People of Publift: Celebrating our Amazing Publifters!
Let us introduce you to a remarkable member from our global team — meet Suzan Liu, a Senior Yield Analyst at Publift. Previously, Suzan wore the hat of a Programmatic Yield and Analytics Manager in REA Group, the number one property platform in Australia. With over a decade of experience in the advertising industry, she now brings her experience of managing yield in the open market using auction mechanics, testing, and AI-driven solutions to help publishers earn more revenue!
In our heart-to-heart chat with Suzan, she opens up about her experiences in the dynamic world of programmatic and gives us a glimpse into how she embraces our unique culture. Plus, stay tuned for a delightful TMI about Suzan's newest hobby that adds an extra dash of charm to her persona –- trust us, it's too cute to miss!
1. Could you describe what your typical workday involves?
My days involve working on a variety of investigation projects, getting to know our publishers’ performance metrics, and understanding our proprietary technology. For example, I am now doing a deep dive analysis on one of our yield experiments. A lot of time goes into collecting, checking and modelling data for analyses. My days also include getting to know our many tech partners, as well as meeting regularly with our internal teams. The goal is to continuously drive revenue for our publishers, and more efficiently.
2. What is the most interesting Yield finding that has helped publishers recently?
Being relatively new, I can say that it's impressive how Publift drives yield and results for our publishers at scale. Given the giant volume we manage, I see opportunities to analyse inventory at a more granular level and apply optimizations such as pricing strategies and ways to improve quality.
3. What do you like about working with Publift?
Definitely the people! I love the culture within this close-knit team. While being a high growth business, there is a startup energy that allows people to wear many hats and be very approachable. I also feel closely connected to the way we drive revenue for publishers through technical means, and innovation.
4. You've expressed a strong passion for boosting publisher revenue. How did this passion begin, and how has it been unfolding during your time at Publift?
That’s a great question… Indeed, it’s my belief that publishers are under pressure when it comes to defining price and profitability, because we are at the far end of the supply chain. This passion took shape when I was at REA Group, where we had big opportunities to drive open market revenue and I could see how deep knowledge of the tech was key to getting results. I was also able to identify unusual behaviours in the auction and learned how to defend against it. Going back further, my time at the consulting firm Ebiquity PLC (where we benchmarked the performance of campaigns for advertisers) instilled a ‘best practice’ and transparency driven mindset that is now deeply ingrained. I think my passion is anchored by core values and standards which sparks the drive to go the extra mile. At Publift, my scope to help has expanded across the market as we are servicing 1400+ websites, across a spectrum of categories, and across the globe! We have also launched enterprise-level support meaning we are now driving revenue for the world’s largest publishers, which is incredibly exciting.Ad tech is becoming increasingly complex, and I am proud to say that we are on the front foot with tackling that complexity and protecting publisher interests.
5. Share with us your recent TMIs!
My teammates already know that I am a bit of a lame cook. It has always been more interesting to be immersed in subjects of interest or go out and enjoy the world, but I’m keen now to give meal prep a go. There is research involved (of course) and the chef programs on Masterclass have been a great help... Gordon Ramsay explaining in vivid technical detail how to chop veg? Perfect!
That wraps up the sneak peek of our expanding Yield team! To learn more about where else we are growing, read on about Nenci, our Senior Account Manager from our Dublin team here.