5 Steps to

Programmatic
Success
A GUIDE FOR THE MID MARKET

I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

INTRODUCTION
Programmatic advertising is one of the hottest topics in the marketing sector today.
Overall global spend will hit $53bn by 2018, according to Magna Global.
Yet to date the opportunity has mainly been taken up by big brand advertisers with
equally big budgets.
This is a travesty, as programmatic advertising offers mid-market companies one of
the best ways to level the playing field with their big budget rivals.
Despite the opportunity and excitement around programmatic, much confusion
remains, especially among mid-market brands, which are arguably best positioned to
take advantage of the technology, as it levels the playing field with their big-budget
rivals.
However, new developments in the sector are putting the power back in the hands
of marketers.
We believe its time for marketers to embrace programmatic
advertising and reap the incredible rewards that have for too long
been seen as out of its grasp.
This ebook is intended as an introduction to programmatic advertising
for mid-market companies, finishing with a five-point guide to making
a successful move into the sector.
Its time to make the leap into programmatic!
Nick Moutter,

Programmatic
advertising
lets mid-market
companies level
the playing field
with big-budget
rivals

CEO, Admedo

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

Programmatic
advertising
.
.
.
.
a def i n i tion
Programmatic advertising is the automated
buying and selling of online display media
through the use of technology.
Marketers have always striven to deliver
the right ad to the right user at the right
time, making assumptions as to where
the right customers could actually be
found. Programmatic buying removes this
uncertainty, using both first and third-party
data to precisely segment a desired target
audience online. Marketers can then use
this data to target that audience in real-time

and buy them for the right price, in the right

context, and with the right message. The
process is automated by machines and
algorithms, working with the marketer to
achieve campaign goals.
Demand-Side Platforms (DSP) give
advertisers the ability to purchase online
display advertising programmatically. At their
most basic, they are technology platforms built
to purchase display media across multiple
bid-based inventory sources in real-time, from
a single interface.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

Time to get
your head
out of
the sand!
WE WANTED TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT
MARKETERS ATTITUDES TO PROGRAMMATIC
ADVERTISING AND HOW IT FITS INTO THEIR
OVERALL MARKETING ACTIVITY.
SO WE ASKED THEM.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

WE TALKED TO 100
SENIOR MARKETING
DECISION MARKETERS.
THE RESULTS OF OUR SURVEY, RUN IN ASSOCIATION
WITH THE DRUM, MAKE SHOCKING READING.

They show that many companies in this sector are missing out
on the opportunities of programmatic with less than a third of
respondents even aware of programmatic advertising.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

Less than a third of

respondents are aware of
programmatic advertising

Almost four-fths
of participants use
search advertising

79%

32%

Over three-quarters
of respondents use
online display advertising

78%

54%

Three-quarters of participants
allocate less than a quarter of
their digital marketing budget to
online display, the average
allocation being 20%

75%
11%

Only just over one-in-ten

of participants believe
they have full insight
into how much of their
display budget is spent
on services such as
commissions to media
companies, ad serving
costs, third party or data
commission costs

Over half of respondents are

aware of real-time bidding
(RTB), one element of
programmatic advertising

FOR THOSE THAT

HAVE NEVER USED
PROGRAMMATIC
ADVERTISING, 28%
BELIEVE IT IS NOT
APPROPRIATE FOR
THEIR BUSINESS
OF THE 28%

20%

a fth believe
it is too
expensive

18%

18% say it is
too complex

13%

13% say it is
too difficult
to measure
performance

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

OF THE PARTICIPANTS
THAT HAD INVESTED
IN PROGRAMMATIC
ADVERTISING...

70%
50%
24%

had allocated less

than a quarter of their
overall budget to it

had allocated over a

quarter of their digital
budget to programmatic

of participants claim price is

the most important criteria
when selecting a partner for
programmatic advertising

Mid-market companies were among the first

to realise the power of paid search advertising
to help scale their businesses, and the survey
reveals that the majority of such firms still do so.

