Programmatic DSPs and Google Analytics | Jeff Swartz

David McBee, Simpli.fi TV: Welcome to Simpli.fi TV. Our guest today is Jeff Swartz. Jeff is the CEO and founder of Ethic Advertising Agency, a Pittsburgh-based agency that is focused on hyper-targeted digital advertising and the creative that goes with it. His agency has also recently developed a new piece of AdTech called Qujam, self-served geofencing advertising for all, which I am eager to hear more about. Jeff, thank you for joining us. Jeff Swartz, Ethic Advertising Agency: Yeah. Thanks, David, for having me. David McBee, Simpli.fi TV: Absolutely. All right. So let's just get right to it. I understand that you are working on the advancement of geofencing advertising. Tell me why that's important to you and what you're working on. Jeff Swartz, Ethic Advertising Agency: Yeah. I mean, a very brief history into Ethic Advertising Agency is we are pretty proficient at the programmatic side of things. We work in all hyper-targeted digital advertising components, but we've actually kind of created a reputation using geofence advertising. But one of the things that we realized in how we're advancing that particular form of tech is that there are a lot of barriers. People have minimums. People are only managed service when the advertiser wants to do it themselves. Some people don't accept credit cards. They don't provide a dashboard. It's not built on the best technology. So we've had literally 100s of conversations around geofencing. And at Ethic Advertising, we have minimums. We are a managed service as well too. We identified, "Hey. We're not the right fit for everybody," but we also thought, "Hey. There's really nothing out there that's just focused on geofencing that has no minimums, that anybody can use, and is kind of like the Facebook boosted post version for the geofencing world." And we're not recreating the technology. We're building it on what we think is the best technology, not to plug Simpli.fi, but on the Simpli.fi platform, we're just giving it people the access to that particular component of it. David McBee, Simpli.fi TV: All right. So if I'm understanding, you're basically creating something that any small business owner can use to leverage the geofencing technology? Jeff Swartz, Ethic Advertising Agency: Yep. Any small business owner, any small agency, anybody with really any budget can go in and play around, build their own fences, do what they can do, but it's in layman's terms. It's easy to use. It's just as easy or it's going to be just as easy as doing a Indeed or LinkedIn employee post or a boosted post on Facebook, like I mentioned as well too. It's truly going to be the geofencing platform for anybody and everybody that has those smaller budgets. David McBee, Simpli.fi TV: That sounds very cool. Now, I know from our previous conversations that Simpli.fi isn't the only DSP that you work with. So how many DSPs are you working with? And I guess the real question is how do you navigate which one is right for each of your clients? Jeff Swartz, Ethic Advertising Agency: Yeah. It's a great question. So with our focus of hyper-targeted advertising, we kind of select the DSPs that fit the requirements that we have. There isn't really a DSP that we found that does absolutely everything and stuff. So although we do work with Simpli.fi, we work with probably three other DSPs at any given time, but we also beta test other DSPs and kind of cycle through them and work with other partners, both self-served and sometimes managed services, but it's really based off of what our client's needs are and what we can get the most bang for their buck. So there's a technology piece and a budget piece that falls into play of what we can kind of leverage and utilize. David McBee, Simpli.fi TV: All right. So what's your best advice then for other ad agencies that are watching this interview right now on how to pick which DSP? Jeff Swartz, Ethic Advertising Agency: Yeah. So our methodology is to actually become an expert. Simpli.fi happens to be the platform that we're an expert in that we use a lot, because it matches what are niches of that hyper-targeted nature. But my best advice is to go through these kind of review sprints and say even if you're happy with the DSP that you have, do a review of a couple other DSPs to see what else is out there, see how they're pushing that technology and everything. And you can either use it as negotiations for your current DSP. You can find something that you can use a little bit better for certain things as well. A good example is we've found some really great resources for some premium OTT and some other things as well that have really allowed us to leverage those things in different platforms. But really those kind of sprints