The use of HTML5 to code and create dynamic ads (over Flash) is gaining popularity. While Flash is used for ads with animation, video, and other creative elements, HTML5 also comes with the same benefits and much more. HTML5 is open source, which allows the developer community to quickly improve on it by fixing bugs, adding new features, increasing capabilities, and more. Flash is proprietary software and doesn’t benefit from the backing of the wider community. It is therefore more susceptible to malware and viruses, which could endanger publishers and users loading pages with content and ads that are animated by it. The industry has begun the shift toward HTML5 as a standard format of creating ads.

What’s happening?
Basis DSP is one of the first programmatic advertising software providers that enables users to upload and host HTML5 ads free of charge, without the need for a third-party ad server. HTML5 Ads allows users to directly upload HTML creatives as a Zip file in My Ads and link them to any of their campaigns. Users that have ad tag access will have the ability to upload HTML5 ads directly to the platform or as an ad tag.

Why is this important to users?
Unlike Flash ads, HTML5 ads can run on all platforms (desktop or mobile) and don’t require additional plugins to render correctly, thereby providing customers with a better experience to engage with ads. Additionally, HTML5 not only loads faster than Flash ads, but it also takes up less data when loading, which makes it more favorable on mobile devices. This is one reason iOS no longer supports Flash ads. Furthermore, HTML5 is not exposed to the same security vulnerabilities as Flash (as mentioned above), so both advertiser and internet user are better protected.

How would a user utilize this?
Users have two ways of uploading HTML5 ad tags in CDSP: 1) Upload the HTML5 zip file directly to Basis DSP or 2) upload a regular ad tag (just like they do today).

Hosted by Basis DSP: Uploading an HTML5 ad directly in Basis DSP means the user will be uploading a Zip file containing all the files necessary for the ad to display properly on a publisher’s site. Additionally, users would set the destination URL, determine if all the ad or just parts of it are clickable, and declare the ad’s SSL status. For detailed tips on creating ads in HTML5, the IAB provides some guidelines.

Third-party ad tag: Users can work with a third-party ad server to supply the HTML5 ad as an ad tag. This can be uploaded directly to My Ads. It is worth noting that unlike an HTML5 ad hosted by Basis, a third-party ad tag cannot be modified through Basis DSP — the destination URL and clickability functions of the ad will all be controlled by the ad server.  

With Chrome now pausing Flash content that isn't “central to the webpage,” Flash ads, by default, will be paused on the first frame. Marketers using Flash in their ads (served in Chrome browsers) would be paying for a static ad unit that users would have to manually activate to see the creative. To bypass this hurdle, users can instead use HTML5 for their ads.

If you’re interested in HTML5 ads, give it a try on Basis DSP today.

The programmatic world provides nearly unlimited access to inventory of all types, but how do you select the best-quality inventory for your campaign? comScore Bid Ratings™ can help. comScore Bid Ratings™ leverages the classification technology from Proximic, acquired by comScore in 2015, and combines it with comScore’s rich data set, including the data that powers comScore Media Metrix®, Video Metrix® Rankings and validated Campaign Essentials™ (vCE®).

comScore Bid Ratings data is found in the Contextual and Brand Protection sections of the DSP UI. Choose from the following options in the “Contextual” section of the Campaign Editor:

• Media Metrix® (MMX) Property Rank: Ranking of most popular domains by unique visitors. For example, you can target the top 100 websites by targeting:
  comScore Bid Ratings > MMX Property Rank > 1-10 OR
  comScore Bid Ratings > MMX Property Rank > 11-25 OR
  comScore Bid Ratings > MMX Property Rank > 26-100
• Video Metrix® (VMX) Property Rank: Ranking of most popular domains with video content by unique visitors.
• Media Metrix® (MMX) Category/Subcategory: Categorization of domain in comScore’s Media Metrix® taxonomy.
• MMX Category/Subcategory Rank: Ranking of most popular domains in a given category or subcategory, by unique visitors (i.e., comScore top 10 entertainment sites).
• Page-level Contextual: Page-level contextual categorization (formerly Proximic).

