For a media buyer, the digital work doesn't end once a campaign is up and running. The launch is just the beginning, and if you adopt a “set it and forget it" approach, even the best strategies and tactics can translate to wasted money or missed opportunities.

Staying on top of optimizations is crucial to campaign performance, but for many buyers, it can be a struggle. Optimization, at its most basic definition, means to make something as good as possible. But in programmatic it means utilizing data to identify and modify campaigns towards the highest possible performance.

Campaign optimization should be top of mind every time you set up and launch digital campaigns. So, we've rounded up five things to consider before launching your next one:

1. Define a single KPI. Set clear and specific goals for every campaign you create. For example, if the campaign objective is to drive conversions, then optimize the campaign toward conversions and not the lowest eCPM. The KPI will tell you which metric you need to optimize against.
2. Identify what can be modified upfront. Depending on the situation and advertiser, certain campaigns may be more restrictive than others. This impacts the amount or frequency of changes you can make. In general, these changes can be categorized into three main buckets:
   • Scope: Changes to geo target, devices, exchanges, ads,
     day and time
   • Audiences: Changes to first or third-party audiences, as
     well as frequency caps
   • Price: Changes
     to CPM bid of the whole campaign or a sub target within it
3. Don't make too many changes at once and record all the changes you do make. Avoid adding a new exchange, creative, or increasing the bid of your campaign all in one day. Why? If you make too many changes at once, you won't know which optimization made the difference. Have you ever tried so many new hair products at once that you can't figure out which product is making your hair look so fabulous? Bet you didn't think programmatic could be compared to hair products. But, it leads me to my next point …
4. Measure the impact of every change. Before making an optimization, think about the short-term impact. Do you expect CTR to go up 0.02% by removing an ad? Do you expect overall campaign performance to increase if you remove a placement or domain? Having a measurable and timed goal for each optimization will help you determine if you're making the right decisions for campaigns.
5. Accrue enough data to make educated and statistically-sound decisions. How can you determine how much data is enough data? That's tricky, because it depends on budgets and flights. A general rule of thumb is 10,000 impressions per tactic. However, this may not be a realistic benchmark if you have a smaller budget. In those cases, we recommend aligning the impression value to the monthly tactical budget. For example, using 1,000 impressions per tactic as a benchmark for a $1,000/month per-tactic campaign.

Post-launch, always revisit live campaigns to apply one – or all – of the above tactics. And keep in mind that as digital media evolves, so too do the tech, tools, and solutions that are available to us. Meaning technology today can sometimes do most of the optimization heavy lifting – for example, algorithmic optimization.

For more information on DSP technology or on Basis, visit our website, reach out to your Centro representative, or email [email protected].

We're back from a trip to the Mile High City, where the 2017 Ibotta Mobile Innovation Summit has concluded. We spent the week connecting with some of the brightest minds in digital, discussing the state of mobile marketing, how to identify innovation opportunities, and the impact digital has had on CPG and retail advertising.

The event, held in downtown Denver, was jam-packed with keynote speeches, panel discussions, digital insights, and best practices for attendees to take back to their jobs.

Our CEO Shawn Riegsecker spoke on a panel and discussed the challenges the digital industry faces as ad dollars shift from TV to digital.

“We are witnessing and going through the greatest disruption the advertising and marketing industry has ever seen," Shawn noted, as the group spoke about how to reach valid consumers, measure ad effectiveness, and bridge the gap between online and offline behavior.

Panelists agreed ad dollars haven't shifted to digital quickly enough – even though all data suggests that's where consumers are and, in an ideal world, marketers determining the right TV/digital split would follow the customer. But it's no secret that digital is a very fragmented space and brings its own unique set of challenges, which has slowed the digital ad spend progression.

Several factors come into play when you begin to explore the reasons behind this. Quite a few theories were debated at this panel, including the demographics of people controlling the mid-market ad budgets. They're the same people who are still watching TV and consider it the most valuable medium.

Another piece of it? The forecasting models and techniques determining the right marketing mix aren't able to keep up and meet the current demands of this fast-moving industry. Asking a company to uproot what's been historically working – but maybe not working as well today – is an enormous request and a huge undertaking.

Consumers are also everywhere these days. Cross-device is the new norm, and that hinders some marketers ability to gather accurate data on where customers are, what devices they're using, what actions they're taking platforms, or whether they're multi-tasking. To make matters more complicated, if a brand works with a digital vendor or a “walled garden" like Facebook or Google, there's a lack of transparency and insight into the data they are able to gather. Brands are spending money on the audiences and getting the performance data, but they don't own the data.

