, we saw 100% renewal rate with all of the renewals we were able to close in Q1.
spk00: Gotcha. Thanks for that. And maybe just on the second half revenue ramp, a lot of good growth drivers there. We just love how to think about how much visibility you have into those different growth drivers at this point in time. Thanks.
spk11: Sure. So in terms of the growth drivers in the second half of the year, when you take a look at our Q1 results, there are several strong tailwinds that are driving our business. The tailwinds include social, TMQ in particular. We're seeing rapid adoption of TMQ across all of the social platforms, and we anticipate ongoing adoption of TMQ into the back half of the year. In addition to that, we expect continued expansion of quality sync, especially in the new DSPs we had just mentioned on the call. And then also, we have a robust new product roadmap for the back half of the year. We've already launched these products, including MFA, attention, misinformation. We're seeing nice adoption, and the team will continue focus in the back half of the year continuing to drive that adoption. The other tailwind is Publica. We love to see the double-digit growth in Publica in the first quarter as the team continues to drive engagement with strategic OEMs, including Samsung and Vizio, and we anticipate ongoing growth and adoption for Publica.
spk05: Thank you. One moment for questions. Our next question comes from Jason Helsing with Oppenheimer. You may proceed.
spk12: Uh, can you hear me?
spk11: Yep. Yep.
spk12: I wasn't sure if mute was on. How are you? So, uh, I guess on behalf of investors, kind of a, a thank you for, uh, kind of doing the mature thing last quarter and, uh, kind of making sure that you weren't overly sticking your neck out just given some of the factors. So I think everybody appreciates that. Two questions. I guess first, on the level of meta-adoption assumed in the guide, is it basically kind of a continuation of the current spend that you've kind of seen through April or kind of further adoption and maybe how much of that further adoption is kind of already contracted with minimums? And then secondly, we're going to see a pretty big increase probably from kind of Netflix and kind of Amazon after this up front. We know you have exposure with Netflix there, but just broadly, does that impact the company kind of coming out of this up front, just given the more adoption of some of that video? Thank you.
spk11: Okay, Jason, happy to take both questions. So, as I mentioned before, an important tailwind for our business continues to be social, driving the adoption of TMQ. We were thrilled to launch TMQ on Meta in early February and are pleased with the adoption that we've seen to date. As we mentioned before, the 40% growth in social for the first quarter, we also saw the 50% year-over-year increase in volume on meta, and we're seeing that ongoing growth into the second quarter. The other thing I'll call out in terms of TMQ adoption from a vertical perspective, where we're seeing nice adoption is CPG, retail, and tech-telco verticals. And then in terms of your question regarding Netflix and Amazon, As I mentioned before, we're seeing really nice growth in the CTV space with Publica. We're also seeing our customers lean into our measurement offerings in CTV, both in Netflix and on other platforms, and we anticipate ongoing growth in the back half of the year.
spk05: Thank you. Thank you. One moment for questions. Our next question comes from Justin Patterson with KeyBank. You may proceed.
spk16: Great. Thanks for taking my question. This is Jacob on for Justin. You've had a solid relationship with X, a channel others have struggled with. How are your social capabilities being viewed by advertisers, and do you believe social is a factor behind you winning business?
spk11: Yeah, so we've been partnered with X for over six years, and we continue to lean into our X partnership, innovate on behalf of X and the brands that are running on X. You might recall we launched an exclusive pre-bid brand safety and suitability partnership with X, and X remains committed to the importance of brand safety and suitability for our brands and for the broader digital ecosystem.
spk05: Thank you. One moment for questions. Our next question comes from Brian Fitzgerald with Wells Fargo. You may proceed.
spk02: Hi, this is Rob on the call for Fitz. Thanks for taking our questions. Lisa, you've been ahead of the curve in talking about and really preparing us for the mix shift from programmatic to social video and CTV. It seems like that shift is accelerating, but wanted to ask if you could expand on what you're seeing right now. And Tanya, if you could maybe talk a bit about your outlook for activation segment growth for the rest of the year. And second, sort of related to that, Lisa, can you talk about the opportunity in social and CTV in comparison to programmatic, maybe in terms of your ability to expand your solution set over time and capture value for IIS as well in relation to underlying media spend? Thanks so much.
