How Advertisers Can Build Their Programmatic Technology Stack
by Ella Stanton, Marketing Manager at TPA Digital
Programmatic technologies facilitate the buying and selling of online advertising. They can also leverage data to support planning, personalisation, measurement and verification.
Advertisers will typically use Demand-Side Platforms to access ad inventory made available by Exchanges. They will also often use ad-servers to measure the delivery of ads and Verification tools to analyse the quality of ad inventory.
The most common buy-side technologies are shown on the left side of the diagram below and the most common supply-side technologies on the right side. (An in-depth list of programmatic technology vendors can be found here.)
Programmatic technologies have several roles in the ad technology stack. They are predominantly used to facilitate transactions, however several other technologies, such as Dynamic Creative Tools and Data Management Platforms, are used to ensure that the right messages are served to the right users.
Programmatic Technology Stacks
A programmatic technology stack is the collection of technologies used by advertisers to execute their programmatic advertising. Advertisers can build one of two types of programmatic technology stack: integrated or specialist.
An integrated tech stack is where one vendor provides the full technology stack. This type of tech stack often benefits from having multiple technologies under a single user interface. Integrated technology stacks also often benefit from additional features such as the availability of additional data across tools. These features are enabled due to the robust integrations across each platform.
In contrast, a specialist tech stack is one where the technologies are being supplied by multiple vendors. It allows advertisers to contract the technologies that focus on a particular specialism and, therefore, meet more precise requirements. One argument for a specialist stack is that the advertiser can use the technologies and features that meet their specific requirements.
How to select the correct technologies
Technologies should be chosen by constructing specific technical and operational requirements. Advertisers often identify those that best meet specific use cases such as, the ability to target a valuable audience or the ability to optimise campaigns towards a bespoke goal. Without these, marketers could miss out on unique features, overpay and fail to meet their marketing objectives.
Developing measurable use cases for technologies before contracting with them is crucial to understanding whether the technology can meet your specific needs. For example, “Activating our most valuable audiences from CRM in our DSP” is a far more measurable use case than, “maximising the use of data in programmatic”. Specific use cases can help inform the requirements needed from technology.
How TPA Digital can help
Ad-Servers & Analytics
Ad-servers and analytics platforms are at the heart of digital media measurement. We find future-proofed platforms that centralise media tracking and integrate with existing technology stacks.
Verification Providers
An effective brand safety strategy understands the risks of media buying and puts in place measures to protect the brand from damaging and inappropriate content
TPA Digital believes that brand safety approaches should be bespoke to every brand to be able to partner with technologies that meet their specific requirements
Demand Side Platforms
DSPs are more than just their ability to target users and buy media.
Our framework analyses DSPs on a variety of factors, including but not limited to; commercials, use cases, cultural fit and of course, technical requirements.
Dynamic Creative Optimisation (DCO) & Creative Management Platforms
DCO allows advertisers to personalise creative on mass. It greatly increases the efficiency of creative produced and ensures that ads are as relevant as possible.
Creative Management Platforms allow advertisers to produce hundreds of creative efficiently while maintaining creative control.
The use case for programmatic creative technologies greatly dictates the type of technology required. We partner with advertisers to identify their use cases and to find them their ideal partner.
Data Management Platforms (DMPs)
Data Management Platforms collect, aggregate, segment and analyse user data from multiple sources before distributing it to marketing technologies.
DMPs face multiple challenges when trying to achieve this. For example, closed ecosystems restrict the data that can be ingested into DMPs and the blocking of third-party cookies has made it more difficult to recognise users across technologies.
We work with our client’s to identify challenges like these and select the platforms that can overcome them.
Get in touch with us today if you are looking to review your programmatic technology stack.