Read about the latest Programmatic Advertising industry updates, our platform updates, case studies and cool campaign experiments. We update our blog weekly and we hope you find the posts highly interesting and educational.
DO you have a client that might be interested in Programmatic Mobile Advertising but needs some convincing? Simply tell us who your client is and we will provide you with a FREE Rich Media ad/creative - so YOU can shine and/or be pro-active. Again: free!
Check out more info and examples here.
With many clients we have had conversations and discussions regarding our stance, more importantly; the EU's stance - on utilizing location data in the Programmatic Advertising landscape. Although the EU committee behind the GDPR has not issued a specific section/chapter (in the legal description of the new law/guidelines) regarding the utilization of location data for advertising purposes, many companies are playing it safe - with a drastic decline of available ad-requests which have location data - as an effect.
Our estimates tell us that the decline is a massive 40 to 45%. It's going to be very interesting to see what happens in the coming weeks. For now it's fair to conclude that many publishers, adexchanges and inventory owners are playing it safe.
We have mapped thousands of publishers who - in our view - have a very clear explanation of the gathering and use of the location of their visitors. It is our belief that - when deployed correctly - these transparent and simplistic explanations and methods are aligned with the GDPR. The big question is; and in retrospect to the recently activated GDPR laws - what does the EU think about this targeting technique?
We work for several recruitment agencies - all around the world. Simply put, we can offer these companies two (2) campaign strategies that are likely to achieve a positive result (or; a filled job vacancy!).
Strategy 1:
Upload the actual addresses/locations of thousands of companies that are (e.g.) operating in the IT sector. By setting up geo-fences and serving ads 'on' these exact locations, a specific (professional) audience can be reached. These databases are relatively easy to come by.
Strategy 2:
A good Demand Side Platform can serve ads on about 220.000 individual apps and sites. Literally; every audience/hobby/profession has several to hundreds apps and sites dedicated to them. It's possible to select just these specific publishers and serve ads in them. For example it's possible to serve on about 30 apps/sites that are specifically related to IT/ICT.
The same applies for the medical sector, finance, construction, engineering and many other specific professional audiences. Contact us for more information!
Footfall Attribution refers to the method used to relate mobile campaign impressions or conversions and actual store visits. This is a relevant technique for businesses like clothing stores, automobile sellers and restaurant - as they are able to measure the amount of customers received at any given time or day. Our knowledge of the correct education, installation and utilization of designated Footfall technology helps our clients (agencies or brands) determine the impact of their marketing spend in a new way.
Download our whitepaper regarding; Footfall Attribution - Basics, HERE.
Besides creating this addendum, we have found a way to map all apps that properly inform their downloaders/users about the commercial use of lat/long coordinates - which is in compliance with GDPR protocol.
Whether is impressions, clicks, view-through-rate, conversions or any other metric you can think of; it's possible to export this data on to a heatmap. Reach out for questions/inquires.
Forget using third-party-data and IAB categories to reach a desirable audience/target group. Upload addresses/locations where your desired audience is to be found, and achieve strong campaign results. Reaching a specific audience using this targeting technique is proven to be strong/stable and usually has a positive ROI.
As a Location Based Advertising specialist we have invested a great deal in our geo-tool. By our knowledge, we operate the only DSP that is able to upload an indefinte amount of locations - while remaining stable. Reach out!
For example, it is not a secret that you can easily create a Facebook account, a Facebook company page and in no time you can have a ‘social’ programmatic campaign up and running with Facebooks’ Ads Manager. However, because the CPM’s for Facebook inventory are relatively high, we outline and explain techniques that allow you to make the most of your budget using a much more clever approach.
There are a many ways in which advertisers can boost the performance of their campaigns. Particularly, this article outlines those related to Retargeting (impact users that have interacted with a programmatic campaign by either clicking in the ad or just seeing it) and Remarketing (impact users that have visited a specific website whose ID has been gathered - for example - by using an html tag).
Download the full article here
With Retargeting you can serve ads, based on a prior ad that already has been served. The tool – which every good DSP offers – let’s you serve ads to devices that have previously been served an ad. The retargeting strategy/campaign be based on a location where the ad is served, a click, time spend on ad, video completion rate and much more metrics.
