The following is a guest contributed post from Omar Janabi, Senior Director of Marketing at Mapp Digital.
Marketers find it hard to connect data from different channels, whether it is website visitors, mobile app users, store visitors or call centre inquiries, to build a single customer view.
A Data Management Platform (DMP) is the clear choice. A DMP breaks silos and unifies all your data in one place, so you have a holistic view of the customer journey. With eMarketer forecasting that the programmatic share of digital advertising is expected to grow to 72 percent of total ad spending in 2017[i], the focus is on advertisers to improve the return they get from this investment.
Forrester recently stated, “a unified technology platform that intakes disparate first-, second-, and third-party data sets, provides normalization and segmentation on that data, and allows a user to push the resulting segmentation into live interactive channel environments.”
The real value of big data lies in applying the right tools to fully exploit it. As the amount and complexity of data continues to increase, data management is becoming an increasingly important issue.
Here are 4 key business drivers for getting a DMP:
Using a DMP as the driver behind a truly multi-channel execution
DMPs created a reputation for using cookies in display advertising for re-targeting but their capabilities vary depending on what the organisation needs them for.
Many companies are going ‘beyond the cookie’ with many brands already using it to optimise channels beyond display. These channels include email, SMS, mobile, social and programmatic TV amongst many others.
This means brands can optimise their website content according to their most valuable segments, and also serve relevant, personalised content at the right time in the purchase journey. For many marketers, the ability to do this cross-device and cross-channel is the biggest needed.
Data Ownership
The excitement over programmatic advertising was clearly demonstrated with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) issuing guidelines to members on how to get the most from programmatic advertising.
Advice published by the WFA spurred many headlines focusing on issues of transparency concerning agency holding groups’ media trading. Some even questioned whether this lack of transparency caused the world’s largest advertisers to completely bring all their programmatic advertising in-house.
This message appears to be getting through to forward-thinking marketers. The WFA document contained feedback from 43 of the world’s largest-spending advertisers found that 36 percent of respondents were using a Data Management Platform in 2015 compared to 20 percent in 2013, to offset any potential risks around transparency and data protection.
“There are inherent conflicts between the goals of the advertiser, agency and DSP respectively when it comes to programmatic media buying, controlling the technology itself ensures that you correct this imbalance and are able to maximise your desired outcome,” said Dr. Boris Mouzianskii, IPONWEB, CEO.
Fragmentation
One major headache for marketers striving for real-time insights lies around how their data is sourced, as well as how they monetise it. They increasingly look at using different technology solutions to help collect data and realise its true value by centralising it in one platform, which they can then analyse to gain actionable insights.
For publishers, it’s about being able to gain visibility on their most active segments and how they can best use this information to monetise their data.
However, there are often difficulties in this. As companies aim to integrate all of their advertising and marketing operations, it requires integrating multiple data sets. Many of which have historically been stored in different silos, often with internal teams, agency partners, and increasingly third party tech providers.
Real-time Myths
A critical issue affecting the ‘on-demand’ marketer is how quickly they can access campaign analytics in real-time. This is crucial to provide advertisers and marketers with feedback mid-campaign, allowing them to make key adjustments. Likewise, for media owners in order to see which inventory is performing well.
However, while many advertising platforms can bid on media in real-time, most cannot report back to an advertiser that fast, thus stopping them acting on mission-critical feedback. This is crucial if advertisers are running a particularly time-sensitive campaign.
At last, DMPs have the capability to breathe new life into the idea of a single customer view. In an era when minute-by-minute campaign reporting is possible, no brand can afford not to examine its potential.