PPCChat | Programmatic Advertising – It Might Be More Accessible Than You Think | 23rd February 2021

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Host Julie F Bacchini & guest host Marc Poirier addressed this week’s PPCChat session. They focused on the challenges PPCers are facing while implementing programmatic advertising, do they use any tools or services to manage programmatic advertising for clients, and more.

Q1: How do you define “programmatic advertising”?

1: It’s just buying ads at scale using technology to bid on ad opportunities or impressions in real time. You could say Google Ads is a form of programmatic advertising. Same for Facebook ads. @marcpoirier

2: …But usually we refer to the open ecosystem of programmatic where there are thousands of different products and platforms to choose from to manage your ad serving, your data, your attribution and analytics and everything in between. @marcpoirier

3: It’s huge and it’s complex. But it’s a giant opportunity for advertisers and it’s becoming bigger by the day in part because of connected television and the opportunities it now offers smaller advertisers who could normally only dream of advertising on television. @marcpoirier

Any digital ads purchased via a platform/software, usually based on a set of rules or requirements. @DigitalSamIAm

I don’t really define it at this point, but many of my clients just say “digital” and they mean programmatic display. it’s nails on a chalkboard to me, but that’s the lingo ppl seem to be comfortable with. @JuliaVyse

Fair or not, in my mind Programmatic Advertising means using some type of third party media system (such as TradeDesk) for enterprise level budgets only. I’m hoping to learn otherwise today! @NeptuneMoon

It has changed a lot over the last 5 years. I think of it as more hands-off tech buying ad inventory in real time. Based on what settings you set or data you feed it. It’s not just banner ads anymore. You can buy ads in Time Square or a lot of digital OOH space. @duanebrown

This is what it says on our web site. So I am sticking with that, with emphasis on the “at scale” part. @jimbanks

Not sure if this is right (that’s why I’m here today!) but I usually think of it as buying digital ads not through a social network or search engine. So advertising through another software or brand with proprietary ad placements. @LizTweetsTech

I always just thought it was just a more sophisticated version of display that would give you a better cpc & ROI. @TheMarketingAnu

I always think of platforms like GDN, or Native, like Taboola. Though we have done some billboards and even YouTube qualifies, I think. I may be wrong. @jmloquist

A fancy way of saying I am going to automate GDN. @JonKagan

Q2: What is a DSP and what’s the difference between for instance, GDN (google Display Network) and a DSP?

1: GDN is an ad network of publishers and suppliers while DSP is a demand-side platform. GDN refers to the Google Display Network, which is a network of publishers already on AdSense that have signed up for GDN. @marcpoirier

2: Marketers using Google Ads can bid on display advertising options and use data already in Google to target those ads. It’s an easy way to reach targeted audiences, especially if you’re already familiar with and using Google’s marketing tools. @marcpoirier

When I came back from living in London for 2 years. I almost got a job at a DSP based in Toronto. My life would have been so different if that happened. @duanebrown

3: Demand Side Platforms, or DSPs, are third-party platforms that let you bid on or buy ad inventory from multiple sources at the same time. You can buy directly from publishers and via multiple ad exchanges — including Google’s GDN network, which is listed as AdX. @marcpoirier

4: While DSPs don’t ensure access to Google’s data banks, they do offer access to wider ad inventory opportunities. Plus, most DSPs are connected to more data aggregators, so they have access to very large data banks themselves. @marcpoirier

At a point in my career this was synonymous with #Criteo, #GDN, of just the DoubleClick DSP @TheMarketingAnu

5: At the end of the day, you need a DSP to access ads outside of the “walled garden” platforms and there are a ton of DSPs out there to meet the needs of every marketer. @marcpoirier

A DSP (demand side platform) is where all the good inventory is bought and sold Unsold (remnant) inventory then finds its way to the GDN and FAN In most cases the buyers on a DSP can negotiate a rate, a placement but do it by leaning on the tech. @jimbanks

Hey, one question in and we’re getting into ad tech stack questions. Not bad. DSP = Demand Side Platform, which allows you to buy inventory from multiple exchanges GDN = Google’s network of publishers using AdSense, which appears in DSPs as “AdX”. @DigitalSamIAm

ooo….wrong answers only please @JonKagan

Q3: Are you currently doing any programmatic advertising for your clients? If so, what are you doing?