With Remarketing you can serve ads to devices/consumers that have previously visited your site. Site visitors are considered ‘warm leads’ and serving ads to them is considered a campaign strategy with a strong ROI. Furthermore, Dynamic Remarketing makes is possible to serve ads based on the purchases that a visitor has made, or simply the products that have been watched. Using proprietary tech or that of third parties; we can help you with every step of this campaign strategy.
Download our latest whitepaper about Retargeting and (dynamic) Remarketing here.
Apart from Facebook, pretty much all apps that allow some kind of advertisement in them – can be found in such a forecast. Interestingly; most people don’t expect which apps actually have the most visitors – globally. Brands (or; publishers) that are well-known and have a global audience are not necessarily most popular. So what kind if apps do you find in an export containing – let’s say – the 30 most visited apps, worldwide? Some examples:
Noticing something? Not the most established brands are in this list right? Where’s CNN? Or Gmail, BBC and The New York Times? Not in there!
It seems that publishers providing practical necessities, are way more popular than established brands. Go ahead and compare a countries’ most popular news app, based on availability availability (in terms of impressions), to practical apps that everybody needs. Even on a national level – in most cases – practical apps like Clean Master (tool for 'cleaning' your phone), Grindr (gay dating) or Goal Live Scores (soccer statistics/scores), have a bigger audience that that countries’ most well-known news publisher.
Rather pleasantly; advertising in these apps is relatively cheap. Mainly because advertisers (or; brands), don’t like these generic apps. They don’t like the apparent less qualitative image that these apps have. In our opinion, the fact that advertising in these apps is usually cheaper than in – let’s say – an established news publisher, is all you need to know. Users of these practical apps are real persons. Real consumers. There is no reason to assume you will reach a less profitable audience. Especially if you combine serving on these apps with 3rd party data (f.e. Interest profiles of the user behind a certain devices); a lot can be achieved.
One of the major concerns is the quality of the impressions served. Although a DSP may show that an impression has been made on a certain inventory, this may not be entirely true. The key aspect is to ask ourselves: how are those impressions being counted? The truth is that if your DSP is connected to AdExchanges most probably these are being tallied with the rules of those AdExchanges. For instance, some might count the impression when the RTB auction is won (like Axonix), others might count it once the actual advertising space has been filled by an ad (like Mopub), etc.
This means that the quality of the impressions is not guaranteed because the user might leave the page or app just after the auction has been won and, even though your DSP has counted an impression, the user has not seen the ad you paid for. This means that any click (or any possible action down the funnel) couldn’t be possibly achieved and, therefore, no branding impact or lead generation is viable. Shouldn’t there be a way to know when this is happening?
Fortunately for the programmatic market, there is. A special pixel has been developed by third party companies (e.g. Google or Integral Ad Science) that successfully collects information about the viewability of a certain ad. The viewability pixel is a tag of code that aims to track when an ad has actually been on the screen of a device. In order for an ad to be considered as “viewed” it must be at least 50% visible on the screen for more than 1 second (for video ads the required time is increased to 2 seconds)[1]. When these conditions are met, the pixel fires and passes back the information that the ad space has indeed been seen by the user.
For example, take an ad space located at the bottom of the page. When the page loads, the AdExchange starts the auction and at some point between winning the action and filling the space, an impression is counted. However, if the user has not scrolled down to the page the ad is not deemed viewable and, therefore, useless.
According to a recent study[2] around 52% of display ads and 41.7% of video ads are out of view. This means that a significantly large number of impressions is being wasted. But instead of knowing that the impression was not worth it after buying it, why not make a system that prevents useless impressions? The Pre-bid solution is an industry best practice that’s now widely accepted. A third party vendor makes sure that a particular ad is seen or placed in a safe environment and meeting certain conditions.
In order for this to work the viewability metric has been created. The viewability pixel, as opposed to the impression pixel, is embedded in the ad space and not in the ad that is actually filling it. So this means that the pixel is fired once the ad space appears on a screen, regardless of what is showing. This metric gives the percentage of the amount of times that the ad has been visible. For example, if since the pixel was first installed the page has loaded 10 times and the ad space has been on a device’s screen 5 times, the viewability threshold for that impression is 50%.
