Getting Relevant Ads served after a chat conversation?

It's here and it's real. For years this has been a hot topic. In this blog we explain how it works.

You are chatting with some friend, you mention you want to get a pizza. You start surfing the web and next you know it, an ad for Pizza’s pups up.

Getting relevant ads served after a chat conversation?

The technique is a form of contextual targeting. The technique came to life in the early days of Programmatic Advertising but at that time was only applicable for display advertising. A consumer visits a certain page or app, and ad-request is fired and within this adrequest the content of that specific page or app is present. Then, a campaign set-up based on contextual targeting will notice a ‘match’ in the content of the site/app and the content (text) that the advertiser wants to target and an ad is served. This all taking place in mere milliseconds.

Now let’s say you are chatting in WhatsApp (owned by Facebook). You mention you want a pizza. You then open your Facebook timeline and an ad is served showing an ad for the nearest Pizza restaurant. Scary right? Well, it’s reality. Especially the fact that Google, Facebook but also Amazon own multiple widely used internet applications, this creepy form of targeting is present today. Again; it’s based on a reasonably long existing form of contextual targeting. There are even speculations and rumors microphones of phones transfer data and ads can be served based on the content of that phone call. Until now f.e. Facebook has strongly denied these claims.

Whats interesting to mention is that - when studying the entire ecosystem in which this takes place - it’s notably becoming more accepted. Yesterday an Amazon spokesperson admitted a small team of Amazon employees is listening to what Alexa hears. You might even know a person that admitted; ‘I don’t care that(f.e.) Google/Amazon is listening; got nothing to hide’.

This - ladies and gentleman - is acceptance by the masses and with that; the future of advertising. We are not sure we like it.

Why not? Geo-fence above The Kremlin!

What publishers are visited by (Russian) people while residing in the Kremlin? Witch phone brands are popular in the Kremlin? Will we finally be arrested (Spetsnaz)? Let’s find out!

Kremlin campaign

While we are still serving banners in The White House (USA), we have deployed a GEO-Fence on/above the Kremlin. Some interesting questions arise.

The Russian internet infrastructure is different in many ways - when compared to the ‘internet’ present in Europe and The United States; first of all Google has a significant less footprint in Russia. Little people speak English. Likewise little Europeans and Americans speak Russian. Thus; Russia - in some ways - has a guarded, hard to penetrate and nationally orientated - online ecosystem.

Strangely though; mere thousands of typical Russian publishers (apps and sites) are integrated with Europa and America based adexchanges. So, in theory we can serve on them. Furthermore - when forecasting - we do see availability on apps that have a native English language present in them; but are relevant for people around the world. Also, in Russia. Think of phone-cleaning apps , translate apps, weather apps.

So:
What publishers are visited by people residing in the Kremlin?
Will we get traction on typical (or; traditional) Russian apps?
What phone models/brands are popular in the Kremlin?

The list goes on..

Next week we will share the first results as well as the actual banner we are serving. It’s a special one.

Oh, and our (significant) amount of content/tools/info (www.targetoo.com) is now also available in Russian!
За успех!

WHITE HOUSE campaign update 28-03-2019

CTR of 10,73%, device id’s gathered, still not arrested nor raided by Seal Team Six

Breitbart, CNN, FOX News, Huffington Post but also ‘Daily Work-Out’, ‘All Languages Translator’ and ‘Cleanmaster’ are pubs being ‘visited’ by devices (people) residing in The White House. The news related publishers makes sense, the less qualitative publishers do not. It’s fair to say that these less qualitative publishers still undermine the apparent strength of hyperlocal programmatic advertising.

The incredibly high CTR is - frankly - astonishing. It has dropped from 16+%, however still at least 10-12 times higher than industry benchmarks. The targeting in combination with the relevant banner is responsible for most of this.

Because the winrate is still relatively low, we have increased the bid (again) to $ 8001. Logically we have set-up a daily cap on spend as we don’t want to go bankrupt. A new update in a week!

Want to learn more about hyperlocal Programmatic Advertising? Click here and here.

Whatsapp Advertising to become available in July 2019

The Grapevine speaks - WhatsApp Advertising to become available July 2019

Don’t ask us how, but we are reasonably sure WhatsApp Advertising (status tab) will become a reality in July 2019.

Advertising in the status tab (not te be confused with Facebooks’ offering of WhatsApp logo/button/connection in Facebook Ads) will be possible through either Facebook Ads Manager, a dedicated platform for WhatsApp or a new/revised platform that offers both (Facebook and WhatsApp advertising).

If our prediction turns out to be faulty, we will post a video - here - of an awkward team dance.