From a brand marketing perspective, it was argued that the onus is on digital partners to prove they can provide the same scale and reach that TV provides.

Which begs the question: Will programmatic TV capabilities help marketers and brands transition to digital ad spend? After all, it combines the broad reach of TV with the highly targeted capabilities of digital.

Certainly, brand marketers argued, programmatic allows for better measurement of traditional business objectives – like ROI and ROAS – so it gives marketers the intelligence they need to determine if they're making an impact or driving sales.

Others on the panel argued that it's the wrong question to be asking, and that we're thinking and talking about digital in the wrong way. Their thinking was that as all the mediums begin to blend together in the next few years, TV just becomes another video touchpoint to consider.

Instead of brands beginning their planning with what has traditionally worked (TV) and allocating the remaining budget to digital, or instead of agencies just repeating tactics that worked last year or last quarter, it's time to infuse innovation into digital strategies.

The question isn't how do you split digital ad spend and TV ad spend. The question is what mix and what strategies create a more impactful ad?

Think about what will meet business goals. Think about how TV spots could be improved if they resembled the interactivity of digital and social media ads. Or how digital could be improved to allow more time for brand stories to be told. How can we get smarter at the individual targeting level – no matter the medium? What can be done to segment audiences properly and interject more creativity? Are we sitting on top of enough data and intelligence to identify solutions? How can we come at advertising with a better targeting perspective for each platform?

At the beginning of the discussion, the moderator asked the panelists to adopt baseball terminology and describe what inning the digital industry is in. Most everyone seemed to decide (perhaps optimistically) that we're in the 2^nd or the 3^rd inning. After diving into the considerations, debates, and issues at play, it sounds like we're in the top of the 1^st inning – bringing a world of opportunity to the plate for digital brands and marketers.

Technology has been changing the way we work and live for decades now, and the digital industry and digital media buying is not exempt from explosive technology evolutions.

You only have to go back to 1986, when ACT!, a contact and customer management company, introduced the first database marketing software to the business world. It was essentially a digital rolodex – except it stored large volumes of customer contact information. Even in the 80s, the power and inherent value of customer data for marketing and advertising purposes was evident.

Fast forward 30 years and where has that wealth of customer data gotten us? The prospect of customer analytics and insights colliding with ad tech and technology solutions – and the opportunities that would open up for programmatic.

Programmatic has come a long way in the last decade – evolving from direct response and remnant inventory to brand campaigns and the majority of premium online publishers offering programmatic services. The complexity warrants its own glossary. But programmatic, as it's defined today, isn't doing enough. Programmatic today means a top-ranked DSP that allows you to buy in an RTB, private marketplace, or private deal format.

That sounds great, right? Until you start to realize how many features and functions are missing in DSPs that don't allow for critical pieces of the business to run. If we really want to innovate, then what should the new DSP model be? What does the DSP of the future look like?

The terms “demand side platform" or “DSP" are often associated with outdated definitions of key capabilities and components. Traditionally, a DSP is defined as an automated buying perform where advertisers and agencies go to purchase digital ad inventory.

But DSPs need to evolve into intelligence and strategy tools that are both man and machine.

It isn't all about the machine. People are still the most important agency resource. In advertising, the skills required of people today are totally different from what they used to be, while the pressure from clients to deliver is skyrocketing.

But pairing technology and people will be the crux of advertising success in the future. When individuals can focus on taking insights and creating strategic, actionable marketing, it empowers them to make an impact on business outcomes

How can we empower them? It starts with the right technology.

The future DSP will take a performance-driven approach to digital. Imagine an advanced platform that unifies direct and digital media buying with a business ecosystem through a single entry point, creating a holistic view of the digital media business. Imagine automation across your entire digital media business, for all the significant pieces that matter most: workflow automation, vendor organization and relationship management, communication, RFP and negotiation storage and tracking, 1^st and 3^rd-party integration, robust analytics and reporting, and business intelligence for the entire organization -- all the way down to finance and media buying reconciliation.

With the sophistication of this type of technology, strategists and digital media employees no longer need to determine what to buy – but instead what strategy will get the best performing results for every media dollar.

Remember when mobile advertising arrived on the scene? Back then, there were mobile companies, mobile agencies, and mobile ad networks. Today, mobile equates to simply digital. The same will happen with programmatic. In the very near future, there will be no distinction between biddable, direct, search and social. There will not be a need for separate programmatic teams, or functions, or departments, or trading desks. If you're a digital media strategist or media buyer, you won't be working with another programmatic team. You'll be buying programmatic media – all media types, across all channels – through the same software as you're executing everything else.

