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Choosing a

Programmatic
Buying Platform
A demand-side platform (DSP)
evaluation and selection guide

Choosing a Programmatic Buying Platform


A demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide

Table of Contents
Programmatic: Scalable, efficient, and effective
marketing
Beginning the selection process
What to look for in a programmatic buying platform
1. Unified access to inventory and audiences
2. Smart targeting and optimization
3. Controls for brand safety
4. Performance delivery and measurement
5. Intuitive digital marketing

Successfully choosing a programmatic


buying platform

Choosing a Programmatic Buying Platform


A demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide

Programmatic: Scalable, efficient, and effective marketing


To operate at the forefront of programmatic buying is to succeed in digital marketing today. Programmatic
buying allows advertisers to use audience insights and technology to tailor their messages to the right
people, at the right moments, in the right contexts in a scalable, efficient, and effective way. This helps
advertisers build stronger relationships with their audiences through highly relevant ads that resonate.
Advertisers are adopting programmatic buying at dramatic rates to capture its benefits. A recent study
conducted by Ad Age on behalf of Google found that a majority of advertisers are managing at least 20% of
their ad spend programmatically, and almost two-thirds plan to spend twice that amount over the next 12
months.1 Additionally, eMarketer predicts that 83% of all display buys will be bought programmatically by
2017.2
Programmatic buying benefits the entire digital advertising ecosystem of advertisers, publishers, and
consumers. It improves ROI and makes the buying process more efficient for advertisers, provides revenue
and operating efficiencies for media sellers, and can improve the digital ads that consumers engage with
every day.
Now is the time to choose a programmatic buying platform from a partner who can facilitate your success.

Beginning the selection process


Achieving the promise of programmatic is not a guarantee. It takes partnering with the right platform
provider to effectively craft, execute, and manage a programmatic strategy. With so many platforms
competing for your business in a complex landscape, it can be hard to make a decision. However, you must
choose carefully, as your success will be tied to the current and future capabilities of your programmatic
buying platform.

Choosing a Programmatic Buying Platform


A demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide

Two approaches to programmatic buying


To simplify things, its possible to organize the most prominent approaches advertisers take to
programmatic buying into two categories: the cross-format approach and the siloed approach.
The cross-format approach uses a single programmatic platform such as a demand-side platform (DSP)
to manage your ad buying across all formats like display, mobile, and video. Cross-format platforms have a
lot to offer in terms of efficiency, streamlined workflow, and unified data. By buying across formats, these
platforms are poised to provide innovation in challenging areas such as managing universal frequency
capping, creative sequencing, universal measurement, and reach. They can help you take an audience-first
approach to media buying where reaching the right audience, wherever they are in digital,
is the ultimate concern.
In contrast, the siloed approach uses a different programmatic platform for each area of ad buying. With
this approach, advertisers weigh the benefits of depth in a particular area, like mobile or video, against
the potential pitfalls of complex integrations, elaborate workflows, and the inability to gain a single view of
their audience. Aside from these challenges, platforms with a single area of focus can be very good in that
particular area.
Whether you want to apply programmatic buying to one or many areas, this buyers guide will help you
define and prioritize your selection criteria for a programmatic buying platform thats the right fit for your
short- and long-term goals. It shares five areas of expertise to look for in a programmatic buying platform
and the key capabilities that fall under each area.
As you evaluate your options, think about the extent to which each solution offers:

1. Unified access
to inventory
and audiences

2. Smart targeting
and optimization

3. Controls for
brand safety

4. Performance
delivery and
measurement

5. Intuitive
digital
marketing

Choosing a Programmatic Buying Platform


A demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide

1. Unified access to
inventory and audiences
Beginning the selection process
Its now possible to connect with your audience in digital no matter where theyre
spending time, but it takes a programmatic buying platform with unified access to
digital inventory across formats, channels, and devices to do so. Unified access to
inventory empowers you to plan, execute, and measure campaigns with a single view
of the consumer, which can dramatically improve your advertising results. Imagine the
power of instructing your programmatic platform to reach your audience anywhere in
digital instead of having to guess the right formats, channels, and devices to focus on
at the outset of a campaign. Unified media buying is the future of digital advertising
because it allows advertisers to truly focus on their audience. It also solves many of the
challenges that come from operating in silos. For example, unified media buying makes
universal frequency capping possible. This reduces waste and prevents the same
people from getting overexposed to ads as they move from smartphone to tablet to
computer. In this way and many others, a programmatic platform that unifies your
access to inventory and audiences will help you reduce waste and improve the overall
experience that audiences have with your advertising.