An important point to note is that the benefits of pre-bid functionalities are maximized when combined with programmatic advertising. Real-time decision-making allows the traffic to be of a much higher quality when this two tools are combined. Furthermore, placements are more transparent which means that the performance of the campaigns rises and also the efficiency and effectiveness with which the algorithm operates.
Given the current industry concerns about viewability, brand safety and fraud, pre-bid provides a level of guarantee about ad placements. Ad spaces are only bid on and served in if the ad inventory meets the specific conditions set by the advertisers in the pre-bid filtering.
The DSPs that are integrated with these functionalities offer different options to customize the kind of publishers that advertisers want to bid on. They must specify these pre-bid requirements upfront: desired viewability thresholds (up to 70%), brand safety exclusions, suspicious activity levels[3] or contextual targeting (what information is surrounding the ad space). Some of these filters can even be combined together such as viewability and brand safety.
One of the recognized downsides and trade-offs that advertisers need to make when considering using pre-bid is the impact on campaign delivery. This trade-off can be managed by changing thresholds such as viewability levels. Another point to note is that there are limitations with pre-bid and in-app advertising; the in-app versus mobile web pre-bid options are visible in the platform and advertisers.
[1] According to Google’s Active View and Integral Ad Science (IAS) guidelines.
[2] H1 2017 UK Media Quality Report by IAS
[3] Since the pixel is tracking how the ad space is behaving, it can help detect suspicious activity. Such as phantom clicks (when no impression has been made), click spamming (more than one click per impression), etc.
For a lot of companies, their ideal customers and clients are located in particular locations at certain times, i.e. Starbucks customers are located in shopping complexes at lunchtime. By using geofencing effectively, these customers can be targeted.
However, driving foot traffic is just one of the ways that geofencing can be put to good use. It also has a number of capabilities and uses, many of which we will explore below.
So, if you want to learn more about geofencing and how businesses around the world have been using it, read on!
Geofencing is a technology that allows us to create a virtual boundary around a particular geographic area. After this, devices are triggered once they enter this area and sent an alert.
There are both active and passive types of geofencing.
Active - Require people to actively opt into location services
Passive - Don’t require opt-in and rely on cellular data, GPS and WiFi connections to target devices
To better understand geofencing and its benefits, below we’ve come up with a few examples of how companies have used it to create brilliant results!
Outback Steakhouse targeted the areas of their competitors
The customers of your competitors provide an opportunity. While they are currently loyal to one of your rivals, you’re also certain they have an interest in the service you provide.
At which point, the only action that needs to take place is that they decide to start using your service or product instead of your rivals.
Easier said than done, yes, but Outback Steakhouse was able to successfully do this, by setting up geofencing near their competitors outlets.
That meant, every time their ideal customers were going to their competitors, they were provided with advertising that constantly reminded them of their outlet as the alternative.
To solidify this strategy, Outback Steakhouse set up geofencing around their own outlets to protect their existing customers.
Best Western targeted airports to catch people likely to be looking for somewhere to stay
Best Western is a company that runs a chain of hotels across the globe. Because of this, their main goal is to ensure they get as many people filling their rooms as possible every night.
By setting up geofencing around airports, Best Western advertised to those people who were arriving in a particular region where rooms were available.
This campaign was started after data showed many people who arrive at airports still haven’t booked somewhere to stay and, through this, was able to clinch last-minute customers.
Uber also found success at airports and used geofencing to stay above competitor taxi ranks
Currently, Uber is the dominant company in the car transportation market, using their application to find and hail a ride near them.
As with any taxi company, airports are a hotspot for Uber and, because of this, Uber set up a geofence to protect their dominance near LAX airport.
Through this, they prevented the growing number of smaller, copycat companies that were aiming to encroach on their territory and held on to their market dominance.
For companies looking to defend against new competitors, geofencing is a great way to ensure you can protect yourself from losing competitors.
The British Open used geofencing to create a better experience for their visitors to improve the chance of them returning
The British Open Golf Championships attracts one of the largest collection of golf fans every year and, once they’ve bought their ticket, organisers are keen to ensure they stick around and spend additional money.
