News: be informed of our platform updates, case studies and other experiments


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.

What Makes a Good White Label DSP?

No minimum Monthly Fee, influence on Roadmap and Global Reach. What matters?

What makes a good White Label DSP?

What makes a good White Label DSP?

Operating a Demand Side Platform (or; DSP) can be complex and technical. But, when done right, launching and managing display advertising campaigns yourself can save a lot of money and resources. Operating a Demand side Platform can be done via a so called ‘self-serve’ account. There is – however – a more holistic and entrepreneurial way to operate a Demand Side Platform.

Some good DSP’s offer a White Label license. With this option, and depending on which partner you use, it’s possible to (fully) customize the platform appearance to your likes. It’s possible to place your logo, change the colors to the colors you prefer or implement a custom URL from where your clients can login.

It doesn’t stop there. Deeper customizable segments and options can make a significant difference regarding ‘winning’ that good advertiser (that is looking at multiple DSP options to deploy their programmatic advertising activities) which multiple competitors are chasing. In this blog we outline a few of those deeper functions (which Targetoo offers all):

  • Custom pixels
    As any specialist knows, pixels (when used for tracking purposes) reveal the source code of the proprietary technology behind the White Label. Having the ability to use (and share!) pixels with only your company name in the code/URL can be essential.

  • Becoming an activation/data partner
    Having a White Label DSP is one thing. Being listen in a DMP as an activation partner is another. Nothing is impossible.

  • API
    Using your own interface and accessing campaign settings, managing them, having access to reporting and forecasting tools through an API is a need many White Label DSP enthusiasts have.

  • Fully customizable colors of every section
    Targetoo offers not just the option to place your logo and change basic colors. Essentially every button, aspect and section can be customized.

  • Ability to influence the roadmap
    Need a specific tool or function that the already capable DSP has? It’s possible that we develop, test and bring this new/desired function into life.

  • Global reach
    Many DSP’s say they have ‘global reach’. But is this really the case? A significant amount of globally orientated adexchanges and SSP’s must be available to ensure this claim.

  • Extensive Forecasting
    Forecasting tools can have a significant influence on the experience a user/client might have with your White Label. More than that, an extensive forecasting tool can greatly attribute in a demo you might be giving to your lead/prospect. For example, it’s possible to show hyper-local publishers (and their availability) in that specific city your lead/prospect resides!

  • Suggesting and acceptance of new supply integrations
    Your client might want to use/buy specific inventory that a certain supply source (SSP or Adexchange) has. A good White Label DSP provider should give you the freedom to propose such new integrations.

  • Deal ID’s
    Setting up deals with adnetworks or individual publishers is a must have. Deals provide transparency and it’s likely many of your customers are interested in having that capability when using your platform.

  • Pricing, monthly minimums
    Most of the few White Label DSP providers that exist charge a minimum monthly fee. These usually start around $ 5000 a month. A good, honest and based provider does not uphold this. Targetoo does not charge a minimum monthly (spend) fee towards its White Label clients.

  • Proprietary bidder
    Many DSP’s use bidders that are not proprietary. Meaning; another layer/another company is involved. Logically this affects pricing. Using a platform that has its own, proprietary bidder is very important.

As you can see, many factors can determine if you are obtaining a strong White Label Demand Side Platform. Generally speaking, relying on a capable, if not the most capable DSP – is recommendable. Logically, we/Targetoo feel that we are offering exactly that. Reach out for a demo or questions.

 

Scoring Impression Requests to increase Campaign Performance

How to maintain effective with digital privacy scrutiny and the GDPR/CCPA

Scoring Impression Requests

Scoring Impression Requests


With Europe’s GDPR and California’s CCPA, together with the fact that both Google and Apple are limiting the use of Device ID’s and cookies - the industry has to start working with other methods to ensure and maintain efficiency and effectiveness.