TARGETOO listed in top 10 martech companies in EU

Somehow we have been listed by CIO Applications Europe as one of 10 MARTECH companies in Europe that ‘are at the forefront of providing MARTECH solutions and transforming businesses’.

But really, it isn’t us. It’s Programmatic (Mobile) Advertising that’s on the forefront of changing the MARTECH industry. Even though display advertising is just one of many online marketing tools available; the sheer scale of available inventory is unmatched. Why? Because practically the whole world is on their mobile phone - all day, every day.

Thank you CIO, to the future!

UPDATE: WHITEHOUSE CAMPAIGN

Impressions served: 2867, clicks: 18. Did we get traction on a gay dating app? Which app got the most traction? Have we been arrested?

After days of analyzing and tweaking/adjusting here is what we found:

First of all; analyzing our front door learned us that we haven’t been arrested nor raided by Seal Team Six. We are quite happy and relieved about that.

When launching the campaign we scaled up all adexchanges - which is a normal procedure. As mentioned before we are only serving in apps due to the GPS coordinates that the latter provide in an adrequest. Mobile-Web (still) doesn’t. We implemented a bid CPM of $ 1501. Rather quickly we got traction. Like any expert will tell you; when launching a hyper-locally targeted campaign; the first publishers (in this case; apps) you will get traction in, aren’t the most qualitative. Which was definitely the case. Tagged, 360 Security, Rock My Run, Colorfy - to name just a few - aren’t the apps that the President and his team might be visiting (we hope). Oddly enough Whisper seems to be very popular in The White House. And yes, somebody in The White House is using Grindr (which we don’t have a problem with at all). CTR was average at best (shifting between 0,43 and 0,61%). Rather strangely, we witnessed no visits of apps like; CNN, FOX News, ABC, Huffington Post and Breitbart. These are publishers that you would expect a President and his team might visit. Especially with the apparent obsession of (fake) news of the President himself. Nothing.

Knowing Doubleclick adexchange has pretty much all major news apps/publishers in it’s offering, we set up a subline on this adexchange. We applied a very high bid (which actual bid is not to be disclosed). In a week time we got just 13 impressions on this line. And here it comes; 4 clicks. That’s a CTR of 30,77%. How cool is that?! And yes, Breitbart, FOX News and CNN (!) where publishers in which these 13 impressions occurred.

What can we conclude? The thousands of impressions in ‘shit’ publishers undermines Programmatic Advertising as a product. We can go in technical detail regarding the validity of these impressions, but we won’t. It’s simply not a sign that the technology is working. Again; you would expect impressions coming from major United States news outlets. Not ‘Talking Tom’. There is no way around it.

HOWEVER, when implementing years of experience in the campaign setup, tweaking, we did manage to get 13 impressions and 4 clicks (again; a CTR of % 30,77%) within major US news outlets (apps). Conclusion; when done right, Programmatic (local) Advertising is a heck of a marketingtool.

Serving ads above the White House - will we get arrested?

After the rather special experience of us serving ads above the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona - we have come up with a new campaign idea. It is - however - a tricky one.

Hold on to your seat belts because we just launched a campaign serving ads ‘on/above’ the White House (Washington DC) in the roaring and deeply divided United States of America.

Questions that arise:

• Will we get arrested?

• Will we be raided by Seal Team Six?

• White House invitation perhaps?

No, all fun and games - but there are some very interesting aspects and questions coming along with this campaign:

• At what bid will we get traction (being that it’s very likely others have the same idea - serving ads on/above the White House)?

• What are the publishers (apps and sites) mostly visited by people residing, working or living (!) in the actual White House?

  • Can we make this ‘public’ to our few hundred blog readers?

    • If not; what will happen if we do? Legal advise is welcome.

Below the ads/banners (300x250 & 320x50 - image banners) we will serve and the geo-marker within our geo-tool (radius of geo-fence is set at 240 meters).

We will update you when we have interesting developments to share. If you don’t hear from us again, do start to worry.

If you want to learn more about our global ad serving capabilities and solutions, reach out!

Mobile World Congress campaign finished - results

7149 impressions, 401 clicks, a CTR of 5,61 %, average CPM of $ 1433, number of device id’s collected; 5285. Number of inquires on website; 4. The average win-rate was 39,73%.

What do these numbers tell us?

First of all; 7149 won impressions on an event like the MWC is peanuts. Very little. Based on the visitor amount, the affinity with mobile of these visitors and the actual scale of the event; we estimate that there where somewhere like a million impressions available/to-be-won. If not more. Then why do we report a winrate of 39,73%? The most logical explanation is that the overall campaign budget was restrictive. How insane is it, looking at the CPM we got traction with and the fact there were probably more than 1 million impressions to be won; that is technically possible to spend over € 150.000 with just 1 Geo-fence above the MWC - in a matter of 3 days.

