Programmatic media buying allows advertisers to reach their customers on millions of different digital properties, in a wide array of different formats. As a channel, programmatic advertising is one of the most effective methods for delivering high reach and often at relatively lower costs.
Problem
The programmatic ecosystem has evolved over the years to become very powerful, but also very complex. Demand-Side Platforms (DSP’s), Supply-Side Platforms (SSP’s), data partners, ad servers, creative studios, publishers, and buyers must all cooperate within nanoseconds to deliver a specific meaningful ad to a single user. Unfortunately, not all technology stakeholders across this path are transparent about their methodologies, which puts a lot of “guesswork” into the process for both buyers and sellers.
To remove some of the guesswork, oftentimes publishers will maximize their revenue opportunities by making their inventory available through many different exchanges. Meanwhile, buyers will actively seek as many options as possible and typically prefer to have as many of those exchanges available to their campaigns to ensure they are able to reach their ideal target audience.
So, what ends up happening is the same inventory can be offered up to buyers multiple times, through multiple paths, at multiple price points, with multiple signals (parameters) about the value and characteristics of the user requesting an ad. This creates opportunity for rising cost and ultimately reduced Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).
Therefore, the need for advertisers to establish “clean” supply paths becomes a “must-have” to ensure efficient and effective campaign performance.
Solution
Butler/Till has developed a methodology, enablement partners, and an ongoing workflow process to rigorously analyze and qualify our supply paths. Our programmatic media buying efforts are centralized for maximum efficiency and reusability, meaning insights from one campaign are automatically applied to others, for the benefit of all.
We evaluate supply at the following levels:
Which means, new clients and new campaigns do not have to go through the “learning phase,” as all prior knowledge has already been implemented from day one of your campaign launch.
To accomplish this, we have partnered with the leading DSP in transparent solutions, MediaMath. Their Source product was launched in 2020, with additional or new components already added this year which enable Butler/Till to identify and operationalize Supply Path Optimizations (SPO’s). Our entire programmatic team has been through the Source Bootcamp and has dedicated training for maximizing the effectiveness of this tool. The Source exchange scorecard and Source dashboard tools ensure that our team can make intelligent supply decisions based on:
Our team takes these insights and makes them actionable through the five components of our Supply Path Management workflow:
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Exclusionary lists based on brand safety concerns, fraud, or otherwise illicit web properties which generate traffic that provide zero benefit to advertisers.
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Exclusionary lists based on performance to ensure inventory that does not convert won’t take from the budget and can be best spent elsewhere.
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Inclusion lists and curated markets can be applied to campaigns to ensure proven best performers are given emphasis within the campaign. (We also have access to a curated market for multicultural sites, including thousands of publishers, that are owned by or focused on people of color – with the intention of removing barriers to inclusion within the programmatic supply path.)
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Supply Path Optimization to ensure specific sources are purchased in certain ways, such as Direct Deals, Private Market Place deals (PMP’s), and Programmatic Guaranteed deals (PG). This helps to reduce costs and establish more sustained and predictable relationships with proven publishers.
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Maintenance! Our team is constantly evaluating our aforementioned components to ensure we are on top of the latest trends and developments across the supply path. This process requires a healthy mix of discipline and curiosity to make sure we are evaluating inventory from every angle.
For clients who want the maximum return from their marketing plan and investment, the Channels team at Butler/Till uses their deep knowledge of platforms to implement and execute recommended tactical strategies. They are experts at getting the right message in front of the right people at the right time. With our refreshed approach to Supply Management and the addition of new tools coming out, the team is more ready than ever to deliver best-in-class integrated solutions.
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