Campaign Architecture.

The art of organizing advertising data.

Campaign Architecture.The art of organizing your advertising data.

Introduction 03How to embrace new advertising technology and keep it organized.

Maximizing ROAS 04A blueprint for unifying your advertising tech stack.

Data Mapping 06The missing ingredient to a more transparent supply chain.

Campaign Architecture 08A structural methodology for media execution.

The Power of Process 09The mechanics of scaling your media operations.

D A T A A R C H I T E C T I N G

Your campaign roadmap.

Introduction:

With thousands of vehicles for communicating and interacting with audiences, advertising

is more exciting in 2019 than at any other point in history. In the same breath, the marketers

responsible for managing these lines of communication are at a crossroads. How do they

continue to embrace new advertising technology and keep it all organized?

The poster child for the future of advertising technology is the annual Dmexco Conference in

Cologne, Germany. Following this year’s event, Digiday reports that marketers are “bracing

for the challenges ahead” as industry professionals question the stability of the ad tracking

environment with the cookie as its foundation, among other seismic shifts.

Amidst the craze of solutions proposed, Marketers were hesitant to embrace “what’s next,” before

feeling confident about the present. This shared sentiment was on display at Dmexco where

there was a distinct uprising of interest into getting existing advertising technology to function

properly.

Marketers realize that the mountains of data they harvest from digital advertising won’t provide

value if they don’t have a way to organize it. As one senior marketer put it: “I’m past coming to

shows to buy the latest new tech. I need to focus on making it work.”

Increasingly, marketers demand intelligent solutions that organize advertising data so they

can simplify campaign execution. But, accomplishing this has been daunting. There’s a range

of analytics and reporting tools that bring advertising data together, but those dashboards are

delivering nothing more than a final receipt for the campaigns that are already running. This

leaves the entire organization with little clarity into what’s happening behind any given metric or

how to translate that information to shape a strategy with purpose.

Campaign Architecture gives marketers a system of record for repeatable performance that

grows with them. This whitepaper guides media teams through an intentional process to

maximize return on ad spend, keep supply chains transparent, and scale any media organization.

“I’m past coming to shows to buy the latest new tech.

I need to focus on making it work.”

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Campaign Architecture

Business Outcomes

Media Planning

Media Buying

Brand Safety

Analytics

Reporting

Attribution

Verification

Maximizing ROAS: A blueprint to unify your advertising tech stack.

Called “the secret sauce of digital advertising” by LumenAd, Campaign Architecture is how media plans are set up and organized to properly manage the flow of data, from holistic media measurement to the most granular creative insights. How marketers architect their campaign determines how effectively they can track and measure return on ad spend (ROAS).

At its core, Campaign Architecture holds advertising accountable to desired business outcomes.

This is possible due to two essential steps:

1. Categorizing campaign objectives to specific portfolios. 2. Implementing a data map.

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1: Categorizing Campaign Objectives to Specific Portfolios.

First, marketers should assign each campaign objective within their architecture to a specific portfolio. Portfolios serve as a method for categorizing or grouping campaign objectives to specific areas of the business. Once complete, marketers can quickly attribute which investments are most efficiently contributing to desired business outcomes. Portfolios can represent a product/service line, program, market, brand, client, among others.

For example, a fitness franchise might categorize their portfolios by location or market. Collectively, they could be working to increase membership by 20% YoY. However, each location will have a variety of market investments, or campaign objectives, that need to be measured separately from the others.

Too often, media buys are made in one lump sum, leaving it up to specific targeting tactics to delineate between locations or markets. By associating every campaign objective to a specific portfolio, marketers have the foundation for maximizing ROAS.

2: Implement A Data Map

The second ingredient is data mapping, which allows for seamless cross-channel measurement of any media mix. A data map allows what would otherwise be siloed ad buys to be compared in a normalized, one-to-one environment.

Better yet, data mapping provides the infrastructure to gain visibility into the advertising lifecycle. By giving every data source a home, marketers go beyond analyzing impression-level data and gain a holistic view of all operations – from media planning to the final report.

When every dollar in a media plan is associated to a specific portfolio and is carefully orchestrated with a data map, it becomes clear how each investment contributes to desired business outcomes. This is why a Campaign Architecture serves as a scalable model for unifying any advertising tech stack.

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Data mapping: The missing ingredient to a more transparent supply chain.

Managing relationships within the advertising supply chain can be tricky. While every investment

should ideally yield a positive return, it’s the marketer who feels the squeeze when it doesn’t pan

out. As a result, marketers seek deeper relationships with their data, vendors and partners – all in

an effort to better understand the mechanics of every investment.

So, as a first step, where do most marketers turn? To reporting.

While it’s a common tactic, using blanket reporting to solve the transparency problem is a fatal

flaw. At the 2018 Digiday Media Buying Summit, a staggering 64% of respondents said they were

solving for transparency issues by “instituting more frequent reporting.” But this is not what

reporting tools are designed to solve.

Reporting should be a retrospective: a final receipt for campaign performance. By the time

marketers arrive at reporting they should already have a clear picture of how vendors, inventory

and market tactics are working in concert with one another.

Waiting until the end of a campaign to sift through a pile of data simply doesn’t scale and is

contrary to solving the ubiquitous transparency challenges. Translating every ad dollar into an

organized data map is a necessary step that enables marketers to hold vendors and partners

accountable. Further, when every data source has a home or “bucket” – marketers spend less time

translating data in reporting tools and more time making use of the data they have.

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“Waiting until the end of a campaign to sift through a pile of data simply doesn’t scale.”

