Technology
Services
Resources
We told you all about ad spenders continuing to adopt programmatic advertising capabilities in-house. You know that digital media teams have to figure out how to make programmatic and direct buying co-exist peacefully. What’s left? Well, it’s only March, so there’s probably plenty left on your digital plate for the rest of the year. And we want to help you get set up for programmatic success in 2018.
Beyond the tools and the features and the teams, what can digital media professionals do to get the most value from their programmatic partners? How can they manage the change within their organization? How can they drive the most performance out of their media, their teams, and their business?
You didn’t think we’d leave you hanging, did you?
When we worked with research firm Ad Perceptions on this survey, we made sure to ask a simple question of 150+ digital media professionals: What would help you be more successful in your role?
The results probably won’t surprise you:
Ultimately, marketers and agencies want campaign performance and results they can work with – the right results to satisfy their bosses and impress their clients.
What will surprise you: Everything that marketers and agencies deemed a “key to programmatic success” remain some of their biggest pain points – things like better insights, consistent measurement standards across all buying channels, and an overwhelming selection of vendors vying for their attention.
It’s a catch-22. And the real challenge we’re facing as an industry lies in figuring out how all the tools stack up against the problems we’re facing.
According to our research, the tools themselves aren’t always the problem. Of the groups we surveyed, agencies were the most likely to be satisfied – with 64% saying their existing toolset works well. Whereas almost half of the marketer respondents expressed that their toolsets are cumbersome and not effective.
Ultimately, users of this digital tech and software may not be fully considering how theses tools relate to their satisfaction. The tools are a means to an end – but are they delivering? Are they generating the right results? Are they being used to their full potential?
In a digital world inundated with the promise of tools and tech and solutions that can do more, how can you quickly recognize the value of yet another programmatic ad partner? And once you find that perfect partnership, what resources can you tap into to ensure you’re unlocking everything that’s possible with digital media?
At Centro, we like to focus on three main things:
Learn more about Programmatic Advertising with Centro.
One guarantee with the U.S. elections in 2020 is that history won’t repeat itself—at least, not when it comes to digital advertising for the candidates and causes that Americans will vote for on November 3rd.
So much has changed since the last nationwide elections in 2016 and 2018. For political campaigns, Google has adjusted audience targeting features, Twitter has banned paid campaigns, ad exchanges have increased digital audio and CTV inventory, California has restricted the use of consumer data, and Facebook—well, maybe not everything has changed. Still, the fact remains that the opportunities available to political marketers have transformed over the past two years.
It’s imperative for campaigns to work with marketing partners who regularly navigate the political landscape, and who have deep experience driving winning outcomes. Because let’s face it: in November, you either win or you lose.
Basis Technologies’ Candidates and Causes (C&C) team is set apart by three factors: people, leadership, and tech. Read on for a brief introduction to all three!
Basis has one of the largest media buying teams in the U.S., ready to jump in on campaigns and able to leverage existing relationships with thousands of sites.
Our C&C team has cataloged battle-tested best practices of winning campaigns. In the 2018 mid-terms, 73% of campaigns we were a part of won their races. In 2016, 80% of our clients had winning outcomes.
We’ve also been at the forefront of political advertising in digital media since 2006. Our D.C. office has spent more than a decade working with teams of political ad experts, allowing for the separation of teams aligned with partisan work. Basis also staffs regional offices across the country with subject matter experts on digital advertising in the political arena.
Basis’ C&C team is led by a tenured team of experts, including Vice President Grace Briscoe and National Director Jaime Vasil.
Since joining Basis over a dozen years ago, Grace has guided the company’s most important political advertising clients nationwide. She is a leading resource in the various marketing aspects of politics, providing insight to prominent news outlets such as Adweek, Bloomberg, CNBC, Fortune, The Daily Beast and more.
Jaime Vasil joined Basis’ D.C. office in 2011, with vast experience working with Basis in the public affairs realm as an advertising sales leader for The New Republic and for the The Atlantic. Over the past 9 years, she has overseen the growth of Basis' D.C. team and its work with key advocacy and public affairs clients.
Our platform, Basis, is uniquely suited to the needs of political advertisers, and is the top user-rated cross-channel digital platform among political organizations. Basis is:
In every election cycle, there are a multitude of political and advocacy campaigns vying for attention from voters. Digital is a critical awareness and engagement channel for political campaigns, and there is a huge opportunity for these groups to leverage technology to their advantage in 2020.
