Marissa Ann Mayer, “Ginni” Rometty, Sheryl Sandberg, and Susan Wojcicki – women and technology make a formidable pair, especially when they are leading enterprises that create and propagate them. Most tech investors acknowledge that the industry would do better with women leading global and regional businesses. After all, world’s youngest entrepreneur is a 12-year-old girl — Lauren Boyle (EU Digital Girl of the Year 2015).  Considering the gender gap in marketing and advertising technologies, Goodway Group is incubating the idea of recruiting more women across digital technology verticals in 2017.

Goodway Group, a leading managed services programmatic partner to local, regional and Fortune 500 brand agencies, is ramping up hiring efforts for 2017 with a special focus on women in tech. Goodway is looking for qualified candidates to service its regional business operations. Goodway’s workforce is 100% remote, meaning all employees work from home. Most candidates have the ability to live in any location within the U.S. The company grew by 30% in 2016 and enjoys 75% women in its workforce based in over 40 states. This hiring effort is consistent with Goodway Group’s strong growth. In 2016, the company added over 100 employees to its workforce.

The management style explains why Goodway has been honored with Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, recognizing the Best Places to Work in 2017. The Employees’ Choice Awards program, now in its ninth year, relies solely on the input of employees, who elect to provide feedback on their jobs, work environments, and companies via Glassdoor®.

“Our virtual workforce model has enabled us to grow quickly and tap into a huge pool of high-tech experts, many of them women, who live outside of the typical tech hubs such as, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles,” said Jay Friedman, COO, Goodway Group. “We love that we have representation at our company from almost every state. This diverse group brings us so much value, which is made even more apparent with the tech and advertising industries facing diversity and gender inequality issues.”
Unlike its competitors, Goodway has maintained consistent 10:1 sales to support ratio.  Only about 10% of Goodway is directly in sales while 75% is direct client support – media traders, account managers, campaign coordinators, strategists, and planners, etc. The remaining 15% of the workforce is administrative.
“Our strategy is to build lasting relationships with our clients through support and expertise, and our success in this strategy is demonstrated by our 96% client retention rate,” added Friedman. “Our independent nature has also been a huge benefit. It allows us to make decisions in the best interests of our clients and also partner with technology companies in the industry that best suit our and our clients’ needs.”

Here’s what women employees at Goodway Group had to say about their role and experiences in ad tech industry.

Jennifer Bird, VP Client & Creative Services, Acworth, GA

I first came to Goodway because I had very young kids, and both my husband (sales = travel all of the time) and I were traveling quite a bit.  I also had a 2-hour commute both ways so after school activities were out of the question for the kids.  I took a couple of steps back to come to Goodway, but have been able to exceed all of my goals and dreams in my career AND family life at the same time by working remotely.  In April, my son was life-flighted to the children’s hospital and diagnosed with a seizure disorder.  As you can imagine, our lives were flipped upside down, but I haven’t skipped a beat work wise.  I am able to continue to get my son to doctor’s appointments while continuing to work from waiting rooms or flexible hours because Goodway understands that life happens.

Lindy Jones, VP Media Operations, Waco, TX

I think it’s pretty safe to say I am the only person working in digital or programmatic advertising for about a 100-mile radius from my city! I started my career in Austin, Texas which has ample technology opportunities but with that came a 2x a day hour(ish) commute to central Austin and time lost with my loved ones, time lost for myself, and many times was a drain on my sanity.  Goodway has afforded me the opportunity to move back ‘home’ to the country which fits my pace of life with the luxuries of fields, farms, night skies, and family. I have a 10-month old, 2.5 years old, and a 6-year-old and the flexibility of working remotely has increased my quality of life with that flexibility which in turns allows me to be more productive at work.

Lindsay Downing, Digital Research and Strategy Specialist, Lake Tahoe, CA

Working remotely for Goodway has been a dream, to say the least. When I was looking to make the move from a regional agency to ad tech, I thought I would probably have to leave my tiny cabin in the woods of Lake Tahoe, and move to San Francisco, LA or another major metropolitan area to find a good job within a great company. I have lived in Lake Tahoe for the past six years and love the rural, small town feels coupled with world-class skiing, hiking, and numerous outdoor activities. Working virtually for Goodway has allowed me to stay in this amazing place while working for the best company (I may be biased) in the industry. Depending on the season, during my lunch breaks or before work, I am able to go hiking with my dog or cross-country skiing in my backyard, and then return to work with the best team I’ve ever had the pleasure working for. It is truly the best of both worlds.