To help them with this, The British Open set up geofencing around the entire course and allowed spectators to track every player and see how well they were performing throughout the tournament.
This provided a nice little perk that many people attending the event took advantage of and will likely be a way to persuade a number of them to return to the next event.
Vouchercloud sent alerts to people close to the shops that they had vouchers for
A lot of the time, vouchers are location-specific and, because of this, geofencing becomes an extremely effective way for them to be advertised.
Vouchercloud used geofencing to send alerts to those that were close to shops they currently had vouchers available for. This allowed them to find their discount straight away as they headed to the shop.
This was both great for customers and Vouchercloud and has helped them to drive a large amount of relevant traffic to their website.
As the examples above show, geofencing and location-based advertising, in general, has had a large impact on how many businesses advertise.
It has provided a new and effective way to attract new customers in a manner that’s direct, relevant and difficult to ignore.
That’s not the sort of thing that can just be dismissed if you’re interested in growing your business and moving with the times!
It’s not always simple, though. Geofencing is only effective when it has been planned out correctly with a clear strategy.
Besides its obvious volume in video content (for pretty much every interest), the Youtube community is also considered powerful. At this very moment, hundreds – if not thousands – of people are arguing and ‘fighting’ in the comment section of particular content. It’s even known that influencers hired by governments are splashing their opinion around in the Youtube comment sections. Based on its sheer volume Youtube is viewed upon by many marketers as one of the 3 leading pillars of internet activity; that would be Google, Facebook, and Youtube.
New days are arriving and while advertising on Youtube was already evident for big brands, medium-sized and smaller brands/product owners are finding their way to Youtube as well. Around 5-6 advertising formats can be served before, on, in, during or around Youtube content. The most obvious format being - of course – the video format. Youtube describes it’s advertising options as follows: Display Ads, Overlay Ads, Skippable Video Ads, Non-Skippable Video Ads, Bumper Ads and Sponsored Cards.
Recently, Youtube has also allowed its advertiser to serve ads – in Youtube – based on previous Google searches. You could say some technical aspects/functions of Youtube and Google have merged, offering an ever stronger marketing tool.
Then there is the Targeting. Offering a wide selection of targeting variables Youtube – technically speaking – has similar attributes/functions compared to a normal Demand Side Platform. It has a huge amount of reach and tools to target a specific audience within that reach; all based on the single product that Youtube is. Youtube offers targeting on Demographics; for example; age and gender. But also certain interests can be targeted based on past activity of users. Video Remarketing offers a similar tool that has some trades of traditional retargeting. Also, Youtube offers to target based on placement, topics, and even keywords.
Costs; Cost Per Mille (CPM) or Cost Per View (CPV) is higher than the linear serving of video’s using thousands of video publishers (which a good DSP can offer). However; its effects (or conversions) are usually and on average – higher than normal video advertising achieves. Hence the higher pricing is – in most cases – justified.
Do you need a video to do Youtube Advertising? No; several ad formats Youtube can serve can be static images or just text. It is – however – recommended to serve an actual video when advertising on Youtube. Why? Because hundreds of campaigns have taught us that – in comparison to budget spend – video ads have the highest ROI (although there are exceptions). This creates a problem for small business owners. Simply put most of them don’t have the resources or knowledge to produce a cheap but professional appearing video. Luckily the internet is here to help. Google for ‘Cheap Video Production’ or ‘Low-cost tutorial video’ and you will find plenty of vendors who are able to produce a professional video (in most cases being an animation). Secondarily; honest appearing video’s – made by a business owner him/herself (for example showing the workplace or store) – usually are appreciated by the right audience and also have a positive ROI.
In any case; low fee specialists are here to help. You have found one.
Logistic regression is a protocol on which an algorithm can be based. In this whitepaper we are going in-depth into the origin, functionality and capabilities of this strong technology.
Download the file using the button below.
Marketers like the word ‘touchpoint’ for a reason; there are many points a consumer touches before committing to an online or offline purchase. A touchpoint can be a TV commercial, a friend with a recommendation, an Out-Of-Home ad, an ad in print or; a display banner on a mobile device or computer. It’s that first touch that implants a desire to purchase/own a product.
