by Denae Luna | Oct 26, 2023 | Digital Marketing, Programmatic
Attributing Return on Investment (ROI) to Connected TV (CTV), Digital Out of Home (DOOH), and Streaming Audio ads can be challenging but essential for assessing the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns in these channels. To attribute ROI to these ad formats, consider the following strategies (ranked in order of most straightforward to most advanced):
Unique Tracking URLs, QR Codes, or Landing Pages:
Create unique tracking URLs or landing pages for each ad campaign in these channels. This enables you to track website visits, conversions, and other user interactions specific to these campaigns. For visual campaigns like DOOH or CTV you can embed a QR code so people can walk up to the screen, scan, and land on the desired page and track conversions.
Conversion Tracking:
Implement conversion tracking pixels or tags to monitor actions that are relevant to your ROI goals, such as website purchases, form submissions, or app downloads. Ensure that these tags are correctly implemented across all channels.
Custom Promo Codes:
Assign custom promo codes or coupons for each channel or campaign. When customers use these codes during a purchase, it becomes a direct attribution to the specific ad campaign.
Surveys and Feedback:
Collect feedback and conduct surveys to gather information directly from customers. Ask them about their awareness of and response to CTV, DOOH, and streaming audio ads in your campaigns.
Incrementality/Lift Testing:
Conduct A/B testing or incrementality testing by running control groups that are not exposed to your ads and comparing their behavior with those who were exposed. This can help isolate the impact of your campaigns.
Geo-Fencing and Geo-Targeting: 
Leverage geo-fencing and geo-targeting capabilities. For DOOH campaigns you can attribute ROI by measuring foot traffic or visits to physical locations near displays. For CTV and streaming audio you can measure lift by only running one channel in specific geos and compare them to geos not supported by that channel.
Attribution Modeling:
Use attribution models to analyze the customer journey and assign value to each touchpoint along the way. Multi-touch attribution models can help determine the influence of CTV, DOOH, and streaming audio ads in the conversion path.
Cross-Device Tracking:
Implement cross-device tracking to understand how users interact with ads on different devices before making a purchase. This is important because consumers may see an ad on CTV, then switch to a mobile device to complete a transaction.
Advanced Attribution Solutions:
Consider using advanced attribution solutions like marketing mix modeling (MMM) or time-series analysis to determine the impact of CTV, DOOH, and streaming audio in conjunction with other advertising channels.
Keep in mind that accurately attributing ROI to these channels may require a combination of the above methods and tools. It’s essential to develop a robust measurement and attribution strategy to track the effectiveness of your advertising efforts in CTV, DOOH, and streaming audio to make informed decisions and optimize your campaigns.
Are you ready to implement your DSP? Check out this article with a great starting strategy: https://populationscience.com/how-to-implement-a-demand-side-platform-dsp/
by Denae Luna | Oct 26, 2023 | Digital Marketing
In digital marketing, cohorts refer to groups of users or customers who share common characteristics, behaviors, or attributes. Cohorts are used to segment a broader audience into smaller, more homogenous groups. These groups are typically defined based on specific criteria, and the members of a cohort are tracked and analyzed over time. Cohorts are an essential tool in digital marketing for understanding user behavior, improving targeting, and making data-driven decisions.
Here are some factors to consider when discussing the future of digital ad targeting with cohorts:
Privacy Concerns:
With increasing privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, as well as browser-level restrictions on tracking, cohorts offer a way to target users while respecting their privacy. This trend toward greater data protection is likely to continue, making cohorts a significant component of digital ad targeting.
Platform Developments:
Major digital platforms, such as Google and Apple, are embracing the concept of cohorts. For example, Google is developing the Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) as part of its Privacy Sandbox initiative. These platforms play a pivotal role in shaping the future of digital advertising.
Data Availability:
The availability and quality of data for creating cohorts can influence their effectiveness. The more data that can be used to create meaningful cohorts, the more valuable this targeting method becomes.
Performance and Relevance:
The success of cohorts in digital advertising will depend on their ability to deliver relevant and effective ads. Advertisers will need to continually optimize their cohort-based strategies to ensure they meet their campaign objectives.
Hybrid Approaches:
It’s likely that future digital ad targeting will involve a combination of cohort-based targeting and other techniques, such as contextual targeting, first-party data, and creative strategies. Advertisers will need to adopt a flexible and adaptable approach to meet their goals.
