by Johnathan Barnes | Nov 3, 2023 | Digital Marketing, Programmatic
Bid shading is a technique used in programmatic advertising, specifically in real-time bidding (RTB) auctions, to optimize the price at which an advertiser is willing to bid for an ad impression. The goal of bid shading is to strike a balance between securing the ad impression and not overpaying for it. Here’s how it works and how it can affect your campaign:
How Bid Shading Works
- Auction Dynamics: In an RTB auction, advertisers bid on ad impressions in real-time, and the highest bidder typically wins the impression. However, the winning bidder pays the second-highest bid price (the second-price auction model). This means that if you bid too high, you might end up paying more than necessary.
- Bid Shading Algorithm: Bid shading involves using a specialized algorithm to adjust your bid price. This algorithm takes into account various factors, including the auction dynamics, the competition, historical data, and predictive modeling. It calculates a bid price that’s lower than your original bid but still competitive enough to win the impression.
- Winning at a Discount: The goal of bid shading is to win ad impressions at a price that’s lower than your initial bid, which results in cost savings for the advertiser.
Effects on Your Campaign
- Cost Efficiency: Bid shading can lead to cost savings for your campaign. By avoiding overbidding, you can maintain cost efficiency while still securing valuable ad impressions. This is particularly important in highly competitive and costly auctions.
- Optimal Pricing: Bid shading helps you find the optimal bid price for each impression. It takes into account various factors, including the likelihood of conversion, ad quality, and auction competition, allowing you to tailor your bids to each specific situation.
- Improved ROI: By paying an adjusted, more accurate price for ad impressions, you can improve the return on investment (ROI) for your campaign. This means you’re getting better value for your advertising spend.
- Winning More Impressions: Adjusting your bid with bid shading can increase your chances of winning more ad impressions. This can be especially advantageous in situations where you might have been outbid without bid shading.
- Real-Time Optimization: Bid shading is part of the broader trend of real-time optimization in programmatic advertising. It enables advertisers to adapt their bidding strategies to the changing dynamics of each individual auction, making it more responsive to market conditions.
It’s important to note that the effectiveness of bid shading can vary based on the specific algorithms and technology used, as well as the sophistication of the bidding strategy. Additionally, the impact on your campaign will depend on the competition in the ad auctions, the quality of your creatives, and the relevance of your targeting.
As bid shading is a complex process that often requires specialized algorithms and technology, it’s essential to work with experienced programmatic advertising partners or platforms to implement bid shading effectively in your campaign. When done correctly, bid shading can help you achieve better results and cost efficiency in your programmatic advertising efforts. Take a deeper dive into your DSP Buying efforts with our DSP Buyer Guide: https://populationscience.com/demand-side-platform-buyer-guide/
by Population Science | Nov 1, 2023 | Digital Marketing, Programmatic
If you do a search on the definition of programmatic you will get a lot of different answers. If you ask someone in the digital space what programmatic is, you will get an even wider range of answers.
While programmatic adoption continues to grow at a steady pace, one thing holding back adoption is the lack of education about what programmatic actually is.
So what is programmatic, really?
In short, programmatic is the process of buying digital media in an automated fashion. For finance buffs, think of it as similar to the Bloomberg Terminal which allows traders to buy securities around the globe in real-time, except programmatic allows us to buy media.
Programmatic uses technology to improve marketing decisions across a broad ecosystem of channels, tactics, and data sets. This allows marketers to place the right ad, in front of the right person, on the right device, at the right time, maximizing efficiency and return on ad spend.
Another thing that holds back programmatic adoption is the confusion around the complexity of the offering. Prior to programmatic, digital marketing and buying were pretty silo’d. You would go to:
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Mailchimp/Constant Contact/etc. for email
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Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn to buy social ads
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Outbrain/Tablooa to buy native ads
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Bing and Google to buy search and display
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Google AdWords for a slightly more robust offering of display, native, and video.
With programmatic, media buying is streamlined across many platforms, giving more flexibility to manage budgets, evaluate effectiveness and pivot strategy seamlessly.
Programmatic also opens digital media buyers to new and exciting channels such as Connected TV, Digital Audio, Digital Out-of-Home, in addition to the traditional display, native, and digital video channels. With email deliverability and open rates declining, the limitations of AdWords and constantly changing algorithms and regulations on social platforms, programmatic offers the most efficient way to reach consumers outside of search and social. It’s imperative that marketers begin considering, exploring and adopting programmatic to stay on top and ahead of the evolving digital landscape.