Clothes, groceries, electrical equipment, sport related products, health products, travel or finance products; it doesn’t matter what the product is, theoretically it can be bought using a mobile device. Just like almost every product can be bought online using a desktop, laptop or tablet. The purchases (or; conversions) can be stimulated by different online marketing tools. Performance Based Advertising means that a tech vendor (of a certain marketing tool) will only get paid a fixed amount for every conversion that is achieved. With this, the risk for the product owner (or; shop) is practically zero.
We (Targetoo) work for several media agencies around the world. Often we get the question; what is your added value in comparison to Google’s Double Click Bid Manager (DBM)? It’s a relevant question. In some cases, we can not offer added value (apart from delivering services through DBM for a client who wishes to use DBM – utilizing our knowledge). Over the years Google's Programmatic Advertising Infrastructure has initiated and completed a lot of integrations with well-known inventory and data sources (Adexchanges/SSP's/DMP's). As of today, I can acknowledge the fact that – when it comes to the amount of global inventory – Google is getting ahead.
Facebook is a different story. We know media agencies who have shifted their programmatic buying almost entirely to Facebook's Ads Manager. It appears a logical choice because everybody is one Facebook right? Well, not entirely. For starters; although results of research differ, it’s fair to state that, globally, on average, a person spends 22 minutes on Facebook per day. Other research shows that, on average, a person spends 118 minutes a day online. Furthermore, 81% of this time is spent on a mobile device and only 19% on a desktop or laptop.
This means that, although time spent on Facebook is far bigger than any other publisher (youtube comes second), it’s still not even near the time spent on all other publishers. And here’s the thing, more people access the ‘general’ internet (and it’s publishers) than they do Facebook.
The point is that, although Facebook is immensely important in day-to-day online marketing, the reach a strong Demand Side Platform (DSP) can offer is still much larger and more diverse. Secondarily it’s worth mentioning that average CPM’s are relatively high for Facebook inventory. Because of this, we see that allocating large amounts of the client's budget to social, is not the way to go. It’s quantity and targeting options definitely make it an essential online marketing tool to have in your programmatic display arsenal. But available impressions in/on all other publishers (general internet) are inherently cheaper and available in much bigger numbers (although some might say you can't compare the two). So in summary; pricing for Facebook Advertising is relatively high and reach is limited (how immense it may be).
Back to Google; with DBM you can serve ads on hundreds of thousands of apps and websites (desktop or mobile). One might say that by using Googles’ DBM and Facebooks' Ads Manager, you can reach the biggest part of the world’s inventory. This is correct. However, and here it is, the success of a programmatic display advertising campaign most often lies in local expertise and campaign execution based on that expertise. Also, DBM does not allow geo-fences to be smaller than 1 mile. A dedicated Mobile DSP does (as small as 10 meters).
Local integrations with local inventory sources. Local (premium) publishers. Local advertising laws. Brand safety. The speed of service. General knowledge. Either using DBM or another Programmatic Buying Platforms; local knowledge is key. And being that local integrations (Adexchanges/SSP's/DMP's) are not something Google is in front of, a local specialist can jump in this gap by offering smart, fast and simple integration services.
Campaign objectives are so diverse that there is no ‘one’ platform that suits all desires. There will probably never be one, and there will always be room for the specialized companies that focus on a specific discipline, a local market or just have outstanding service. So to all the small tech vendors that are out there and feeling the heat of Facebook and Google, I say this: Facebook only sells/distributes its own inventory. Although this inventory is huge, it’s still just Facebook inventory, let alone it’s very pricey. Google can never offer better local expertise and tech than existing specialists can. Campaign strategies are different for every client/brand, every location has it’s own technical- and campaign possibilities. There will always be room for the fast moving, smart operating, (relatively) small Programmatic Specialists. Simply because successful campaigns need them.
As well as this, we’ll be covering how it can be used specifically with mobile advertising as well as some specific examples for you to examine.
Without further ado, let’s find out more about moment marketing.
Moment marketing is a relatively recent development that has only been around for the last few years. However, despite how young it is, it’s grown rapidly, thanks in part to the rising usage of social media.