Regulatory Changes:
Ongoing and future changes in privacy regulations may further influence the role and capabilities of cohorts in ad targeting. Advertisers will need to stay informed and adjust their strategies accordingly.
In summary, cohorts are an important component of the future of digital ad targeting, particularly in the context of privacy-conscious advertising. However, the future is likely to involve a mix of targeting methods, with advertisers adapting to changes in regulations, technology, and user expectations. Cohorts represent a significant step toward a more privacy-focused and effective approach to digital ad targeting, but they are one piece of the broader targeting landscape.
Ready to implement your DSP? Check out our article that has a great startup strategy: https://populationscience.com/how-to-implement-a-demand-side-platform-dsp/
by Denae Luna | Oct 26, 2023 | Digital Marketing
Before making any changes or setting new goals, take the time to review and analyze your digital marketing campaign’s performance over the last year. This analysis should comprehensively examine key performance indicators (KPIs), such as website traffic, conversion rates, click-through rates, return on investment (ROI), and other relevant metrics. Pay special attention to what worked and what didn’t.
Specific steps to consider during this review:
Conversion Path Analysis:
We lead off with conversion path analysis because this is one critical aspect that many digital marketers overlook. Examine the customer journey and conversion funnel. Identify any bottlenecks or drop-off points in the funnel and strategize on how to improve the user experience. Many digital marketers focus on the ad funnel, but it’s vital to do conversion path optimization on your website. You need to A/B landing pages and understand customer behavior once they reach your website before you do any other analysis.
Channel Performance:
Evaluate the performance of different marketing channels (e.g., social media, email, paid advertising). Identify which channels were most effective in driving traffic and conversions. Effectiveness can be an elusive thing for marketing teams to agree upon. Too many teams get locked into last click attribution to conversions by channel. The reality is many attribution models are broken or at least less reliable in the age of cookie depreciation/privacy. The best approach to measuring channel performance is a mix of last click attribution, lift tests, surveys, advanced attribution modeling, and good old fashioned common sense when digging into campaign metrics.
Content and Messaging:
Analyze the content and messaging that resonated with your audience. Which types of content generated the most engagement and conversions? What messaging themes were successful? You might be surprised to find content that worked on one channel may not have necessarily worked on another. Optimize your content and messaging by channel but make sure you keep your main branding theme intact for some level of continuity, especially if you are retargeting across channels.
Audience Insights:
Understand your audience’s behavior and preferences. What segments of your audience performed the best, and which ones need improvement? Is your audience data up to date? Use analytics tools, CRM, and customer feedback to gain insights and cleanse any old data on customers that no longer engage or segments that are no longer profitable.
Competitive Analysis:
Look at your competitors’ digital marketing strategies and assess how your performance compares. Identify areas where you can outperform or differentiate.
Budget Allocation:
Review your budget allocation for various marketing channels and campaigns. Determine whether your spending aligns with the best-performing channels and where adjustments may be needed.
Once you’ve gathered and analyzed this data, you can make informed decisions about how to optimize your digital marketing campaign for the new year. This process sets the foundation for setting new goals, refining your strategy, and identifying areas where improvements are needed.
Thinking about next year’s strategy and haven’t considered programmatic advertising? Read this article before you write off the benefits: https://populationscience.com/dont-have-programmatic-in-your-2024-plan-heres-why-you-should-reconsider/
by Denae Luna | Oct 24, 2023 | Digital Marketing, Programmatic
Integrating programmatic advertising into your paid search and paid social strategy can help you create a more holistic and effective digital advertising approach. Here are steps to integrate programmatic into your paid search and paid social campaigns:
Set Clear Goals and Objectives:
Define specific goals for your integrated strategy, such as increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or boosting conversions and deploy it across paid search, paid social, and programmatic. This may sound like common sense, but you would be surprised how many media teams have their paid search, paid social, and programmatic strategy living in silos. You will have the maximum amount of success if all of your channels are in sync.
Data Sharing:
Encourage data sharing and collaboration between your programmatic, paid search, and paid social teams. Sharing insights and findings can lead to more effective cross-channel strategies.
