SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Programmatic ad-buying has long relied on carefully selecting digital properties and packaging them for buyers.
Traditionally, supply-side platforms (SSPs) like OpenX have curated ad inventory by choosing websites and apps, bundling them and making the packages available to DSPs through deal IDs. Advertisers then would apply their own first- or third-party data to target specific audiences.
But a new approach that applies audience data before ad requests reach demand-side platforms (DSPs) is transforming the process.
Pre-Matching Data Boosts Performance
Data-driven curation is emerging as an enhancement, Stacy Bohrer of sell-side platform OpenX said in this video interview with Beet.TV.
“There are a lot of benefits to doing curation on the supply side,” Bohrer said. Because SSPs have close relationships with publishers, “we have access and visibility into all the inventory, all the signals, content, objects, etcetera.”
By matching audience data with ad impressions before sending them to DSPs, SSPs can provide advertisers with greater reach and improved performance with less “leakage” of ad dollars along the programmatic supply chain, Bohrer said.
Luxury Auto Campaign Drives Results
As an example of how data-driven curation works, Bohrer described a campaign for a luxury automaker that combined 11 different audience segments in a single deal ID.
The segments included auto intenders, “conquesting” and high-income individuals.
“They applied it at the DSP of their choice. They were off to the races, and they came back and said their performance was stronger than traditional curation, where the data was applied at the DSP,” Bohrer said. “They had a 12% increase of working media dollars.”
Transparency Needed for ‘Biddable’ Future
To help cultivate trust and transparency in the programmatic ecosystem, publishers need to work with SSPs that offer differentiated curation platforms, Bohrer said.
Those closer relationships will help publishers grow ad revenue as they activate first-party data, such as information gathered from their websites and apps.
“If we give transparency into the value of every impression, where it’s coming from, what it should be paid for it, etcetera, I think the future looks biddable,” she said. “Everything should be biddable and decisioned upon.”
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