We’ve all heard it before: Private Marketplaces (PMPs) will help you drive higher CPMs and maximize your revenue potential.
Yet, in the seemingly increasing complex digital marketing ecosystem, what should be a relatively straight-forward concept of connecting a buyer and seller with pre-established terms via PMP, has left a lot of publishers and advertisers feeling shortchanged and frustrated by the results.
Despite all of the lackluster, we’re not even close to being done with private marketplaces. Industry experts are forecasting that in a few short months, the majority of programmatic spend will come from PMPs. This projection is due to the control they deliver for both the publisher and advertiser, in theory, creating a happy medium between open market and direct IO.
Why PMPs for Publishers?
The legacy strategy around PMPs was developed to reduce risk around fraud and to increase transparency between buyers and sellers. The need for these traditional marketplace set-ups may be lessened by industry initiatives such as ads.txt, app-ads.txt, sellers.json, supply-path optimization (SPO) and GDPR address concerns around a cleaner and more transparent ecosystem. So why are we still seeing PMP growth?
Creating a PMP strategy for your digital publishing business is a lot like creating a great headline for your content: it takes technique, finesse, and should be designed to drive a very specific action.
So how do you evolve your strategy to include more value for the advertiser and get the highest price for an impression? Here are three ways to improve your results.
Put The Customer (Data) First
If you are building a PMP without an extra layer of value for deal ID, it will result in a missed opportunity to command higher CPMs. The demise of the third-party cookie and commoditization of data, allows publishers to bring a strategic advantage to the table when building out marketplaces.
IBM Watson Advertising, a partner of PubMatic, is a great example of how to effectively differentiate your PMP business by curating valuable content and using first-party data to activate. By leveraging audience insights and advanced targeting with contextual relevance around curated moments, IBM Watson Advertising is able to deliver the right message to the right user at the perfect time.
PubMatic has made significant investments in targeting. We are launching an audience management tool to help our partners create a more compelling offering, while protecting their audience by restricting its flow outside of our platform. Our partners will soon be able to better monetize their audience relationships, based on device and owned/operated properties.
Create Immersive Experiences
Once you have defined your audiences and create your segments, think about your PMP multi-channel strategy. With the increase in media fragmentation, connecting with consumers wherever they are is tantamount to delivering a dynamic creative message. This should be another key pillar of your PMP strategy.
Including formats beyond desktop such as mobile, in-app video, and CTV will allow you to deliver smarter, holistic experiences for your marketing partners. It also increases the likelihood of that brand’s message resonating with the consumer, ultimately driving better conversion and ROI which will help you command a higher premium for access. Here are a few things to consider when setting up multi-channel marketplaces:
- Cross-channel targeting can help you maximize overall inventory by lifting smaller, less monetized channels to more campaigns connected to an individual
- Instead of targeting users within a specific silo, use the data to truly map out your customer and reach your audience with sticky messaging
- Improved targeting can also help your advertisers tell a better story with sequential, multi-format messaging
- A fully multi-channel measurement model will help move away from last click attribution, increasing your overall performance and consideration for larger buys
Evaluating Your Partner
Selecting the right PMP partner is equally as important as the strategy behind it. With the relationship you are now building directly with an advertiser, make sure to choose a platform partner(s) that can execute on what is expected. Challenging legacy partnerships can be tedious, but new developments in technology can drastically improve your performance.
Test and see which partners can deliver the best performance and scale for your PMPs. Given the anticipated growth of PMPs, you will likely be setting up more moving forward. Thus, now is a great time to identify the top tier partners and platforms to help you execute on this strategy and provide the best results.
Consider troubleshooting tools, for instance, which will allow you to quickly fix issues that arise to exceed your campaign goals. Ensure the flighting and targeting of your campaigns are correct and quickly address issues around poor win rates and low impression volume. Frequency management tools will ensure your message is seen, but doesn’t oversaturate the audience.
Choose a marketplace platform that has a simple, easy-to-use user interface. Consider one that also supports various media types and formats, like video and mobile-rich media formats. And, of course, look for a platform that offers the ability to support complex targeting parameters.
Finally, consider demand channel and preferred supply partnerships with agencies to help build more PMPs with more partners. For instance, PubMatic is a supply partner of choice for blue chip agency partners like The Goodway Group.
Getting Started
To grow your PMP business and capture more share in the quickest and largest growing segment of automated advertising, refine and challenge your legacy approach to PMPs. You will see the benefits of higher value impressions and can future-proof your monetization. Check out our PMP solutions or contact us for more information.