Consistent Messaging:
Ensure that your messaging is consistent across programmatic, paid search, and paid social channels. A unified brand message helps reinforce your brand identity and message to your audience. Maintain a consistent visual style and branding elements in your ad creatives across all channels. This helps create a cohesive and memorable brand experience.
Cross-Channel Retargeting:
Use programmatic advertising to retarget users who have engaged with your paid search or paid social campaigns. Via programmatic campaigns you can greatly increase the number of places you can retarget search and social visitors including display, native, connected TV, and even digital audio. Increasing the number of channels you retarget on will ensure your message stays in front of interested audiences any time they are on a connected device. This will help nurture leads and guide them through the conversion funnel.
Leverage Data from Paid Channels:
Incorporate data from your paid search and paid social campaigns into your programmatic strategy. This can help you identify high-performing keywords for contextual tactics, ad creatives, and audience segments to use in programmatic campaigns.
Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences:
Use your website as an aggregator to track visitors from all of your paid media campaigns (search, social, and programmatic). This melting pot of data can be fed back into all channels to find lookalikes across all digital channels. Use
Unified Analytics & Attribution:
Use unified analytics and clearly define how attribution will be handled. This allows you to understand the contribution of each channel to your overall marketing efforts and allocate money across the most effective channels. You might be surprised how difficult this is for marketing teams. As more platforms introduce privacy-friendly defaults attribution is becoming more difficult. Paid search, paid social, and programmatic teams often end up fighting over taking credit for conversions which can cause discontent and more importantly lead to a lack of harmony between teams.
Cross-Channel Budget Allocation:
Determine how to allocate your budget across programmatic, paid search, and paid social based on campaign performance. Consider channel-specific ROI and adjust budgets accordingly.
Adapt to Trends and Changes:
Stay updated on industry trends and changes in advertising platforms to ensure your integrated strategy remains current and aligned with best practices. Programmatic is a constantly evolving area of media buying so it is vital to stay informed about new opportunities to target and reach your target audience.
Integrating programmatic into your paid search and paid social strategy requires careful planning, data sharing, and consistent messaging. When executed well, this approach can help you reach your audience across various touchpoints, improving brand visibility and the overall performance of your digital advertising efforts.
When you’re ready to implement programmatic into your efforts, check out our DSP implementation strategy here: https://populationscience.com/how-to-implement-a-demand-side-platform-dsp/
by Denae Luna | Oct 20, 2023 | Digital Marketing, Programmatic
Hiring a programmatic consultant can offer several advantages for businesses and advertisers looking to navigate the complex world of programmatic advertising. Here are some compelling reasons why you should consider hiring a programmatic consultant:
1. Expertise and Experience:
Programmatic consultants are experts in the field with extensive knowledge and experience in programmatic advertising. They stay up-to-date with industry trends, best practices, and the latest technologies, which can be challenging for in-house teams to maintain. Programmatic hasn’t been around as long as paid search or paid social so finding an expert with a lot of experience can be challenging. It can be even harder to hire a full time, experienced programmatic manager in-house.
2. Strategy Development:
Consultants can help you develop a customized programmatic advertising strategy tailored to your business objectives. They can assess your goals, target audience, and budget to create a plan that maximizes ROI. An experienced consultant can ensure your strategy is efficient, effective, and up to date with the latest tactics.
3. Cost Efficiency:
Consultants can optimize your programmatic campaigns to reduce wasted ad spend. They can help you make data-driven decisions, choose the right supply partners, and implement cost-saving measures.
4. Transparency and Accountability:
Programmatic consultants can improve transparency in your supply chain. Your supply chain is the Supply Side Partners (SSPs) and domains/apps you ultimately place your ads on. They can help you understand where your ad dollars are going and ensure that your campaigns are free from fraudulent activity.
5. Vendor and Technology Selection:
Consultants can guide you in selecting the right technology platforms and supply partners for your specific needs. They can help you negotiate contracts and make informed decisions about which vendors to work with. With so many vendors and traffic partners to choose from, simply knowing which ones you need to work with to achieve your unique goals can save you thousands of dollars per month.
6. Ad Creative and Messaging:
Consultants can provide recommendations for optimizing ad creatives and messaging to improve campaign performance and audience engagement. With so many channels and tactics the smallest nuance in creative can make a huge difference.
