RTBPlaybook

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The Real-time bidding best practice guidefor marketers and agencies  

The ProgrammaticMedia Play

Real-time Bidding (RTB) refers to the process of buying andselling ad impressions in an online auction marketplace. Thebids take place in real-time and the bidding process iscompleted in the milliseconds before the content on a user'swebpage loads.

Bid prices are calculated based on the perceived value of themedia being bought and the audience being targeted. BigData is collected on online user activity and is used to decideon a bidding price.

As a result, the publisher receives the highest bid, the biddergets their ad placed in front of the user and the advertisermaximises ROI as the bid price is calculated on the quality ofthe lead. Assuming the advertiser has correctly defined theircampaign goals, smart algorithms and Business Intelligence(BI) software are built to find the best impressions for theadvertiser.

Real-time bidding has changed the online advertisinglandscape, as marketers no longer need to waste ad spendputting ads in front of users who are not likely to convert orengage with their brand or product.

Defining campaign goals, objectives and target audiencesis the first and most important step in your campaign. Thecampaign objective might be brand awareness or offlinesales, both of which can be achieved through onlineadvertising.

Benchmarketing’s media platform uses the informationwithin your strategy to suggest the perfect media sourcesfor your ads. Based on huge amounts of historical data, theplatform is also able to make estimates on conversionrates for your campaign, which helps set the right bidamount on each impression or click to achieve optimalperformance.

Kick off with a stronggame plan

Making assumptions of your target markets in onlineadvertising will never lead to learning, insights orconversions. A brand might assume that their target marketfor affordable car insurance is 18-25 year olds, target themspecifically and wonder why they didn't convert once thecampaign has ended.

If they had expanded their targets to make the data work forthem, they might have found that, in fact, mothers from 45-55years old brought in much higher conversions, as they werethe primary buyers of car insurance for their young children.

The practice of targeting new segments programmaticallymeans advertisers can learn about new target markets fortheir brand. This trial and error method has been proven timeand time again to be more successful for advertisersmarketing their product through online channels.

You gotta learn it to earn it

63%

16%

21%

Programmatic media buying is in fact a combination of bothscience (data + algorithms) and art (high level interpretation+ analysis). Real-time Bidding technology ultimatelypredicts future human behaviour from past events, buthumans can often be unpredictable. Think about airplanes -all commercial planes today have the ability to fly fromtake-off to landing without a pilot, but would you get on aplane if you knew there were no pilot managing the flight?

The margin of error within predictions of online behaviour isgetting smaller as technology enhances, but it is stillimportant that advertisers and marketers connect withexperienced media buyers like Benchmarketing who areable to drive big strategic decisions, make sense of vastamounts of data, and correct errors in a way only anexperienced human can.

Tech vs.Human touch

Most DSPs and trading desks in2014 rely much too heavily on dataand artificial intelligence, and lackthe care and effort needed toenhance results with high-levelanalysis.

Some sources might have a history of high performance foryour industry but others may not, some might have high levelsof customer service and others, more advanced technology.

It is fundamental to the success of your campaign to completea Benchmarketing Run of Sources (ROSo) test as part of yourmedia plan. Maximise your budget and only allocate fundsinto the sources that will perform for you.

Diversifying media sources is also a crucial component to anyBenchmarketing media plan. Take the stock market as anexample, diversifying your stock portfolio is a proven methodfor mitigating risk and maximising return; the same goes forReal-time bidding.

Diversifying media sources is the best way to make sure yourcampaign is sustainable and free from risk. This diversity alsohelps to create a competitive advantage, as Benchmarketingis able drive down CPAs by making sources compete for theadvertiser's budget.

Play to yourstrengths

Each media source has its ownunique skills and you need toutilise them correctly to seeresults.

It is important to define primary and secondary goals for yourcampaign. Your primary goal might be competition registrations butyour secondary goal could ultimately be product sales. Keeping bothof these goals in mind is fundamental to creating a winningcampaign.

For example, primary goals of a Facebook campaign may becompetition entries, yet secondary goals may be new fan generation.In most cases creating several goals is not recommended as itdilutes the ability to achieve strong results in each, however in manyinstances having multiple goals is unavoidable.

Let’s look at an insurance provider example funnel. If the goal ofcollecting quotes is given higher priority than down the funnelconversions, such as insurance policy sales, you can expect to getmany more quotes than policy sales. We’ll call this ‘VolumeStrategy’.

The second potential strategy is to optimise towards policies, whereit is likely you will get a lot less quotes as you will only be targetingthe inventory where users convert from quote to policy. We’ll call this‘Quality Strategy’.

The best method to resolve this is by giving priority to your goals. Inthe example of quotes vs. policies, you will need to assess whetheryour net outcome is better by getting more quotes (Volume) with alower conversion rate or less quotes at a higher conversion rate(Quality).

Align individual goals withteam goals

Dress to impress

All the elements of your campaign need to work in harmony toconvert a customer. If your ad is compelling but your landing pageis cluttered and confusing, you may be tracking a high Click-throughRate (CTR) but no actual conversions.

Clicks are important as they tell you there is interest in your product.However, there is no point paying for clicks if customers are notgoing to convert because they are not attracted to your landingpage.

Benchmarketing’s Booster Pages suite was built to help advertiserscreate landing pages and Facebook apps that are designed forconversions. The best part? After the first campaign round is over,advertisers are able to refresh the landing page creative to alignwith a new campaign strategy within one day, not the usual onemonth.

When tested against company landing pages, Benchmarketing'sBooster Pages have proven to lift conversions by 56%.

Your offer! 12

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Precision iskey toscoring agoal

Retargeting is not just about persistence, it’s about changingthe message to suit the person who is seeing it. If acustomer didn’t click an ad the first time they saw it, it isunlikely they will click the second time unless the new adthey are seeing is altered in a way that is more relevant tothem. Knowing the different niches within customer groupswho engaged with your ad but didn’t convert is the first step.

Benchmarketing’s Audience Mapping software is able to putleads into three main categories based on how far theycame along the acquisition funnel: Hot, Warm and Cold. Thesoftware then breaks these categories down into complexsubcategories which represent the specific online behaviourof different users in the acquisition funnel.

It is also able to make the most of an advertiser's retargetingbudget by integrating negative pixels. These pixels ensureno clicks are wasted as they segment and exclude existingcustomers, log-in errors, and other clicks that are likely tonot convert.

Play brandsafe

In order to keep your ad from showing on inappropriatewebsites, it is important to build out a content strategy foryour specific campaign and brand sensibilities. Benchmarketing serves impressions to a list of publishersthat you, the advertiser, deem ‘good’ media. These lists arecalled White Lists, and they make sure inventory is filteredat the source.

Benchmarketing ad ops are constantly asked how to combat‘click fraud’ and other brand safety concerns. By producingwhite lists with established and trusted publishers fromnetwork and exchanges we have worked with many times,we can have a strong level of certainty that advertisers aregetting the value they are paying for.

Beyond this, campaigns should set and measure metricsbeyond the click. Benchmarketing’s tag managementapproach will give insights into level of engagement after thefirst click and ensure accountability from first click tocampaign goal conversions.

8 Takeaways:Define clear objectives

Make the data work for you

Partner with experience

Diversify and test sources

Give priorities to your goals

Use strong landing pages

Retarget with altered offers

Use brand safe media

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Drop us a line: info@benchmarketing.com.au