Brave browser, built on Web3 technology, is known for its speed, protection of user privacy and security, and the basic attention token.
The Basic Attention Token (BAT) is the first token for the digital advertising industry. It pays publishers for their content and users for their attention while providing advertisers with more in return for their ads.
Brave ads platform, an advertising platform for advertisers to advertise on the Brave browser, is BAT's byproduct. Advertisers can sign up with Brave ads and run their ads with the targeting capabilities and ad formats provided by Brave ads.
I have worked in the digital advertising field for years. I have personally managed mainstream ad platforms like Google ads, Facebook ads, Tiktik ads, Snap ads ad networks, and DSP. Brave Ads got my attention as a digital advertising nerd, and I researched Brave Ads. I would like to share the nuance of Brave Ads.
- Unique and unreachable audience
According to Brave's media kit, Brave users spend 83% of their time browsing online via Brave, which blocks ads. 80% of users do not have paid cable or satellite TV. Only 51% of them use Facebook. In addition, 6 in 10 use an ad blocker when using other browsers and thus don't see programmatic ads. Only 1 in 5 use Snapchat, TikTok, or Pinterest. Brave users are technology early adopters, high income, and geared towards males.
- Ad units
Brave offers three ad formats: sponsored images, push notifications, and news feed. Sponsored image is a high-impact introduction for brands to millions of daily active users. Push notification is a high-performing and targeted ad unit. The brave promoted news feed is similar to other promoted news feeds. It includes an image, a headline, and a CTA button.
Brave claims that the avg. CTR for sponsored images is 1% - 2%, for news feed is 4%-5%, and for push notifications is 8%-9%.
- Campaign targeting and ad matching
Brave Ads automatically uses local machine learning to match ads directly from the end user's browser. Brands can also elect to assign content categories to their campaigns. In addition, Brave Ads provides contextual, behavioral, geo, and device targeting.
- Metrics and reporting
Brave Ads provides standard metrics like view, click, conversion, and brand lift and interesting metrics like dismissed, 10-second visit, upvote & downvote.
- Payment method
Ad campaigns are set up to be billed in USD. Advertisers may also choose to pay using the Basic Attention Token (BAT). BAT, similar to other cryptocurrencies, fluctuates in value.
Concerns about Brave Ads
During my research of Brave ads, I discovered that many Brave browser users in countries outside of the United States are seeing much fewer ads. So, to get a higher BAT payout, they will download VPN and change the country setting to the United States to pretend they are in the United States and gain more ads as there are much more advertisers targeting the audience in the United States.
Conclusions about Brave Ads
As a digital advertiser, I will be interested in testing out Brave Ads, given its lower CPC, targeting, and higher engagement rate. Additionally, our team will be meeting up with their team to configure conversion tracking from web to app as Brave Ads stops supporting MMPs due to data privacy issues. It's definitely promising as the browser grows in popularity.