We have a display team that does the programmatic buying. Separate from the paid search/social team. @beyondthepaid

Not at all. Budgets have other places to go. We have one client right now that I think we could pitch to do it. @duanebrown

If Taboola and Native count, then yes. We are also doing YouTube for some clients. I’m not as in the weeds as I used to be, unfortunately, so may be more. @jmloquist

1: (short plug!) we formed Klever to help independent agencies who already have a solid business in search marketing add a new product to their offering and increase the reach they already offer with Google and Facebook ads. @marcpoirier

2: The offering is a bit specialized in the sense that it’s usually done as a complement to search campaigns and so there’s always an important notion of performance that needs to be there. @marcpoirier

Yes, but not as much as we should or want to be. Especially now with the faltering of quality in GDN. @ynotweb

3: Because of the complexity of programmatic it’s very difficult to do this well and to scale an offer when you don’t have the experience. We more or less become the agency’s programmatic department and we help with everything: @marcpoirier

4: Sales training, positioning, proposals and RFPs, and of course strategy, execution, optimization and reporting, just to name a few things that are top of mind. @marcpoirier

We have a “seat” on Basis Platform (from Centro) and that aspect of our business is growing fast, in part due to the availability of inventory, but, because of the evolution in consumer behaviour. Will always be search and social, but really love the programmatic. @jimbanks

Yes, Adobe DSP. Only running remarketing & direct deals as of now. Still a lot to explore. @kondareddy20449

Q4: What are the biggest challenges in either implementing or getting approval for programmatic advertising for you?

Budget. Lots of places to spend money and not enough money in the world. @duanebrown

1: Oftentimes we’re just fighting for mind share, Google and Facebook have done a great job at keeping agencies spending within their walled gardens, as a result they may not really know what lies beyond those familiar platforms. @marcpoirier

Budget. @ynotweb

Calculating estimated campaign reach. @PPCKenChang

2: I think education is key, I think more marketers understand the role of upper funnel strategies in generating demand, and the sheer size of the programmatic landscape, the more prepared they will be to start working with programmatic ads. @marcpoirier

3: Another blocker is absence of clear KPI or of an attribution model that clients can agree with – you can’t run programmatic on a last click attribution model as if it was the same as search. This is a key discussion to have with clients before you spend anything. @marcpoirier

As I said earlier, partly my own perception that the minimum budget levels were quite high (like $10k). Knowing that is not the case for all programmatic, I’m intrigued for how it might be used for clients who don’t have that level of additional budget available. @NeptuneMoon

A lot of the success comes via traffic where there is no “click” conversion, that might be OTT, CTV, audio, in-app. So you are relying on VTC (viewthrough) conversion. Programmatic does well on remarketing, but attribution can make the numbers screwy. @jimbanks

Brand safety, ad fraud, validity of targeting information, placements control. @ferkungamaboobo

um…brand safety! with so many sites/games/apps out there, it’s impossible to guarantee 100% viewability, and the industry reputation for fraud. Finding good & transparent partners takes time and work. @JuliaVyse

Q5: What do you think programmatic is best suited for – awareness, prospecting, retargeting or all of the above? How are you using it/how would you like to use it if you’re not currently?

I want to say mostly prospecting, but it depends on how targeted you can get with audience and messaging. We’ve seen solid CPAs for sweepstake lead-gen. Not much experience on the e-commerce side. @jmloquist

I’d say all the above but mostly brand awareness. @TheMarketingAnu

At maturity, you would have a blend of all of these – awareness campaigns on CTV and radio for example, then you build audiences from those who engaged with the awareness ads, and target them on the usual digital channels (just an example) @marcpoirier

Awareness for sure. If you need to make a lot of noise, it’s a great way to do so. and everyone here knows my heretical views about mobile apps in the GDN. they’re great and I love them!!!!!! @JuliaVyse

I’d say awareness and retargeting. @NeptuneMoon

Retargeting @ynotweb

We use it for all of the above. @beyondthepaid

All of the above – it’s all about determining the optimal way to use that tool to get the results you (or your clients) want, within the constraints you have. @DigitalSamIAm

Q6: Do you use any tools or services to manage programmatic advertising for your clients?

1: We use LOTS of tools actually, yes. The most obvious ones are DSPs – as discussed earlier these are third-party platforms that let you bid on or buy ad inventory from multiple sources at the same time. @marcpoirier

TheTradeDesk and DV360 Hi everyone! It’s been a long time!! @maxfink_SEM

2: You can buy directly from publishers and via multiple ad exchanges — including Google’s GDN network, which is listed as AdX with relevant DSPs. We can use one or multiples DSPs for one campaign, depending on the specific needs the client will have. @marcpoirier

3: There are DMPs as well – data management platforms, where we can store our client’s data in order to leverage it to build audiences. There are tools to manage creatives, or to create dynamic creative based on any criteria. Loads of tools!! @marcpoirier

Q7: Is there any data or insight you can get from Programmatic Advertising that you don’t get from other types of advertising?

1: Well, for now, there’s an incredible amount of data – including impression level data (which is obviously not available from Google Ads of FB ads) – thousands of segments based on things like purchase data, intent data, etc @marcpoirier

2: Also worth noting that the impending disappearance of cookies as we know them will definitely create lots of new problems and opportunities. @marcpoirier

Q8: How can smaller advertisers leverage programmatic advertising?

Small advertisers can take advantage of programmatic. Key factors are (1) campaign Goal: should be established & quantified prior to launch (2) Duration (ie 30 – 90 days)(3) Target Audience: More defined the better (4) Geo: targeting city vs state vs country. @marcpoirier

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