Ad buying was once the bane of marketers. Buying (and selling) ads entailed a complex and convoluted process of researching and selecting the best advertisers and publishers, manually inserting and tracking ads, negotiating contracts with publishers and seemingly endless meetings to ensure everyone was on the same page.
Enter programmatic advertising
All that changed with the advent of the internet, quickly followed by the founding of Google (and, soon after, AdWords), Facebook and a slew of other social media platforms. Overwhelmed by the increase in the number of available ad publishing sites, marketers soon discovered a more effective approach: programmatic advertising, which Instapage describes this way:
“Programmatic advertising is the process of buying and selling ads with software and publishing those ads contextually based on complex algorithms. Most online advertising now is done programmatically through real-time bidding and direct deals.”
Using real-time bidding, marketers can easily specify their target market, as well as their advertising budgets, at which point they compete with other advertisers for exposure in that market. As internet users pull up a web page, algorithms (based on things like the prospect’s IP address, their browsing history and the time of day) determine which will be the most effective ad for them. At the same time, the company with the highest bid for that ad space will win essentially the ad placement competition and a potential new customer.
Choosing the right software: the DSP
Of course, Programmatic Advertising is grounded in the ability of software to create the right algorithms. That software is sometimes referred to as a demand-side platform or DSP. The DSP enables marketers to effectively purchase the best video, search and mobile ads for given marketing campaigns. Using the right DSP, marketers can more easily manage ad buying in a wide variety of real-time bidding networks.
Said differently, it’s the DSP that makes effective programmatic advertising possible. In the absence of a DSP, marketers must rely on individual advertising networks, like the Google Display Network or Facebook Ads. The DSP is independent of these private networks and lets advertisers have marketing exposure on all of them.
What are the benefits of a demand side platform?
Using a DSP (and doing the homework necessary to select the best one for your business or the best partner to work with) will exponentially improve the performance of your online ads—and make your life substantially less complicated and your work less time-consuming. Specifically, with the right DSP:
- You’ll control your ad placements from a single dashboard: using a DSP, you can effectively manage your ad campaigns across a wide spectrum of advertising networks, including some smaller ones that might be new to you.
- You’ll have access to more (and better) marketing data: once you have your DSP, you can form partnerships with experienced 3rd-party data providers. You can also link the DSP to your in-house customer relationship management (CRM) software, in this way importing your own customer data into your programmatic advertising campaigns.
- You’ll be able to customize ads to specific market segments: the inclusion of better customer data means you can customers ads that address their specific needs and preferences. You could, for example, target ads to detailed buyer personas. This ensures greater customer satisfaction, not to mention higher conversion rates.
- Support: Demand-side platforms will often provide support beyond the traditional helpdesk-style customer support of a single network.
- High-quality inventory: DSPs will have access to the major networks and then some. If you’re after more premium inventory, a demand-side platform may be what you’re looking for. Some may have more access than others, though, so it’s important to find out before you pick one.
What is The Trade Desk?
The Trade Desk (TTD) has quickly risen to the top of the DSP marketplace. It is, in fact, the most rapidly growing DSP on the market because of its level of sophistication and best-in-class technology. Using the Trade Desk, marketers can more effectively manage all aspects of your social media, display, and video advertising campaigns. Here are a few key differentiators that showcase The Trade Desk as the leader in DSPs.
- TTD is built only for buyers. This stance allows them to remain objective on inventory, data and all features within the platform.
- TTD believes in a completely open ad ecosystem that gives advertisers access to the necessary tools to purchase and measure their media investments in a completely objective way with no bias to specific media, data and measurement tools.
- TTD is built on a bid factor system which is more effective in terms of optimizing for more granular audience attributes and achieving granular insights in reporting.
- They provide Log-Level Data and Customized Reports allowing advertisers to analyze across their entire digital buy.
- TTD does not share sensitive advertiser audience and targeting data with sell-side partners.
To learn more about the ways our Trade Desk DSP advertising solutions will improve the performance of your advertising campaigns, boost conversions and increase your profitability, request a demo today.