BUT THE SEARCH ADVERTISING

SPACE HAS BECOME CROWDED, AND
WHAT WAS ONCE A COST-EFFECTIVE
ADVERTISING MEDIUM IS NOW A SOURCE
OF INCREASING FRUSTRATION DUE TO
INFLATED PAY-PER-CLICK (PPC) COSTS.
However, the alternatives (display and in
particular programmatic media buying) are
vastly underused among such firms.
This is a big mistake as research continues
to pour out proving the power of display to
boost the effectiveness of search and vice
versa. In fact research by Yahoo found that
the incremental lift in retailers offline sales
was 119% with a combined search and display
campaign, compared to 82% with search alone.
Unquestionably, one of the biggest barriers
to investing in programmatic advertising is a
generic lack of understanding about how the
technology works.
Indeed, what is worrying is that the terms
programmatic and real time bidding (RTB)
are often used interchangeably, resulting in
a sizeable proportion of marketers not understanding their benefits (as illustrated by our
survey).

32%
Less than a third
of respondents are
aware of programmatic advertising

54%

But over half of

respondents said
they are aware
of real-time
bidding (RTB),
one element of
programmatic
advertising

But RTB is just one variant of programmatic

advertising (when media is bought
and sold in an auction environment in
an ad exchange).

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

Historical barriers to
mid-market adoption of
programmatic advertising
In the early days of programmatic, pioneered
primarily by US firms funded by Silicon Valley
investors, it was pitched firmly as being suitable
solely for top tier advertisers, and offered only
on a managed service basis.
So its unsurprising many of you havent even
heard of it.
These suppliers worked hard to keep exactly
how their business operated a closely guarded
secret, hence justifying their (highly priced)
place on brands media plans.
Of course, as our survey highlights, the biggest
barrier to the uptake of programmatic is lack of
knowledge something this ebook is designed
to help address! But there are two other significant hurdles.

THERE HAS BEEN

A LOT OF SMOKE
AND MIRRORS IN THE
INDUSTRY. HENCE ITS
UNDERSTANDABLE
HOW THIS
COMPLEXITY CAN BE
OFF-PUTTING FOR A
MID-MARKET MEDIA
BUYER
Rob Spicer, digital marketing
manager at self storage
company Safestore.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

BARRIER ONE

Prohibitive
minimum
spend

DSPs have been used by big brands since the

early days of the technology. However, they have
not been readily accessible by businesses whose
individual media budgets are significantly below
tier-one corporate brands, but which none-the-less
cumulatively account for a significant amount of
media spend.
Another big reason mid-market brands have been
in the dark.
Additional problems cited in the use of
programmatic advertising by mid-market
businesses include the contractual obligations
in place from companies offering such services.
Many of the big providers require a client to spend
a minimum of 70,000 per month.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

BARRIER two

Transparency
of spend
allocation
One of the major problems with the first
generation of DSPs was that the cost of third
party data providers (required for improved
targeting via these platforms) was often
prohibitive.
You can buy inventory on DSPs at a very good
rate thats the whole point of them. But if you
then apply data segments (sourced from third
parties) to improve your targeting, this can cost
up to five times the price of the inventory itself.

A lot of agencies and trading desks claim it is

imperative that they integrate these third party
data segments. But if you spend five times
the media cost on data, then you want to see
five times the improvement on the campaign
performance - which doesnt happen.
While we would never downplay the role of
data, it needs to be cost effective for your needs
and at Admedo we have yet to see campaign
performance increased proportionately
according to the spend on third party data.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

Dont
panic!
The above historical barriers are just that in the past. Were in a new phase
of the evolution of programmatic advertising, an age that brings with it a
number of developments that will make this technology accessible to all.

LETS FIND OUT WHAT SOME OF THESE ARE.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

DSPS FOR THE

MID-MARKET
While programmatic advertising technology
has evolved rapidly over the last few years,
until recently very few (if any) of the existing
DSPs have been designed with ease-of-use,
accessibility and transparency in mind.
Thankfully, this is changing. DSPs, and the
enhanced audience-reach capabilities they
provide, are no longer the privileged domain
of big brands.
This is important, because programmatic is
disrupting the very way brands buy media.
The managed service model proposed by
the first generation of DSPs wasnt really
suitable for mid-market firms and also did little
for transparency issues. Hence, mid-market
businesses have been in a state of limbo
when it comes to taking advantage of this
technology.