401 clicks and a CTR of 5,61% (based on a 300x250 banner). Those are awesome stats. Nothing more to it. We served the same banner without geo-targeting (MWC location) in geo; Spain - and achieved a CTR of 0,81%. We can conclude that by serving on/above the MWC location/event; an audience was reached that had a strong affinity with Mobile and Programmatic Advertising. No rocketscience.

4 inquires on our website www.targetoo.com. One specifically mentioning how cool she found it that we managed to serve her our banner while she was attending the MWC. Even so; looking at the campaign spend we were a bit disapointed by this amount. We hope the branding aspect of this campaign was strong and we will - in the end - experience a positive ROI. And; we still have the retargeting campaign to deploy.

What surprised us most; the insanely high CPM to get traction. All in all an entertaining and educational experience.

Reach out to learn more about serving ads on specific events.

Update: Targetoo MWC campaign

Bidding $ 1500 insane? Right now we are at a $ 6000 bid

With a winrate of 39%, it seems somebody is still outbidding us regarding serving ads on the Mobile World Congress. Based on a dynamic CPM algorithm, we managed to get traction at $ 1149 CPM. How insane is that?

This means that the market values impressions on/at the location - based on a normal 300x250 image banner (seen below) - of the MWC at $ 1149 CPM. We repeat; $ 1149! So far we won 2049 impressions, achieved 71 clicks (CTR = 3,46% !) and received 4 inquires. Not bad, not bad at all.

What does this extreme pricing tell us? Well, for starters a clear indication of GEO-Targeting - based on Programmatic Mobile Advertising - becoming a more popular marketing tool by every day that passes. We estimate that about 80-110 Demand Side Platforms are trying to get serious traction on the MWC event. Friday we will share a new update!

Want to know what GEO Targeting can do for your company/brand? Reach out!

Targetoo NOT attending MWC

Targetoo NOT attending MWC - However serving ads on MWC location with a $ 1500 bid – Representative present in Barcelona

Yield, Populate, Holistic, 360, Smart data, Fully GDPR Compliant – just some of the terminology you will hear in great abundance – if visiting the Mobile World Congress. 

Don’t get us wrong; we love the MWC. We have attended for years. There comes a time – however – where you want technology to do the speaking. That’s why we will we be serving Targetoo ads on the location of the MWC – with a $ 1500 (or higher) bid. Hoping we outbid the hundreds (if not thousands) who have the same idea. Having an unlimited/open/uncapped bid option will help. Secondarily we will catch device id’s and set-up a retargeting line (to be active outside of Europe – due to the GDPR). When the event is over (28-02) we will inform our readers and newsletter database with the results.

The banner we will be serving:

If you want to meet one of our representatives in Barcelona, you can do so by reaching out😊 - If you are visiting the MWC we hope you have a terrific time. Secret restaurant recommendation: El Celler, Olesa de Bonesvalls (20 minutes outside of Barcelona).

16%+ CTR!! - Internal Targetoo campaign - Dynamic banner - Update

In one of recent blog posts we explained the Location Based campaign we are running for our own brand; Targetoo. After weeks of tweaking we are happy to announce that we are achieving a daily CTR of 15% or more. Frankly; a CTR we never witnessed before. Check the original blog post here.

As explained we are serving ‘above’ 2500 locations (or; addresses) of media agencies based in the Netherlands. We are serving a dynamic banner that - depending on the location it is being served - shows the actual name of the agency IN the banner (and changes depending the location it’s being served).

Again; the banner we are serving:

• GEO-fences are set at 50 meters

• We are only targeting GPS traffic (in-app)

• Bid is $ 300

Although we are achieving about 600 impressions a day, we have already received several inquires. We highly recommend this campaign strategy/set-up. It can be deployed for many campaign goals. Reach out for more info and discuss how this campaign technique can benefit your - or your clients’ - brand.

new footfall insights report available

Using the technology of our integrated partner adsquare, we have been able to develop an insights report based on actual campaigns where the goal was/is to prove footfall.

Footfall Attribution seeks to prove and determine the actual effect (in the form of store revenue and store visitors) of a programmatic advertising campaign. Although a hot-topic for marketeers; especially marketeers who work for a brand with physical stores - many still find it hard to successfully deploy and use the technology.

In this insights report we show which approach should be upheld and we explain how the technology should be implemented/deployed. Request it here if interested.