The apparent fact that the lack of accuracy the above brings, doesn’t mean a person can’t be ‘found’ and served a relevant ad. Here’s why:

On a normal day we receive more than 1 million ad requests per second. The requests come with metadata such as; date, time, location or a Device ID like Apple’s IDFA. We could use the IDFA to determine if we have served an impression on this device before. Also, if the device is located within a certain data-segment that we find relevant for the campaign in question.

Many vendors and buying networks rely on ID’s to find and target specific devices/individuals. However, from day 1, we have relied and successfully deployed machine learning mechanisms to determine if an ad request is suitable for a specific campaign. Essentially, each signal is automatically categorized and given a score - based on machine learning - to learn and apply the effect of each signal on campaign performance.

The combination of present variables gets a score based on historical data and live/actual campaign performance. This score will determine if we bid (and how high) on that specific ad-request - ‘looking’ at the campaign configuration and it’s goal.

The ad-requests described above are also know as ‘Limited Ad Tracking’ (LAT) requests. Being that the whole industry is moving towards LAT based impression requests, we feel we have been applying the right targeting vs privacy strategy from day 1. We are - and always have been - focusing on new ways to target and attribute.

Do you want to share ideas, have questions or simply want to discuss? Reach out!

New UI - New Platform User Guide

A new User Interface means a new Platform User Guide!

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Available now; our new Platform User Guide. Train yourself and your team-members whenever it suits you. The guide covers all sections of platform. Among others:

  • creative section

  • workspace

  • tracking

  • geo-fencing

  • bulk upload

  • export of RAWS

For our white label clients; the guide can be delivered in Word format so you can apply desired styling and f.e. your logo.

Reach out for questions!

White House Most Visited Apps

What are the most visited/used Apps by phones residing in The White House?

The White House Campaign

The White House Campaign

As mentioned in a previous post, in the past few weeks we have deployed a GEO-Fence on/above the physical location of The United States White House. By deploying this GEO-Fence we are receiving adrequests which contain latitude & longitude coordinates - which match the lat/longs of the actual White House location. By bidding ‘high’ on these adrequests we can serve an ad (any ad) and by doing that; - ‘see’/detect which apps are ‘popular’ within that specific location > which is - again - The White House.

Some things to consider:

  • It’s very likely that many phones residing in The White House are highly encrypted. We don’t reckon the phone of the actual POTUS and/or senior staff-members are playing a factor regarding the outcome of this (yearly) experiment.

  • Please note that only in-app activity can be detected. Why? Because only an adrequest coming from in-app activity can contain lat/longs regarding the actual position of that phone. Adrequests coming from mobile-web activity do not contain this accurate lat/long data.

With that out of the way, find the results below:

  1. Breitbart

  2. USAToday

  3. CNN

  4. Accuweather

  5. Foxnews

*Based on 63.209 impressions delivered between 18-08 and 30-08, Bid of $ 82 CPM, No caps.

Want to learn more about GEO-Fencing and how this campaign technique can help your company/brand? Reach Out!

In-game Ads - Now Available

Integration with IronSource completed

IronSource integration

IronSource integration

We are pleased to announce that we are now able to offer more and extensive In-Game Ad inventory. By completing the integration with adnetwork IronSource, the scale of our In-game ad inventory has become a serious USP regarding our offerings.

Generally speaking, In-game advertising delivers strong ROI and provides brand-awareness in an unique way. Simple banners but also rich media and video ads can be served.

Request a demo/training here.

What are the top 5 apps being visited from devices in The White House?

Our annual White House campaign!

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We are pleased to announce that we have re-launched our annual White House campaign. We’ve deployed a GEO-Fence of 110 meters ‘on/above’ The White House (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States).

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Because of the precision we can only serve ads in-app, as only adrequests coming from in-app activity, can contain GPS coordinates or; lat/longs.

By launching this campaign we can effectively ‘see’ which apps are most visited/used from devices residing in The White House.