Are you looking to explore digital marketing for your 2020 elections campaign? Connect with Basis to learn more.
‘Ask the Expert’ is a series that breaks down the tools, tech, and trends you’ve been hearing about in the trade pubs and around the office. We ask our in-house experts the tough questions and write up the answers in bite-sized pieces for your reading pleasure.
This month’s topic? Programmatic advertising expectations for 2020. We brought in Centro’s SVP of Product Management, Hiten Mistry, to give us the breakdown.
What will drive programmatic spending to grow in 2020?
Currently, CTV and audio are driving private marketplace spending. Audio buying via programmatic channels is fairly new, but we’re continually seeing growth in audio supply from our internal data. CTV has also experienced over 3x growth from our 2018 numbers.
In terms of advertisers, the effect of more ad budgets from segments like politics and cannabis will be good for programmatic channels. Ad sellers willing to accept advertising from these areas are well-positioned for 2020. Here in the U.S., we’re predicting that Cannabis spending will be long lasting with lots of room for growth.
What factors will affect programmatic video in 2020?
The interest in CTV and addressable TV will be the drivers of growth this year. As improvements in programmatic pipelines make it easier to activate campaigns, we expect to see budgets shifting fast to these channels and tactics. Market education and support will be a major factor in how much is spent on programmatic video.
Another important factor is mobile video. We’re going to see more adoption of 5G networks on the major carriers, and this will drive video content consumption. Naturally, that will open more opportunities for programmatic video advertising on mobile devices.
What other factors will influence programmatic in 2020?
The market is moving towards more automation in bid optimization for first-price auctions. The algorithms in DSPs are constantly learning more about the optimal bids for a first-price auction world. Advertisers will have to rely on these types of optimization tools to automate programmatic advertising.
Generally, we expect to see automated programmatic buying in all forms (DSP, social, etc.) alongside automated buying via direct, search, and others. By “others,” I’m referring to the automation of set-up, management and reporting of campaigns. This is especially needed with the increased complexity of digital media, plus the individual nuances of vendors’ programmatic platforms (DSPs, SSPs, publishers).
I also expect Digital Out-of-Home (OOH) to make a leap. There is more work to be done to create infrastructures that support the supply, but there’s certainly interest from buyers to access audiences on this channel via DSPs.
Are you interested in learning how Centro can boost your programmatic advertising capabilities in 2020? Learn more about Programmatic Advertising with Centro.
Say hello to Hulu! Centro’s platform, Basis, is now certified to buy on Hulu’s private marketplace (PMP). Basis customers that secure approval from Hulu gain cross-channel video advertising capabilities through programmatic ad buys that reach 72 million viewers watching on connected TVs and other devices.
Basis is a comprehensive, automated, and intelligent digital media platform—the only software solution of its kind to consolidate digital operations across programmatic, direct, search, and social campaigns. Access to Hulu’s PMP complements the connected TV advertising features already offered in Basis, allowing users to automate large-scale upfront Hulu deals and direct ad buys on every major OTT and digital video platform.
“Advertisers deserve choice and control in their transaction experience,” said Doug Fleming, Head of Advanced TV at Hulu. “Adding Centro’s Basis as a certified DSP partner offers advertisers yet another opportunity to reach their target audiences with efficiency on Hulu via our Advanced TV platform.”
Buying on Hulu’s PMP allows users to:
Agencies using Basis to buy on Hulu’s PMP are able to align programmatic tactics with every other major part of a campaign to power cross-channel video marketing strategies. Campaigns utilizing direct buying, programmatic buying, paid search, and paid social are centrally planned and managed within the workflow automation platform. Performance data from these tactics feed directly into Basis, empowering media professionals to optimize in real-time and unify reporting.
Tyler Kelly, president of Centro, added: “As the streaming OTT leader with the largest wholly addressable marketplace, Hulu continues to grow as a partner for engaging viewers of premium video. Its innovations create more ways for marketers to scale top-of-the-funnel, site- and sound-driven branding efforts. Hulu and Centro are aligned in automating the buying of OTT video to make ad spend on this channel more seamless, effective, and compelling for agencies.”
In addition to its Hulu certification, Basis’ DSP accesses all major video supply sources for open RTB and private marketplaces. It is the technology platform of choice for users of digital media software, scoring the number one position for the Demand Side Platform (DSP), Video Advertising and Cross-Channel Advertising categories on global user review site G2. The Adweek Readers’ Choice Best of Tech Awards named Centro as the winner for the Display DSP, Mobile DSP and Retargeting categories.