really help out. And why I like them to be a sprint, not just, "Hey. Someone came to us with another DSP. We need to review it," is we don't have time for that. So dedicate some time to do it, a little bit of time throughout the year to focus on that, research it, and then you can either qualify the DSPs that you're on or you can stumble across something that's going to help your business even more. David McBee, Simpli.fi TV: I like that. All right. So I noticed on your blog you talk about one of my least favorite topics in the whole world, but one that's very important to understand, and I know you could probably talk about this for an hour, but as briefly as you can, can you share your experience with DSP data not syncing with Google Analytics? Jeff Swartz, Ethic Advertising Agency: Yeah. So a couple of years ago, well, more than a couple of years ago, we were always having to explain this information. So there are a lot of companies, small and big, that use Google Analytics, which I know they're moving to GA4, but Google Analytics, a lot of people, I like to put in perspective, created in 2005 as a free resource and a free tool. It's not the end all, be all. It also speaks a different language than DSPs. So DSPs and Google Analytics are kind of talking two different languages. So when they're combining the data to look at, they're wondering why is there so much more traffic usually on Google Analytics than there are on the DSP? Well, a lot of times the DSP will filter out those test clicks or the non-human kind of things as well that kind of filters through. So one of the things that we did is instead of having to explain it, and I like this as a tit for any agency as well too, instead of explaining the same thing over and over again, if you get that same question, create content around it. So we created a very simple blog and we actually spent a month of research on this, collaborating with DSPs and internally and doing some testing to figure out how do we simplify this kind of notion of why this data isn't matching up. And we created four unique things. So we have that blog post on there, but one of the main things is speaking two different languages of users versus clicks and then it's also Google Analytics counts everything where the DSPs don't. They'll actually filter through. So I believe DSP data actually more than Google Analytics data. It's about weeding through that to find the true story. David McBee, Simpli.fi TV: Plus there's that whole mobile phone issue that Google Analytics has so much trouble with, right? Jeff Swartz, Ethic Advertising Agency: Yeah. Coffeyville, Kansas is the other thing that comes out of that. So Coffeyville, Kansas is dead center of the United States. When Google doesn't know where the traffic is but they know it's coming from America, that's where they put it. So we get a lot of questions of, "Why are we showing up so much in Kansas?" Well, you're not. Google Analytics just doesn't understand that. So it gets confused by different things and its ability to track. But it's also interesting... They're moving to GA4 as well too. So that's an interesting new endeavor to kind of research and look into. David McBee, Simpli.fi TV: Awesome. Awesome. I'll put a link to that in our show notes, so people can go read that article. https://www.ethic-ads.com/discrepancies-between-google-analytics-data-programmatic-reporting/ Jeff Swartz, Ethic Advertising Agency: Cool. I appreciate it, David McBee, Simpli.fi TV: Jeff, thanks for your time today. I do have one last question that I like to ask everyone here on Simpli.fi TV. Is there a book or another resource that has positively impacted your success that you would like to recommend to our viewers? Jeff Swartz, Ethic Advertising Agency: Yeah. I mean, I'm a big book person, so there's a lot, but if we're talking about business owners, I really like Traction by Gino Wickman, who uses the EOS system. It's something that I don't follow like a Bible like some people do and everything, but I got a lot of great information that has allowed me to scale and create a really strong vision for my company. So from a structure standpoint of how to kind of build a profitable long-term business, it's honestly my favorite book. There's a whole bunch of other ones as well too. Actually got a blog post from 2022 of our book list on there, and we'll post another one for 2023. But that is my number one book for not just agency owners and everything but any business leader or any business owner. David McBee, Simpli.fi TV: Perfect. Thank you so much for being with us today, Jeff. Jeff Swartz, Ethic Advertising Agency: Yeah. Thanks, David. David McBee, Simpli.fi TV: Thank you for joining us on Simpli.fi TV. I'm David McBee. Be awesome. And we'll see you next time.