- disclaimer - the result of this cool experiment doesn’t necessarily reflect reality as it’s likely many encrypted devices are in use (within The White House) - which we can’t serve ads on. The results of this experiment/campaign will be published on this blog between 28-08 and 04-09.

iOS 14 update will ask for an op-tin regarding third party usage of IDFA

A win for consumer privacy, a loss for serving relevant ads

Google’s advertising identifier is ‘GAID’, Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers is ‘IDFA’. Both help mobile marketers to attribute ad spend and f.e. initiate retargeting campaigns.

The new iOS update (based on previous updates; more than half of iOS users will update and install iOS 14) does not provide IDFA (identifier) codes - f.e. to attribute adspend and to initiate retargeting campaigns.

Essentially; a phone owner needs to actively opt-in to allow ‘limit ad trafficking’ in order for the device to pass the IDFA identifier. When doing so, this scary pop-up appears:

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Although this development/update is very beneficial for consumer privacy, serving of relevant ads - on iOS - will become very difficult. Perhaps most critically, is the impact this has regarding spend - on the two biggest platforms - for mobile user acquisition: Google and Facebook.

Google and Facebook almost always show the highest return/ROI on adspend. But, as most experts know, this largely due to the fact that both have immense amounts of data, hence more attribution ‘moments’ are reported.

Let’s see how this develops. Questions? Need advise? Reach out!

Google Chrome will start blocking 'heavy' ads

End of august 2020, this update will go in effect

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Google announced Chrome will start blocking heavy, resource-draining advertisements by the end of August 2020. The original statement can be found here. An ad will be considered heavy if the user has not interacted with it (has not tapped or clicked it) and/or if it meets any of the following criteria:

- Uses the main CPU thread for more than 60 sec in total
- Uses the main CPU thread for more than 15 sec in any 30-sec window
- Uses more than 4 MB of network bandwidth

With these upcoming changes, we would like to encourage our clients to consider alternative ad experiences in Mobile Web environments, especially if they include auto-play video. We recommend switching to tap-to-play video experiences or reducing the quality and/or length of the video asset itself. Additionally;

  • Avoid using large assets.

  • Reduce the usage of auto-play settings (e.g., in Video, Swipey, Swipey Group and Transition components).

  • Always load assets after user interaction in Expandable experiences (e.g. move videos and other large assets to the expanded unit).

  • Be careful with custom coding. Do not include any extra Javascript code that might trigger high CPU usage, and avoid using custom code to load large external assets into your creative.

As always, reach out for questions.

Desktop & Connected TV in Front-end

As of now: Desktop & Connected TV in Front-end

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We are proud to announce that launching desktop campaigns can now be done from within the front-end. Likewise TV Synchronization campaigns are also launchable from within the front-end.

Reach out for a demo!

Mini Case Study

Serving hyperlocal above 1800 hardware stores

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In close cooperation with communication agency; Het Stormt (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) - We are serving banners above 1800 hardware stores in The Netherlands. The campaign has been developed for the new national initiative called ‘SAM Werkt’.

About SAM
SAM is an initiative from ‘Stichting Duurzame Inzetbaarheid Technische Groothandel’ which ensures employees and employers are working in harmony to stimulate sustainable partisanship for technically qualified employees working in one of these 1800 hardware stores.

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Using our sophisticated GEO-Fencing tool we are able to report per location (1800 in total) and adjust sizes of GEO-Fences individually.

Want to know more about this campaign and how GEO-Fencing can be a strong digital marketing tool for your clients? Reach out!

New UI live and working

After weeks of fixing bugs, the recently announced significant UI update is live and working well

Among a much better looking UI, the update also contains technical improvement of many platform functions. A short-list:

  • A completely revamped campaign management UI: Bringing a faster account organization and campaign creation experience.

  • Cohort analysis: Compare correlation between key metrics for your campaigns.

  • Optimization model selection: You can choose different algorithm options directly from within platform.

  • Platform access credential management: Create as many credentials for your AdOps team members  as you need to manage your campaigns.