spk11: Sure. So in terms of social, as I mentioned before, we're pleased with that 40% growth year over year in first quarter, particularly with the launch of our total media quality technology that we're currently running across multiple social platforms and launched in meta in early February. It is a major driver for our business. We command a premium price for our TMQ product because of the level of sophistication of the technology that we are classifying multimedia from a video, image, audio, and text in a very granular way, frame by frame. And as I mentioned before, we're seeing Several verticals in particular lean into our measurement solutions and our TMQ product in particular, including CPG Retail and Tech Telco. In terms of CTV, as I mentioned before, that is also a tailwind for our business. A big reason for that is because of our differentiated leading CTV platform of Publica. where we have strategic partnerships with Samsung, Vizio, and other OEMs. And the fact that we have a marketplace in place bringing together brands and the broadcasters and publishers, it's a huge differentiator for IES.
spk01: And Rob, so on your second question around optimization, We experienced softer demand in Q1 on the optimization front, particularly in the auto and T&E verticals. But we're starting to see that rebound as we head into the second quarter. And it's also worth noting there were some seasonal campaign spending in Q1 of last year, which was a little bit of a headwind for optimization in Q1 of this year in terms of the comps. But we're seeing optimization improvement in March. And as we head into the second quarter, our outlook is optimization growth rate more than doubling in the second quarter from our first quarter growth rate.
spk02: Okay. Thanks so much.
spk04: Sorry I got the segment wrong. Thank you.
spk05: Thank you. One moment for questions. Our next question comes from Raymond Lenshaw with Barclays. You may proceed.
spk06: Hey, perfect. Thank you. Two questions. Lisa, after this week's earnings from some of your competitors, there's a big question mark around the health of advertisers in general. You are very kind of geared in to what's going on in the industry. What are you seeing there in terms of how spending is evolving there on the advertiser side? And then I had one follow-up.
spk11: Yeah, sure, Remo. Happy to take your question. So what we're seeing is a positive advertising environment and marketers, and as you know, I spent a lot of time with the brands. They're leaning into our differentiated solutions. And the reason why they're leaning into our solutions is they're looking for performance, transparency, efficiency, and growth. And some of the stats we've already shared on the call demonstrate the strength that we're seeing in the industry, those tailwinds of social and CTV. And we're just so excited to have a robust product roadmap and continue to launch innovative products in the back half of the year.
spk06: Perfect. Thank you. And then one follow-up. If I think about events from here, how do you think about European Championship in football,
spk11: election etc like should that be kind of drivers that should have positive influence for you thank you I happy to take that one too so a few points on that so there are over two billion people globally who are voting this year and especially the US elections is top of mind for the marketers and we got a lot of demand to launch a misinformation segment across the social platforms. This is part of, you probably remember, Ramo, the GARM framework. Misinformation is a new category that we recently launched. We launched it on Meta and TikTok. It was the number one request from the brand, so we pulled that product into H1 of our roadmap. We've launched the project so that marketers can rest assured when they run digital advertising, especially leading up to the elections, that their brands are running adjacent to brand safe and suitable content. The other seasonal events in addition to the elections, the Olympics, that's another important event happening this summer. And again, we're engaged with our brands and ensuring that both they're investing in our solutions and that they're leaning into our products so they have brand safety and suitability running. Perfect.
spk04: Thank you.
spk11: Thanks.
spk05: Thank you. One moment for questions. Our next question comes from James Heaney with Jefferies. You may proceed.
spk14: Great. Thanks for taking my question. Can you just talk about the revenue contribution that you saw from the cohort of customers who asked for pricing concessions on measurement? I know you mentioned that these customers are committed to increasing their volume commitments, so just curious how you're thinking about the Q2 and full year impact from those customers starting to ramp back up. Thank you.