7. Data Analysis and Insights:
Consultants can analyze campaign data to extract valuable insights. They can identify trends, audience behaviors, and areas for improvement, helping you refine your advertising strategy and understand the ROI on your programmatic investment.
8. Compliance and Privacy:
With increasing privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, consultants can help ensure that your programmatic advertising practices comply with legal requirements, reducing the risk of fines and legal issues.
9. Adapting to Industry Changes:
The programmatic advertising landscape is constantly evolving. Consultants can help you adapt to changes in technology, regulations, and consumer behavior, ensuring that your campaigns remain effective and leverage the latest tactics.
10. Customized Solutions:
Consultants provide personalized solutions based on your unique business needs and challenges. They can adapt strategies to fit your industry, target audience, and competitive landscape.
11. Time Savings:
Outsourcing programmatic expertise to a consultant allows your internal team to focus on other critical tasks, such as core business functions and overall marketing strategy.
12. Objective Perspective:
Consultants offer an objective viewpoint, free from internal biases or politics. They can provide honest feedback and recommendations without being influenced by organizational dynamics.
13. Measurable Results:
Consultants can establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and regularly report on campaign performance, ensuring that you can track and measure the success of your programmatic efforts.
Overall, hiring a programmatic consultant can be a wise investment for businesses looking to leverage programmatic advertising effectively while minimizing risks and optimizing their advertising budget. Consultants bring expertise, objectivity, and a strategic approach that can lead to improved campaign results and a stronger return on investment.
Let us be a part of your journey. Learn more about how we can take your campaigns to the next level.
by Denae Luna | Oct 20, 2023 | Digital Marketing
Targeting digital ads without using cookies has become increasingly important due to privacy concerns and changes in regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which have limited the use of third-party cookies. Here are some tactics you can use to target digital ads effectively without relying on cookies:
Seller Defined Audiences:
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- Seller Defined Audiences (SDAs) define audiences in a standardized manner allowing sellers (publishers, networks, platforms) to communicate their audience segments consistently and transparently across platforms and channels.
- Retail Networks, Private Marketplace Deals, and buying directly from walled gardens/owned and operated inventory (O&O) are all examples of places where you can leverage SDAs.
Contextual Targeting:
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- Contextual targeting involves placing ads on websites or content that are contextually relevant to the ad’s message. This can be done by analyzing the content of web pages, including keywords, topics, and themes.
- Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms can help automate contextual targeting by understanding the content of web pages.
Behavioral Targeting:
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- Instead of relying on third-party cookies for tracking user behavior, consider using first-party data collected from your own website or app.
- Analyze on-site behavior, such as page views, search queries, and user interactions, to create user profiles and target ads based on user interests and preferences.
Device and IP Address Targeting:
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- You can target ads based on device types (e.g., mobile, desktop) and users’ IP addresses.
- Keep in mind that relying solely on IP addresses may not provide individual-level targeting, as multiple users can share the same IP address.
Contextual Keywords:
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- Utilize keyword targeting to display ads on websites or within content that contains specific keywords relevant to your products or services.
Contextual Experiences:
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- Design ad creatives that are contextually relevant to the content, context, and keywords in which they are displayed. This can improve engagement and reduce the need for precise targeting.
Geolocation Targeting:
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- Use geolocation data to target ads to users based on their physical location. This can be effective for local businesses and events.
Demographic and Behavioral Segmentation:
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- Create audience segments based on demographic information (age, gender, income) and observed online behavior.
- Platforms may offer options for creating custom segments without relying on third-party data.
Retargeting and Remarketing:
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- Continue to use first-party data to retarget or remarket to users who have previously interacted with your website or app.
Partnerships and Influencer Marketing:
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- Collaborate with influencers or other businesses/publishers that have authority with your target audience(s).
- Top influencers can be expensive, but there are plenty of “micro” influencers out there with small, but mighty followings. In fact, they can often have some of the most loyal engagement. They are also more likely to collaborate with you on creating high impact content.
As the digital advertising landscape continues to evolve, it’s essential to adapt to changing privacy regulations and consumer expectations while still delivering effective and relevant ad campaigns. Combining multiple tactics from the list above can help you achieve your targeting goals while respecting user privacy.
Ready to implement your programmatic strategy? Check out our step-by-step here: https://populationscience.com/how-to-implement-a-demand-side-platform-dsp/
