Data is the name of the game in today’s marketing world, and the savvy marketer makes use of every data resource to improve every marketing channel, including the medium of the moment: programmatic.
Programmatic ad buying is on the rise. Recent research from Dun & Bradstreet found 54% of B2B marketers buying programmatic ads and 65% reporting planning on increasing that budget next year. And these numbers come with the understanding that programmatic ads are more often linked to consumer marketers rather than business marketers.
According to Pelin Thorogood, chief strategy officer at Ensighten, marketers across the board should take advantage of the data they have at hand when they make programmatic buys. She says first-party data from your owned media platforms, such as websites, e-commerce platforms, social media and mobile apps are a source of “secret sauce” that can optimize ROI for programmatic ad buys.
Thorogood explained to Marketing Dive that the visitors to a company's media platforms leave a great deal of gradual behavioral data. She said, "To optimize programmatic ad decisions, you need to collect that data and integrate it into a master data layer, enriching it with relevant types of second- and third-party data." Thorogood warned, though, that "time is critical" and "retargeting ads as consumers express interest must happen quickly before the ‘half life’ of attention dissipates.”
Not all data is equal, but it’s all valuable
In terms of accuracy and reliability, Thorogood said first-party data generated on brand channels is most valuable. Though third-party data – the traditional domain of DMPs – might be seen as less accurate, it is more helpful for top of the funnel activities and for developing personas and look-alike audiences.
“Both paid and owned media data need to come together to deliver on optimized programmatic. This includes onsite, mobile, social and advertising data, as well as integration of offline data such as POS or CRM data that may provide other buyer attributes not necessarily captured on the online channels,” Thorogood said.
The key value of first-party data, according to Thorogood, is it allows marketers to employ “dynamic retargeting” of ads that are relevant to the viewer on the channels that drove them to the owned media, whether website, mobile app or social media platform, in the first place. Thorogood said, “Programmatic media buying makes it possible to to target buyers on the channels they frequent and prefer. The end game is advertising that is contextual.”
Providing an example of how marketers can take advantage of this data, Thorogood offered the leisure and tourism company, TUI Group. She explained, “TUI Group reports it is using programmatic advertising fueled by first-party data generated on its own websites and customer interactions. The combination allows TUI to employ what it calls, 'dynamic retargeting' to serve product advertising relevant to the consumer."
Meaning, a couple who has booked a trip to San Francisco for New Year's isn't going to get followed or bombarded with ads promoting similar vacations in the weeks after they've made their reservations. "It’s based on linking the data generated on the website with the ad buying process," she said.
Meeting the data fragmentation challenge
Of course data is only as good as how it ends up being used, and data fragmentation is a challenge marketers face. Big data can be unruly data.
“Marketers and their IT teams are spending millions and wasting countless hours trying to stitch those fragmented data sources back together in the form of back-office data integration projects. Marketers need a better way to tie that data together so one channel is informing another and the marketers can provide more relevant and timely experiences across any device,” Thorogood said.
She used the example of marketers operating in the silos of email, search and targeting, not including offline sources. If they don't "get to a state of unified marketing" where all systems are operating under a single customer view or unified profile, they risk wasting resources on repetitive or ineffective campaigns.
"How many times have you been retargeting with ads you’ve already bought, or received messages that target you as a new customer, when you’ve been a long time customer?" Thorogood asked. "It’s because the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing."
Making unruly data work for you
Thorogood recommends three ways for marketers looking to meet the data fragmentation challenge.
#1 - Go Beyond Data Silos
This is integral to a brand avoiding "short-term memory loss" for the consumer over a lengthy sales cycle. It requires a sophisticated data collection system based on advanced tag management with a persistent data layer that assures data quality and consistency, she explains, regardless of the ways it is collected across the company’s myriad brands and platforms. She adds the omnichannel customer profiles in the data layer provides brands with a more complete picture of their users to better deliver the right experiences and offers.
#2 - Leverage First-Party Data
The ad exchanges, ad networks and data management platforms (DMPs) evolving to support programmatic media buying offer a powerful way to market cross-platform, Thorogood explains. However, the crucial factor is first-party data generated on brands' own platforms. This reveals consumer intent, behavior and preferences that can be used to inform better marketing, such as the TUI group example from above.
#3 - Market Across the Brand Portfolio
Many global companies manage multiple brands, which makes uniting data at the individual level more challenging. According to Thorogood, it is necessary to unify the first-party data to consolidate that information data anonymously against a unique ID. The process enables the brand portfolio manager to see how brands interact with each other and the role they play in the customer journey, she says.