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.
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
Utilize keyword targeting to display ads on websites or within content that contains specific keywords relevant to your products or services.
Contextual Experiences:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
Programmatic Supply Path Optimization (SPO) is a strategy used in digital advertising, particularly in programmatic advertising, to improve the efficiency and transparency of the supply chain. It involves optimizing the path through which digital ads are bought and sold, with the goal of maximizing the value for advertisers while minimizing costs and reducing potential fraud.
SPO is a response to the complexity and opacity often associated with programmatic advertising. In short, SPO is about finding the most direct path at the most affordable price to access quality impressions.
Here are the key components and objectives of Programmatic Supply Path Optimization:
Transparency: SPO aims to increase transparency in the programmatic supply chain. This involves identifying and understanding each step in the supply chain, including the intermediaries and technology platforms involved in the buying and selling of ads.
Cost Reduction: By streamlining the supply chain and reducing unnecessary intermediaries, SPO can help advertisers reduce the fees and costs associated with programmatic advertising. This can lead to improved return on investment (ROI).
Quality and Brand Safety: SPO can help advertisers ensure that their ads are displayed on high-quality, brand-safe websites and apps. It involves choosing the right supply partners and excluding low-quality or potentially harmful inventory sources.
Reducing Ad Fraud: SPO can also help in the detection and prevention of ad fraud. By working with trusted and reputable supply partners, advertisers can minimize the risk of fraudulent ad impressions or clicks.
Data Analysis: Advertisers may use real-time data and technology to make dynamic decisions about which supply paths to use for each impression, optimizing based on factors like price, performance, and quality.
Consolidation: SPO often involves consolidating the number of supply partners or intermediaries involved in a campaign. Fewer intermediaries can lead to a more efficient and cost-effective supply chain.
Relationship Building: Building strong relationships with supply partners is another aspect of SPO. Collaborative partnerships can lead to better communication, trust, and more effective campaign management.
In summary, programmatic supply path optimization is a strategy that advertisers use to make their programmatic advertising campaigns more efficient, transparent, and cost-effective. It involves careful selection of supply partners, data analysis, and ongoing optimization to achieve better results in the complex world of programmatic advertising.
In the world of digital advertising, Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) have emerged as indispensable tools for advertisers looking to reach their target audience effectively and efficiently. These platforms offer a wealth of opportunities, but to make the most of them, advertisers need to employ best practices for DSP buying. In this article, we’ll explore the top strategies and guidelines to ensure your DSP campaigns yield optimal results.
1. Define Clear Objectives
Before you start using a DSP, it’s crucial to define clear campaign objectives. Ask yourself:
What are you trying to achieve (e.g., brand awareness, lead generation, sales)?
Who is your target audience?
What key performance indicators (KPIs) will you use to measure success (e.g., click-through rate, conversion rate, return on ad spend)?
Having well-defined objectives will guide your campaign strategy and help you select the right DSP features and settings to achieve your goals.
2. Audience Segmentation
Segmentation is the backbone of successful DSP buying. Break your target audience into distinct segments based on demographics, behaviors, interests, and other relevant factors. This allows you to tailor your ad creative and messaging for maximum relevance. DSPs provide sophisticated targeting options, so take advantage of them to reach the right people at the right time.
3. Data Integration
Leverage first-party and third-party data to enhance your targeting capabilities. Integrating your customer data with DSPs can help you create custom audience segments and deliver highly personalized ads. Additionally, third-party data providers can offer valuable insights into consumer behavior and preferences, further refining your targeting strategy.
4. Ad Creative Optimization
Compelling ad creative can significantly impact campaign performance. Ensure that your ad creatives are visually appealing, relevant, and in line with your brand’s messaging. A/B testing can help identify which creatives resonate best with your audience, allowing you to refine your approach over time.
5. Budget Management
Set a clear budget and bidding strategy for your campaigns. DSPs offer various bidding options, such as cost per mille (CPM), cost per click (CPC), and cost per acquisition (CPA). Carefully analyze your KPIs to determine the most cost-effective bidding strategy for your objectives. Be prepared to adjust your budget based on campaign performance and market conditions.
6. Real-time Optimization
One of the key advantages of DSPs is their ability to provide real-time data and insights. Monitor your campaigns closely and make adjustments as needed. Pause underperforming ads, allocate more budget to top-performing segments, and fine-tune your targeting parameters to improve results. Continuous optimization is crucial for maximizing ROI.
7. Cross-Channel Integration
Consider integrating your DSP campaigns with other marketing channels, such as social media, search advertising, and email marketing. This cohesive approach ensures that your messaging remains consistent across platforms and maximizes the impact of your campaigns.
8. Brand Safety and Ad Fraud Prevention
Protect your brand by implementing strict brand safety measures within your DSP. Use tools that can detect and prevent fraudulent activity and ensure your ads are not displayed in inappropriate or harmful environments. Brand reputation is paramount in advertising.