  • Cloud video hosting: More powerful video asset management.

  • More campaign analytics tools: including timeshift, measure sorting, custom measure calculations, more filters and heatmaps.

Reach out for a demo, questions or inquires.

Introducing Astrea algorithm - Model your Winrate

Model your WinRate curve with respect to the bid value for each request

How does the Astrea algorithm work?

Basically, the algorithm helps you find the right price for every impression, by simply not paying more (or; less) than an impression is worth. Its function is to model the WinRate curve with respect to the bid value for each request. This algorithm is especially powerful when exploring first price auction requests. With this, our exploring data stops being acquired by algorithms whose target is obtaining the optimum CPA; instead, the Astrea algorithm focuses only on managing data volume thus exploring new unseen requests.


Soon available in front-end

Togheter with the already announced significant general visual update, the function will be available in front-end in a matter of days.

Reach out for questions and/or additional info.

June Covid-19 offers & discounts

Take advantage of some serious Offers & Discounts

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60% off on White Label DSP set-up fee

Service your own clients by obtaining our White Label DSP solution. Among many more USP’s, it’s possible to give your clients self-serve access (relying on our tech support is possible). The 60% discount means the one-time set-up fee (in June) is: $ 1520. Be advised; this offer only applies for the month June.


Free Rich Media & banner design

Need to convince a (potential) client/advertiser? Want to be helpful and pro-active towards your clients in these challenging times? Ask us to create a cool, advanced rich media banner. In this month (June) we do this for free - for (almost) any purpose.


$ 100 free campaign budget

Want to try out our platform before committing to anything? We offer a $ 100 free campaign budget as per the following conditions:

  • You work for an established media agency (link to LinkedIn profile and company URL are required).

  • You have actual clients/advertisers.

  • You have a genuine interest in the platform.

Feel free to reach out for questions and further information. Onward we go.


New native inventory & upcoming visual update

Soon: desktop in front-end & significant visual update

Update May 2020

Update May 2020

Visual update

Soon a significant visual update of the platform will take place. The main purpose of this update is to improve work-flow and main visual appearance. Reach out for questions and timelines.

Desktop in front-end

Aligned with this profound visual update, activating/optimizing/utilising desktop inventory will be present and accessible in the new front-end.

New native inventory

An integration with a native orientated SSP is nearing finishing stages. This new native inventory will become aligned with the upcoming visual update.

As always, reach out for questions or inquires.

3 free campaigns worth € 3000 each for Covid-19 fighters

3 FREE campaigns for non-profit/health organizations that are fighting Covid-19!

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About 90% of our current/actual campaigns have either been paused or cancelled

To keep our ad-ops sharp and ready, but above all; to do our part regarding fighting this virus - we are offering 3 campaigns (each worth € 3000,-) to health organizations fighting Covid-19 for FREE.

Conditions:

  • Only non-profits/governmental health organizations can apply for a free campaign

  • A media-agency can be involved but logically; will not get paid.

  • Possibly we want to make a case of the campaigns, permission needs to be granted.

Technical Conditions:

  • Only a 300x250 will be served. We also do creation for free (max 3 correction rounds).

  • To achieve a healthy balance between serving on/in popular publishers (sites and apps) and Run of Network (RON), we will bid between € 2,03 and € 3,41 CPM (rates may vary depending on the country where the campaign must run). This means that we will deliver minimally 879.765 impressions, maximally 1.477.832.

  • Transparency to publisher level and independent tracking is possible.

Campaigns suggestions/idea’s:

  • Geo-Fencing hospitals

  • Geo-Fencing hotspots of Covid-19 infections

  • General (health) guidance/advise (regional, national or international)

Are you a health provider or do you have medical/non-profit related clients (in case you work at a media agency)? Reach out!

NOW offering desktop inventory!