Charisse Klock, Director, Client Services, Fort Lee, VA

My husband is a Sergeant First Class in the US Army and has been for 13 years. Since working at Goodway, we’ve been stationed at Fort Campbell, KY and Fort Lee, VA and this summer, we’ll make the move to Fort Bliss, TX. If not for my virtual position, I would have to find a new job every couple of years, and I most likely would not have been able to progress in my career as I have at Goodway. Also, Army posts are usually located in remote places, outside of big cities, with very little professional jobs around. When we were stationed at Fort Campbell, I had to commute an hour each way to work in Nashville, TN because that’s where the professional jobs were. Goodway has allowed me to work in the field I went to school for, continue to progress in my career and have peace knowing that no matter when or where we move, my career will be the one thing I won’t have to worry about.

Becca Smith, Marketing Designer, Peoria, IL

As a new mom, I am learning every day how important the battle is of finding time for myself. With Goodway Group, I am able to use my lunch hour to get out of my house for a walk and enjoy some fresh air and Vitamin D that I think everyone needs and cherishes. This was an unachievable goal when working in an office where the workplace attire was not comfortable for walks in the hot summer sun or cold winters!  Also, I know that they respect the fact that family comes first and when I had faced health issues with my son, there were no questions asked. I received only 100% support from every member I was in contact with at Goodway Group. This company helps ease the mind of every working mom who knows they need to be available at the drop of a hat if their child has a health scare, and Goodway understands that.

Julie Quick, Supervisor, Client Services, Oak Park, IL

I am a single mom and know how much this virtual environment benefits single moms. When you are the only one doing everything for the family… getting 2 hours back in the day that you used to spend commuting is more precious than money. Having flexible hours so you can drive kids places, be there for their games or just have dinner on the table before 8:00 pm is the most amazing thing in the world.

Amanda Martin, Director Account Strategy & Research, North Kingstown, Rhode Island

To put it simply, I’m still in the workforce full-time in the industry I love.  I have been and will always be someone who takes great pride and accomplishment from my career and not going back to work after having children never seemed to be an option that would make me happy until I was faced with the reality of working full-time and having two children.  After juggling my career and two sons for 5 years, I felt like no matter what I was doing I wasn’t doing the right thing.   If I was home with the kids I wasn’t at work, if I was at work I wasn’t at home with the kids.  To compound the situation, my first son is medically complex.  As my husband and I were considering if staying home was an option for me, both financially and mentally, I was approach by Goodway Group with an opportunity.  With a virtual environment, Goodway meant staying in the industry I love, living in the state I love, Rhode Island is not a digital hotspot, and being home with my family.  The decision to come to Goodway was my last attempt at making being a working mom work.  The decision has been a success, I’m more engaged at work, receiving a promotion in my first year, and with my family than ever before.  By eliminating daily commutes and office distractions, I’ve become more productive and more present with my kids.  If Goodway had not found me, I might have become one of the 43% of highly qualified women with children who leave their career or off-ramp for a period of time (Lean-In source).

Chelsey White, Digital Media Trader, Melrose, WI

I live in rural Southwestern Wisconsin (Melrose).  The closest job opportunity that isn’t a bar or a cheese factory (not kidding! lol) is at least a 45-minute commute, not including snow & construction delays (our 2 seasons here).  I have a 10-month-old son & absolutely refused to spend 2 hours of my day driving, leaving me with maybe an hour with him before bedtime.  My husband & I had made the difficult decision that I would find a part-time job that I was way overqualified for to reduce the drive time & be able to see my baby.  This would really have impacted our finances & limited the opportunities that we could provide for Tucker.  I was completely stuck between a rock & a hard place.  Tucker goes to daycare about a quarter mile away, & I am able to go nurse him during my lunch.  Also, in working with my amazing supervisor, Darcy, we put together a flexible schedule where I work 7am-3pm, then as necessary after Tucker goes to bed.  And on top of it all – I LOVE what I do!  I get to use my degree, am mentally stimulated every day, and feel fulfilled with the work I accomplish.