spk01: Sure. Hi, James. Thanks for the question. In Q1, we – sorry, in our last earnings call, we were clear and transparent with the trends that we saw. We shared those with you in terms of this cohort of measurement renewals, and Q1 played out as expected. So, the trends in our average CPM for measurement did decline. And that was reflective of the impact of this cohort of measurement renewals on our CPMs in Q1. But that was also partially offset by the premium that we're charging for TMQ. And as TMQ is expanding, that helped drive up slightly our CPMs. Things played out as we expected as we moved through the year. The measurement renewals are expected to be net revenue positive, and we factored that all into our guide. There is actually one other thing I wanted to add just to enhance on the question. In Q1, of the renewals we had, 100% of them renewed at similar price and expanded volume.
spk14: Great. And if I could just ask one more quick one for Lisa. I mean, we didn't hear as much conversation about just retail media, so we'd love to get your updated thoughts there and on some of the partnerships that you've done. Thank you.
spk11: Sure. So in retail media, we have integrations and partnerships with nine out of the top ten retail media players. And one stat I'd be happy to share in Q1 is The volume from retail media networks, it grew 88% year over year, which demonstrates the strength that we have in retail media and the fact that these partners are leaning into our solutions. Great. Thank you. Thank you.
spk05: Thank you. One moment for questions. Our next question comes from Jason Crayer with Craig Hallam. You may proceed.
spk09: Great. Thank you, guys, and congrats on the good results. I wanted to ask about the MFA solution. You know, it seems like the IAB has kind of declared war on MFAs, and we've heard a little bit of pushback against that in some of our industry conversations. So just curious how, you know, if you can elaborate on early feedback or just your expectations for adoption of that solution.
spk11: Sure. So MFA and rolling out our MFA solution was incredibly important. for our advertising customers, because I'm sure you've seen the third party reports that say that advertisers are wasting up to 20% of their ad spend on MFA sites. In April, we launched our, went GA with our MFA AI-driven solution after an extensive beta that spanned over 100 campaigns. Our advertising customers, they're leaning into the solution, They love the fact that we've launched GA. And the one thing I should call out about our solution, it's the first solution with MFA to measure and optimize against both MFA and add clutter sites to ultimately drive maximum efficiency and performance for the brand. So it is early days, but having run the 100 campaigns in the beta, got the engagement with the advertisers, and now they're leaning into the product.
spk09: Great. Thank you.
spk11: Thank you.
spk05: Thank you. One moment for questions. Our next question comes from Mark Mahaney with Evercore ISI. You may proceed.
spk15: Hey, thanks. The build-out of Meta has been some time in coming for you. It's obviously very material for you now. Could you just talk about the ability to continue to expand within Meta how much of the inventory there you have access to, what the range of the solutions you're able to sell in, and how many more solutions you could sell into that. And then separately, could you just comment briefly again on cookie deprecation with the push out now into early next year, just your latest thoughts on the impact that has on your business. Thank you very much.
spk11: Sure, happy to take that, Mark. So with Meta, we've been running our verification solutions, but what the advertisers were clamoring for is opening up, for Meta to open up the Facebook news feed, Instagram feed, and Meta Reels with our total media quality. You're familiar with that, the brand safety and suitability solution. So we launched that product February 5th, As I mentioned before, we're seeing very strong adoption. We saw 50% growth year over year in the volumes. That's with the TMQ adoption. And in terms of expansion, we also recently announced that we launched an additional 21 new languages on Meta and offering now a total of 28 languages. supported languages. In addition to that, with TMQ, and we'll continue to roll out more markets and more languages for our advertising customers with Meta, we also launched, as I mentioned, we pulled misinformation into the first half of our product roadmap because of the demand from our advertising customers to launch misinformation before the elections. And in April, we also were thrilled to launch misinformation in Meta, which is aligned according to the GARM framework. In terms of your second question with cookie deprecation pushing out to 2025, cookie deprecation is actually a tailwind for our business because what we focus on is the environment and the contextual environment where advertisers are running their brand. So even if, since it is getting pushed out to 2025, we're not dependent on cookies for any of our verification or optimization products. And again, we see it ultimately as a tailwind.
spk04: Thank you, Lisa.
spk11: Thanks, Mark.
spk05: Thank you. One moment for questions. Our next question comes from Yusuf Squali with Truist Securities. You may proceed.
