In an increasingly crowded marketplace of technology designed to support better decision making and campaign optimisation for Marketeers, almost every provider has a reason why you should choose them. Whether it be a series of fancy features and reporting processes that can simplify a particular workflow, or API's to automate the entire process, there is a perfect platform out there for everyone... somewhere.
One thing I have noticed recently through discussion within the Ad-serving and cross channel measurement space, is that very few of my prospects are using their technology with much flexibility, as often other constraints get in the way such as predefined budgets and creative limitations.
To me it seems strange that in what we refer to as a creative industry, we so often find ourselves using templated services and following the well worn and safe groove left by the other major players in our industry. Human nature lends itself to taking a 'safe' option as for obvious reasons, there is less risk, but also less to differentiate the brand to the consumer on the other side of the campaign. We should not forget, they hear not just your message, but that of all of your peers and if you are one of the 'play it safe' crowd, how will you stand out to them?
There is no issue with lack of desire to be bold or creative within the industry, but time and money are a common hurdle which many of us trip over when busy with multiple actions at once.
Several technology providers have found a sweet middle spot, whereby their range of templates offer what appears to be a raft of possibilities, however largely these are superficial differences and the platforms are still fairly linear in their approach to process and delivery.
One of the things which we at Conversant believe is important, is to give the brand (or their agency) the ability to personalise the message they take to market, in the hope that they can speak to the consumer in a way that makes sense, on a device that makes sense at the right time of day so that the message ... (wait for it) makes sense.
Let's take Dynamic creative serving as an example. For any who are not familiar with this, it is when you take a base creative and include a series of variable fields, such as background image, title, font, text size, local store location, pricing feeds (where applicable), weather reporting (for travel brands) etc, that can be interchanged to suit the person who you are serving the creative to. The greater the list of variables, the more diverse and ultimately personalised the message will be to the recipient. As logic suggests we are likely to be more receptive to anything which is more relevant and less generic to us as an individual.
Very often when faced with serving a campaign dynamically to a consumer, there will be a sliding cost scale of varying CPM rates for serving and measuring that creative, including over different file sizes, making it challenging for a marketeer to allocate budgets. So many times I hear from Agencies that they are sticking with the basic functionality in their platform in order to make the budget go further and so they do not need to go back to the client, avoiding a potential step forward in customer experience at the same time.
At Conversant we feel that all marketeers should be able to select the best tool for the job without needing to renegotiate media budgets internally, which can slow the process down and can also become a frustration. We have made all of the tools accessible at a flat rate, to encourage our customers to be innovative, as after all your success is our success too right?
We are proud that the clients we have are of the mindset that they must cut through the noise within their given industry, so we encourage them to embrace the diversity of messages they can push out to market and to be bold or different to their peers. Above all we give them the confidence and capability to never settle for 'okay' when they can deliver something truly personal which resonates with the consumer much more greatly.
So when evaluating the costs of using an adserver/measurement platform for your business, always dive deeper than the top line CPM/CPC fees, as they will often not only be the tip of the iceberg in terms of user costs, but also that the provider may not have the capacity to support you as your needs and capabilities increase. Someone who knows how to play the long game with you and become a partner, not just a supplier.
As an enterprise solutions provider to some of the world's largest brands for 15 years+ we thrive through the complexity of our clients' businesses. If you would like to learn more about Conversant and how we can support your companies' growth please feel free to reach out.