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4 MISTAKESTO AVOID IN

DIGITAL MEDIABUYING

American Express, one of the largest brands in the world, has recently announced that it plans to shift 100% of its online ad budget to buying ads automatically (AKA Programmatic Buying) hoping to use technology to buy ads from now on, as opposed to using people to send insertion orders to publishers .

Clearly, when it comes to the big players, digital media buying is quite effective. But is this true for the small and medium size businesses just as much as for the big brands?

A recent Gartner survey reveals that 40% of all companies see digital advertising among their top keys to success. So how can you make it more effective for you?

4 Mistakes to Avoid In Digital Media Buying

4 Mistakes to Avoid In Digital Media Buying

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Online marketers tend to consider digital buying only within Google Adwords' GND (Google Display Network) and then base their idea of how successful media buying is, only on their failed experience with their Display campaigns. In order to succeed in display advertising you must look beyond the Adwords platform.

Most of the trade publishers save their 'hot' ad spaces for direct buyers while leaving the remnant ad spaces to be sold by the large networks. If you simply think big and contact the right trade publishers directly you can run effective display campaigns and also stay in control of your ad spend at the same time.

Not Thinking Beyond Google Display NetworkMistake #1

Our researchers have found that the difference between grand-scale digital buying success and reported incidents of failure is easily explained by analyzing four mistakes made by most marketers:

Not Thinking Beyond Google Display Network

Not Targeting Your Message to Your Exact Audience

Buying Quantity Instead of Quality

Ignoring Your Competitors

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUCCESS AND FAILURE IS EXPLAINED BY

ANALYZING FOUR MISTAKES.

4 Mistakes to Avoid In Digital Media Buying

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As an example of targeting success, let’s take a look at a big advertiser like Toyota. They run a campaign for a lower-end model like Corolla with celebrities like Aziatix, a multicultural R&B and hip-hop music group.

Not Targeting Your Messageto Your Exact Audience

Mistake #2

Probably the biggest mistake in Media Buying is not properly targeting your message. We have seen many examples of this; some more blatant than others.

When you think of your buyer personas, consider characteristics like location, gender, age, socio-economic status, employment status, interests, circles, etc. Also consider the sites that will be publishing your campaign. Are they all pointing to your target audience?

4 Mistakes to Avoid In Digital Media Buying

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According to AdClarity*, 52 different creative designs have been tested over the last 6 months: some flash, some regular images, and some text ads, all different sizes, some in Korean and some in English.

Toyota did a great job in profiling their audience, finding publishers that match their target, and customizing their campaign to maximize returns.

*AdClarity is the leading digital media intelligence solution for media buyers.

A campaign like this speaks to the target audience of Corollas: young, hip, middle-class and money-conscious.

This is definitely a classy example of a company that targets well. This campaign is running steadily on sites like koreaportal.com and sing365.com: sites where fans of Aziatix are likely to see the ad (and hopefully be inspired to buy a Corolla).

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Conversely, when they run campaigns in Latin circles for their tough trucks, you will notice Aziatix is nowhere to be found. Toyota now speaks to the hard-working Spanish-speaking family-man:

They run on sites like Univision.com and ehowenespanol.com.

Imagine the diminished returns they would have seen by running their Aziatix Corolla campaign on Univision.

So, do you know your audience as well as Toyota knows theirs? Do you target your campaigns, messaging, and placements as well as they do?

There will always be some testing required to determine what works in your own case, but by properly understanding the ecosystem and tracking the actions of your competitors and other industry players, you can diminish the time and resources you spend testing.

Buying Quantity Instead of QualityMistake #3

Another major mistake is that Media Buyers often buy quantity instead of quality. Worse yet, they focus on buying quantity at a discount rather than pay a premium price for targeting options on premium ad spaces.

But in the case of digital Media Buying (like in so many other cases), you often get what you pay for.

4 Mistakes to Avoid In Digital Media Buying

PROFILE YOUR AUDIENCE, FIND PUBLISHERS THAT MATCH YOUR TARGET, AND CUSTOMIZE YOUR CAMPAIGN TO MAXIMIZE RESULTS.

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Had Toyota gone for the discount quantity approach, their Aziatix campaign could have reached the “100 million monthly multi-platform digital unique users” on CNN.com. But how likely are CNN readers to be called to action by a Korean hip hop group? They may have found a great discount to run their “Tundra en espanol” campaign on all of the Hearst Magazines Digital Media sites and reached 21 million readers of Cosmopolitan, Country Living, Esquire, and others. But again, finding someone interested in a Tundra (especially “en espanol”) on Cosmopolitan.com is highly unlikely.

Ignoring Your CompetitorsMistake #4

In the digital media world, competitors can teach us a lot and may be able to save us resources! Imagine that: saving time and money thanks to your adversary!

For example, if Mazda wants to target the “young, hip, middle-class and money-conscious” crowd, they can explore Toyota’s experience with the Aziatix campaign and learn important lessons.

4 Mistakes to Avoid In Digital Media Buying

WE CAN LEVERAGE OUR COMPETITORS AND THE INSIGHTS THEIR EXPERIENCE PROVIDES

TO iMPROVE OUR OWN CAMPAIGNS

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First, they will see that the campaign has been running consistently for over 6 months, which means it is a successful campaign for Toyota. Therefore, it has many lessons about how to do things right (had they noticed that it was a failed campaign, they could reach conclusions about what not to do).

They can explore which publishers are working well for Toyota and run their own campaign on the same sites (and/or those site’s direct competitors). They can browse through the different creative and landing page design and messaging to see which elements are effective.

Also, Mazda can uncover the publishers on which Toyota ran tests which failed for their Corolla campaign. Mazda can avoid the time and expense of running tests themselves on these sites.

www.adclarity.com

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Minimizing MistakesThese top 4 mistakes, when avoided, can save you money and improve your conversions from your digital media buying. Will you make other mistakes? Probably. Your endeavors don’t need to be perfect, but to minimize the chance of erroneous campaigns that damage your ROI, there are tools that can make your digital Media Buying easier and more effective. Media Buying tools such as AdClarity can expose everything you need to know about the ecosystem (how else will you know what works for other players?), help you differentiate the quality placements that are worth the premium costs, optimize your campaigns based on highly-converting benchmarks, and connect you with the right partners and publishers.

This business report was produced by AdClarity, the leading digital media buying solution. We invite you to learn more about how AdClarity uncovers all the display advertising insights. Start your free trial at