spk03: Thank you very much. Lisa, versus that 50% growth in volume at Meta that you just referenced, how does that jive with the revenues that you're generating from Meta? Are you charging separately for that? And I think you talked about it obviously being a premium product. Or is that part of an existing bundle that you're already selling? And then I have a follow-up, please.
spk11: Yeah, happy to take that one. So, yes, we're seeing tremendous adoption of our total media quality product. That is represented in that 50% year-over-year volume growth is because of launching TMQ in February. And with TMQ, because of the sophistication of the technology, the granularity of the technology, we're able to classify video, image, audio, text, frame by frame. So what that means is 30 second videos running where we're classifying every single frame. And because of the granularity, we're able to demonstrate and prove that we're finding higher quality media for the advertisers. Because of that, we're charging a premium.
spk01: To add on to that, thanks, Lisa. We've already successfully negotiated a premium rate on our TMQ offerings. And to help Yosef you size the opportunity of Meta and the way we're thinking about it, Meta revenue today is just over 40% of our social media revenue. And as we mentioned, with the volume growth of approximately 50% that we've experienced on all of Meta since its launch, assuming that continues through the rest of the year, that's roughly, give or take, a $15 million increase in our expectations for Meta overall.
spk03: That's great. Thanks, Tonya, for that. And then you talked about double-digit growth in revenue with the mid-tier clients. Can you unpack that a little bit and just talk to the drivers of that? That's actually very impressive.
spk11: Sure, I'm happy to take that. So in Q1, we did see double-digit revenue growth with the mid-tier clients, and it's an area where our sales team is very focused on. A couple of data points to add to that. More than half of our large customers today are defined as mid-tier customers, and where we're seeing nice runway and opportunity with the mid-tier channels, is establishing partnerships with mid-tier DSPs. We mentioned it earlier on the call. There were two in particular in the pharmaceutical sector. We also signed five mid-tier agencies as their preferred or exclusive partners. So we're feeling very good about mid-tier in terms of the traction and momentum that we have, and the team will continue to cross-sell, up-sell, and put new logos on the board with the mid-tier channel.
spk03: Great. Thanks, Lisa.
spk11: No problem.
spk05: Thank you. One moment for questions. Our next question comes from Omar Dasuki with Bank of America. You may proceed.
spk17: Hi. Thank you. So just looking at your guidance, it looked like you raised guidance for the year by about $3 million, and first quarter was maybe above your guidance by about the same, so it looks like a pass-through to me. I was wondering, first of all, if that's correct, I was wondering, for the balance of the year, have your outlooks for... measurement or optimization changed as compared to right after the fourth quarter print. You speak more enthusiastically about social media measurement driven by Facebook and Meta, which sounds to me like maybe you'd be more enthusiastic about the growth prospects for measurement which would imply that optimization might be a little weaker. That's kind of how I'm reading it, but I wanted to get a little bit more clarity on if that's how I should think about it.
spk01: Hi, Omar. For clarity, our full-year revenue guidance was an increase of $2 million at the midpoint of the range, and we also increased our EBITDA midpoint by $2 million. Okay. So 13% revenue growth at the midpoint on the top line and 33% EBITDA margin at the midpoint.
spk11: Yeah, and in terms of the back half of the year regarding the product roadmap and product adoption, like I said before, nice momentum across the social platforms, especially with our TMQ products. We are also launching, as we mentioned earlier on the call, new partnerships with social platforms like Snap. We were the first to market offering brand safety and suitability, Snap, which will be available later this year. And then launching several, what we're referring to as cookie-free products, so looking into the future in a cookie-less world, products like MFA, attention, misinformation, which we offer both at the pre-bid and post-bid, we're seeing our advertising customers lean into these solutions. I had mentioned before the robust MFA beta that we did running 100 campaigns. And we'll just continue to cross-sell, up-sell, and ride this momentum and ensure we're driving adoption in the back half of the year. The other note to make is we're also confident on our ability to deliver on this increased outlook because of the robustness of the product roadmap, the investments we're making in innovation, investments we're making in AI-powered products, and the ability for the team to execute.