Learn more about Connected TV Advertising with Centro.
‘Ask the Expert’ is a series that breaks down the tools, tech, and trends you’ve been hearing about in the trade pubs and around the office. We ask our in-house experts the tough questions and write up the answers in bite-sized pieces for your reading pleasure.
This month’s topic? Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) and Data Management Platforms (DMPs). We brought in Centro’s VP of Performance Analytics and Ad Operations, Zach Moore, to give us the breakdown.
What’s a CDP? What’s a DMP? What do they do?
A CDP, or Customer Data Platform, and a DMP, or Data Management Platform, can be complimentary to each other—but ultimately exist to accomplish different objectives for marketers.
A CDP contains data attributes for known and unknown customers: Names, addresses, purchase histories, product preferences, etc. These data points are aggregated from multiple systems, matched to profiles, and ultimately, used to create personalized touchpoints.
A DMP, on the other hand, operates anonymously and utilizes browser cookies. DMPs exist to segment audiences, gain insights into specific actions, and facilitate targeting these users anonymously.
What’s the primary difference between the two platforms?
A CDP typically contains PII (personally identifiable information), whereas a DMP is not usually permitted to store this type of information.
What’s an example of how a marketer would use a CDP or a DMP?
Let’s say a brand wanted to launch a targeted email campaign to their e-commerce customers. Using a CDP, they can utilize different messages and offers based on their customers’ predicted lifetime value (LTV).
They can target their high LTV customers, who are more likely to keep spending, with an e-mail that contains a discount or special offer on a big ticket item. Low LTV customers, who are less likely to spend a significant amount of money, can be targeted with an email that features moderately priced accessories or an alert about an upcoming sale.
Let’s say the same brand is attempting to get prospective customers down the purchase funnel, but they experience a drop-off right before conversion. By utilizing a DMP, the brand can map out the prospects’ journey throughout their website and build rules to collect and segment the prospects—to target them more efficiently and gain better insight into their path.
These user segments can be activated within ad buying platforms. For example, the brand can target those users with an ad to remind them that they still have items in their cart, or retarget them with variations of similar products that they’ve already viewed.
What should a brand keep in mind when considering either a CDP or a DMP?
Both are major investments for any marketer and should be carefully considered. The marketer should have a firm use case for each platform, as well as solid buy-in across the organization early on in the process. It’s likely that various teams will need to play a part at some point. Everyone in the organization should be aligned around the business use case, and metrics should be established up front to gauge success.
For CDPs in particular, organizations need to input “clean” data in order to receive actionable data as an output. There should be a large emphasis on data hygiene in order to start the process correctly. If this is a new concept and your data is a bit of a mess, stakeholders will need to be realistic about short- and long-term goals.
Along these lines, it’s important to ask yourself: When was the last time you audited your CRM data? Are these customers still active? Have they moved? Be honest with how fresh your data is.
For both CDPs and DMPs, create a plan for how to use your data and a clear path to customer segment activation. In the case of media activation, ensure your partners can ingest what you’re sending them.
When it comes to DMPs specifically, stay in lock step with your dev and/or IT teams, to make sure that the necessary data points are surfaced in your website’s data layer, or available through the existing tag management solution. If they are not readily available, extra development will be needed to bring them to the forefront.
How does Centro work with clients who currently have, or are looking to obtain, either solution?
Our clients can bring Basis in-house or utilize our managed services option to easily activate segments programmatically. In situations where neither of these options are a perfect fit, Centro meets clients where they are to create custom solutions.
Not sure where you stand? Connect with us to learn more!
‘Ask the Expert’ is a series that breaks down the tools, tech, and trends you’ve been hearing about in the trade pubs and around the office. We ask our in-house experts the tough questions and write up the answers in bite-sized pieces for your reading pleasure.
This month’s topic? Connected TV (CTV). We brought in Basis Technologies VP of Media Innovations and Technology, Noor Naseer, to give us the breakdown.
CTV consumption has already grown significantly these past few years. It continues to grow at a rate that makes the shifts in consumption more actionable for advertisers to buy against.
Nearly 70% of all internet users are currently using CTV. And CTV ad spending is soaring in kind, passing $25 billion in 2023 and forecast to hit $40 billion by 2027. Even for those who aren’t actively watching it, chances are likely that they’re equipped to. The same eMarketer report forecasts that more than 85% of households already have a CTV device in their household.