9. Performance Analytics and Reporting
DSPs offer robust reporting capabilities. Regularly review performance metrics to gauge the success of your campaigns. Analyze conversion paths, attribution models, and audience insights to refine your targeting and messaging further.
10. Stay Informed and Evolve
The digital advertising landscape is dynamic, with new technologies and trends emerging regularly. Stay informed about industry developments and be prepared to adapt your DSP buying strategies accordingly. Continual learning and flexibility are key to long-term success.
Demand-side platforms have revolutionized digital advertising, offering advertisers unprecedented control and precision in reaching their target audience. By implementing these best practices for DSP buying, you can harness the full potential of these platforms to drive impressive results for your advertising campaigns. Remember that success in DSP buying often requires a combination of strategic planning, data-driven decision-making, and ongoing optimization.
Reach out to us today for a consultation regarding your DSP needs.
GA4 (Google Analytics 4) has been released for some time now and if you use Universal Analytics, you’ve seen the pop-up prompting you to switch over. At Population Science, we’ve switched all of our clients over to GA4 to start collecting data as soon as we could, but we noticed some things we’d like to share with you here.
Benefits of switching to GA4
GA4 offers a range of new features and improvements to include some of what I’ve listed here.
Enhanced tracking capabilities – because GA4 tracks by user rather than sessions, you’ll be able to follow your user’s journey throughout their devices.
Streamlined Interface – while it may look like some of your favorite options are missing, they’re actually just tucked away in the Reports tab
Improved Integrations – though you may not be able to see it, on the backend, but GA4 synchronizes better with Google Ads and Google Tag Manager.
Advanced Machine Learning – such as automated insights and predictive metrics
While I understand a lot of this doesn’t show up as in-your-face user experience, these improvements go a long way towards building better overall data reporting capabilities (once you get the hang of it).
Downsides of switching to GA4
Like with any platform, upgrading comes with some downsides:
Limited Historical Data – The sooner you switch, the sooner your Analytics starts collecting data. GA4 data collection is not retroactive beyond when you initiate it. You could be missing out on vital business insights by holding off.
Different Data Structure – GA4 uses a different data model than Universal Analytics, which can make it challenging to migrate data and set up tracking correctly. You may need to invest time and resources into updating your tracking and reporting infrastructure.
Limited Third-Party Integrations – Because it’s still so new, some third party integrations are still unavailable.
Learning Curve – some marketers may need to invest time and resources into learning the new platform and its capabilities.
Limited Customization Options – You still can’t create custom dashboards in GA4, but they’re working on it.
Yes, there is a lot of change with GA4 from Universal Analytics. But we’re confident that overall, GA4 offers a more flexible and robust analytics platform that can help businesses better understand and optimize their digital marketing efforts.
Picking out great keywords can be challenging, but it’s an important part of an overall successful Google Search campaign strategy. In this post, we discuss the different kinds of keywords you can use to target your audience.
Think like your customer
When it’s time to come up with the keywords for your Google ads, you’re going to want to think like your customer at the time their searching for your product. Also, take under consideration that you might have a sale going on you’d like to promote to them that requires it’s own campaign with it’s own keywords such as “couch discount” or “couch sale”.
Explore your business objectives. Do you want more people to visit your website or to reach customers that are ready to make a purchase? You’ll need to formulate your keywords around the journey you want your customers to take.
The different match types
If you’re trying to reach a wider audience, you’re going to need a broad match or broad match modifier. These allow for variations and misspellings of the search terms that you enter in any order if they appear in the user’s search terms. For example if you enter “bicycle” and the user searches for “blue bike”, you would still show up in the search engine because bicycle is a variation of bike. These are the most common type of search types.
Now let’s look at more narrow searches–the phrase match and exact match. Phrase match can be useful when you are looking to target a specific brand of something such as “Comfy Couch” brand and you needed those to appear in order with no words in between, while still allowing words before an after. Exact match is just as a it sounds. The user must enter the exact search terms as they appear and really should be used sparingly as a keyword strategy.
The last match type is a negative match. This type is used when your broad match allows something to appear that you don’t want. Let’s say you don’t have any “sectional couches” in your inventory, you can add a negative keyword “sectional” so that you don’t appear in those searches.
At the end of the day, delivering an exhaustive list of keywords is nearly impossible, but understanding Google’s match types makes that effort a little easier. When you’re generating your own list, you can always reach out to us for questions–we’d be happy to help!
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the most common mistakes made by digital marketers can vary depending on their level of experience, the type of marketing they are doing, and the specific goals they are trying to achieve. However, some common marketing mistakes with Chat GPT include:
Not having a clear strategy: Without a clear and well-defined marketing strategy, it can be difficult to know what the objectives are, what metrics to track, and how to measure success.
Not targeting the right audience: Understanding your target audience and what motivates them is critical to the success of any marketing campaign. If you are not targeting the right audience, your efforts and resources will likely be wasted.