1. What is my desired business outcome?

2. What are the portfolios or categories by which I want to measure contributions to the desired business outcome?

3. What objectives are needed for each portfolio to thrive?

4. What tactics are needed to support each identified objective?

5. What advertising mediums support each market tactic?

6. What is the best source for buying placements within each advertising medium?

7. What targeting options are available for reaching my audience?

8. What message will achieve my desired action?

The answers to these questions inform how data is grouped before a campaign goes live and

allows teams to efficiently identify which strategies generate the greatest return on investment.

This eliminates reports that leave you with more questions than answers and boosts transparency

in the supply chain.

By implementing a data map, marketers can visualize the flow of data at every layer for an agile

approach to advertising management. Let’s look at the structural methodology behind Campaign

Architecture and how marketers can leverage a visual data map on their next campaign.

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What is my desired business outcome?

What are the portfolios or categories by which I want to measure contributions to the desired business outcome?

What objectives are needed for each portfolio to thrive?

What tactics are needed to support each identified objective?

What advertising mediums support each market tactic?

What is the best source for buying placements within each advertising medium?

What targeting options are available for reaching my audience?

What message will achieve my desired action?

To build a clear data map, every marketer first needs to identify the right buckets for each

data source. While this exercise can vary in complexity, it’s best to start by answering the

following questions:

Key results by which the organization wishes to align department efforts. These desired business outcomes direct investments with a clear definition of success.

1. DESIRED BUSINESS OUTCOME: “KEY RESULTS”

2. PORTFOLIO: “AD ACCOUNT”

A method for categorizing or grouping advertising objectives to specific areas of the business. Portfolios can represent a product/

service line, program, market, brand, or client, among others.

3. OBJECTIVE: “CAMPAIGN”

An advertising objective that outlines to whom, when and how a combination of media strategies are

delivered via a specific campaign.

4. TACTIC: “LINE ITEM”

Tactics group together mediums (specific advertising channels) for analysis. Each tactic or “line item” represents a unique

strategy in support of the campaign objective. Grouping mediums together delivers on the promise of cross-channel digital analysis

by measuring progress towards the identified objective.

5. MEDIUM: “CHANNEL”

The specific medium of advertising. For example, audio is a medium or channel that could include ad-buying platforms

such as Spotify and Pandora.

6. SOURCE: “AD-BUYING PLATFORM”

Sources represent the specific ad-serving platform within a given medium (i.e., The Trade Desk, Google

Ads, Spotify, Instagram).

7. TARGETING: “AD GROUP”

Targeting, also known as ad groups, or ad sets, contain one or more creatives, typically made up of unique

targeting strategies.

8. MESSAGE: “CREATIVE”

The message or asset being delivered.

Campaign Architecture: A structural methodology for media execution.

Ex: Fitness Locations

Ex: Engagement

Ex: Increase market share by 7%

Ex: Gym Visits

Ex: Women, 18-25, College Student

Ex: Promo - 10% Off First Month

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2.

3.

4.

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The power of process: The mechanics of scaling your media operations.

Advertising is an investment.

And the technology marketers use to maximize their return is only as powerful as the team leveraging it. It’s paramount that teams adopt standardized workflows and implement scalable processes as they grow.

Campaign Architecture gives organizations a framework to scale its media operations. It serves as a system of record for repeatable performance that grows with them.

It’s one thing to get to the end of a campaign and applaud its success. But, can it be repeated? And can marketers quickly identify the steps that got them there? Alternately, what can be improved?

When it comes to campaign execution, lack of process inherently equates to less output – especially in an industry where retaining top talent is a challenge. The best media professionals bring a highly-valued skill set to any marketing team. They’re responsible for planning, executing and producing results for one of the most critical functions of the marketing organization – advertising.

Veteran media professionals bring coveted perspectives for navigating the complexities of the digital advertising ecosystem, yet much of their day-to-day work includes repetitive, tedious tasks related to data pulling, cleaning, and management. This is time that could otherwise be allocated to uncovering new strategies and delivering on, if not exceeding, desired business outcomes.

Let’s look at one of the most common questions in any campaign lifecycle: “How are we performing?”

This simple question tends to deliver a great deal of anxiety for marketers – yet it should be the question they’re most comfortable answering. Put simply, if that question gives a team anxiety, they need to implement Campaign Architecture. Fast.

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“Campaign Architecture gives organizations a framework for scaling its media operations. It serves as a system of record for repeatable performance that grows with them.”

With Campaign Architecture, advertising tech stacks begin to function properly, support effective media management and distribute the most critical information to each stakeholder. This allows every department to play a proactive role in shaping outcomes, rather than reacting to monthly or quarterly status updates.

While internal staffing functions take slightly different forms at every marketing organization, most media teams include some or all of the following roles:

For each role to thrive, they need to keep sight of their direct influence on campaign objectives and quickly digest relevant information to shape future decision making. Traditionally, the application of advertising data falls in the hands of analytics and data management departments, with minimal communication to the rest of the organization on how their actions impact desired business outcomes.

Put simply, Campaign Architecture is mission critical for growth-oriented teams that strive to take an intelligent and outcomes-based approach to digital advertising. The efficiencies organizations gain from cross-department alignment and access to the right data is a recipe for long-term success within any marketing organization.

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Media Planning &

Buying

Market Research

Design & Production

Implementation & Execution

Digital Strategy

Analytics & Data

Management

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Want to learn more on how to adopt Campaign Architecture?

LumenAd is an advertising management solution that measures the return on ad spend of every investment across the digital ecosystem. Built within a proven framework for unifying programmatic, direct, search and social data, LumenAd centralizes every ad buy into one intuitive hub. Marketers can architect campaigns, connect to any data source, monitor performance in real-time and quickly craft insightful reports.

Request a demo at lumenad.com/demo and discover a smarter way to manage your advertising.