spk17: Let me just maybe focus on optimization just so I can narrow this down. As compared to when you gave your initial guide, has your outlook for optimization worsened at all, even if a little bit?
spk01: I mean, Omar, overall, while we had a beat in Q1, we did raise our guide for the full year. Given that many of the products that we've launched and now we've announced the launch of those products, And given the ramp we have expected for products that are ready in market, like QSP, for example, which is an optimization, we have a lot of confidence in the second half of the year. I wouldn't say that our view is that that's declined. I mean, we're still confident in the second half of the year. And optimization in particular, we're looking at more than doubling our growth rate from Q1 to Q2. And no, we're still positive and confident about our outlook for the second half of the year.
spk17: Just one more question, if I could. You haven't mentioned context control on the call or in the transcript. And I think in the last couple of quarters, you had started to talk about kind of a decel for that specific product. Is context control going to grow in 24 hours? Yeah, is it a driver of growth anymore? And if so, how is that growth coming? Is it coming from new accounts using it for the first time or increased consumption by existing accounts?
spk11: Great question. So in terms of context control performance in the period, it reflected the overall optimization demand, which, as you might remember, it ramped through Q1, so it improved in March and will continue to grow in Q2. From new logo versus existing, we're seeing both. We're seeing the team put new logo wins on the board with context control, and we're also seeing existing advertisers increase their spend in context control. Great.
spk17: Thank you. Appreciate it.
spk11: Thank you.
spk05: Thank you. One moment for questions. Our next question comes from Mark Kelly with Stiefel. You may proceed.
spk08: Great. Thank you very much. I was hoping to go back to CTV and ask you if it's possible to kind of strip out public from that conversation. I know public is super important for that for that segment. But can you talk about a I guess, you know, maybe the current trends you're seeing in CTV? And B, you know, in my mind, as things become more programmatic and biddable, I think that makes your solutions, you know, more desirable and needed a bit more. I guess, is there a way for us to frame either attach rates or, you know, how your products are used in a like a private deal environment versus biddable programmatic? That would be great. Thank you.
spk11: Yeah, I'm happy, Mark, to take that question in terms of the trends and differentiation that we have. So, and I know you're very familiar with Publica. So, Publica as a platform, we have deep relationships both with the major global broadcasters and the TV OEMs. In addition to that, we have IAS's relationships with the Fortune 500 global brands. And because of bringing together both this buy side and sell side, we're uniquely positioned in CTV to create a marketplace for transparency between the publishers and the brands. Because speaking with the brands, the number one reason, at least what I hear and the team hears, in terms of what's holding brands back in shifting linear TV dollars into CTV and programmatic CTV in particular, It's lack of transparency, and that's an area we're very focused on. We're actually at the forefront of enabling show-level transparency for brands so they can trust where their buys are being activated. We already have several initiatives in motion that are already providing this level of transparency that I'm describing between major U.S. broadcasters and TV OEMs. So that's where we're very focused on right now is the show level transparency and also with the direct partnerships with the OEMs and the broadcasters.
spk08: Okay, thanks. And anything just on like the difference between like a PMP deal and, you know, more biddable programmatic inventory in CTV?
spk11: Yeah, we're leaning in more to the biddable programmatic area.
spk08: Okay, thank you.
spk11: Thank you.
spk05: Thank you. One moment for questions. Our next question comes from Mark Skudowitz with the Benchmark Company. You may proceed.
spk07: Thank you. Tanya, I was hoping maybe to ask that. earlier question a little differently about your growth in optimization versus measurement. If you look at your optimization segment, and I know you've guided to doubling growth in 2Q, but that still implies a deceleration from 1Q to 2Q, at least on a two-year stack. So I guess the question is, if you think about your guidance and the mix of measurement in that guidance, what might that be? And it looks to me like you might need to see measurement mix expand from close to 39, 40 percent to 50 percent, perhaps, on your guidance, just if we follow the same trend line for optimization. unless you're expecting a reacceleration of optimization in the second half. If you could maybe provide some color there, it would be helpful. Thanks.