Further, programmatic gives you the ability to active 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party data while managing frequency of ads across all of these channels to ensure you are being as efficient as possible with your media buy. Your data is one of the most valuable assets your business has, and if you’re not leveraging it to its fullest potential through programmatic, you’re missing a huge opportunity to reach new prospects and existing customers. Check out a related article that talks about Demand Side Platforms and Supply Side Platforms which house programmatic marketing: https://populationscience.com/demand-side-platforms-and-supply-side-platforms-for-dummies/
If you are ready to learn more about programmatic and explore adding it to your strategy, contact us today. We’d love to chat about your business and put together a plan for testing and implementing programmatic in a way that works for your budget and your goals.
by Denae Luna | Oct 30, 2023 | Digital Marketing, Programmatic
The bidstream, also known as bid requests or bid opportunities, is a fundamental component of programmatic advertising. It refers to the stream of data generated during the real-time bidding (RTB) auction process, where advertisers and their demand-side platforms (DSPs) submit bids to purchase ad impressions on various ad exchanges and supply-side platforms (SSPs).
Here’s how the bidstream works in programmatic advertising:
- Ad Request: When a user visits a website or mobile app with ad inventory available for sale, an ad request is generated. This request is sent to an ad exchange or SSP, which acts as an intermediary between publishers and advertisers.
- Auction Initiation: The ad exchange or SSP collects information about the ad impression, such as the user’s demographics, browsing behavior, the content of the webpage, and more. This information is included in the bid request to help advertisers decide if they want to bid on the impression.
- Bid Requests: The bid request, which is often in the form of a JSON object, is then sent to multiple DSPs. Each DSP receives these bid requests and processes the data within milliseconds to make a bidding decision.
- Bidding Decision: Within the DSP, the bidding algorithm assesses the ad impression’s value based on the available data, the advertiser’s targeting criteria, and the campaign budget. The DSP decides whether to submit a bid and, if so, at what price.
- Bid Submission: If the DSP decides to bid, it generates a bid response. The bid response includes the bid amount and other parameters, such as the creative to be displayed if the bid wins. This response is sent back to the ad exchange or SSP.
- Auction: The ad exchange or SSP collects all the bid responses from participating DSPs. It evaluates these responses and determines the winning bid based on the highest price.
- Ad Delivery: Once the winning bid is determined, the ad impression is delivered to the winning DSP. The winning DSP’s ad is then displayed to the user in real-time.
- User Interaction: The user may or may not interact with the ad. If an interaction occurs (e.g., a click or view), the data is collected and used for reporting and optimization.
The bidstream, therefore, represents the flow of data from the initial ad request to the final ad delivery. It allows advertisers to evaluate and bid on ad impressions in real-time, enabling them to reach their target audience with relevant and timely advertising.
Advertisers and DSPs rely on the bidstream to make quick bidding decisions and optimize their ad campaigns. The bidstream is rich with data, and the analysis of bid requests can help advertisers make more informed choices about which impressions to bid on and at what price, making programmatic advertising a highly data-driven and efficient approach to digital advertising. Any degradation in the bloodstream can cause signal loss. For more on signal loss and how it impacts advertisers click here.
by Denae Luna | Oct 30, 2023 | Digital Marketing, Programmatic
Signal loss in programmatic advertising refers to the loss or degradation of data and information as it passes through various components of the programmatic advertising ecosystem. This loss can occur at multiple stages within the advertising process, from data collection to ad delivery.
Signal loss can have a significant impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of programmatic campaigns. Here are some key aspects of signal loss in programmatic:
Cookie Restrictions: Privacy regulations and browser restrictions have led to signal loss by limiting the availability and accuracy of cookies. This has made it challenging to track users and target them effectively.
Ad Fraud: Signal loss can be exacerbated by ad fraud, where fake or invalid data can be passed in the bidstream and impressions dilute the quality of data used in programmatic advertising. This makes it harder to distinguish genuine user behavior from fraudulent activity.
Data Transfer: Data transfer between different systems and platforms can result in signal loss if not handled properly. Data may be lost or altered during the transfer process. This can include user data, behavioral data, contextual data, IP address, and more.
Latency: Latency in the bidding and ad delivery process can cause signal loss. Delays in data transmission and decision-making can impact the relevance and timeliness of ad targeting. Bid auctions take place in milliseconds so it doesn’t take much of a glitch to create latency in the system.