Ignoring mobile optimization: With the majority of internet traffic now coming from mobile devices, it’s essential to make sure your website and marketing materials are optimized for mobile.
Overlooking the importance of data and analytics: In the digital age, data and analytics play a crucial role in making informed marketing decisions. Without tracking the right metrics, it can be difficult to understand what’s working and what’s not.
Not diversifying your marketing channels: Relying on a single marketing channel can be risky, as changes in algorithms or consumer behavior can have a significant impact on your results. It’s important to diversify your marketing efforts across multiple channels.
Not testing and optimizing: Digital marketing is a constantly evolving field, and what works today may not work tomorrow. It’s important to continually test and optimize your campaigns to ensure they are achieving the desired results.
Check out this quick list of ChatGPT Marketing Ideas you can run with today:
Customer Service: ChatGPT can be integrated into websites, messaging apps, or customer service platforms to provide instant support to customers and answer their queries in real-time.
Content Generation: ChatGPT can help marketers generate high-quality, engaging, and relevant content for social media, websites, and other marketing channels.
Chatbots: ChatGPT can be used to build conversational chatbots for websites or messaging apps to provide personalized, interactive experiences for customers.
Lead Generation: ChatGPT can be used to design chatbots that can collect customer information, qualify leads, and pass them onto sales teams for follow-up.
Personalized Recommendations: ChatGPT can analyze customer behavior and provide personalized product or service recommendations, helping to increase customer satisfaction and sales.
Market Research: ChatGPT can assist with market research by analyzing customer feedback, sentiment, and trends, helping to inform marketing strategies and product development.
Overall, ChatGPT can help marketers automate routine tasks, provide real-time support and engagement, generate valuable insights, and drive business growth.
Creating keyword lists for user searches that are relevant to your business can be challenging and time-consuming. Building ad creatives at scale and correctly matching them to each of your different landing pages can also be a demanding task. Did you know that Google Dynamic Search Ads can crawl through your website and create ads for you? They both generate the headlines and decide the landing pages for you.
Instead of creating an ad for each page on your site and adding keywords for each of those ads, Dynamic Search Ads uses Google’s understanding of your site to customize and target your ads.
You specify the pages of the website, daily budget, and an ad template
The customer enters their search term into Google search
If you have content relevant to the search, Google dynamically generates an ad headline and destination URL to the best matching page on your site.
You only need to create the description in the template beforehand — everything else is automatic and based on the customer’s search term.
Why is SEO so important for Dynamic Search Ads?
Using Google’s web crawling technology, Dynamic Search Ads indexes your website and uses that index list to ultimately determine if a customer’s search is relevant to your business. If the search term matches the index, Dynamic Search Ads will automatically create a headline and a destination URL customized to the customer search term and will enter a dynamic search ad based on your template into the Google Ads auction.
When Google crawls the website, the headings on your site are most of what is indexed, so having those headings containing important keywords is crucial. If your headings don’t contain vital keywords for your business, Dynamic Search Ads and even organic search mechanisms for Google are going to miss out on relevant searches.
At the end of the day, automating your Google Ads through Dynamic Search using Google’s AI will be efficient and fruitful when married to a great SEO strategy. These ads deliver value for relevant searches that aren’t covered by existing keywords, complementing your keyword strategy and ensuring that you aren’t missing any relevant searches.
If you feel like you are tired of politics, I have bad news… it’s about to be all you see and hear about on commercials and digital ads through November. According to every prediction I have seen, political ad spend will roar higher this cycle and you’ll have the hindrance of political ad bans across multiple prominent platforms.
For marketers, this presents a unique challenge as we compete for impressions across digital and traditional ad platforms. The increased spend from political advertisers will drive rates higher, eating into your return on ad spend for a large portion of 2023.
One major opportunity for brands in 2023 is testing or increasing your presence on platforms that have banned political ads altogether. Spotify recently joined Twitter in banning political ads ahead of the 2023 election cycle. Google has updated their political advertising policy to not allow microtargeting for political ads. This will likely push prices for media on Google up this year, especially in highly contested states and congressional districts. If Google is a major part of your paid media strategy, it could be even more critical to find other opportunities to reach your target audience.
Twitter may not have the reach of Facebook or Instagram, but more than 1 in 5 American adults use the service. In addition, they have made significant investments in improving their mobile and direct response ad units.
Spotify inventory may not be the traditional clickable and trackable inventory digital marketers are used to, but their audio ads are highly impactful for driving audiences into the top of your funnel. In the past year, Spotify has moved beyond music to become a player in the booming podcasting space. Both Twitter and Spotify have robust user data segments that allow advertisers to place highly targeted ads.
If you have not tried Twitter (X) or Spotify, 2023 is the perfect time to explore these platforms — especially if your audiences reside in battleground states!
5. Budget Management