These data segments can be combined — for example, to target the top 10 entertainment sites:
comScore Bid Ratings > MMX Category > Entertainment AND
comScore Bid Ratings > MMX Category Rank > 1-10

• Choose from the following in the “Brand Protection” section of the Campaign Editor:
  • vCE Viewability®: Ranking of site viewability as measured by comScore’s validated Campaign Essentials™. Viewability is grouped into quintiles; Tier 1 (Top 20%) comprises the best 20% of sites for viewability, while Tier 2 (21-40%) contains the next best 20% of sites for viewability, etc.
  • Invalid Traffic: Likelihood of the presence of invalid traffic.
  • Page-level brand safety (formerly Proximic) including:
    • Rating: Movie-style rating of the appropriate audience for a given page (G, PG13, R).
    • Non-standard Content: Categories for excluding for the presence of specific types of inappropriate content.
    • Language: The language of the page content.

  Just as with contextual segments, these data segments can be combined — for example, to target sites likely to have less than 5% invalid traffic and exclude sites with the worst viewability:
  comSore Bid Ratings > Invalid Traffic > Likely to have <5% IVT AND
  comScore Bid Ratings > vCE Viewability > Tier 5 (Bottom 20%) (EXCLUDE)

"Grace Briscoe (Centro) said her company maintains its own list of sites where advertising is both effective and safe. 'We spend a lot of time and invest a lot of money in making sure that we do have the controls in place for this.'"

Read more in USA Today.

"Some exchanges are putting out offers to address specific political “brand” safety concerns. Centro, which sells workflow solutions, also has an invite-only exchange called Brand Exchange, which last week debuted political targeting segments (“liberal,” “conservative” and “political influencer”) for political advertisers buying on news sites."

Read more in AdExchanger.

Since its days based in a server room, Centro has had offices in River North. But when the company outgrew its space on West Hubbard Street, it decided it needed room to stretch.

Read more in Chicago Tribune.

From now on, smartphones will require a smarter strategy. This year, mobile will account for 50% of all digital ad expenditure for the first time. That’s no surprise, given the adoption rate of mobile devices. But just re-purposing your desktop activations in the mobile world isn’t cutting it any more.

Adults 18-54 are at smartphone penetration rate upwards of 90% - Mobile Comscore

As mobile has evolved, better technology and more robust data collection have improved the way we can target audiences. The level of granularity available today offers many opportunities to fine-tune and optimize, far beyond just assessing CTR.  Understanding the possibilities and learning how to leverage them can have a powerful impact on your campaigns and drive bigger returns. So how can you transition from just “doing mobile” to dominating mobile?

The answer is at hand - introducing the 4 Targeting Tactics for a Mature Mobile Strategy

Targeting Tactic #1: Mobile Re-Targeting

Mobile retargeting is actually a bit of a misnomer. Up to this point, it hasn’t been possible to track users across mobile sites and apps because they are different ecosystems and don’t speak the same language. When you hear “mobile retargeting” it usually really means app remarketing or ad retargeting.

How To Use It

• Look for publishers that will allow you to buy on a cost-per site visit. A pixel is placed to confirm that a user visited that site and enables you target based on post-click actions to the owned site.

Did you know? A growing library of mobile javascript tags made in tandem with app SDK libraries now allows you  to track a consumer with a unique mobile ID across mobile spaces.

Mobile spending is expected to surpass $100 Billion in 2016 - eMarketer

Targeting Tactic #2: Cross-Device Targeting

Cross-device targeting uses two means of identification: deterministic and probabilistic.

Deterministic data is simply registration data, which verifies that a user is the same when logged in across multiple screens.

Probabilistic data uses several pieces of information passed through an ad call to confirm that you are reaching the same individual. It’s not a 100% match rate, but still very effective.

Did you know? The smaller players that offer cross-device targeting are usually working with probabilistic data.