Jessica Murphy, Digital Media Supervisor, Atlanta, GA

As a single mom, working for Goodway Group has been a huge blessing for my little family. I now have the flexibility to go eat lunch with Addison on Friday’s if I want or attend her dance recitals without feeling stressed out about missing work. I always felt like I couldn’t have a career and be the best mom to Addie but Goodway Group has shown me that it’s truly possible to have both. I’m so thankful to work for a company that values family.

Anne Lehr, Digital Research and Strategy Specialist, Holly, Michigan

The benefits of a virtual environment have allowed me to cut 4+ driving hours out of my day (for work and childcare) and has allowed me to be only a room or two away from my son every day!  This was important for me when evaluating new job opportunities and with Goodway, I found everything I wanted… and more!

Jennifer Hadley-White, SEM Coordinator, Ft. Worth, TX

After working in corporate America, I became a stay-at-home mom for six years. Once my son was old enough for full-day school, I was ready to re-enter the paying workforce again. Because I had grown accustomed to being productive at home all day, I decided home was where I performed best and sought a work-at-home solution. As well as enjoying the work, being with Goodway Group allowed me to take my son to school and be home when he got off the bus. My son requires special education so being available after school was imperative the first few years.

Roohie Iqbal, SEM Supervisor, Houston, TX

When I had my first child, I was working in an office from 8am-5pm, which would actually mean leaving the house 7 am and getting home at 6 pm. I would barely catch some time with my daughter in the mornings and then a couple of hours in the evening before she would fall asleep. I did this for around three months when I realized I wasn’t happy and was being deprived of time with my child, which made me miserable in the office. Fortunately, a friend who had kept telling me about joining this great company called Goodway reached out to me again around the same time and told me there was an opening in their SEM department. I was a little hesitant at first wondering if I could fit the work from home lifestyle and whether this company really was as good as my friend raved about. However, I took the plunge, applied and got the job.

As soon as I started it definitely felt like the right decision. I had a chance to peek in on my daughter throughout the day, take breaks when I could and literally see her grow up. Instead of feeling like I was missing out, I was now happy that I was getting to see more of her and it actually made me more productive in my role at work to the point where I was promoted within 6 months of joining the company. I then had my second daughter last year and was so grateful to not have to go to an office after my maternity leave was over. My first daughter is now in daycare and the second with a babysitter in my home so I have the ability to drop off, pick up and if either of my daughters have doctor’s appointments, get sick or I have to be at a meeting at daycare, I am able to attend by having the flexibility of working it into my day.

2017 is expected to see a significant rise in innovations and technology adoptions. With new talent blending into the existing workforce, ad tech industry is turning into a well-rounded ecosystem with balanced gender ratio.

Online advertisement publishers can now compare how their ad campaigns fare across channels with respect to Facebook. Facebook has announced a series of updates on ad performance analytics available as part of its measurement partnership program. It also rolled out a marketing mix modeling (MMM) portal, enabling advertisers to gain direct insights from Facebook, Instagram and the Audience Network platform. The social media and tech innovation firm also scaled its partnerships with Nielsen and comScore, apart from acquiring a new partner DoubleVerify (DV) to bolster Facebook MMM portal for ad marketers.

Facebook, in April 2016, had invited three new third-party ad verification partners to leverage their insights on supply-side platforms (SSP). Integral Ad Science, Nielsen and comScore were invited to provide ad viewership and attention metrics for display and video ads posted on Facebook. Partnership with DV will enable Facebook to identify “Fake News” advertisers and prevent malvertising via Facebook MMM.

Read Also: RiskIQ Report: Malvertising Rose by 132% in 2016 over 2015; Threat Actors Use Programmatic Advertising to Target Online Audience

At the end of last year, Facebook offered a plethora of metrics malwares and bugs that misrepresent data, leading to inaccurate reporting. By relying on third-parties like comScore and Nielsen, Facebook MMM intends to deliver trustworthy ad metrics on data, enabling brand partners to accurately measure ad impressions, audience reach, in-target campaign performance and other important metrics.

At the end of last year, Facebook offered a plethora of metrics malwares and bugs that misrepresent data, leading to inaccurate reporting. By relying on third-parties like comScore and Nielsen, Facebook intends to deliver trustworthy ad metrics on data, enabling brand partners to accurately measure ad impressions, audience reach, in-target campaign performance and other important metrics.

