The Plain English Guide to Demand-Side Platforms (DSP)
As a marketer, you might be focused on creating organic content most of the time. But you should keep in mind that paid advertising is just as important.
When you manage the paid ads for your business, you can go through individual ad managers such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads. However, that’s not the only option. You can also use demand-side platforms (DSP), which are automated, as a way to purchase and manage your online ads.
According to a 2021 study published by Statista, the US was the largest programmatic advertising market worldwide, spending an estimated $70 billion in 2020. Marketers are increasingly using DSPs as a way of purchasing, managing, and tracking online advertising. Below, let’s review all the basics about DSP advertising.
With a DSP, you can purchase mobile ads on apps, banner ads on search engines, and video ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google, and even more platforms. Instead of using both Google Ads and Facebook Ads, for instance, you can purchase those ads in one place on a DSP.
The purpose of this is to make ad buying faster, cheaper, and more efficient. Now, let’s dive into how DSP platforms work and why you should use one.
How do DSPs work?
DSPs work by using programmatic advertising, which is the buying and selling of ads in real-time through an automated system. With real-time bidding, ad placements are auctioned off in milliseconds.
When you get started with DSP advertising, you’ll need to begin strategizing how much you want to spend. Think about what an effective cost per click and cost per action might be. This will help you set up your online ads so the platform knows how much to spend in any given auction.
The best DSP platforms will allow you to include multiple rich media ads, including video, images, and animation.
Why use a DSP?
The main reason for using a DSP is that it makes your digital ad experience easier and more cost-effective. You can control, track, and maximize all your digital ads in one place. This means you can manage an entire ad campaign across sites on one dashboard. For example, you can show someone an ad on Google, then show them ads on Facebook, and then across other sites they visit — all in one campaign. Before DSPs, those would be separate campaigns on Google and Facebook Ads.
This means you can advertise on many networks, including all the major publishers, in addition to more. With the number of networks, you’ll have a more global reach.
Additionally, DSPs often partner with third-party data providers, giving you better tracking and reporting capabilities than a single network usually provides. And in the planning process, the targeting options are more personalized, meaning you can get better conversion rates.
When you’re choosing a platform to work with, you’ll want to look at how many ad exchanges the DSP has access to because that affects how many people you …read more
Source:: HubSpot Blog
