This week, MMW caught up with Kent Keilback, CEO OF adMobix, to discuss the future of programmatic, its potential pitfalls, and its prospects for growth in this new year.
MMW: What drives a truly programmatic platform forward?
Kent: Evolution is the key to driving anything forward, and the same applies here. A true programmatic platform cannot rely on human power for real-time campaign evaluation/optimization. The technology underneath the hood is what’s going to move this industry as a whole forward, and there will be a constant evolution of the underlying technology driving this industry forward.
MMW: Do you envision humans being pulled out of the programmatic equation?
Kent: Humans will always play a vital role in programmatic buying. We’re very good at identifying new and unique ways of looking at data. But at the end of the day, those discoveries need to be built into the learning algorithms to continuously improve the overall vision of the technology. I don’t envision the “discovery period” by the human element coming to an end anytime soon.
MMW: Most of your team is from the Performance Marketing world. Has that played into how your algorithms work?
Kent: Absolutely – without getting into too much detail, we feel that everything in advertising has multiple “conversion” points. Whether that corresponds to following the whole customer experience and engagement of a single brand across various mediums, or to direct quantities of sales, or simply signifies a user getting from page one to page two of a landing page – ALL of it matters. Performance definitely matters and is a foundational pillar of our algorithm.
MMW: What would you say to programmatic media buying skeptics out there?
Kent: There will always be skeptics, regardless of industry. What one needs to do is really look at the larger digital media landscape. When several major tier 1 brands start shifting their entire digital ad spend to programmatic, that’s a pretty good sign for the skeptics. The programmatic “concept” works. The technology works and is improving daily. A large percentage of participants are seeing success. There’s something to be said about that.
MMW: What is your outlook on programmatic in the next 3 years and how the digital advertising sphere will adapt to it?
Kent: This gets back to my early part about evolution. The industry will evolve as well. Traditionally media with respect to TV and radio will still exist, but the shift of those models to programmatic has already begun. I envision programmatic being the overwhelming choice by all major advertising companies and business models.
MMW: Should a marketer use a Programmatic Buying Platform?
Kent: The simple answer is YES. The main reason behind this is that programmatic buying platforms leverage data and automation across multiple screens. As a result, the “holy grail” of marketing can be achieved whereby an ad unit can be served with the right message, to the right person at the right time.
MMW: Should Marketers be leery of Programmatic Buying Platforms because they are a fad?
Kent: No, Programmatic Buying Platforms are here to stay as they address the critical issues for every marketer within the ADTech eco-system. The three most critical issues that are addressed by Programmatic Buying Platforms are Real-time Targeting, Real-time Optimization and Self-Control. Every marketer strives to have these issues addressed across all of their ad buys, but very few are within one piece of technology and that is the reason why Programmatic Buying Platforms are here to stay.
