Why Should You Diversify Your Programmatic Buying Methods?

March 9, 2023

Why Should You Diversify Your Programmatic Buying Methods?

When brands and advertisers start investing in programmatic buying, they typically begin with one Demand Side Platform to minimize cost and maximize usage. Rarely do brands and advertisers realize that there’s value in diversifying your programmatic buying methods. There are several ways to diversify your programmatic advertising campaigns:

1. Platform Diversity

While some may argue that all DSPs are the same, there are a lot of unique offerings and capabilities within each platform. For example, Google Display & Video 360 (DV360) is the only DSP that offers Youtube and GMail advertising being Google products, while Verizon DSP offers specific data segments unique to Verizon. Expanding into multiple tech stacks would unlock seamless integrations to their preferred analytics and measurement platforms as a result.

2. Supply Diversity

Additionally, most advertisers default to buying media through the open exchange. However, leveraging specific Supply Side Platforms and providers, could unlock lower CPM rates which would translate to advertising cost savings for the advertiser. For example, advertising agencies often have preferred SSP partnerships in place to provide their clients and brands with the benefit of lower rates when purchasing inventory programmatically. This could translate into thousands of dollars in savings which means more dollars to invest back into digital media efforts. According to an Advertisers’ Perception report, while Google Ad Manager is still the dominant SSP, several other SSPs are racing to the top as they continue to expand their partnerships with agencies, brands and advertisers.

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3. Format Diversity

Programmatic platforms support all kinds of ad formats from display, video, native, audio, digital out of home, high impact, and more. Although producing creatives to support these various formats can be a challenge for some advertisers with limited creative design and production resources, it’s still vital to not only expanding your reach, but also ensuring you’re capturing your audience in the right environment and the optimal time to meet your campaign goals.

A diverse programmatic buying and activation strategy will bring several benefits to any brand from cost savings, incremental reach, access to unique and new ad formats, and most importantly stronger measurement. But most importantly, make sure the benefits outweigh the costs associated with diversifying your programmatic buying and activation.

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Amber Usmani

Amber comes with over 10 years of experience specializing in direct display and self-serve programmatic, focusing on both brand and performance campaigns. She’s worked for one of the largest independent digital agencies in the US on brands across various verticals such as retail, e-comm, B2B, automotive, beauty, home services, and even pharmacy. Her programmatic experience across DSPs like DV360, The Trade Desk, Verizon DSP, and Google Ads brings a performance-first approach. Most recently, Amber led the client services and ad operations team at a cannabis marketing start-up where she supported leadership in meeting client growth goals.