In essence, moment marketing is the method of using a recent event to your advantage and turning it into an advertising opportunity. This may include everything from a large sporting event to a concert and allows companies to create relevant, targeted interactions with consumers.
Because of this, moment marketing is sometimes referred to as “real-time marketing” and, due to the nature of the strategy, requires rapid reaction and efficiency to be effective.
The best way to explain moment marketing is by looking at it in action. This will show some great examples of how live events can be turned into an advertising opportunity.
In April 2017, United Airlines made headlines for all of the wrong reasons when Dr David Dao was dragged off an overbooked plane.
To rub salt into the wounds even further, competitor Emirates Airline reacted brilliantly by quickly posting a video on Twitter with the ending caption ‘Fly the friendly skies...This time for real’.
Not only did this allow Emirates to increase brand awareness at a time when airlines and their practices were under the spotlight, it simultaneously combated United Airlines boss, who had previously claimed Emirates “weren’t a real airline.”
Fly the friendly skies with a real airline. pic.twitter.com/wE5C5n6Lvn
— Emirates airline (@emirates) 11 April 2017
This tweet eventually got well over 10,000 retweets and 15,000 likes, which is some serious engagement.
Every four years, the football world cup takes place and attracts audiences, which have risen as high as 260 million. As a result, marketing teams are keener than ever to capitalise on this to increase brand awareness.
In the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, audiences were amazed as Uruguayan star, Luis Suárez, was seen to bite Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini. The moment soon went viral and was spread widely throughout social media.
Sensing a golden opportunity in this, Snickers reacted brilliantly by tweeting:
Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you're hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS pic.twitter.com/3RAO537HjW
— SNICKERS® (@SNICKERS) June 24, 2014
Still one of the best examples of moment marketing to this day. It has received over 44,000 retweets and 20,000 likes.
Steve Harvey became infamous in December 2015 when he announced the wrong contestant as the winner of the Miss Universe Content. This led to an awkward moment as the crown was taken away and, instead, placed on the correct contestant.
Burger King made the most of this blunder and posted this tweet:
At BK everyone gets to keep their crown. pic.twitter.com/vrRKG3dMs7
— Burger King (@BurgerKing) December 21, 2015
Twitter went mad, with the advert eventually gaining just under 50,000 retweets and 45,000 likes.
As the examples show, moment marketing, when done right, can provide a massive boost to your awareness online.
So, how can you start to implement this as a strategy for your company?
Well, firstly, these the three examples of moment marketing demonstrate social media’s ability to allow content to go viral. This puts forward a strong indicator that, when a moment like this takes place, social media advertising is one of your best bets to distribute your viral-worthy content.
This can include both the use of organic advertising and, if you’re determined to increase reach and the potential for it to go viral, paid advertising.
In regards to how this relates to mobile advertising in particular, mobile is perhaps the reason this strategy is even effective at all.
As a large event takes place on TV or at an event, be that a bite or a Miss Universe blunder, the first action a large percentage of audiences do is to look for reactions as well as to post their own.
In almost all cases, this will be done on the device closest to them - their mobile device. This, in turn, creates a spike of social media activity that can be utilised for your own marketing purposes.
With this strategy, the most important element is the speed in which you can react. With the immediacy of social media, even an hour of delay can put you at the back of a long line of marketing opportunists.
As well as this, you also need to focus on the relevance of your brand and the effectiveness of the advert.
Don’t be a try-hard, as some considered Audi to be as they responded to Netflix’s hit show “House of Cards” receiving an Emmy:
Can’t hide the truth. In an #AudiTDI the congressman would tell the camera: “This is truly a civilized drive.” #Emmys pic.twitter.com/sEa7puDPa5
— Audi (@Audi) September 23, 2013
If your marketing team isn’t able to come up with something within a few minutes that resonates with your audience or your brand, it’s likely there isn’t something there to work with.
With all our examples, advertisers had direct relations with the event be that Snickers age-old marketing related to hunger and aggression or Emirates Airline’s link with United Airlines. If your brand doesn’t have that, you can’t create one without it coming across as just a little bit awkward.