1:1 connections, at scale


A fundamental requirement for reaching your audience at scale is a programmatic
platform that has the largest possible access to inventory, so its important to evaluate
the scale of display, mobile, and video inventory available to access. The more
inventory a platform can access, the more opportunities it has to reach your audience
when and where it will get the best results.

Choosing a Programmatic Buying Platform


A demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide

Programmatic buying is no longer just about accessing inventory on open exchanges.


New programmatic deal types have emerged to facilitate transactions for premium
inventory between advertisers and publishers. You can expand your access to
premium inventory by preparing to pursue a range of programmatic deal types, such
as programmatic direct deals and reservations. Some of these deal types can take
more than just a great platform to execute. So, explore the extent to which your
technology partner will help you navigate programmatic relationships with publishers
and pursue the kinds of deal types that will help to meet your goals.

A foundation for reaching premium inventory in the future


In the not-so-distant future, youll want your programmatic buying platform to have the ability
to transact around even newer, premium inventory types that may never be available on
open exchanges. For example, it may become easy to acquire linear TV inventory through
programmatic means, but TV buying is less likely to happen on open exchanges. Advertisers
who can execute the full range of programmatic deal types will have a first-mover advantage
when linear TV and other new, premium inventory types become widely available to
programmatic buyers.

Choosing a Programmatic Buying Platform


A demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide

2. Smart targeting and


optimization
One of the most powerful aspects of programmatic buying is the ability to reach
audiences using a robust set of options. Advertisers want targeting that reaches their
precise audiences and optimization that reaches their precise goals. To achieve both
requires three things: real-time data you trust, proprietary targeting options, and the
ability to optimize to your unique goals.

Real-time data you trust


With programmatic, your buying strategy is only as good as the inputs that inform
it. Low-quality data (i.e. old or inaccurate data) can lower the performance of your
campaigns. Platforms that support open access to first-, second-, and third-party data
give you the ability to source the most accurate, real-time data possible. Then, your
platform should be able to act on this data as fast as its coming in. As a result, the
bidding and targeting decisions unfolding for your campaign are precisely targeted and
optimized in the moment.

Proprietary data and targeting options


Beyond access to quality data, another aspect to consider is the strength of each
platforms proprietary targeting options. Some platforms offer unique targeting
options that are not available elsewhere. This may include unique targeting to expand
your audience reach, find audiences based on their interests or likelihood to buy,
present ads in the ideal context, target based on ad viewability, or reach precise
geographies. Look for the types of unique options that will help you deliver results in
line with your goals.

Choosing a Programmatic Buying Platform


A demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide

Optimization to your unique goals


Look for a programmatic buying platform thats capable of performance and brand
optimization. Your platforms algorithms should learn from real-time feedback from in-flight
media, such as real-time conversions or real-time gross rating points (GRPs), and help you
make adjustments for more successful campaigns. Further, you should be able to apply
optimizations from previous campaigns to new campaigns so as to reach your goals more
quickly. Finally, you should be able to change settings on your campaign throughout their
flights so that youre always in control of how the platform is optimizing and what goals its
optimizing towards.

Programmatic buying has


played a significant role in our
digital marketing strategy. It provides
an opportunity to drive further
success in our core metrics for digital
advertising, and to use data and
technology to deliver our message to
our target audience.
- Aaron Fetters,
director of Kelloggs Insight and
Analytics Solution Center3

Choosing a Programmatic Buying Platform


A demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide

3. Controls for brand safety

A programmatic buying platform can be your first line of defense in protecting both your brand and your
budget across screens and formats. It can provide the guardrails you need to ensure that your ads are
only placed in environments that are safe for your brand, that your money isnt wasted on illegitimate and
fraudulent traffic sources, and that the majority of your ads are in view.

Built-in verification
The more that verification protections are built into your platform, the more they can work as intended.
Built-in protections may include blocking, filtering, and brand safety controls. You may also want
the flexibility to use your choice of third-party tools from verification vendors, data quality providers,
and others.

Blocking and filtering


There are a range of blocking and filtering features to look for when choosing a DSP to protect your brand
and budget. First and foremost, the platform should prevent you from ever bidding on unwanted inventory.
This includes contexts or geographies that you dont want to reach, as well as impressions that are the
result of spam or fraud. As a second line of defense, your platform should proactively remove these from
reporting and billing when they slip through, so that they dont distort your campaign measurement or hurt
your ROI.