MVPD stands for ‘Multichannel Video Programming Distributor.’ While the term may sound unfamiliar, it’s likely that many consumers have signed up for one or know someone else who has. These distributors provide access to multiple TV channels through a single service. The first iterations of MVPDs that most consumers are familiar with are cable and satellite providers, like Comcast Xfinity, Charter Spectrum, DirectTV, and Cox.
The current iteration of MVPD that has led the term to recirculate is ‘Virtual MVPD’. The addition of the word ‘virtual’ is in reference to new cord-cutting options that provide access to content channels without needing to supply a data transport infrastructure, à la coaxial cable, satellite or fiber.
Like so many things in today’s digital advertising landscape, the CTV advertising space can best be described as fragmented. There are many disparate ways to consume connected content. Accordingly, many advertising opportunities may need to be strategically considered and bought disparately.
One popular means of consumption is through streaming VOD, or ‘Video on Demand.' To date, some highly popular VOD services strictly generate revenue through a subscription model and do not offer advertising opportunities. Examples of providers that don’t run ads include Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
However, there are plenty of VOD providers and streaming players that do have advertising offerings. Popular ad-supported options include Hulu, FuboTV, Sling TV, and Roku.
While there is still a significant amount of inventory in the paid TV space, the slow diminishment of available inventory has TV ad buyers paying more for the same type and volume of inventory they’ve paid for in the past. Simultaneously, forecasts are showing that 10s of millions of traditional TV consumers are expecting to cut the cord in the next few years. This means that the volume of traditional, linear TV inventory will continue to decline.
With the continued decline in traditional TV inventory, the time to start testing and learning in the CTV space is now. CTV advertising is a great fit for advertisers for whom massive reach and branding goals are essential. It also has additional benefits paralleling the traditional TV space, like mostly non-skippable ads, 100% viewability, and viewer dedication to a single piece of content. Advertisers also have the flexibility to enhance targeting through buying based on the audience, as opposed to building their buy strategy against programming or content type.
Digital video advertising enables an advertiser to leverage sight, sound, and motion without constraining their buy to the confines of the TV screen format. Research suggests that this inventory type will continue to steeply increase. eMarketer and IAB reports indicate that more than half of digital video ad spend will be driven by video ads featuring original content.
With a volume of inventory and ad-supported spaces that far outnumber CTV, digital video can enable much more granular targeting. Digital video advertising also implies a ‘hands-on-keyboard’ element for the user experience. This allows the consumer to more immediately engage with the brand on a deeper level than they otherwise would be able to in a TV-viewing environment.
A media planner should start by evaluating the consumption habits of the audience they are seeking to reach. For instance, if an advertiser has brand awareness goals to reach a demographic that primarily consumes traditional paid TV, it might make less sense to heavily shift dollars into alternative digital video strategies. Conversely, if the target audience is heavily made up of cord-cutters and video consumers, there will be many digital video tactics worth considering.
After taking screen-based habits into consideration, the buyer can delve deeper into the combination of ad formats that will resonate best with that audience. Popular programmatic formats include full episode players, in-stream, out-stream, and in-banner. If the target audience skews younger and consumes a lot of social content, the planner may want to consider preparing vertical video assets as well. From there, more targeted video strategies and tactics can be determined based on the goals and objectives of the campaign.
Basis has solutions both for digital video and CTV. Buyers can access and discover CTV and video ad inventory by private marketplaces and the open exchange. Inventory can be aggregated a few different ways. One popular means is by audience type, such as ‘homeowner,’ ‘in-market auto shopper,’ or ‘travel enthusiast.' It can also be organized by the type of content the viewer has consumed, such as sports, news, comedy, home improvement, etc.
Learn more about Connected TV advertising with Basis
Our mission is to improve the lives of the people working in this industry. And when we first launched Basis—our comprehensive platform that converges digital media planning, buying, operations, campaign analytics, business intelligence, and billing reconciliation—we did it with media professionals in mind.
Although Basis has been on the market for less than two years, its swift adoption shows that advertisers agree with our emphasis on automation. Consider some of the features and updates we rolled out in just the past few months:
We’re not done yet! Stay tuned as we release new tools and options for forecasting, audience targeting, campaign optimization, social advertising, billing reconciliation, and moreover the next couple of months.
Itching to see—or hear—more? Learn more about the audio advertising opportunity with Basis.