spk01: Sure. As you look at our full-year guidance, at 13% at the midpoint of the range, growth and measurement fueled by social is expected to be higher than the midpoint, and optimization growth rate is expected to be slightly lower than the midpoint, although in the double digits.
spk07: Okay. Great. And then just a One last one on measurement. Is there any lumpiness that we should expect in the next three quarters, or should that be pretty linear in terms of sequential strength in that segment?
spk01: So our measurement growth throughout the year, I would think about it as really primarily driven by social, TMQ. In terms of lumpiness, We don't expect any lumpiness, but we do anticipate, given the trends we're seeing, an acceleration of our measurement growth rate as we move through the year.
spk07: Okay, great. Thanks, Tonya. Appreciate it.
spk05: Thank you. One moment for questions. Our next question comes from Mauricio Munoz with Raymond James. You may proceed.
spk10: Hi, can you hear me okay?
spk11: Yep.
spk10: Yeah, thank you. Lisa, yeah, I just wanted to go back to the expanded opportunity I made up. You have obviously talked about it on the call, but I'm wondering if you could offer some contrast and sort of reception and rate of adoption that you're seeing this early between There's those social customers that already advertise in Meta and now are expanding to adopt PMQ in the platform. And what perhaps is the largest opportunity for you, which is those social customers that do not advertise in Meta, but might start doing so under the PMQ umbrella. So if you could please talk about sort of interest and adoption you're seeing by this cohort, and then I have a follow-up.
spk11: Yeah, sure. Happy to take that. So I've shared all the stats in terms of meta, the volume, the growth we're seeing in social. We launched TMQ on meta in early February, February 5th, and we are seeing tremendous adoption. The one stat I can share is over 100 advertisers have adopted TMQ on Meta since launch. And this is a combination of new logos and existing advertisers. And we're thrilled with Meta in terms of as a partner, the fact we're seeing that adoption rate, the fact that we continue to roll out new languages, more languages, more marketing, which is really important for the Fortune 500 industry. global marketers. And in addition to that, also launching misinformation in April was also meaningful for the advertisers, especially the ones who are advertised, plan to advertise during the U.S. elections.
spk10: Okay, thanks. And then on CTV, obviously a lot of excitement about the prospects of CTV as a long-term driver of digital spending. So with the understanding that most of the tailwind is initially expected to come from dollars shifting from linear TV, which will largely be incremental to you, but just wanted to ask you about the potential impact if advertisers continue to emphasize the format, but budget within digital starts shifting from other video formats into CTV, which has a higher CPM but relatively lower volume. So if you could speak about this dynamic and perhaps talk about the steps you're taking to capitalize on this trend, including any potential monetization strategy that would allow you to benefit from the higher CPM. Thank you.
spk11: Yeah, happy to take that. In terms of the trends that we're seeing, there are a few. With CTV in particular, typically those budgets are moved from linear traditional TV into CTV, whether it's premium CTV content like what is running on Netflix. We have a measurement partnership with Netflix. or moving over into programmatic CTV. So that's how we view CTV, and it's roughly, what, $25, $26 billion marketplace today, double-digit growth. Lots of runway in CTV early days, but that is a new revenue stream of CTV. And then the other area to call out, in terms of when you think about measurement and social, The growth right now as an industry is short form video. Short form video, you hear about it in Meta's earnings calls and YouTube with Meta Reels, YouTube Shorts, short form video running on TikTok. The usage is through the roof in terms of users viewing, creating, sharing short form video within the live feeds of those platforms. And as I like to say, the brands go where the users are. And that's why we're seeing such high engagement from the advertisers as they are investing more and more of their digital advertising dollars in the social platforms because of the explosive growth of short form video, which also commands a higher CPM.
spk05: Thank you.
spk11: Thank you.
spk05: I would now like to turn the call back over to Lisa Utschneider for any closing remarks.
spk11: Thanks everyone for joining today's call. I'm proud of our global team's execution and we're pleased with our momentum heading into the second quarter. We're excited to drive adoption of our innovative new products throughout the year. We look forward to updating you on our progress and to seeing you at several upcoming investor events.
spk05: Thank you. This concludes the conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
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