How to choose a media agnostic demand-side platform | M&M Global

How to choose a media agnostic demand-side platform

Not all demand-side platforms (DSPs) are created equal and a key problem for advertisers and agencies is finding one that doesn’t favour a particular inventory over another. Bruce Falck, chief operating officer at BrightRoll, explains why your DSP needs to be media agnostic and the benefits it delivers.

Bruce Falck

Understanding and recognising media agnosticism (sometimes called “media neutrality”) is important. Media agnosticism, in a nutshell, means that your DSP delivers on your needs, not their own. A DSP that isn’t media agnostic could potentially play favourites with sources of inventory, rather than finding the inventory that’s best for your business.

As an advertiser or agency, you are right to ask whether your DSP partner will work only in your best interest, and provide agnostic access to supply. Your DSP’s only bias should be your goals.

Every programmatic advertiser should be aware of media agnosticism and know how to identify it. Here’s why it matters and what advertisers should look for when seeking a media agnostic DSP.

Putting you first

When a DSP helps you buy media, its sole intention should be to maximise your goals. Because of that, a media agnostic DSP won’t be biased towards a particular inventory source. So how to identify a media agnostic DSP? Look for three things: control, transparency, and clear pricing.

1. Control

You should have complete control over your supply sources, which means that a media agnostic DSP will let you buy from any inventory source you’d like. If there’s a supply source you’d prefer not to buy from, or you would like to buy less from, you’ll also have control over that.

Ask your vendor: “Can I control how much inventory I buy from any publisher, exchange, or supply-side platform?”

2. Transparency

You should have complete transparency into the websites, mobile websites, and apps where your advertisements will be appearing. A media agnostic DSP will give you full visibility into the inventory you buy — even drilling down into specific sites and URLs. You should also be able to see how every publisher performs relative to others. Without this kind of transparency, it’s impossible to optimise your campaigns.

Ask your vendor: “Can I see which inventory my ads are served on? Can I verify my outcomes?”

3. A clear price structure

Cost-efficiency is one of the most compelling reasons to buy video programmatically. Your DSP should be transparent with its pricing, meaning that you understand exactly how your DSP’s pricing structure works. There should be no hidden cost or fees. Are these fees really aligned with my interests?

Ask your vendor: “Can I see exactly how my budget is being spent? Can you explain, clearly and completely, how your pricing model works?”

Enabling Supply and Demand

Organisations with some of the world’s largest DSPs also offer marketplaces, also known as exchanges. These marketplaces are hubs through which DSPs can extend their reach via access to an enormous pool of inventory sources, such as premium publishers, supply side platforms, websites, and apps. The BrightRoll Marketplace is an example of this, as are Google’s Doubleclick AdX and AOL’s Adap.tv.

As a fundamental business principle, companies don’t normally work with their competitors. But in ad tech, it’s a different story. Take the scenario we’ve described — a DSP and marketplace operated by a single organisation. That DSP might work with marketplaces its own marketplace competes with, in order to provide access to all supply sources.

Ultimately, results speak for themselves. It’s worth putting a range of DSPs to the test to see if the results they deliver meet your objectives. If you see great results, chances are your DSP is media agnostic. Driving great results is both the point of and the proof of being media agnostic.

Bruce Falck

Chief operating officer, BrightRoll

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