Invalid Traffic and Impressions: Signal loss can occur when advertisers pay for impressions that are not seen by real users. Invalid traffic, such as non-human traffic (bots), can dilute the value of ad impressions.
Data Aggregation: Aggregating data from multiple sources for audience segmentation and targeting can lead to signal loss if the data is not consolidated accurately or if key details are missed.
Measurement Challenges: Signal loss can make it challenging to accurately measure campaign performance, making it difficult to understand the true impact of programmatic advertising efforts.
Retargeting Issues: Signal loss can hinder retargeting efforts, as tracking users across different devices or platforms may not be as accurate as desired.
Ad Personalization: Signal loss can impact the personalization of ad content. Advertisers may struggle to deliver highly relevant ads to users if data is lost or inaccurate.
Addressing signal loss in programmatic advertising requires implementing data quality controls, using advanced targeting techniques, and being aware of the limitations imposed by privacy regulations and browser changes. Advertisers and marketers often work with data providers, ad tech platforms, and data management solutions to mitigate signal loss and optimize programmatic campaigns. Additionally, continuous monitoring, analysis, and optimization are essential to minimize the impact of signal loss and ensure the success of programmatic advertising efforts. For a deeper dive into DSP buying, check out our Buyer’s Guide: https://populationscience.com/demand-side-platform-buyer-guide/
by Population Science | Oct 30, 2023 | Programmatic
Over the past five years I have had a lot of conversations with people about programmatic. I’m often surprised to learn that even many seasoned marketers have dismissed programmatic due to real or perceived obstacles. The reasoning for ignoring this incredibly effective opportunity generally fall into one of three buckets:
1. WE DON’T DO DISPLAY ADS.
There is a common misconception about programmatic just being a new way to buy display ads. The reality? Programmatic is so much more than display.
Programmatic does give you access to display ads on desktop and mobile devices. However, it also gives you access to native, video, and emerging formats such as connected TV, digital audio, and digital out of home. By accessing these diverse channels, programmatic gives you access to virtually every internet connected consumer in the United States to run data-driven digital campaigns to.
2. WE ARE OKAY WITH OUR CURRENT MARKETING MIX.
Marketers that buy directly from platforms such as Google AdWords or Facebook Business Manager and run retention programs via email are missing out on a big opportunity. Email, Facebook, and Google are fantastic platforms, but also limiting in their own ways. For example:
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Meta is a great way to reach a large audience with robust targeting data. However, Facebook only reaches about 65% of the connected audience in the United States. People spend 70%+ of their connected time outside of social media. Programmatic is the most efficient way to reach people when they are not on social media as well as reaching those who aren’t on social media period.
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Google AdWords provides access to its search engine, YouTube video, and Gmail native ads. You also get access to a wider display, native, and video network. While this seems robust, it pales in comparison to what programmatic offers. Emerging formats such as connected TV, digital out of home, and digital audio aren’t offered in AdWords. Further, programmatic provides full control over placements, access to a massive 3rd party data marketplace, and omni-channel controls that maximize efficiency across all of the available channels.
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Email is a fantastic tool and it is something that should be a part of every marketing mix. That said, deliverability continues to get harder and open rates for most marketers continues to slide. In short, it’s getting harder to get a share of voice within consumer inboxes. Email alone isn’t enough to run successful retention or acquisition campaigns.
While email, Google, and Facebook are great ways for small businesses to do digital on a budget, it’s not nearly robust enough for serious digital marketers.
3. WE WOULD LOVE TO TRY PROGRAMMATIC, BUT WE DON’T HAVE THE RESOURCES (BOTH HUMAN AND FINANCIAL) TO RUN IT.
Yes, programmatic can be expensive. Most DSPs (Demand Side Platforms) require minimum spend commitments well into the six figures per year. If you require their assistance to setup and manage your campaigns (which most companies will because programmatic is very complex), 50% or more of your spend could be going to fees. That is a difficult pill to swallow.
If you are an agency or a brand that would love to get into programmatic, but do not have the internal resources or budget to do so, Population Science can help. We specialize in helping small to medium-sized organizations get into programmatic with personalized strategies, flexible minimums and a commitment to making programmatic accessible.
WHERE DO I START?