Choosing a Programmatic Buying Platform


A demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide

Brand safety controls


You shouldnt have to lower your brand safety requirements to participate in
programmatic advertising. Every brand has unique brand safety requirements and
its important that your programmatic platform can adapt your buys to your specific
needs. With unified access to digital inventory, a programmatic platform can provide
unified controls for your brand safety protections and make sure theyre on par with
your traditional buys. This can streamline the way you keep your media buying aligned
with your brand identity on an ongoing basis.

Transparency
Look for transparent access to verification insights in the form of alerts and on-demand
reporting. Its very helpful if your platform can send custom alerts to your inbox that deliver
the information you need to know to ensure your campaigns are running as expected. For
example, if you want to be notified if more than 3% of your campaign is serving in off-target
geographies, you should be able to set a preference to receive an alert for this. Further,
your platform should offer on-demand access to granular verification reports inclusive of
contextual, geographic, viewability, spam, and fraud insights.

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Choosing a Programmatic Buying Platform


A demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide

4. Performance delivery
and measurement
Performance is at the heart of programmatic buying. The best programmatic platform will be able to
implement your direct response (DR) or brand advertising strategy across screens and formats to deliver
the maximum value for your advertising dollars. This requires measuring what matters with the right
metricswhether they are DR or brand. The next step is ensuring those metrics are actionable in real time.

Measuring what matters: DR and brand metrics


As marketers increasingly embrace programmatic for brand building, its imperative that the platform you
choose be able to address both direct response and branding goals. Beyond direct response metrics like
cost-per-acquisition (CPA) and cost-per-click (CPC), look for a platform that helps you answer key brand
performance questions, such as:
Did someone actually see my ad? And was it the right audience?
What did people think about the ad? How did the ad change their mindset?
What did people do as a result of seeing the ad?
Brand metrics such as viewability, GRP, and brand lift can answer these questions.

Real-time, actionable metrics


Further, metrics should be actionable in real time. Look for real-time measurement so that you dont have to wait
days or weeks to get performance insights to act on. This helps you course-correct more quickly and get the most
value from your ad spend.
Lets say you have an awareness campaign and youre optimizing for viewability. A real-time viewability report can
tell you if people are actually seeing your ads on a day-to-day, hour-by-hour, and moment-by-moment basis. If you
see viewability drop in any one area of your campaign, you can adjust on the fly to direct spend away from that
area to another area where viewability is higher.

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Choosing a Programmatic Buying Platform


A demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide

Or, lets say youre running a display and video campaign in the U.S. to reach the same
demographic segments across the web and traditional broadcast television. GRP-based
online metrics can help measure and optimize reach and frequency among a TV
demographic in real time. With this, you can optimize to total GRPs, or to components
of GRP, such as the TV demos average frequency of exposure or percent composition
versus the total audience reached. This allows you to direct spend away from areas that are
reaching the same people over and over, or away from areas that have a low composition of
your TV demo.
Another powerful feedback signal to look for is real-time brand lift surveys integrated into
the programmatic buying workflow. Brand lift metrics can provide a very quick feedback
loop that measures how well a campaign is delivering upper-funnel metrics such as brand
recall, change in awareness, change in consideration, and purchase intent. The real-time
component lets you instantly modify campaigns to dramatically improve brand performance
while campaigns are running.

The role of strong services


Beyond measuring what matters with real-time, actionable metrics, look to lean on your
programmatic buying platform to use more than just their technology, but also their
expertise and thought leadership. Having access to services can help you fine tune your
campaigns and elevate your campaign performance.

The ingredients for calculating ROI


The last piece in delivering and measuring performance is having full, transparent access
to all the data you need to calculate ROI. Your programmatic buying platform should give
you the ability to export reporting data so you can analyze it in the tool of your choice. It
should give you full transparency with pricing and fees, including how costs break out across
expenses such as platform costs, media markups, and data fees. With these, youll have the
data to calculate ROI and youll be able to share your successful results with internal and
external stakeholders.

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Choosing a Programmatic Buying Platform


A demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide

5. Intuitive digital
marketing
To navigate the complexities of digital marketing,
it helps to have a programmatic buying platform
thats part of an integrated platform. This brings
together all your display formats, data, and digital
channels in one place for faster access, better
insights, and more effective campaigns.

Unifying digital media


An integrated platform allows you to evaluate,
purchase, activate, serve, and measure all digital
mediareservations, auction display, search,
social, video, mobile, and morethrough one
easy-to-use interface. This includes integrated ad
serving, search bid optimization, and reporting
enabling you to streamline the workflow and gain a
unified view of audience engagement across your
digital channels.