Soon, programmatic will equate to simply digital.

And if you believe software can help you do more, accomplish more, create a better media industry, and produce the best results for your clients, this is the programmatic platform you should be pushing for.

This is programmatic for the future.

For more information on Basis Platform, request a demo or email us at [email protected].

Retail's busiest season is right around the corner, so it's time to make a digital strategy list – and check it twice. Whether you're a retailer looking to reach your customers, or a buyer ready to launch a successful ad campaign, we're here to be your holiday helpers. For our next webinar, we're going to unwrap five key retail strategies to help you launch a successful holiday campaign and reach your customers in-store and online this shopping season.

Join us and Centro's Director of Media Strategy & Operations, Jared Rosenbloom, on Wednesday, September 20, as he helps you map out a digital strategy:

• Key lessons from the 2016 holiday retail season
• Capturing customer attention as the path-to-purchase evolves
• Innovations in digital that offer new opportunities for brands to engage with customers
• How to use technology, targeting, and personalized experiences to measure campaign success and brand loyalty

Coming in October, we'll be launching Algorithmic Optimization, an efficiency tool that makes automated bid adjustments to the best performing placements of your campaigns. The feature streamlines inventory analysis and fine-tuning to generate better outcomes, allowing you to focus more on business objectives.

We created this feature with media buyers in mind, to save valuable hours in their day. Every 12 hours, campaign goals are analyzed, budgets are better distributed, and placements are optimized toward relevant KPIs.

The initial feedback from a buyer test-driving Basis' Algorithmic Optimization feature was: “I have a campaign that requires a $10 video CPM to run on only one video exchange. The client also wanted a completion rate between 65%-70%. No matter how frequent or aggressive my manual optimizations were, I couldn't get above a 62% completion rate. Once I added the new optimization feature, the completion rate grew higher and higher every day. The campaign ends in a couple of days and is currently at a 75% completion rate!"

Need some more reasons why the Algorithmic Optimization tool will benefit you?

• Better outcomes and campaign performance: You can choose from five options to optimize against: CTR, CPC, CPA, CPCV, and VCR. The best performing inventory is rewarded, while the low achievers are re-evaluated. As a result, bid adjustments are made on each placement based on the performance of the inventory.

• More control over your campaigns: Leverage your expertise to assist the optimizer tool through the advanced optimization settings.
• Full transparency: All modifications and changes are captured in real-time in the campaign grid for your review.

Register for our upcoming September webinar to learn how to make Algorithmic Optimization work for you and to get a sneak peek at some other upcoming Basis features.

According to 2016 Smith & Beta data, 93% of agency employees feel they are not exceeding client expectations.

It's an ironic stat, considering the entire digital media industry was built on the promise of technology doing more, reaching more customers, and being more effective – but the tools and systems we're using are outdated, fragmented, and inefficient, and we can't provide the performance or the results our clients are looking for.

We've reached another new inflection point in digital, and technology is the driving force. Again.

So, how do we fix this?

Automation Eliminates Repetitive Tasks

Digital media strategists are no strangers to being asked the question: "What should I buy?"

And their answer used to be an important and core value-add for clients. But, there's a shift underway in digital, with this shift comes an evolution in the role marketers and digital strategists will play for their clients going forward. As technology has evolved, there's now software on the market that's able to automate the workflow and execution process of digital media ad buying and answer that question on its own.

Where does that leave the human beings behind the technology and the campaigns? Will we eventually see a fully automated digital world that doesn't require or need human thinking?

Not necessarily. Unless we hit the point where computers can generate original, creative, and strategic ideas on their own, a strategist still has a place in digital media – though in a different capacity.

As tech shifts to this type of automation, the role of a strategist will be a better match to the job title: To be more of a strategic marketing consultant to clients, offering competitive analysis, product differentiation analysis, and determining the right audiences, goals, and KPIs for their client's media dollars. As Ad Age contributor Jack Skeels noted in a recent column, “Clients pay more when the agency is strategically focused and offers unique services."

There were, and still are, many areas where the advertising industry is woefully insufficient because too many people are spending time on mundane tasks. The days of spending an entire day pulling and formatting reports from various systems and platforms are quickly coming to an end. Automation affords agencies the opportunity to shift to a more strategic focus.