But, when a lightbulb hits and you’ve got an opportunity for your brand act fast, create something effective and utilise social media to distribute your content and hope for it to go viral.
If you’re really looking to make Moment Marketing a part of your advertising repertoire, a great place to boost your efforts is by utilising mobile display ads.
The example below is from Norwegian Airlines. Using the celebrity news of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s divorce, NA made the most of the opportunity to advertise the cost of their flights from the UK to LA.
This advert was shared not just on social media, but also on numerous websites and, most importantly, on a number of mobile apps and browsers.
As is Moment Marketing’s requirement for speed, this would have only been possible due to the fact programmatic can have an ad live in relevant areas within minutes.
This extra layer of attention created a much larger reach than social media alone could have achieved and helped bring the company out of obscurity in the UK and into the public eye.
The growth of online activity through mobile devices has been simply mind-blowing over the past 10-15 years. In fact, UK mobile media ad spend is now even greater than TV spend.
As such, advertisers are now always trying to find the best ways to promote their companies across multiple arenas. Ad Exchanges are one of the best sources to facilitate this.
The concept of ad exchanges can feel alien to the uninitiated, but they carry many benefits for advertisers, agencies, and ad middlemen. Here’s all you need to know about this increasingly popular field of digital marketing.
Ad Exchanges are a digital marketplace that offer advertisers a chance to buy ad inventory from publishers. Once purchased, the advertiser’s ad is displayed through various websites and apps.
Ad exchanges let advertisers see the sale prices of inventory. They also avoid the middleman - someone who has essentially bought inventories with a view only to sell them at a profit. Most commonly, these middlemen are ad network providers.
In its most basic form, ad exchanges are a tool that can be used to connect advertisers directly with publishers. Its purpose is to help both parties maximise their potential.
Ad exchanges allow access to hundreds of thousands of different publishers and the versitality of the technology means it can be utilised by companies of all sizes. From sole traders to global giants, this technology can be used for greater exposure.
Given that the market continues to grow from strength to strength, it’s a tool that is certain to last for years to come.
Ad exchanges rely on a programmatic system that handles automatic buying and selling.
Publishers will place their available advertising space on a digital auction marketplace. This is most commonly done through SSPs (supply-side platforms). In turn, the buying advertiser will use a DSP (demand-side platform) to complete their purchases.
To recap, in it’s most basic sense, the process works as thus:
One of the great things about digital marketing is that various types of ads can be utilised to bring a campaign to life. These can include display media, videos, banners and native ad formats.
When used properly, this opens up the chance to create a far greater impact on the intended consumers.
However, the bidding costs per impression may fluctuate depending on those choices. As such, advertisers have a huge responsibility to understand the market before entering the ad exchange arena. This allows them to know which formats are the most cost-effective to generate the best ROI possible.
Generally speaking, advertisers bid on inventories from a public pool using a DSP. However, this isn’t the only way to facilitate mobile ad exchanges. There’s also an opportunity for private exchanges to be completed on a Private Market Place (PMP).
Publishers sometimes opt for a private exchange instead as they offer a few particular benefits.
For an advertiser, these benefits can include better pricing and targeting. The seller may also use this option to avoid the prospect of ad networks purchasing space with the sole purpose to sell it on.
Mobile publishers also benefit in that they can become certain their adverts are being displayed to relevant audiences. With millions of public ad exchanges taking place every single day, this is something only a PMP can facilitate
For both buyer and seller, being aware of the private selling platform is very useful.
From an advertiser’s perspective, using ad exchanges for your mobile advertising is a great resource for many different reasons. Essentially, though, they ensure your company’s advertising budget is utilised in a more effective manner.
Ad exchanges enable the advertiser to run a campaign with a far greater array of targeting options. When you combine this with mobile advertising in particular you can make use of the extra information available such as specific geolocation targeting (using GPS) or access to more personal data available.
This ability to be more specific throughout those automatic ad placement purchases encourages greater targeting. This makes sure adverts are shown to the right people helping them to carry a far greater impact.
Thanks to the growing significance of mobile marketing, investing time and money in the most appropriate fashion is key and, ultimately, ad exchange technologies are the ideal solution.
