Two thirds of media plans for brand advertisers (advertisers) are now implemented programmatically. The advantages such as targeting and comprehensive frequency capping contribute to this development as well as the continued increasing availability of eye-catching formats. Proven visibility and actual target group reach, provided the right expertise in campaign design and management, can exceed conventional media planning and lead to efficient target group CPs.
Quality & KPIs
Why are advertisers and large agencies still struggling with programmatic branding? Cases of fraud naturally make waves — in operational reality, the issue is actually easy to get a grip on. Programmatic is no worse off than direct reporting channels in qualitative evaluations - correctly managed. After the viewability issue has been taken up by all relevant players, discussed sufficiently publicly and finally converted into measurable standards and the topic of fraud is currently being adequately “addressed”, the discussion turns to the KPIs, which is ultimately about: the lever for efficient programmatic branding lies in classic planning KPIs such as GRP (Gross Rating Point) and OTS (Opportunity To See), advertising printing and Describe contact dose in the target group.
The problem with panel surveys
The fact that sales in branches and supermarkets can be attributed “hard” from digital campaigns on the one hand is a long way off despite digital coupons and exciting opportunities, including precise location of mobile devices. The established metrics used to evaluate branding campaigns, such as advertising reminder, brand sympathy, buying intent, etc. are based on panel surveys that can represent consumer behavior increasingly comprehensively: online behavior when interacting with the campaign is compared with TV consumption and combined with survey data to measure advertising impact and optimize the media mix. However, the findings gained from this are ex-post and holistic only for entire campaigns and does not allow dynamic optimization on Line Item level — OTS and GRP do that.
The problem with OTS and GRP
The problem with these KPIs: by definition, these are average values; the actual number of contacts reached per user is not reflected in the parameters. If a large number of contacts is spread over a few “power users” and a large part of the target group is only reached with one or two contacts, according to the Excel spreadsheet, the OTS requirement with the “ideal” four contacts has been achieved - in fact, the message is concentrated on too small a number of users. This imbalance in contact distribution also creates a distorted picture of advertising pressure in the target group in GRP analysis. This situation results from the heterogeneous usage situation of online media and, in programmatic control, is disadvantageous compared to traditional media planning, in which the required contact frequencies could often be achieved via correctly selected environments. Programmatic Guaranteed should be the solution to this problem - but there must be no decisive advantages of programmatic optimization, because “packaging” in the direct buys does not really allow comprehensive control and this results in restrictions in reaching target groups.
solution
The solution for achieving optimal contact classes lies, of course, not in returning to traditional media planning and moving away from targeting, but in corresponding programmatic optimization, which can continue to be implemented via open auctions as well as private marketplaces - coordination with publishers on inventory classes, the type of access and price frames remain essential.
Status quo: Programmatic campaign setups observed across all industries often include an unoptimized distribution of contact classes and thus impair the achievement of the desired branding effect (many users with too few contacts below the impact threshold, few users with an excessive contact dose without additional added value for the advertising effect).
Optimization approach: Through a granular programmatic campaign setup, contact classes can be optimized in such a way that the ideal dosage is created and a sufficiently large number of users in the target group with the desired high contact class is reached. To do this, the user segments must be formed in such a way that further desired contacts are generated from the initial delivery in the target group and targeted again over the campaign process from contact point to contact point until the target dose is reached.
conclusion
For programmatic branding to become more established, expertise in using the right tools to achieve the right goals is still required. Brand safety, viewability and the measurement of campaign impact on brand values are standardized; well-thought-out campaign design and correct application of KPIs remain the task of smart marketers who know the value of manual, analytically driven work in all automation. Of course, there are also other tasks that are decisive for marketing success, e.g. with regard to the implementation and placement of programmatically oriented creation. However, properly managed target group reach remains a central driver for programmatic growth, including on the part of brands, as it directly contributes to the brand impact and ultimately corporate success of advertisers.
This post was first published in Programmatic Advertising Compass 2017/18 published by BVDW.
