Audience buying has revolutionized digital advertising. It enables marketers and their media partners to use data to find and communicate with very specific individuals wherever they are on the internet.
That’s why it’s key to understand not only the technological capabilities of your media partner, but also just how rich their audience knowledge and data is. Here are a few important questions to ask them:
Does your platform have access to first-party data? If not, how do you prove you’re reaching my ideal customer with quality data?
Before you ask this question, you must understand who your customers are and why they purchase from you. Once you’ve defined your ideal audience, you and your media partner must be able to reach them efficiently.
Whatever level of audience information you have, the right media partner will also be able to provide you new insights into your audience’s demographics, and decision-making and spending behaviors — in addition to proving they’re reaching your ideal customer.
How do you control where my brand appears? If you must whitelist or blacklist websites, what are the pros and cons of each method?
Because targeted advertising reaches your desired audience wherever they may be online, you usually have less control over where your brand is displayed. Blacklisting or whitelisting specific websites is a manual and potentially incomplete process.
When you work with a vertical-based publisher, you’ll get the millions of data points to define your audience and have a targeted place on the internet for your brand to appear — truly the best of both worlds.
How do you know you’re reaching not only the optimal audience, but an engaged audience? What kind of safeguards do you use to make sure content is relevant?
Contextual display — when customers are shown an advertisement or related website content when they’re already engaging with similar content — ensures you get a stronger ROI because you’re reaching the right person at exactly the right time.
Offering customers the information they want at the right time will inspire loyalty, leading to engaged customers and repeat business. According to Gallup, “customers who are fully engaged represent an average 23% premium in terms of share of wallet, profitability, revenue and relationship growth compared with the average customer.” They’re your brand ambassadors and your most vocal fans.
What kind of analytics do you offer? Will you help me interpret the data my campaign produces? How would you work with me to optimize my creative in response to how it’s performing?
All the data in the world is great, but it’s also important to know how your media partner will work with your team to get the best ROI possible. You need:
- Analytics that make sense to you, your KPI’s and prove you’re reaching and engaging with your target audience.
- Optimized brand creative and the ability to update it quickly in response to those analytics.
- A partner who won’t just take your business, turn on your campaign and let you know after several weeks how it’s doing without any context.
At Mountain News, our goal is to create strong partnerships with our clients by delivering high-performing campaigns aligned with their goals and initiatives. Interested in learning more? Contact us today.