Case study internal Targetoo campaign - Targeting 2500 office locations of media agencies in NL

First of all; happy new year! We hope you enjoyed the holidays, Christmas and New Years Eve (without losing body parts). May the programmatic new year (2019) be good for us all.

We would like to share with you an internal campaign we recently activated. From our partner Data Collectief (www.datacollectief.nl) we bought an address list of 2500 media-agencies - active in the Netherlands. We populated the file with latitude and longitude coordinates. We then created this dynamic banner:

We (automatically) set-up 2500 geo-fences of 70 meters ‘above’ these 2500 office locations. Depending on the location where the ad is served; the correct company name (below ‘HOI’) appears in the ad (dynamically). Being that many of these media agencies are present in our newsletter database; if you see the banner, make a screenshot and in return we will give you € 100 free campaign budget. Spend on whatever campaign you like.

Reach out if you want to learn if a similar campaign (targeting thousands of addresses/locations) can help you and/or your clients.

What was 2018 about regarding Programmatic Advertising?

The year 2018 was about the GDPR, ads.txt, viewability and brand safety. What do these industry changes and updates tell us?

It’s fair to conclude that the Programmatic Advertising industry is materializing into a solid and safe marketing discipline. The introduction of the GDPR and the expanding presence of the ads.txt protocol is good for all involved; from supply to demand, from advertiser to end-user/consumer; these changes signal a more adult, solid and safe Programmatic Advertising landscape. Serving ads in publishers (app or web) is essentially the same as the nearly 300-year-old advertising industry; commercial messages in physical (news)papers. Being that mainly mobile devices are present – and are being owned – by up to a mere 5 billion people on this planet, it’s fair to say Programmatic Advertising (or; advertising in apps and websites) is the biggest marketing discipline currently around. Although disciplines like Search, SEA, E-mail marketing and actual Print are often valuable and strongly present, the sheer scale of Programmatic Advertising is on another level. This is why consolidation, improvement of consumer safety/transparency, Brand Safety, tools like Viewability and overall maturing – of the entire industry – is a good thing.

We wish you great holidays/Christmas and a healthy and abundant 2019

Many thanks to our clients – you! Old and new ones; we value the partnerships we have. We will remain dedicated to deliver strong Programmatic Advertising campaigns in 2019. To our clients - small and big; we wish you a great holiday/Christmas and a healthy and abundant 2019.

Thank you.

Contextual Targeting, Case Study, Free Rich Media

Increased integration with Adsquare

We are happy to announce the integration with Adsquare – which will enable us to do contextual app targeting. The technique has proven itself over a series of test campaigns. We are able to serve your ads in apps that strongly resonate to the content of your ad/offer. By applying certain keywords or selecting categories your ad can be served on devices with owners – likely – to have a strong affiliation with your brand. Reach out for questions and/or campaign requests.

Case Study Geo-fencing

As of now available for free: ‘Geo-fencing – does the technique work?’. In this case study we describe the disadvantages and strengths of the technique, based on actual campaign results and years of experience with the technique. Request if for free.

Free Rich Media in December

Due to the many requests we have received; we have decided to give away free Rich Media creatives in December. You need to convince a client? Want a cool banner for your own campaign? Reach out.

Advertising in Whatsapp will become a reality

Whatsapp wants to start earning big with monetization

Recently, Whatsapp (owned by Facebook) announced that it will start serving ads within the (also new) ‘Status’ feature. Although Whatsapp once promised it’s users that they will ‘never’ start/allow advertisement within the popular chat/communication tool – now they will. It’s very likely that Location Based Advertising (as a targeting option) will also come to life. This means that business can reach their audiences on a local scale. Furthermore it’s also likely Whatsapp will either include the option within Facebooks’ Ads Manager (essentially a DSP just exclusively trading/selling Facebook inventory), or launch a standalone platform (f.e. Whatsapp Ads Manager). Either way; the pricing in regards to results (on- and offline; branding, store traffic and conversions) will be a deciding factor regarding it’s success.

The recently introduced and popular status function gives users the option to share a (combination of) video, text or audio message. These ‘status updates’ disappear after 24 hours. Until now, it’s unknown what options will become available for advertisers. We will keep you updated.