With programmatic media

trading you are buying
audiences. In offline media,
youre essentially buying
context. For instance, in an
ad exchange you can spot
a Guardian reader, but the
media space available on
the exchange to get to this
person might actually be an
impression on Angry Birds.
Advertisers need to realise
they can reach the same
person, just in a different
environment to the one theyd
normally reach them on.
Paul Childs, Mobile Advertising Veteran,
Entrepreneur and Advisor to Mobile Ad
Tech Companies.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

THE SELF-SERVE
REVOLUTION
Today, the market is finally seeing the emergence of
technologies that make programmatic media buying
possible on a self-serve basis.
Our survey identified a latent demand for such
services among mid-market companies. 60% of
respondents claimed self-serve functionality is an
important part of media trading, with only 4% reporting
that it is unimportant to them.
Meanwhile, over a quarter (27%) of those that did
express a preference for self-serve functionality cited
a lack of in-house experience as the reason for
outsourcing their digital media buying.
Its important to remember that when you take media
buying in-house you have increased control and
transparency, especially when marketing budgets
are tight.

THE BEAUTY OF
USING THIS KIND
OF TECHNOLOGY
IN-HOUSE IS
THAT YOURE IN
CONTROL, SAYS
SAFESTORES
SPICER. PLUS,
YOU DONT HAVE
TO AGREE A PRICEY
CONTRACT WITH A
MEDIA AGENCY.

The new wave self-serve platforms also let brands

ensure measurement is transparent in real time, letting
them benchmark their campaign performance against
any criteria they choose.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

GOING
MOBILE
Finally, theres another important evolution
of the DSP that will benefit mid-market
brands improved mobile capabilities. This is
something Todd Trann, MD Europe of mobile
ad exchange Nexage, believes is crucial.
Given that most mid-sized companies
operate across a smaller geographic area,
the development of mobile is key. The ability to
find the right audience in the right location is
priceless for smaller companies, he says.

So, its time. Time to make the move into

programmatic advertising. First though, youre
going to need a technology partner to help you
do so. No ones saying this is going to be easy,
but our five-point checklist below will ensure
you find your perfect partner.

GOOD LUCK, ITS GOING

TO BE WORTH IT!

The barriers to programmatic for the

mid-market have crumbled.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

Embracing
Programmatic
ADVERTISING:
A Five-Point
Checklist

THE SHIFT TO PROGRAMMATIC POSES MANY

CHALLENGES TO THE MODERN MARKETER.
THERE ARE A HUGE VARIETY OF POTENTIAL
PARTNERS THAT WILL HELP MID-MARKET
BUSINESSES DEVELOP THEIR PROGRAMMATIC
STRATEGY. BUT THERE ARE ALSO MANY
POTENTIAL PITFALLS FOR THE UNWARY. THE
FOLLOWING ARE OUR TOP FIVE TIPS FOR
FINDING YOUR IDEAL PARTNER TO HELP YOU ON
YOUR PROGRAMMATIC JOURNEY.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

Bring everything
under one roof

The first thing you need to be looking for is a

full campaign management solution. For a
mid-market company, its crucial to find a
system that will let you take control of every
element of programmatic campaigns, from
ad serving to creative to targeting, as well as
delivery, all in one.
When you get all your elements of campaign
optimisation at your fingertips through a
single interface, you can make the jump into
programmatic with far lower resources. Big
brands may well have large teams of people
dedicated to programmatic advertising, but with
the right platform you can get started with a
team of one!

You need the system you select to be incredibly

user friendly, so it can be picked up easily by
a variety of people in your company. This way
you avoid a lot of the laborious processes of
programmatic advertising adoption, one of the
reasons many companies have avoided it so far.
And with limited resources, you havent got
the time to keep having to log in to different
platforms or making these disparate systems
work together.
So when youre searching for your technology
partner, always try and look for a full-stack
solution. The usability, and the fluidity of the
decision-making process it enables, are the real
winners here.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

Insist on
transparency
of spend

When youre making your move into

programmatic, the warning buyer beware has
never been more appropriate. It can be a murky
world, so its vital you make sure you get full
viewability and transparency into the margins
you will be charged, and a full breakdown of
your overall spend.
This is the best way you can assess your
return on investment (ROI), and actually the
real costs of acquiring each customer. Some
programmatic advertising companies will try
to hide the real figure. Although you may be
presented with a flat-rate CPM (the cost of