How to Use It

• Get a sense of cross-screen attribution and identify exactly where your audience is connecting with you. For instance, does one screen convert better than another? Be sure to establish goals that are focused on cross-device targeting.
• Build creative that leverages the strengths of each different screen and then take notice of which versions your audience reacts to.
• Prioritize unique insight gathering across screens— for example, targeting consumers on desktop during the work day and on mobile during the weekends. Your audience might exhibit different behaviors on different screens and you should use those learnings to fine tune your campaigns.

In 2016, mobile users will spend 3 hours and 15 minutes a day using apps - eMarketer

Targeting Tactic #3: Viewability

Exact standards for mobile viewability have not been defined. Currently, the Media Rating Council is taking the standards built for the desktop space and applying them to mobile. There are some MRC-accredited third party players that are measuring mobile viewability.

Average viewability rates are around 50% - Think With Google

How to Use It

• Find an MRC-accredited partner who has experience in the mobile space, like MOAT.
• Leverage partners that measure viewability without compromising other KPIs.
• Assess how viewability plays a role in overall campaign CTR and post-click activity. If you haven’t been tracking it to date, adding it to the mix may have a big impact on these and other key stats.

In 2015, nearly 20% of Americans relied on smartphones exclusively to access the internet - Pew Research Study 2015

Targeting Tactic #4: Mobile Location Targeting

Mobile location targeting provides powerful data that can be used to drive consumers to shop online and in-store. It allows you to reach the right user based on foot traffic patterns, lifestyle, habits and more.

It also enables you to assess whether a location-based mobile ad actually led to a purchase or a visit at a specific store or point of interest.

Did you know? Sales lift data is now more widely available thanks to partnerships with companies like Nielsen Catalina, Datalogix, and Mastercard.

How to Use It

• Build custom location segments and test them against one another. For example, how do Millennials, Moms and Travelers react differently to your messaging?
• Assess real-world location segments against digital audience segments. Essentially, look at how your audiences are behaving in the real-world vs. how they behave on mobile sites and apps.
• When you have the opportunity to drive consumers to a physical location, do so and track sales lift and other stats such as verified walk-in data or in-store foot traffic data.

The Keys to a Mature Mobile Strategy

Retarget Consumers More Effectively. Reach that mobile consumer who has visited your brand’s site or app to drive them to purchase.

Find Your Audience Across Screens. Get a sense of cross-screen attribution and where your consumer is connecting with you.

Leverage Location and Site Visit Data. Use powerful location data to drive consumers to shop online and in stores.

Assess Viewability. Determine how media partners are accounting for this type of measurement.

For more insights check out our blog at centro.net/blog

Questions? Email us at [email protected]

Please Join us next month as we analyze ad fraud in our first-ever, hour-long 3TSpotlight webinar. You can register here.

 

La facilidad de uso de DSP es la razón principal por la que los clientes están seleccionando nuestra plataforma para manejar sus iniciativas digitales. En dos semanas, estaremos introduciendo algunos cambios a nuestra interfaz y flujo de trabajo con el propósito de mejorar y hacer más eficiente el proceso de creación y ejecución de campañas.

¿Qué está ocurriendo?
DSP está cambiando la manera en la que se procesan y manejan los anuncios (o los objetos de anuncios) en la plataforma. La nueva interfaz permitirá a los especialistas en marketing manejar de una manera más eficiente todos sus anuncios desde una ubicación centralizada y separada del sitio en el que manejan sus campañas. Este cambio, denominado My Ads, permite cargar, guardar, editar y enlazar fácilmente a cualquier unidad de anuncios.

¿Porqué es importante para los usuarios?
My Ads ayuda a los usuarios a hacer el seguimiento de múltiples anuncios y, al mismo tiempo, proporciona funciones adicionales de búsqueda, filtraje y presentación preliminar, todo desde una ubicación. Esto mejora la eficiencia durante la preparación de la campaña y la revisión de los anuncios. Las campañas se pueden crear y guardar sin anuncios y es posible crear y guardar anuncios sin necesidad de ser asociados con una campaña. Ahora, el proceso de revisión de anuncios comienza en el instante mismo en el que éste se guarda. Una vez que un anuncio se audita y se aprueba, el anuncio se guarda automáticamente en el sistema y está listo para ser utilizado en cualquier campaña.