Intelligence Fosters Competitive Difference

In addition to automation, intelligence will play a major role in reshaping what people do and the value they can bring to clients. One of the downsides to today's digital landscape is that media teams are using multiple platforms and systems, and actionable and valuable insights aren't easily accessed or contained to one system. Teams are left spending time on manual and operational tasks – not strategic work. And, even if there were time for critical thinking and analysis, many agencies are dealing with a sub-par roster of metrics and analytics tools to track, report, and review campaigns.

Creating software that automates the repetitive tasks leaves more time for critical thinking, reporting, or data-driven analysis about what's going right or wrong with campaigns. And using that software and freeing up time to focus on strategy gives you the insight you need to find the best successes, execute, and report them back to your clients. Accurate, immediate, and easy access to performance data and actionable customer insights is what will drive client relationships, differentiate your agency, and set you up for long-term success.

Strategic Relationships Build Trust

The SoDA Report, which assesses the state of the agency-client relationship every year, in 2016 asked both clients and agencies to rank the areas of expertise they believe to be the most valuable. The number one thing both valued the most? Strategic leadership.

The added benefit of being positioned strategically -- and research confirms this, according to Skeels -- is that buyers wind up trusting sellers more. There isn't anything intrinsically buried into the technology stack that provides tools for cultivating stronger relationships, but it's an added (and hidden) benefit. When technology begins to provide transparency, innovation, and strategy, the relationship dynamic will no longer be based on price, standard components, or specifications. Approaching the relationship strategically, providing thoughtful insight, learning new things, and testing new approaches can only help to strengthen a relationship – providing that value keeps an agency in business, and keeps a client aware of where their money is going.

As digital evolves, so too do the tech, tools, and solutions that are available to us. The complexity of digital today often feels like more than our current tech can handle. But the answer to this digital evolution and the answer to long-term success lies in technology.

For more information on Basis Platform, read our press release or email us at [email protected].

At Centro, we know that keeping up with the trade pubs and latest trends can be tough and time consuming. To make that easier, we've compiled all the articles, reports, and other bits of awesomeness you may have missed, but should definitely read. Enjoy our latest list below!

Digital Influences TV
With digital surpassing television in media spend, is it a surprise that TV is taking tips from digital? Fox Sports is rolling out 6-second ads across much of its sports television programming. If this trend catches on, what other digitally-inspired methods will spread to TV?

Guide to Digital Video Advertising
With a goal of providing best practices and advice on “all things video," the IAB Digital Video Center of Excellence developed this guide to offer tools, tips, and guidance to help publishers, marketers, and brands better understand video in its various forms – both current and emerging.

Mobile Marketers, Beware: Fraudulent App Installs Waste $300M in Ad Spend
More than 5% of app installs from non-premium ad networks remain fraudulent, which equals about $300 million in wasted ad spend every year. A scary good reminder that not all supply-side partners are equal (and not all DSPs employ proper fraud protection).

The Next Billion Mobile Users
It's easy to think everyone who uses the internet today uses it in the same ways, but they don't. And the next billion users who get online will connect via their mobile device in ways that tech companies hadn't imagined, but are having to quickly think about.

Voice Search Changes Media Buying, Attribution
As Google pushes beyond smart phones and smart speakers (refrigerators and Microsoft partnerships) in an effort to catch up to Amazon's Alexa, comScore estimates that by 2020, 50% of all searches will be done via voice. How will this impact the way brands create content and how marketers think about buying, delivering, and measuring ads?

Ad Execs Bullish on Programmatic Radio, Digital Audio
The whole world is going programmatic! 87% of ad execs and media buyers plan to buy radio programmatically over the next 12 months, which is three times the amount today.

Dynamic Creative and the Automated Brand
As brands look to adapt with more personalized messaging, dynamic creative may still find its place -- powered by many of the same data sets that drive the automated media buy.

Coming Soon to Facebook Watch: Sponsored Shows
Facebook's new video content channel Watch is already seeing positive response from advertisers looking to sponsor new shows – from completely branded to product placement to mid-roll ads. Definitely a space to watch.

As an extra bit of awesomeness, do yourself a favor and watch the Generic Millennial Ad, because you're totes #blt.

September's DIAL is also available as a PDF. Download it here.

While you're busy this extended weekend with family gatherings, parades, and backyard lounging, don't lose track of what Labor Day is really about. This year, let's take a moment to reflect on the true meaning of this significant holiday.

Download our Labor Day infographic to read about the workers who fought hard to get us where we are today.