1,000 advertisement impressions on one

webpage), often the company offering this
service will actually buy the audience you want
to target from a third party at the cheapest
possible price to maximise their own margin.
Its your responsibility to insist on seeing real
data showing how much of your budget is spent
on every element of the service being provided
to you. Only by building this into your cost per
acquisition (CPA) can you assess ROI properly.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

Find out exactly

where your ads
are appearing

Programmatic advertising gives you unheralded

reach, letting you target the right audience no
matter where they are online. But there are
dangers here too. With any partner you work
with on programmatic, you need to insist on
knowing exactly what sites and content your
brand will appear against.
Programmatic advertising means moving from
the traditional advertising model of media
placement to that of buying an audience
this is where brand safety can be risked. You
really dont want your ads popping up in an
environment damaging or unsuitable for your
brand. If your partner cant give you this peace
of mind, walk away.

You should also demand full transparency of

the sites where your ads will be appearing,
which sites perform best, on what times of day,
and what geographies perform best in terms of
conversions. This data is gold dust in helping
you shape your overall marketing strategy.
Finally, dont let your partner be hung up
on using programmatic for serving users
retargeted ads. Retargeting can be incredibly
effective but if used bluntly can also be
incredibly damaging to your customers view
of your brand. Ask for proof your partner has
the tools in place to be able to use retargeting
effectively and responsibly.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

Invest the right

amount of time
and budget in
programmatic

Programmatic is for everyone, no matter what your budget.

But at the same time you need to be realistic.
For most mid-size companies, a test budget of at least 20005000 will be needed if youre going to gain any worthwhile
lessons from your pilot. You can, of course, start with only a
few hundred pounds but the data you get back from this test
will be too limited to let you understand whether or not your
efforts have worked, effectively a waste of money.
Effective programmatic advertising depends on the use
of machine learning technology to optimise campaigns.
So youre going to need a minimum of two weeks for this
process to really start kicking in. Dont worry though, the
machine learning process speeds up with use. But make no
mistake, programmatic is not an overnight solution.

ALL RESPONDENTS
BELIEVED THEIR
SPEND ON
PROGRAMMATIC
OVER THE NEXT
YEAR WOULD
INCREASE OR STAY
THE SAME.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

Insist on
evidence

Finding a reliable partner to help you make

the move into programmatic advertising will
be one of the smartest moves youve ever
made. So make them work for your business!
Programmatic is now a mature technology
so dont be afraid to demand proof of your
partners promises.
Dont just rely on what they offer you though.
Its also best to double-source any such
information, be it from an agency, and/or
another vendor, as this can provide greater
transparency. Crucially this can help with
the all-important internal buy-in within your
organization, especially for colleagues that
may not be as digitally savvy as their digital
marketing department.

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

Sources
WE WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND OUR THANKS
TO THE FOLLOWING, WHO HELPED IN THE
RESEARCH FOR THIS PUBLICATION.
TODD TRAN, NEXAGE, MANAGING DIRECTOR, EUROPE
ROBERT SPICER, DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER, SAFESTORE
RONNY RAICHURA, HEAD OF DIGITAL PERFORMANCE, ADCONNECTION
PAUL CHILDS, ENTREPRENEUR AND ADVISOR

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I THE FIVE STEPS TO PROGRAMMATIC SUCCESS FOR MID-MARKET BRANDS

ABOUT
ADMEDO
ACCESSIBLE PROGRAMMATIC
ADVERTISING

contact details

Admedo makes programmatic advertising

accessible and more profitable for your business.

UK
Phone: 020 3603 8610
Email: sales@admedo.com
Address: Greenhill House,
90 - 93 Cowcross Street, Farringdon,
London EC1M 6BF

We are empowering advertisers and agencies

worldwide with accurate insights into their media
spend and more cost-effective, targeted display
advertising through our cloud-based, self-serve
programmatic technology.
Set up is simple, and with flexible licensing options
ranging from a free, basic version to a white label
solution for agencies, youll be driving leads and
conversions in no time at all.
With Admedo - Youve got this!

UNITED STATES
Phone: (+1) 949 572 7098
Email: sales@admedo.com
Address: 4590 MacArthur Blvd.
Suite 500 Newport Beach,
CA 92660

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