With all of the tactics and channels available in the programmatic space, you can run up a very large media bill pretty easily. For those of you looking to dip your toe in the water, here are a few places I suggest getting started:
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Retargeting: Everyone retargets. Most people use Google Display Network, AdRoll, or Criteo for this. These are great platforms, but they are very limited in leveraging your retargeting data for prospecting campaigns (at least in a transparent way). Programmatic has all of the retargeting capabilities of these platforms plus much more.
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Prospecting: Take the learnings from your website visitors, even with a smaller data set, and reapply that to an omni-channel prospecting campaign. We can model people that convert on your site with other browsers to find people who are currently in-market for your product or service. We can even leverage 3rd party data sources to further hone in on your target audience.
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Connected TV: Connected TV is a channel that every marketer should be in on. It combines the impact of TV advertising with the targeting and tracking capabilities of digital ads. More than 80% of internet users currently stream at least some of their video content and this number is rapidly growing.
Ready to explore programmatic for your 2024 marketing? We’re here to help.
Whether you’re an agency with clients who could benefit from programmatic strategy or a business looking to reach new prospects and reengage customers in exciting ways, we’d love to chat about your needs and put together a plan for success.
Contact us today and let’s talk!
by Population Science | Oct 27, 2023 | Digital Marketing
Email is powerful marketing tool. Email marketing allows you to keep your audience in the know about new products, announcements, and other important information. It also presents an opportunity to target and connect with leads, turning them into loyal customers. Delve into these stats to improve your email marketing strategy today!
We started our 10 Stats to Consider When Crafting Your Digital Strategy with our Social Media edition. To keep you going on executing a top-notch digital strategy, here are 10 email marketing stats digital you need to know.
1. There will be 4.4 billion email users by 2023
(Nearly) everyone uses email. A strong email marketing allows you to reach billions of people across the world at any time of day.
2. 99% of email users check their inbox every day, with some checking 20 times a day. Of those people, 58% of consumers check their email first thing in the morning. (OptinMonster, 2020)
Your customers are frequently using email, so you should too. Email is so embedded into everyone’s daily routine that ensuring your emails are consistent and high quality is crucial to standing out.
3. Nearly 1 in 5 email campaigns are not optimized for mobile devices.
It is essential to optimize your emails for both mobile and web view to ensure your emails are being opened and customers have a seamless experience that inspires them to act.
4. 74% of Baby Boomers think email is the most personal channel to receive communications from brands, followed by 72% of Gen X, 64% of Millennials, and 60% of Gen Z. (Bluecore, 2021)
Email marketing allows you to connect with you audience on a more personal level than other marketing strategies. Prioritize making your emails feel like a one-to-one experience for your customers.
5. 89% of marketers use email as the primary channel for generating leads.
If lead generation is an essential goal for your business, a strong email marketing strategy is the way to go. Personal, targeted emails help inspire meaningful connections that turn leads into loyal, long-lasting customers.
6. Email marketing ROI is 4200%($42 for every $1 spent).
A well-executed email marketing strategy can make you money. Investing in quality and engaging content is a cost-effective way to drive revenue.
7. 37% of respondents name email as the most effective channel for customer loyalty and retention, while websites were named by 13% and social media by only 11%.
Your website and social media are important, but ultimately getting customers to sign up for your email is key to building relationships and gaining support.
8. Email marketing is mostly used for lead generation (85%), sales (84%), lead nurturing (78%), and customer retention (74%).
Email marketing is beneficial no matter what business you have. You can increase sales, improve brand loyalty, and deliver important information that result in stronger customer relationships and increased conversions.
9. The best days for emails are Tuesday and Thursday. The worst open and click-through rates are on weekends.
Understanding trends of what days and times email performs best is key to ensuring you are setting up your strategy for success. Dive even deeper into this data to determine when emails for your specific business perform best.
10. Nine out of ten marketers say they look at email metrics such as open rates, click rates, and downloads to determine how successful a piece of content is, more so than website traffic and social media analytics.
Email marketing provides a lot of value. Looking at your metrics can help you determine what tactics are working, and what areas need to be strengthened. These are valuable insights you can use to strengthen your strategy and business.
Email is a tried-and-true strategy. These 10 email stats can help you better understand the benefits of a strong email marketing strategy and how it can help take your business to the next level.
Looking to scale up your business’s marketing efforts? Check out this article: https://populationscience.com/connecting-the-digital-dots-scaling-your-digital-marketing/
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/