At the end of last year, Facebook offered a plethora of metrics malwares and bugs that misrepresent data, leading to inaccurate reporting. By relying on third-parties like comScore and Nielsen, Facebook intends to deliver trustworthy ad metrics on data, enabling brand partners to accurately measure ad impressions, audience reach, in-target campaign performance and other important metrics.

Advertisers can now use Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings product in cross-channel environments across 25 global marketplaces. comScore, collaborating with Facebook on viewership data verification of video impressions, is offering Campaign Essentials product to measure in-target audience reach across the US.

Read Also: Sizmek Announces Centralized DMP Integration to Enrich Programmatic Ad Inventories

The latest string of updates will allow advertisers and brand marketers to place more in-target advertisements across Facebook, expanding audience reach by integrating mobile marketing, social intelligence, performance-based marketing and video marketing strategies.

Partnership with DV is a key development in Facebook’s fight against Fake News phenomena.  The DV technology eliminates ads from sites that promote malvertising and inflammatory subjects. The DV Digital Impression Quality suite is a powerful ad service available on all programmatic buying platforms, enabling advertisers to supersede contentious sites before bidding process. Once integrations with DV are complete, Facebook will provide advertisers a rock-solid pack of 24 global third-party measurement partners.

By launching a battery of new updates on ad authenticity and measurement accuracy, Facebook aims to provide advertisers a friendlier independent, third-party verification platform, instilling confidence in brands to purchase Facebook inventory over others.

132%. That’s the increase in the instances of malvertising reported across digital landscape in 2016 compared to the preceding year. RiskIQ, a leading online risk monitoring and threat management SaaS provider, has released its latest annual malware detection data card titled, “2016 Malvertising Report”. The report squarely links the ascent of programmatic advertising capabilities to growing number of ad blocker users.

Malicious advertising in digital parlance is referred to as “malvertising” (a portmanteau derived from “malicious advertising). According to online threat management companies, malvertising campaigns are growing in number, proving to be a scarier alias of the “Fake News” events. Following closely the rise of malvertising in the last couple of years, RiskIQ identified programmatic profiling aspects that “malevolent” advertisers leverage to target precise user groups via an array of techniques.

Why advertisers resort to programmatic malvertising? Well, the vicious practice offers a huge ROI for its practitioners by virtue of its highly targeted operations. On top of it, targeted user groups have no viable threat management tool to detect and mitigate programmatic malvertising or any malvertising for that matter! Threat actors – the practitioners of malvertising use high-traffic ad networks like Google, Facebook and YouTube to spike users with malware, ransomware, and scams. Some even con victims using redirects and phishing pages.

“Malvertising is so nefarious because it’s a direct attack on the lifeblood of the internet as we know it. Digital media marketing is what funds the ‘free’ websites we all know and enjoy online. The success of the internet and all the people that rely on it is inextricably linked to online advertising success and safety,” said James Pleger, threat researcher at RiskIQ.

“Publishers, ad platforms, and ad operations teams need active visibility, forensic information, and mitigation capability to enable them to effectively detect and respond to malicious ads in the wild,” he added.

According to the report, disingenuous advertisements and redirects to the phishing page have registered highest growth between 2015 and 2016. Surprisingly, third-party malvertising detections fell by 14% in 2016.

“Malvertising threatens this online marketing growth,” James said. “For example, users wary of malvertising will block all ads, hampering the success of the digital advertising industry. By the end of 2017, more than 86 million people are expected to use ad blockers.”

According to eMarketer, the stakes are growing bigger in ad tech security and threat management. For an industry that is expected to touch $670 billion in 2020, programmatic advertising fraud pose a definitive challenge that can derail any omnichannel campaign. Increasing number of online customers in the US are embracing ad blockers to keep disturbing promotions at bay, threat actors will continue to use promotional malvertising to poach customers. Ad blocker users in the US are projected to rise by 24% in 2017 compared to the previous year.

Many questions arise from the report’s findings. Ad publishers should be interested in one — Will programmatic advertising turn into a vicious technology without self-regulation in ad tech?

Sizmek, an Open Ad Management tech firm, has announced the launch of a data-centralizing ecosystem – Data Hub, enabling advertisers to streamline audience data. Sizmek’s Data Hub will be offered with its Programmatic Creative solution. The new integration is designed to pull targeted audience segments from integrated DMPs, enriching programmatic ad inventories based on optimized campaign performance.

