AdTech Vendor Vetting Considerations
The number of new and unique AdTech solutions is rapidly growing and choosing a vendor for each ad campaign is time-consuming and can get complicated.
We put together this list of essential steps to help marketers effectively vet vendors and get the maximum value from their ad spend.
Inventory Transparency & Brand Safety
When it comes to protecting a brand’s image, precautions are essential. Before running any campaign across Independent Open Web, you’ll want to know which online properties are serving your ads and make sure they meet viewability standards. Be straightforward with vendors, ask them about their supply partners, and more importantly, if you will have access to the list of domains that will be delivering your ad campaign.
Consider how much control you have over where your ads are served, whether or not you can toggle supply sources on or off, and if you’re able to create your own whitelist. Find out how new supply sources are being approved to make sure vendors only onboard the domains that meet all the Brand Safety criteria. Some vendors may have automated systems in place to scan each domain while others have dedicated Quality Assurance teams that hand pick each site.
Lastly, ask your vendor what they do to avoid false impressions such as non-human bots and whether they use pre-bid or post-bid verification tools.
Targeting Capabilities & Audience Segments
Different vendors offer a variety of targeting tactics and unique audience segments. When considering vendors, it’s important to find out which targeting capabilities they offer and the effectiveness of those targeting options for your campaign.
Consider your top targeting priorities, and describe your key audience; be as specific as possible for maximum results. Then, allow vendors to provide you with different targeting strategies based on previous success with similar campaigns. Some vendors may offer contextual targeting or browsing behaviour, while others can provide targeting through 1st party data segment. Since there are so many targeting features at your fingertips, make sure you are well aware of all the options so that you can leverage the combinations of the most effective capabilities.
If the vendor has an integrated DMP and offers you audience targeting using 3rd party segments, find out more about how exactly the data is being collected, how recent it is, how frequent it’s being updated, and finally how big the reach is for those segments.
Campaign Analytics and Reporting
When it comes to metrics, some vendors generate their numbers in-house, and some use third-party data platforms. Find out if your vendor offers real-time reporting and whether 3rd party data measurement can be verified.
Your campaign optimization strategy relies on accurate and up-to-date information, therefore these insights should not be underestimated, as they will determine your campaign success and provide building blocks for crafting future marketing strategies and calculating ROI along with LTV.
Optimization Capabilities
Every campaign has firm objectives that your vendor needs to understand.
Determine which factors are most important based on your end goal and list down all your KPIs along with your sales-lift and brand lift drivers.
Consider what the vendor will do to optimize your most important factors for the highest possible success rates.
Imagine the whole process outlined above but incredibly streamlined
We help marketers grow their brands through the most effective use of AdTech solutions by providing a holistic view of the current AdTech ecosystem.
Our team goes through a rigorous vetting process and manually onboards every single AdTech platform to make sure all proposals submitted to media buyers are coming from competitive vendors.
Not to mention, there’s absolutely no cost for media buyers to sign up, and the platform is completely free to use.
