Choosing Programmatic Platform

Choosing a Programmatic Buying PlatformA demand-side platform (DSP) evaluation and selection guide


Beginning the selection process

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

1. Unified access to inventory and audiences

What to look for in a programmatic buying platform

Programmatic: Scalable, efficient, and effective marketing

Table of Contents

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Programmatic: Scalable, efficient, and effective marketingTo 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 processAchieving 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.

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Two approaches to programmatic buyingTo simplify things, it’s 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 buyer’s guide will help you

define and prioritize your selection criteria for a programmatic buying platform that’s 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:







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Beginning the selection process It’s now possible to connect with your audience in digital no matter where they’re 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 scaleA fundamental requirement for reaching your audience at scale is a programmatic

platform that has the largest possible access to inventory, so it’s 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.



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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 futureIn the not-so-distant future, you’ll 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.


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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 trustWith 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 it’s 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 optionsBeyond access to quality data, another aspect to consider is the strength of each platform’s 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.



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Optimization to your unique goalsLook for a programmatic buying platform that’s capable of performance and brand

optimization. Your platform’s 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 you’re always in control of how the platform is optimizing and what goals it’s

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 Kellogg’s Insight and

Analytics Solution Center3

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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 isn’t wasted on illegitimate and fraudulent traffic sources, and that the majority of your ads are in view.

Built-in verificationThe 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 filteringThere 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 don’t 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 don’t distort your campaign measurement or hurt your ROI.



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Brand safety controlsYou shouldn’t have to lower your brand safety requirements to participate in programmatic advertising. Every brand has unique brand safety requirements and it’s 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 they’re 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.

TransparencyLook for transparent access to verification insights in the form of alerts and on-demand reporting. It’s 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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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 metrics—whether they are DR or brand. The next step is ensuring those metrics are actionable in real time.

Measuring what matters: DR and brand metricsAs marketers increasingly embrace programmatic for brand building, it’s 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 metricsFurther, metrics should be actionable in real time. Look for real-time measurement so that you don’t 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.

Let’s say you have an awareness campaign and you’re 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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Or, let’s say you’re 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 demo’s 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 servicesBeyond 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 ROIThe 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, you’ll have the data to calculate ROI and you’ll be able to share your successful results with internal and external stakeholders.


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To navigate the complexities of digital marketing, it helps to have a programmatic buying platform that’s 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 mediaAn integrated platform allows you to evaluate, purchase, activate, serve, and measure all digital media—reservations, auction display, search, social, video, mobile, and more—through 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 successUsing 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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Questions to ask: To what extent does the platform provide unified access to digital inven-

tory across formats, channels, and devices? What contextual insights does it support to ensure brand safety? What geographic insights are available to verify accurate geo-targeting? Are viewability insights offered to track the percentage of your ads that

are being seen? What kinds of spam and fraud insights are available?


Questions to ask: Can the platform use accurate, real-time data to instantly optimize

your campaign? Does it include the ability to organize first-, second-, and third-party data? What 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? Can you apply optimizations from previous campaigns to new campaigns? Will you have control over campaign settings?

Successfully choosing a programmatic buying platformTo 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 platform’s current and future capabilities, it’s 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,

we’ve put together a set of questions to ask as you evaluate and select a programmatic platform.


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Questions to ask: Are verification tools built-in? Do you have the option to use third-party

verification tools? How 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?

How do the platform’s brand safety controls help you ensure that your media buying aligns with your brand identity?

What tools does it offer for transparency into contextual, geographic, viewability, spam, and fraud insights?


Questions to ask: Can you implement a direct response (DR) and/or brand advertising

strategy across screens and formats with the platform? Does the platform measure brand metrics such as viewability, GRP,

and brand lift? Are the metrics that you care about available as real-time, actionable

metrics? To what extent can the platform provider offer strategic expertise

and thought leadership to help you develop solutions to your marketing needs?

Does 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)?


Questions to ask: Does the platform allow you to access all digital media buying (i.e.

reservations, auction display, search, social, video, and mobile) through one interface?

Does it unify all digital media reporting and insights? Does it integrate ad serving and search bid optimization? How user-friendly is the interface?

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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 Google’s 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.

Endnotes1. “The Programmatic Revolution: How Technology is Transforming Marketing,” Advertising Age and DoubleClick,

September 20142. “Programmatic ad spend set to soar,” eMarketer, October 20133. “Kellogg Dishes up Offline Sales with Programmatic,” Think with Google, December 2014


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Choosing Programmatic Platform

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