PROGRAMMATIC MEDIAAn Introductory Guide

PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING SIMPLIFIED 3

WHEN IS PROGRAMMATIC MEDIA RIGHT FOR ME? 4

THE BENEFITS OF BUYING PROGRAMMATIC MEDIA 6

PROGRAMMATIC MEDIA TYPES 7

AUDIENCE MANAGEMENT: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW 10

MEASUREMENT & ANALYTICS 13

CONTACT 14

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING SIMPLIFIED

Advertising programmatically is supposed to simplify things. So why is programmatic media so complicated?

Most advertisers either don’t try programmatic, or test it and don’t return to it, because of how different it is from channels like search marketing, email marketing, and social media marketing. We built this guide to explain when you should consider buying programmatic media, what the benefits are of adding it, and how to measure results to drive maximum business impact.

Programmatic media buys are used by 100% of the Fortune 500 and should be considered for testing by any national or global brand. What’s often most important is understanding the wide landscape of partners, and then measuring,

analyzing, and improving performance after testing has begun. If this expertise isn’t available in-house, you should consider working with an independent agency to build a successful strategy for your unique budget and use case.

Metric Theory Programmatic Advertising Guide 4

WHEN IS PROGRAMMATIC MEDIA RIGHT FOR ME?

We’re expected to scale a huge amount and we need to move beyond Search and Social ads to do it.

Google and Facebook are foundational pillars of acquisition marketing, but there is a huge amount of value beyond those platforms where you can reach quality audiences at an effective cost. Here are just some of the additional placements you can find by adding a programmatic media strategy:

THE MOST COMMON REASONS METRIC THEORY CLIENTS BEGIN TESTING PROGRAMMATIC MEDIA

We’ve had some success on the Google Display Network, but we need to have more ad distribution and better performance tracking.

Google’s Display Network is a great introduction to programmatic media buying and a recommended stepping stone to a more advanced strategy, though its capabilities are limited compared to industry-leading programmatic media platforms. New inventory, scale, and audiences are all good reasons to move beyond Google Ads.

We’re buying direct from some publishers, but we’re having a hard time understanding the impact to justify continuing.

Going direct to a publisher has certain advantages, but they often lack the tools or resources to provide insight on real business outcomes, and advertisers often aren’t verifying the performance data being presented. Working with a DSP consolidates all of your ad buys in one place to help you understand how you improve your mix of partners and placements, while an ad server allows you to have one source of truth.

We run or are experimenting with traditional TV, out-of-home, and radio campaigns.

There is still a lot of value in traditional media, though tracking remains a challenge. TV, out-of-home, and radio can now all be bought programmatically, allowing advertisers the high impact and scale of traditional media with the benefits of buying and tracking digital media.

5When is Programmatic Media Right For Me?

Metric Theory Programmatic Advertising Guide 6

THE BENEFITS OF BUYING PROGRAMMATIC MEDIA

Access

You can access new and powerful types of inventory and publishers through programmatic media partners whether it be premium inventory through private marketplaces or by buying direct with specific publishers for guaranteed inventory.

Tracking

Not only can you target the same audiences across display, video, audio, and out-of-home with programmatic media, but their technology platforms also make it possible to track actions across all of those touch points. The ability to connect your performance across all media, particularly TV and display, is a big reason why many traditional media budgets are moving online.

Reach

Programmatic media offers advertisers a way to move beyond the walled gardens of Google, Facebook, and Amazon to reach net new prospects most likely to buy.

Targeting

Programmatic media offers access to a new world of audiences beyond Google and Facebook. Leverage your uniquely valuable customer data (1st-Party Data) to target known prospects and those who look like them across display, TV, and audio. Also, layer on publisher-owned audience data (2nd-Party Data) and aggregated audiences based on things like location, web behavior, and purchase history (3rd-Party Data) for new sources of potential customers.

REACH

ACCESS

TRACKING

TARGETING

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PROGRAMMATIC MEDIA TYPES

One of the most valuable aspects of programmatic media buying is its flexibility. You can use a wide variety of environments and media formats for your message, all served to the same underlying audiences and measured together in one place. Everything from podcast ads to smart-TV ads to weather-dependent ads served to mobile devices can be part of an integrated programmatic plan.

