All advertising campaigns present their own set of challenges. The rise of programmatic Digital Out-of-Home and Digital Signage (DOOH DSP), saw no exceptions to this rule.
As a business owner, you will want to have a good understanding of the benefits and challenges when creating your marketing plan. To get you started off, here is an explanation of DOOH/DSP, and some things to keep in mind moving forward.
1. Defined
You know what a DOOH is as a viewer, you have seen digital ads. However, understanding its limitations and perks is a huge benefit. Programmatic digital media is simply a way of using technology and data collection to buy and manage advertising spots.
- These spots and ads can then be pushed to any digital advertising spots anywhere – transit, tourist attractions, colleges and universities, highways, and more!
With real-time delivery of out of home advertising, data can be delivered via different segments. It can be broken down by market research, mobile usage data and location-based information. Its capability goes hand in hand with its first benefit.
2. No Data Wasted
With programmatic digital capabilities, companies can effectively make a data informed purchase. A huge benefit is that wasted campaign spending. Collected and accurate data can be studied to make effective decisions at every ad placement at the impression or spot level, so no data is wasted.
With programmatic technology, the marketer can have a single access point for all their inventory. It also provides budgeting and campaign performance metric transparency. Information is power, and with useful and fluid data at your fingertips, digital advertising is the way to go.
With these advanced analytics, the marketer can funnel into mobile, web, or brick and mortar events and truly reach every desired customer base. Not only that, but it allows you to track custom audience movement against screens in the real world.
3. Human Error
Not everything about programmatic ad campaigns are benefits. There are a few cons that should be kept in mind as you move forward.
Technology can sometimes skew our memory that the world is not run by robots (yet). One of the biggest drawbacks of programmatic advertising is that the programs and tech are created by humans. As we all know, humans are known to make mistakes.
Oftentimes, companies will task an unskilled or unknowledgeable worker to create the digital campaign. Ads can sometimes be low quality, visibility wasted, or even have some success without reaching their full potential. It can be hard for the advertiser to know that their money is well spent and may think the results are the “best they can do,” when it is not the case.
Inexperience and attempting to cut corners instead of hiring a skilled programmatic team, will likely result in less than superior results. If done correctly, there is no reason to assume your digital campaign will be wildly successful.
4. Fraud
In a digital world, fraud is inevitable. However, you don’t want it present in your advertising campaign. If bots are created to “view” videos or ads, the accuracy of actual human views can be drastically misrepresented.
Luckily, most companies have fraud protection but before you establish any type of expensive ad campaign digitally, online security must be considered.
5. Inappropriate Ad-Matching
Ad-matching is when your campaign ends up near content or on a website that doesn’t align with your company’s mission or values. Essentially – your brilliant ad ends up as a pop up on an unfortunate site.
We have all winced when something inappropriate has popped up when we’ve been browsing online. As with online fraud, these types of issues should be avoidable with good brand protection.
8. Conversation Starters
Programmatic ad campaigns have one more huge benefit worthy of discussion – they start conversations. Real time digital updates customized to real data will personalize the experience for the viewer and customer.
Smart ads get more than impressions, they start conversations. Automated conversations happen in messaging interfaces and resemble a conversation between users and brands. This is sometimes represented in a chat box or pop-up window. It will guide the user through a set of pre-determined paths, allowing users to choose the next action.
These types of conversational advertising are not only a benefit to programmatic ads, but they also aim to solve one of the biggest problems in the digital world. The digital space is known to lack differentiation and uniqueness (this is especially evident on social media channels where all the ads are starting to look similar).
Final Thoughts
As with any advertising campaign, there are benefits and there are challenges. There is really no solid argument against embracing the advancement of advertising in the digital world.
When data is collected and used in the proper ways, it can enhance the entire experience for the customer. It also gives a business a lot of leverage in how to market to their client base and continue to improve their services.
Our world is much more accessible with digital technology in advertising, and if executed properly, can fulfill our powerful need for the human connection.