Preparing for new levels of cross-channel success


Using a platform that works across all digital media is an important step toward connecting with users
seamlessly across channels and optimizing the media mix. It helps advertisers prepare for a future where
TV inventory may become digital video inventory, which would make it possible to plan, manage, and
measure TV and digital ad budgets together and achieve new levels of cross-channel success.

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Choosing a Programmatic Buying Platform


A demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide

Successfully choosing a programmatic buying platform


To take advantage of the innovations in programmatic buying and operate at the forefront of digital
marketing, you need a programmatic buying platform. Since your success will be tied to your programmatic
buying platforms current and future capabilities, its important to use a framework that identifies the best
platform for enhancing your digital marketing success today and in the future. To help you in this evaluation,
weve put together a set of questions to ask as you evaluate and select a programmatic platform.

1. Unified access to inventory and audiences


Questions to ask:
T
 o what extent does the platform provide unified access to digital inventory across formats, channels, and devices?
W
 hat contextual insights does it support to ensure brand safety?
W
 hat geographic insights are available to verify accurate geo-targeting?
A
 re viewability insights offered to track the percentage of your ads that
are being seen?
W
 hat kinds of spam and fraud insights are available?

2. Smart targeting and optimization


Questions to ask:
C
 an the platform use accurate, real-time data to instantly optimize
your campaign?
D
 oes it include the ability to organize first-, second-, and third-party data?
W
 hat proprietary targeting options does the platform support? Can the
options help you reach your goals?
Are you able to target viewable impressions to ensure your ads are seen?
Is the platform capable of performance and brand optimization?
C
 an you apply optimizations from previous campaigns to new campaigns?
W
 ill you have control over campaign settings?

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Choosing a Programmatic Buying Platform


A demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide

3. Controls for brand safety


Questions to ask:
A
 re verification tools built-in? Do you have the option to use third-party
verification tools?
H
 ow does the platform protect you from bidding on unwanted inventory
including wrong contexts, wrong geographies, spam impressions, and
fraud impressions? Does the platform filter unwanted inventory out of
reporting and billing?
H
 ow do the platforms brand safety controls help you ensure that your
media buying aligns with your brand identity?
W
 hat tools does it offer for transparency into contextual, geographic,
viewability, spam, and fraud insights?

4. Performance delivery and measurement


Questions to ask:
C
 an you implement a direct response (DR) and/or brand advertising
strategy across screens and formats with the platform?
D
 oes the platform measure brand metrics such as viewability, GRP,
and brand lift?
A
 re the metrics that you care about available as real-time, actionable
metrics?
T
 o what extent can the platform provider offer strategic expertise
and thought leadership to help you develop solutions to your
marketing needs?
D
 oes the platform offer transparent access to the data you need to
calculate ROI, including full transparency with pricing and fees (i.e.
platform costs, media markups, and data fees)?

5. Intuitive digital marketing


Questions to ask:
D
 oes the platform allow you to access all digital media buying (i.e.
reservations, auction display, search, social, video, and mobile) through
one interface?
D
 oes it unify all digital media reporting and insights?
D
 oes it integrate ad serving and search bid optimization?
H
 ow user-friendly is the interface?

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Choosing a Programmatic Buying Platform


A demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide

We hope these questions can serve as a guide in your evaluation and selection process for
choosing a programmatic buying platform. Think about the selection criteria that makes up your
must have requirements. Then find the platform that meets as many of your requirements as
possible and that has a credible roadmap for delivering on any of your missing requirements in
a reasonable time frame.
If you would like to learn about how DoubleClick Bid Manager can take you to the forefront of
programmatic buying, please contact our sales team at
http://www.google.com/doubleclick/advertisers/solutions/

About DoubleClick Bid Manager


DoubleClick Bid Manager is a next-generation demand-side-platform (DSP) providing technology and
services to trading desks, agencies, and advertisers. Bid Manager brings greater control, transparency,
and performance in global display media buying across ad exchanges in real-time. Proprietary machine
learning algorithms analyze every impression and optimize bids in real time to meet advertisers
unique business objectives. The customizable system offers best-in-class keyword contextual targeting
plus robust audience targeting through first- and third-party data, bringing the right messages to the
right people at the right moments. Backed by Googles global infrastructure and fully integrated into
the DoubleClick platform, Bid Manager is built to work seamlessly with DoubleClick Digital Marketing,
streamlining workflows and reporting and enabling true cross-channel buying across search, display,
mobile, and video.
Endnotes
1.  The Programmatic Revolution: How Technology is Transforming Marketing, Advertising Age and DoubleClick,
September 2014
2.  Programmatic ad spend set to soar, eMarketer, October 2013
3.  Kellogg Dishes up Offline Sales with Programmatic, Think with Google, December 2014

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