Case study, Competitivity When geo-fencing on specific locations, Update

Case study: GEO-Targeting on 12.526 addresses

In cooperation with a valued client we created a case study of the functionality and results of targeting on 12.526 addresses/locations. The campaign objective in question was to fill/find 18 jobs/positions in the entire Netherlands – for nursery/care related vacancies. We bought a normal address file from our partner Data-Collectief. In this example/case we bought 12.526 addresses of companies, institutions, non-profits and government agencies that perform services/tasks in the area of care, more specifically; care for elder citizens. Some examples: nursing-homes, companies that deliver nursing/care services and local care/nursery locations. The campaign had a duration of 16 days and a total of 1.428.000 impressions have been served (divided over standard IAB formats and a Rich Media interscroller). At the same time a similar campaign without location targeting was activated, but with the same creatives and bid-amounts. Very interestingly; significant different results were being measured (CTR, Engagement and Landingrate). A GEO-Tool that allows this many geo-fences to be live is a necessity. Also automated uploading of addresses; either by zipcode + housenumber and/or lat/long is needed. All in all we enjoyed the realization of the case. Reach out if you want to read the full case-study.   

Competitivity when targeting on specific locations – bid analysis

Some of our clients ask us to serve ads on specific locations to reach a specific audience. Nothing fancy there. What is interesting – however – is seeing/witnessing that many specific locations have a higher pricefloor (in regards to winning bids) than non-specific locations. For example; take universities, city centers and government locations; we are witnessing that when launching a geo-fence of let’s say 500 meters on a university address/location; the pricefloor to win actual bidrequests is significantly higher than the pricefloor of winning bids within a geo-fence of 1 kilometer away – on a non-specific location. The difference in pricing can be as high as 500%. Reach out to learn more.

New Whitelabel DSP Features

Besides inserting a desired logo, upholding company colours and a specific URL, we are now also able to give our whitelabel clients individual DNS Settings, custom on-page SEO and custom terms and conditions. Reach out to learn more.

contact@targetoo.com

Whitelisting in 2018/2019, updated whitelabel features

Whitelisting in 2018/2019, New Whitelabel features, Upgraded performance algorithm

Whitelisting in 2018/2019

It doesn’t matter if you are working for an adtech company, an agency or an actual brand/product; most digital peers know the importance of whitelisting. Until recently – in our view – the best way to create qualitative whitelists, is by creating them manually. In some cases even using Google to search for qualitative apps/sites and check if they have an adslot. Luckily, we are in 2018. Recently, Targetoo partnered with Appfigures. With the technology of Appfigures it’s possible to search and export thousands of publishers in a matter of minutes. The tool allows you to filter on rating, date of introduction, ads allowed (or not), interest and demographic data. Also searching based on keywords is possible. The possibilities are endless. Reach out if you need a strong/qualitative whitelist but don’t have the time to build one.

New Whitelabel features

As of now we are able to offer individual DNS settings, custom disclaimers and many more features that are beneficial for your whitelabel. Reach out for more information.

Updated Performance Algorithm

Recently the performance algorithm has been updated. More and more are we able to reach certain CPL/CPA goals. In many cases we still can’t – as we are running on organic inventory only – but improving gradually. In some cases we where able to produce lower CPl/CPA’s than networks/platforms that possibly use incentivized models. Proud!

Site translated into Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic and more

As of now we can present our content in Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic and Hindu. Many thanks to the involved translators.

We got scammed!

And last; be aware of SOSO Advertising, based in Hong Kong, contact; Silvia Lin https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylvia-lin-142216b9/ (not sure if she actually exists). She/they scammed us for about 4,5k. It’s ok to laugh.

Have great Programmatic Advertising activities, you know where to find us.

New creative section - self-serve platform

REVAMPED CREATIVE SETTINGS

We are proud to announce that we have released a major update in the self-service platform: the creatives structure has been revamped in order to allow the reuse of the same creatives across different lines and campaigns. The new change will also provide you with more information about the approval status of each creative, and will allow you to continue to run campaigns where at least one creative is approved (while others are still getting approved).

Our engineering and product teams have been working during the last few months on this re-design and we are very proud of the result.

Reach out for a demo!

OpenRTB 3.0 coming in 2019

IAB Tech Lab announces a new OpenRTB protocol (3.0) will arrive in 2019

The eight-year-old OpenRTB standard governs how demand-side platforms (DSPs) and supply-side platforms (SSPs) communicate with each other to buy and sell programmatic ads. But bad actors exploited the standard’s holes, leading to domain spoofing, location fraud, in-banner video and other issues.

To make the OpenRTB spec more secure, the IAB Tech Lab broke with the old standard, meaning OpenRTB 3.0 is not reverse compatible. DSPs and SSPs must rewrite their code to comply with the new standard.

The new protocol claims to combat ad-fraud by giving bidrequests a signature - essentially marking them as valid/organic/honest bid requests.

Slowly every loophole that incites or drives ad-fraud is closed; making the Programmatic Advertising industry stronger and more adult. Reach out for more info.