Programmatic Transparency Defined: Target, Bid, Optimize, and Report at the Data Element-Level

As the events surrounding the pandemic have made clear, we live in an unpredictable and rapidly changing world. And when it comes to your programmatic advertising, a one-size-fits-all segment-based approach to ad campaigns that doesn’t allow for transparency and adaptability simply won’t cut it.

Advertisers need and deserve transparency when it comes to their programmatic spend. At Simpli.fi, we understand that when it comes to programmatic, the data makes all the difference. Where your data is sourced from, how it is packaged, and how it is sold to you can mean the difference between campaign success or failure.

At the end of the day, your client is running a business, not just a digital advertising campaign. In order to help them make better decisions, you need better visibility into the data behind every campaign. Every programmatic marketer deserves to know exactly who they are targeting, precisely what it costs (data costs, media costs, and your costs), that the results you see are real and brand appropriate, and insights into why your campaign worked or didn’t work. Seems pretty reasonable right? So why is it so hard for other programmatic platforms to deliver true transparency? It all goes back to the data.

However, Simpli.fi is different. By providing true transparency at the data element-level thanks to our use of unstructured data, advertisers get granular reporting and metrics on targeting, costs, and what worked or didn’t work in every campaign.

Let’s dive in and see why this is so special.

FOLLOW THE DATA

As we discussed above, it’s tough to be truly responsive and nimble on the ground using pre-packaged audience segments, such as “Auto Intenders,” “High-Income Retail Enthusiasts,” etc. This is why, rather than using nontransparent audience segments, Simpli.fi uses individual data elements, including both online data points — such as contextual content, keywords searched, browsing behavior, domains visits, apps used, site search history and more — as well as offline data points, such as GPS location, to create a custom audience for your campaign, optimizing along the way with the same element-level control.

We achieve this by utilizing a platform that was custom-built for the use of unstructured data. What does this mean for advertisers? Actual transparency that’s granular to the individual data element-level‚Äîgiving you unprecedented insights into every campaign impression at every spend level. With direct access to unstructured data, marketers are able to target, bid, optimize, and report at the individual data element-level, offering unlimited opportunities for individually relevant advertising.

And while we’re on the subject, it’s a good time to mention that we’re not just speculating when we say that unstructured data makes a significant difference to campaign performance. Check out our recently released Campaign Performance Analysis measuring the impact of unstructured data vs. pre-packaged audience segments to see how this plays out in actual campaigns.

Simpli.fi uses individual data elements, including both online data points — such as contextual content, keywords searched, browsing behavior, domains visits, apps used, site search history and more — as well as offline data points, such as GPS location, to create a custom audience for your campaign, optimizing along the way with the same element-level control.

IT’S CRUCIAL THAT YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR SPEND IS GOING

One of the biggest benefits of the level of transparency provided by Simpli.fi is the ability to answer the crucial question of where advertiser ad spend is actually going. This is perhaps the most important thing advertisers need to be asking when it comes to their programmatic spending. Unfortunately, far too many advertisers are spending millions on ineffective or wasted impressions via nontransparent audience segments — a digital black box of sorts.

What’s the black box, you ask? This refers to the audience segments that most other programmatic platforms use for audience targeting. Segments are exactly what they sound like ‚Äì target audiences put into segments that can only be viewed and analyzed on the segment-level. What this means for advertisers is that they have no visibility into what’s actually in the segment; this means that if the segment performs well in a campaign (or not), there’s no way to tell why or why not. What’s needed is visibility into campaigns on the individual data element-level.

This is where Simpli.fi comes in. By using unstructured data rather than audience segments, advertisers can run campaigns and get fully transparent reporting at the data element-level rather than the segment-level.

And when belt tightening occurs, this kind of transparency is more important than ever. If you’ve ever tried to adjust campaign budgets and kept hitting a wall when following your spend, we have the solution: a platform where every bid on each impression is visible and every dollar is accounted for. Advertisers get total transparency into: media costs, data costs, and fees, so no guesswork is ever needed.

SETTING THE STANDARD FOR CAMPAIGN PERFORMANCE

With Simpli.fi, advertisers can view and report on each impression. This is simply not possible with audience segments. The benefits of operating at the impression-level are enormous. Advertisers don’t just know what impressions are being bought—they can see the data behind why it was bought. This allows advertisers to target users at a significantly more granular and accurate level than audience segments.

And because we utilize unstructured data rather than segments, advertisers can see which data elements are performing well and which aren’t. For example, with Simpli.fi’s platform advertisers can see all the way down to how a single keyword is performing. If the keywords are not performing well, the advertiser can shift spend to other keywords mid-campaign. Less wasted spend, less wasted impressions. This is real-time optimization made possible by working with individual data elements rather than segments.

With Simpli.fi’s platform, advertisers can see all the way down to how a single keyword is performing. If the keywords are not performing well, the advertiser can shift spend to other keywords mid-campaign. Less wasted spend, less wasted impressions. This is real-time optimization made possible by working with individual data elements rather than segments.

What’s more, since this is all happening in real-time, the audiences Simpli.fi creates are dynamic. Meaning, the audience can evolve over the course of a campaign as we see what’s working and what’s not. And the entire process is transparent since advertisers can see exactly what is being bid on and what users are being targeted—and why. This is what we mean when we say actual transparency.

If you’re ready to see for yourself what this kind of transparency can do for your digital advertising efforts, contact us at hi@simpli.fi