Programmatic buying is highly efficient for branding campaigns: Sandeep Goyal

Interview with Chairman, Mogae Media

It can show in real time what effect the brand marketing has on purchase intent, Sandeep Goyal tells Alokananda Chakraborty

There has been a lot of talk in recent months about programmatic buying and its purported benefits. So why hasn't it picked up pace?

Programmatic buying involves a paradigm shift in the approach to digital advertising from the entire ecosystem - brands, agencies, publishers, not forgetting the availability and capability of technology platforms (demand side platform, supply side platform, data management platform) to execute the true potential of programmatic. Programmatic is an ideal technique to move marketing from a fragmented campaign-by-campaign paradigm to an always-on paradigm covering the entire customer lifecycle.
 

One must understand the intricacies involved to appreciate the reasons and barriers for adoptions. Programmatic advertising is automated technology driven method of buying or selling ad placements. Within programmatic, there are two main subcategories. One, real-time bidding (RTB), which can do ad placements via a public auction, which happens from open exchanges such as OpenX, DoubleClick, FBX or through a private marketplace. The process of open RTB via open exchange route does not guarantees media placement. Two is programmatic direct. In case the inventory is guaranteed this method is followed.

Currently, the digital advertising market, both on desktop and mobile is seeing a spurt in open market RTB, though private market places may also become a significant entity in future.

Now come to the key reasons for slow adoption in India. First you need data to define the consumer. RTB advertising spends generate media buy efficiencies only when the definition of the true and fuller picture of the consumer who will see the ad, can be created using clickstream data, demographic data, behavioural data, and many other first-party (CRM) and third-party data. Currently gaps exist in the availability and organisation of data. Second, the mobile is gaining predominance in certain segments. While eyeballs moving to mobile apps offers opportunity to uncover these millions of opportunities and match them with the ideal customer profiles (for a given B2C or B2B marketer), the absence of cookies creates new challenges. Then there are data governance concerns. On the other hand you have 'quality inventory' on open exchanges from large publishers. So the uncertainty of placement transparency creates a barrier for those comfortable in direct buy to move to programmatic.

Finally, rich media for programmatic is scarce. The majority of programmatic buying today is largely restricted to banner ads. Video, custom rich media ad units and sponsorships are still sold via direct sales channels.

How much of the buying in India is programmatic? Also in what circumstances have you seen brands achieve the best results when buying media programmatically?

One needs to look at the market for RTB/programmatic for mobile and desktop differently. While the desktop performance market has moved rapidly to upwards of two-thirds of all spends through programmatic, brand campaigns related spend are yet to imbibe 'true' RTB due to reasons I have already cited.

While the mobile ecosystem is much more fragmented, RTB is the only way for developers and publishers to maximise monetisation. Once more app developers make their apps deep-linked, they will be able to target current base for re-engagement campaigns much more effectively through programmatic platforms. This will in fact become the next wave where mega investments will flow.

Why should mega investments flow in it? What is the real opportunity?

The opportunity is to show one specific ad to one consumer in one specific context. Advertisers can have access to billions of daily opportunities to bid and buy digital media on ad marketplaces. The marketplaces make these opportunities available via auctions and an entire ad auction takes place in less than 100 milliseconds.

So what do you see as the key challenges for brands when buying media in a programmatic environment? What are those three key thing that brands should consider before buying media in that fashion?

Marketers should use programmatic buying all across the funnel, from branding to conversions and from new customer acquisition to loyalty marketing. It is easier to see the effectiveness of programmatic buying for performance campaigns. But programmatic buying is equally effective for branding campaigns. Measuring against a control group not exposed to the campaign, they can also show in real time what effect the brand marketing has on awareness, favorability and purchase intent.

Here are the things to keep in mind:

• Strategic mindshift of the entire team (brand owners, agency) towards holistic programmatic rather than a fragmented approach which involves some components such as re-targeting.
• Capability to organise and manage data.
• Have Brand safety measures in place.

What are some of these brand safety measures? In fact, what sort of fraud protection should one have in place when buying or selling programatically?

One of the key things to watch out for is correct reporting, which is easily done by using robust, reliable global demand side platform. Today one can set up a filter that ensure in real time that every ad impression is a quality impression, every impression is compliant, and that every ad was served and displayed exactly as intended. Brands and their partner DSPs need to ensure that there is correct geo-targeting, they have competitive separation, there is correct placement. Also they should maintain a blacklist of sites to ensure ad placement around inappropriate content/inventory.