Serve on all quality websites that allow advertisement

Desktop Inventory

Desktop Inventory


We are proud to announce that we now offer desktop inventory through our platform. We have waited a long time to include the ability to run desktop campaigns. Why? Because of our roadmap, because we are still a mobile-first DSP, because performance campaigns - generally speaking - run well on desktop, because we want to offer the latest cross-device tracking (more on that soon) and (let’s be honest) simply because a lot of clients (past and present) have asked us to include desktop in our offerings.

Publishers that can be served on, literally include all sites that allow advertisement. Some examples; edition.cnn.com, guardian.co.uk, nbc.com, breitbart.com, ebay.com, nbc.com, spotify.com, dailymail.co.uk, reddit.com, tripadvisor.com, lemonde.fr, economist.com, forbes.com and much more! Again; if a site allows advertisement (or; has an ad-slot) - 99% sure we can serve your ads on that (quality) site you like. Again, please note that running CPL/CPO/CPA/CPS campaigns (performance) is also possible!

Questions? Do you wish to receive full site list? Reach out!

New reporting and forecasting section!

Significantly improved reporting and forecasting sections

The multidimensional tool allows users to easily create reports (graphs, tables…)  without a single line of code as all the interaction is based on drag and drop. Easier than Excel! This update enhances the current version by adding some new features.

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These new features include:

  • Time shift feature

  • Measure Sorting

  • Custom measure calculations

  • Improved filters

  • Heatmaps

  • Collapse rows

New features explained

Time shift feature 

It enables to compare your campaign metrics against past behavior: f.e. yesterday, last week, last month. Add a time filter and select a “Time Shift’’ which is different from “Off”.

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Measure sorting

With this new version, at the top of the page the Measure row is available and there you can drag and drop them in order to sort them out as you please.

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Custom measure calculations

Do you have a KPI that is a combination of 2 measures? Now you can build reports with it by left-clicking a measure and selecting “Calculate”:

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Improved filters 

Do you have to filter by multiple elements? The filter feature on this new version has been improved in several ways to ease filtering:

  • List based filtering: simply copy and paste a list of items as shown in the next image and your report will be filtered accordingly. 

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  • Regex based filtering: filter all the fields that contain a certain word.

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Heatmaps

Allows the user to display the information in a colorful and easy to read table.

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Reach out for a demo or questions!

Corona-targetoo-panic discounts, free rich media

Every disadvantage has it’s advantage - Johan Cruyff

Collective Corona Panic - Offers & Discounts Targetoo

Collective Corona Panic - Offers & Discounts Targetoo


Getting scared already? We are! Not for obtaining the virus, but the apparent effect on markets. More specifically, the digital advertising market. Our market.

Well, the late (and legendary) Johan Cruyff has inspired us to make the best of this situation and simply continue with HARD work, delivering the best campaigns possible and stay creative.

That is why we have the following - ‘Corona-Targetoo-Panic’ - discounts & offers:

  • FREE Rich Media banners/ads

    • Cubes, interscrollers, game-elements, dynamic functionalities, native - you name it. You got a client you want to pro-actively surprise with a sophisticated ad? Reach out! Why surprise your client(s) with a sophisticated Rich Media ad? To demonstrate the awesome possibilities of programmatic display advertising AND to convince them of running a campaign! Need one? Reach out! Download our reference guide here.

  • 50% discount on the set-up fee for your White Label DSP.

  • 3 Free platform-training-sessions of 1 hour for up to 10 people.

These offers remain in place until further notice*

We ask you to join - and surrender to - this collective company panic, make the most out of it (by using our discounts and offers) and above all; keep smiling:)

Forward we go.

Purina Pro Plan & McDonalds - campaign examples

Targetoo campaign examples (February 2020)

Purina Pro Plan:

  • in-house created multi-functional rich media banner

  • served on devices that are being owned by people whom likely have a cat or dog (Kochava segment)

McDonalds Little Tasty Chicken:

Purina Pro Plan campaign

McDonalds campaign

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