‘Ask the Expert’ is a blog series that breaks down the complicated tools, tech, and trends you’ve been hearing about in the trade pubs and around the office. We reach out to our in-house experts to ask the tough questions and turn them into bite-sized Q&As for your reading pleasure.
This month’s topic? 5G. We brought in Centro’s senior director of media innovations and technology, Noor Naseer, to give us the breakdown.
What is 5G?
5G refers to the network that mobile data passes through. There is no set definition on what it is, in terms of standards and tech specifications. However, the general consensus is that it means data uploads and downloads on mobile devices whole lot faster - The type of speeds that consumers are really going to notice. Think: downloading a whole movie via your wireless network in seconds. With 5G, users could reach 10Gbps speeds. Most U.S. users are using wireless services that are on 4G networks, but major carriers have been busy testing and touting faster technologies.
What does this mean for digital advertising?
Similar to how broadband Internet fueled digital media consumption on desktops, and a subsequent rise in digital advertising, even greater advertising opportunities will be seen in apps, media and advertising on mobile devices. I see the most potential in improved ad quality and delivery. One aspect of this is the enhancement of location capabilities. Higher data speeds, better sensors, plus continued improvements in the geo-capabilities space, will give marketers very precise views of the user. The rollout of 5G will enable seamless sourcing and delivery of location-based data to millions of devices simultaneously. Another exciting potential is high-resolution video ads. Expanded capabilities under 5G include 4K video, with dynamic and personalized messaging, served in real time. More complex video ads will play with little to no latency issues.
Does 5G affect programmatic advertising?
The most significant foreseeable impact will be the serving of video ads on mobile devices through programmatic buying. Opening up the opportunities to serve video ads that render fully, are viewable, and are measureable, will drive marketers to spend even more significantly across this channel. As the demand increases, publishers will utilize more of these types of ad units, and DSPs will see more and more impressions from their supply-side partners. The bidding mechanism behind programmatic channels wouldn’t see significant change, as most major DSPs are already evaluating opportunities and churning through real-time bids at a rate of billions per second.
Beyond paid media, how could marketers capitalize on 5G?
A benefit with evaluating 5G at this point is that the possibilities are vast. The opportunities are whatever creative minds can think up. And it would rejuvenate ideas that were challenging to implement previously. We all remember the widely popular, mobile-driven, Pokemon GO that utilized augmented reality. I see 5G emboldening marketers to think and develop more of those types of VR, AR and XR (extended reality) experiences for their customers. 5G makes it more seamless to offer greater immersion and engagement to users.
What am I not thinking of when it comes to 5G?
It comes down to cost for the user. Broadband Internet on desktops took off because the costs were manageable, or it was bundled into other services (enabling the ease of adoption). Initially, 5G is looking like a premium upgrade, where it is an add-on cost to an already premium mobile plan, or extra equipment is needed. There will be early adopters, but there may not be scalable audiences for marketers to reach. Worth noting is that broadband started as a premium service. Millions of consumers at the onset of broadband had lower cost options (dial-up, anybody?). So, history shows that so-called “premium services” in the present could morph into widely-popular essentials for the normal consumer, especially as more companies enter the market and release competitive offerings. Chances seem likely that 2020 will be the debut year of many exciting opportunities with 5G.
Digital audio should be part of your media mix now, or at the very least, be part of the media mix consideration.
But don’t take my word for it. Follow the data and these points should convince any reasonable ad buyer:
People are listening to digital formats. This shouldn’t be a surprise because people have always been listening to something – music, live games, talk shows, etc. Audio offers a way to let users consume media either actively or passively. You can drive and listen at the same time. Try reading a web article or watching puppy videos while merging on a highway.
Digital audio formats offer marketers engaged listeners and high share of voice because the users are served only one ad at a time. Furthermore, mobile devices have personalized audio experiences even more. So the signals consumers give while listening to digital audio enables marketers to precisely target the advertising in this format based on their listening habits.
So let’s talk about what you can do.
On our Basis platform, marketers can activate digital audio by buying ads direct from any major vendor or by buying audiences via programmatic channels. It converges digital audio into a marketing team’s overall ad strategy. Users automate direct buying workflow (RFPs, negotiation and IOs) with any vendor for audio AND other ad formats such as video, native, and more.
This is important because:
When media teams are using digital audio ad buying tactics with their overall digital strategy, they are maximizing a full arsenal of tools to operate well-functioning and high-performing campaigns.