¿Porqué es esto útil para los usuarios?
Una vez que un usuario haya cargado, guardado, auditado y aprobado un anuncio, éste podrá ser utilizado para cualquier campaña presente o futura. En lo sucesivo, las campañas no requerirán de la auditoría del equipor de Calidad de anuncios de Centro. Solo es necesario revisar los anuncios. Los usuarios pueden trabajar con los anuncios primeros y presentarlos al equipo de Calidad de anuncios de Centro mientras continúan trabajando en los detalles finales de las campañas. Esta flexibilidad representa un gran beneficio para los compradores porque les permite continuar avanzando en actividades de creación de borradores y edición de campañas sin anuncios, ya que los anuncios podrían ser enviados desde terceras partes (por ejemplo, el cliente o la agencia creativa). Una vez que un anuncio sea enlazado a una campañ, comenzará a competir inmediatamente, siempre y cuando el anunciante disponga de fondos, la campaña esté ACTIVA y dentros de las fechas de competencia especificadas. Los usuarios podrán cambiar fácilmente los anuncios para múltiples campañas en cualquier momento así como enlazar y desenlazar todos los anuncios que deseen utilizar para una campaña en particular en tiempo real. Las modificaciones que se hagan a un anuncio se aplicarán a todas las campañas que utilicen ese anuncio.

My Ads también proporciona funcionalidad de búsqueda para anuncios y nombres, campañas asociadas con anuncios y nombres y estatus y status de revisión de anuncios. Los usuarios pueden identificar los anuncios cuyo estatus ha sido revisado y los que están pendientes de revisión.

Pensamos que My Ads afectará positivamente el flujo de trabajo de nuestros usuarios. Compruébelo en DSP.

Nurturing employee happiness can have great returns for any company. It's because the best people stay, they love what they do, they excel, they attract other great people and they are motivated to go above and beyond for each other and our clients.

Read more from Centro's Shawn Riegsecker in the Great Places to Work Blog.

The ease-of-use of our DSP is a major reason customers are choosing our platform to manage digital advertising initiatives. In a couple of weeks, we will be unveiling some changes to our interface and workflow to improve further and streamline how users are creating and executing campaigns.

What’s happening?
Centro is changing the way ads (or ad objects) are treated and managed across the platform. The new interface will enable marketers to manage more efficiently all their ads from a centralized location, separate from where they manage campaigns. Called My Ads, this change allows easy upload, save, edit, and linking to every unique ad unit.

Why is this important to users?
My Ads helps users keep track of multiple ads while providing additional search, filtering and preview functions all from one location. This improves efficiency during campaign set-up and ad review. Campaigns can be set up and saved without ads, and ads can be created and saved without having to be associated with a campaign. The ad review process now begins the instant the ad is saved. Once an ad is audited and approved, the ad is automatically stored in the system and is ready for use in any campaign.

How would a user utilize this?
Once an ad has been uploaded, saved, audited and approved, it can be used for any present or future campaign(s). Campaigns will no longer require audit from Centro's Ad Quality team. Only ads are subject to review. Users can work with the ads first and put it in front of the Centro Ad Quality team while in the process of finalizing campaign details. This flexibility benefits buyers by allowing them to move forward with drafting and editing campaigns without ads, as the ads may be coming from a third party (e.g. client or creative agency). Once an ad is linked to a campaign, it will start bidding immediately, provided the advertiser has funds, and the campaign is ON and within the specified fight dates. Users can easily change ads for multiple campaigns at any time as well as link and unlink all the ads they want to use for a particular campaign in real-time. Edits made to an ad will automatically apply to all campaigns using that ad.

My Ads also provides search functionality for ads by names, campaigns associated with, status, and review status – users can easily identify which ads have been reviewed and which are still pending review.

We think My Ads will positively affect the user workflow. Give it a try when it goes live on April 7th.