With Data Hub, Sizmek is taking a leap in integrating DMP-based audience segmentation and ad history analytics. The Texas-based ad tech firm is one of the most reliable programmatic ad campaign platforms. It offers a tailor-made creative ad-serving platform to cater to specific audiences.

Read Also: AcuityAds Releases New Ultra-Intuitive Self-Serve Programmatic Platform for Digital Marketing

Data Hub was introduced into existing DMPs on Monday and will be readily available for integration. Sequential ad campaigns will get a big boost, leveraging different channels that have previously served ads.

“With ad tech consolidating at a consistent and rapid clip, it is becoming increasingly important for brands to be able to house their data in a central location,” said Neil Nguyen, CEO at Sizmek.

“With the addition of Data Hub to the Sizmek Programmatic Creative solution, and to our platform, ad buyers can easily leverage the valuable insights from all of their data to deliver consumers the ads they’ll find the most engaging, when and where it matters most,” Nguyen said.

Read Also: Tapad Partners with WideOrbit to Offer Unified Cross-Device Programmatic TV Inventory

By bringing the new Data Hub in ad stack, advertisers can assemble customizable programmatic ad inventory using DMPs, utilizing entire ad history that has already garnered significant views from advertisers and customers.  Sizmek’s Data Hub will significantly improve rich-media programmatic ad engagements implemented by retail and tech advertisers.

Data Hub exemplifies Sizmek’s effort to converge ad optimization, programmatic efficiency and mobile-first strategies over a single DMP. With the vision to deliver dynamic omnichannel programmatic ad campaigns based on simplified ad targeting at a creative level, Sizmek is trying to fill the gap advertisers acknowledge exist between data sets in the ad server and performance.

The ascent and fruition of DSPs and ad server SSP integrations, powered by machine learning optimization will offer higher the flexibility to accommodate social media ad engagements with location-based marketing efforts.

Read Also: TabMo Partners adsquare to Unlock Unique Opportunities in Programmatic Advertising

Media ad buying is growing at a rapid pace. In order to keep up with the pace of the ad tech market, leading native ad supply solution providers are harbingering on the thought of integrating their offerings with omnichannel programmatic ad integration platforms. That’s exactly what Sharethrough aims to achieve with Adelphic.

Sharethrough, the all-in-one native advertising software for publishers, app developers, and advertisers, announced the integration of its supply-side platform (SSP) with Adelphic, a mobile and omnichannel programmatic ad demand-side platform (DSP).

The decision to integrate with the native programmatic ad platform perfectly aligns with Sharethrough’s immediate business objectives – to take on Facebook in the programmatic ad selling marketplace.

Sharethrough bringing Adelphic into its native advertising strategy aims to empower media buyers with seamless access to in-feed display and video placements across mobile and app sites. For advertisers who used Adelphic’s DSP, the Sharethrough Exchange will be readily available.

For Sharethrough, Adelphic becomes the first DSP that allows third-party buyers to purchase native video placements on the Sharethrough Exchange programmatically. It will comply with the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s OpenRTB 2.3 specification, the standard to regularize use of component parts for real-time native ads trading.

Though native advertising is not a new thing for the advertisers, the way consumers experience the brands across various channels of engagement pose a huge challenge them. Mobile advertising is expected to run away with the majority of the ad spend in 2017. Therefore, it becomes all the more important for the advertisers to negotiate through the complexities of consumer experiences and adapt to the changing content experiences across different screens.

Adelphic, the Waltham-based start-up, is known as a key innovator in the mobile and cross-channel ad tech ecosystem, developing patented technologies to overcome challenging customer experience issues. With Adelphic, brands can break down billions of data points along the customer journey, deriving high-value analytics on customers who are most likely to convert.

Sharethrough currently offers a complete series of native ad stack for direct and indirect sales and content promotion. The company has some of the biggest brands in its clientele, including Time Inc, Forbes, and Hearst. Matching steps with Adelphic will enable Sharethrough publishers to switch between omnichannel and people-based marketing platforms seamlessly.

Programmatic ad integration between SSP and DSP will make ad tech more relevant and accurate, finally delivering all the “rights” – user, message, place, time and experience.