Media and Marketing Expert, Family Man, Sports Enthusiast and Sneaker Afficonado. Always interested, always learning.

Feb 9, 2016

Who Should Manage My Programmatic?

Having worked in the media industry for over 10 years now, I like many others have seen the industry evolve at breakneck speeds. Over that time i’ve had the privilege to work at some of the world’s top agencies (Carat, PHD & Mindshare) and with some truly exceptional brands (adidas, Red Bull, Air New Zealand, Wild Turkey, Farmers Insurance & Mitsubishi Motors) and people. However, never have I been as excited to be a marketer as I am today.

Today in 2016 there is an overwhelming feeling that we are now moving from an era of explosive growth in technology and platforms to phase 2 which will focus more on connecting the dots to create meaningful engagements with consumers. Phase 2 is about scaling 1:1 messages in ways brands and agencies have not yet mastered. Using data, and more importantly connecting all your data to ensuring the right people have the necessary access to make informed strategic decisions that exponentially improve a brand’s performance over time (Brand and Performance KPI’s). The most complicated question to answer is going to become how do we put the right people or agencies in place to ensure we are able to take advantage of all the data, purchase programmatically and reap the rewards?

If you’re Target, and can not only attract, but hire the necessary talent, creating a new department with in-house experts is an easy win, however, the complexities and reality of doing this for most brands is unrealistic. The beauty of agency life among other things is, the industry has a unique culture that demands continuous learning, the sharing of ideas and a community that is second to none. If you decide to go the in-house route I would implore you treat this department as an agency, you must force innovation and knowledge sharing. The question for everyone else becomes what type of agency should oversee this evolution in 1:1 connections that will dominate the next 3 years and why?

A Brand Agency

Strong at developing overarching communication strategies
Puts the brand first vs. performance
Well versed in managing multiple partners, building relationships and negotiating

A Performance Agency (PPC/Search)

Experience managing large volumes of data
Focused on performance and optimizing
Testing is the norm, a good PPC agency is regularly testing hundreds if not thousands of different ad copy and keyword/segment combinations
A treasure trove of historical data to lean on that can be used to extract key insights fueling creative development and parameters needed to launch programmatic campaigns

So without question both have their advantages, however, after seeing first hand the effects of having too many hands in the cookie jar, I recommend you create specific swimming lanes to ensure each agency has a role that plays to their strengths.

Brand Agencies should manage Direct, Guaranteed and Private Marketplaces

Focus on programmatic direct buys (high impact), Hyper-targeted private marketplaces and new media such as TV & OOH. In addition, do not let media planners add ROS line items to media buys without also utilizing a layer of data to drive performance. For example; instead of spending $50,000 on ESPN.com ROS, leverage ESPN’s proprietary data (or other 3rd party data) to spend $25,000 on media specifically targeting NY Giants Fans 18–34 and $25,000 on media targeting Dallas Cowboys fans 18–34. Use this data to serve creative that takes advantage of the unique attributes of each team (colors, talent, regions). The end result will be an increase in performance for the advertiser and for the consumer, relevance.

PPC Agencies should manage everything else

As mentioned above the complexities of 1:1 communications should be handed over to your PPC agency. With more variables, optimizations and creative combinations required a very specific skillset will be necessary to watch over programmatic campaigns. One where testing is the norm and parameters are constantly being adjusted based on both human and AI learnings. At PPC agencies account managers have been trained to analyze high volumes of data, make optimizations to drive performance in ways that simply are not taught at brand agencies.

Be sure to utilize a DMP and ensure agency access

DMP data should be used regularly to distill relevant insights and drive future campaign strategies. If you are confused on why a DMP is important check out this whitepaper from Blue Kai.

Ways data can be used to drive PPC and Programmatic in unison

From Search: Identify top performing keywords and Geo’s and leverage them in Programmatic display creative/copy
From Programmatic: Identify new 3rd party segments that perform well and customize your creative specifically for this group. Let’s say you sell car seats… Using 3rd party data you discover Ford Explorer drivers are 3x as likely to convert. Use this data and leverage it, develop unique creative featuring a family in front of a Ford Explorer. Or make it broader, and target domestic vs. import, red vs. blue vehicle owners. All of these combinations make your ads more relevant and drive better results. (A company likeRevJet makes serving these combinations realistic)
From Programmatic to Search: Utilize key location data to bid up previously overlooked cities or regions. Expand keywords, adjust bids and drive more reach to previously underserved markets based on insights extracted from programmatic display buys.

The combination of PPC and Programmatic will continue to converge over the next year, winning brands will be those who understand how to leverage search and display data to their advantage. And it is for this reason that there has never been a more exciting time to be a marketer. With no signs of slowing down, by this time next year I believe we will also be leveraging 3rd party data segments for search campaigns. Exciting times indeed.