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MEDIA TYPE TARGETING + BENEFITS TECHNOLOGY + PARTNERS

DISPLAY

Site retargeting and search history retargeting

Look-a-like modeling

Contextual keyword targeting

IP/Household-level targeting

Competitor conquesting

Supportive to TV, audio

CONNECTED TV

Reach growing audience of cord-cutters on streaming services

Leverage 3rd-Party digital audience data

Cross-device data and frequency control

Track sales against ad flights

WEB VIDEO

Reach audiences consuming video embedded on premium publisher sites

Target desktop, mobile, web, or in-app

Wide variety of ad formats available from skippability to timing to direct response functionality

Programmatic Media Types

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9Programmatic Media Types

MEDIA TYPE TARGETING + BENEFITS TECHNOLOGY + PARTNERS

NATIVE

Beat ‘banner blindness’ with ads that present to users with content

Target contextual content for direct response goals

Appear in an organic article feed, as continued reading, or in-app

PROGRAMMATIC AUDIO

Leverage your owned audience data and 3rd-Party audiences

Contextual genre and playlist targeting from audio ad partners

Measure true performance of audio media digitally

DIGITAL OUT - OF - HOME

Target on-the-go and captive audiences with digital displays

Huge placement library like bus shelters, billboards, elevators, airports, and pedestrian areas

Retarget cross-device with location audience data

MOBILE

Targeting ranging from interest categories to anonymized device IDs

Optimize by specific device, OS, and carrier

Live location-based targeting by current and past device location, even local weather

10Metric Theory Programmatic Advertising Guide

TYPES SAMPLE TACTICS & SOURCES DATA PARTNER EXAMPLES

1ST PARTY (1P)

Data you collect from people

Email Lists

CRM Records

On-site behavior (cookies lists)

In-app behavior or other business interaction (can be compiled by cookie or email identifiers)

2ND PARTY (2P)

Data collected by another party, typically the publisher

In-Market audiences

Audience demographic and custom data from publishers

Audience data available to buy from related or complementary brands

3RD PARTY (3P)

Purchased audience data that combines sources to build innovative profiles

Purchase history

Companies actively researching software

Mobile device location

Event attendance

AUDIENCE MANAGEMENT: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The Basics of Audience Targeting in Programmatic Media

Smart audience targeting is what enables intelligent media buying on programmatic media platforms. Below is a quick description of audience types, definitions, and example partners.

11Audience Management: What You Need To Know

What Types of Audience Segments are Available?

Below is just a small sample of what’s possible. An intelligent programmatic media strategy layers these audience types from the highest quality and most relevant data sources into your plan, with continual optimization and testing.

VERTICAL EXAMPLES

RetailCPGConsumer FinanceB2BEducationTechnologyAutoTravelHealth

PROFILE EXAMPLES

Purchase IntentFirmographicLifestylePurchase HistoryDemographicLife StagePsychographicProfessionTitle

SOURCE EXAMPLES

OfflineMobile BehavioralOnline BehaviorGeolocationTelevisionOnline RegistrationSurveySocialWeather

WHAT A HOLISTIC AUDIENCE STRATEGY LOOKS LIKE

Targeting priority begins with achieving adequate frequency against 1P audiences, augmenting 3P audiences with your data to build look-a-like models, and then scaling with 2P & 3P audiences.

1P KnownExcluding current customers, Remarketing lapsed customers

1P Anonymous & RetargetingRemarketing page visits that didn’t drive to action

1P LookalikesModel high-value customers

2P + 3P Data & ProspectingInterested in advertiser, partner brands, competitors, interests and/or behaviors

Audience Management: What You Need to Know 12

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MEASUREMENT & ANALYTICS

With all the benefits of buying programmatic media, why is it that more businesses don’t pursue it as a central component of their marketing strategy? Typically, it’s because they find it difficult to demonstrate the true business impact of the investment.

Programmatic media can and will deliver direct sales, but there is so much more that it influences that must be captured and used to improve your results. Metric Theory considers a three-tier measurement framework that evaluates the impact of programmatic media at each level of the marketing funnel, ending in the most critical metrics for any business.

THREE-TIERED MEASUREMENT

AWARENESS

Net new prospects reached

Direct traffic impact

Brand search impact

Lift in overall site metrics

Correlation analysis

CONSIDERATION

Website traffic

Bounce rate

Pages per session

ACTION

CPA

ROI

LTV

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LOOKING FOR MORE?

There’s a lot to consider when it comes to programmatic media, and you’ll want to be prepared. A Metric Theory strategist can answer any additional

questions you might have and help you evaluate your readiness to launch programmatic media as part

of your marketing mix.

CONTACT US