Ask a Centro Expert is a blog series from Centro where we break down the complicated tools, tech, and trends you've been hearing about in the trade pubs and around the office. We reach out to some of our in-house experts to ask the tough questions and turn them into bite-sized, palatable Q&As for your reading pleasure. Last month, we explored ad blocking. This month's topic: Header bidding. We talked to Jessica Burget, Centro's Director of Partner Development, for the break down.

In the simplest terms, how would you describe header bidding?

Header bidding is the technology that allows a publisher to have multiple demand partners compete to buy their inventory at the same time – and the best demand partner wins.

How is it different than how publishers traditionally manage their inventory?
Before header bidding, a publisher had to set-up a “waterfall" within their ad server, leaving the publishers to constantly evaluate which SSP/exchange partner to prioritize over the next – without actually knowing what their inventory was worth.

If publishers implement header bidding technology, they can work with more demand partners, increase revenue, and have insight and data into the value of their inventory.

Why is header bidding important?

At first, I think people and companies felt that header bidding was a passing trend or a fad that wouldn't last, but over the last few years, adoption has been tremendous on the publisher and SSP side.

In my opinion, if an SSP or publisher is not supporting header bidding, they are behind the industry and their competitors, and they are missing out on revenue opportunities.

How does header bidding work?

Currently, there are two types of header bidding: wrapper solution or server-to-server (S2S).

A wrapper solution requires placing a piece of code on a website, which allows the demand partners to bid on the inventory before the page even loads.

On the flip side, S2S technology is not within the browser, and it's when a publisher utilizes an external server solution. For implementation, a publisher and SSP will need to research the header bidding market to find the best fit for their business. After a company has vetted different partners in the space and made a decision, tech and implementation teams should be looped in to collaborate with the vendor.

What should we consider when selecting header bidding partners?

To narrow down the header bidding vendor short list, here's my advice:

• Be cognizant about maintaining relationships with publisher partners, not just the header bidding technology partner.
• To maintain unique demand, leverage the header bidding solution to secure partners that were previously inaccessible.
• Match the level of integration required to what internal staffs can handle. Not every company can tackle heavy development work for header bidding. And not every vendor can manage the development you want.
• Push for transparency in reporting insights. In S2S, if both sides don't push for this is, vendors will continue to be black boxes.
• A company needs its business to be aligned with header bidding adoption. Media operations teams need to understand how ad buys can change with this capability. And whose job is it to keep the organization informed on what you can do with header bidding?

How can the header bidding auction be accessed?

If an advertiser/DSP is working with any major SSP in today's digital world, then they are accessing header bidding inventory.

For an SSP to be a demand partner, work with the publisher to see which vendor they utilize. If both the SSP and publisher is integrated with the header bidding vendor, then come to an agreement to be a demand partner and begin the set-up process.

What are the benefits for publishers?

Header bidding allows a publisher to have access to more demand partners, increased revenue with higher valued inventory, and more accurate data on who is actually a good demand partner.

And how about the benefits for advertisers?

For advertisers buying programmatically, they now have the ability to compete directly with direct-sold campaigns.

What are the downsides to header bidding – from both perspectives?

From a publisher perspective: The downsides are scarce. From a business standpoint, it can be expensive and timely to implement a header bidding solution. From a technical standpoint, if a publisher chooses to utilize a wrapper solution, then they run the risk of page latency. If they go down the S2S route, cookie matching can be a challenge and they also need to make sure the S2S vendor isn't favoring their own demand over others.

From an advertiser/DSP perspective: The downsides are higher. Since everyone is on a level playing field, rates will increase across the board. Also, if a DSP is integrated with multiple SSPs that now have access to all of the same inventory, the cost of supporting multiple SSPs is now wasteful. I assume advertisers/DSPs will have to do more work evaluating who they chose to partner with over the next year or so.

What should we watch in the space and what does the future look like for header bidding?

Here are five things I predict we will see:

• More development supporting video solutions through header bidding.
• Publishers starting to evaluate their demand partners more strategically to ensure they have unique demand.
• Publishers utilizing both wrapper and S2S solutions to gain access to even more demand. I anticipate publishers will move demand partners in and out of each solution based on who is providing the most strategic demand.
• Advertisers/DSPs will evaluate their SSP partners holistically, and we will see advertisers/DSPs turn off inventory partners because there is too much inventory overlap and unnecessary fees.
• More SSPs will close their doors.

Looking for other Centro resources that will help you understand header bidding? Reach out to [email protected].