Use of DMPs in online advertising

In Programmatic Buying the DMP represents the point of contact between Advertisers, who ask for impressions to buy through Demand Side Platforms (DSP) and Publishers, who offer impressions for purchase/bidding via Supply Side Platforms (SSP).

Usually DSPs contact Data Management Platforms (DMP) to check the segments of the users who are visiting publishers’ sites to help determine where to buy impressions in-target with their campaigns.
DMPs combine all the data they have at disposal to profile users and identify in-target segments, then bids / orders will be computed accordingly.

Applications go way beyond advertising

Although today’s primary application of DMPs is advertising optimization, the value of owning a DMP goes way beyond that: the task of a DMP is to process data, group users into segments according to their similarity and make segments available for whatever purpose.
The more information you put into the DMP, the broader, deeper and meaningful the analysis can be. For instance, you can look for correlations between acquisition channels, loyalty and customer service costs, ultimately generating insights that drive your business strategy.

A DMP is a powerful analysis engine that enables you to collect, combine and exploit a universe of data coming from different sources that you don’t leverage normally.

Why do you need a proprietary DMP?

Brands

Brands look for audience segments to target based on their likelihood to buy, and they want to target them in the right place at the best price. They also want to know where conversion is more efficient and they prefer to keep this piece of information to themselves.

Every time brands let external DMPs collect and process info on their audience behaviour, they:

• are forced to buy back their own data
• enable competitors to buy those information and let somebody else make money out of this
• miss the chance to understand how their customers behave and leverage the information internally

Publishers

Publishers want to identify the segments brands wish to reach as they are on their properties. They want to maintain control over this key piece of information so as to sell impressions at the best price.

Every time publishers let external DMPs collect and process info on their audience behaviour, they:

• let somebody else define the value of their inventory
• miss the chance to differentiate their offer from competitors
• miss the chance to understand and optimize their user experience
• let somebody else make money out of the work they do to keep their audience engaged

Agencies

Agencies have the mission to help clients plan their marketing spend efficiently, and reduce marketing waste. They must be able to optimize planning continuously and show measurable results to their clients.

Every time agencies let external DMPs collect and process info on the behaviour of the audience consuming the campaigns they manage, they:

• miss the chance to integrate the clients’ first party data into their planning
• are forced to buy third-party data massively, although they’re less reliable predictors of customers’ behaviour than brands’ first-party data

Partner with the right DMP provider

If you’re looking into adopting a DMP:

• Choose a technology provider who understands the market and your requirements and has proven expertise in big data management and audience profiling
• Look for customizability so that the DMP can be configured to work with your specific requirements, as well as easy integration with your CRM systems and easy import of external data
• Ensure the DMP deploys a universal tagging solution (Universal Container Tag), so as to streamline internal processes and simplify data collection and campaign testing
• Look for ad server integration capability: exploit campaigns results both for segmentation and ROI evaluation
• Require cross-platform data collection and targeting: you want to leverage profiling and targeting capabilities across all channels, including mobile, video, email and social
• Make sure creating, managing and extracting segments is easy, both in terms of analysis (you want a flexible analysis tool) and user experience
• Data Security is key: the DMP must keep proprietary information secure from third parties
• Look for third-party integration capability: the DMP must be able to integrate with ad networks, DSPs, SSPs and content management systems for both data import and export
• Choose a provider who can grant your required level of customer support throughout the entire lifecycle of your relationship