The global digital advertising market in 2022 is valued at over 500 billion, consisting of 63% of the overall expenditure on media ads. If we look at the historical desktop vs mobile trends, it has become clear that mobile advertising has seen a tremendous increase as Millennials and GenZ are born into the digital era.
Based on a recent report by IAB, within the rapidly growing mobile advertising market, programmatic advertising revenues continue to grow as well. With an increase of 39%, the programmatic revenue alone is close to $100 billion in 2021.
What is so attractive about programmatic buying and how to add programmatic into the media mix in the most effective way? We sat down with Ralph Camus, Senior Manager at Septeni Global, to share some advice.
Q1: The programmatic space is very crowded. There are thousands of companies representing millions of ad networks, all saying they can bring good traffic. Identifying the most suitable traffic is liking finding a needle in a haystack. How should I decide?
A1: Admittedly, adnetwork and programmatic advertising is sometimes associated negatively with ad fraud and poor user quality. This is a problem the industry as a whole is trying to combat, which Septeni is actively involved as well. My suggestion is to find a reputable business that has a long and good track record, and choose appropriate fraud detection tools to measure the success of the campaign. Setting specific install rejection rules based on past fraudulent traffic would help as well.
Q2: Despite the possible risks, why should the advertisers add programmatic buying to their media mix?
A2: There are multiple good reasons to involve programmatic inventories, for example, to reach a larger audience at a cheaper CPM on a larger scale. With regards to CPI networks, which is the area that I’m most familiar with, advertisers opted for this because it’s well suited to several key metrics. First of all, the volume. Since the CPI network aggregates large in-app inventory sources, the user base reached is a wide swathe of all mobile users, when connected with the right combination of sources. The cost per install is competitive as well, compared with other named media platforms. Furthermore, as privacy is becoming more important, CPI network traffic is privacy safe in the sense that it does not collect or use personal information or data, unlike other larger platforms. In summary, the biggest benefit for the clients would be the ability to achieve reach and volume goals at scale and with efficiency (price wise).
Reasons to utilize CPI network: volume, low CPI, Privacy
Q3: With greater opportunities comes greater risks! Then how should advertisers mitigate the risks and have a more effective campaign?
A3: I would recommend working with a trusted partner that knows the inside out of the business, is capable of navigating the complications of CPI ad networks and is honest about it at the same time. Since there are multiple layers of media and networks, the right partner should be able to monitor the traffic on a daily basis, and do hands-on management to directly optimize the campaigns so that the KPIs are met. For CPI buying, since the cost is already set so the advertiser does not need to worry about cost fluctuations. However, ad networks are equipped with less feature-rich targeting options, in most of the cases, they can only target Operating Systems or Geos, which makes effective traffic management vital to the success of any campaign. The optimization is less based on targeting, but more related to the right traffic source, as there are millions of in-app inventories out there and a responsible and versatile optimizer will try to find the most suitable traffic within a short period of time for the better ROAS.
Q4: Can CPI campaigns achieve both cost and quality at the same time? Seems too good to be true. How do you optimize?
A4: Septeni Global has its in-house CPI Management service called Perry, which has been integrated with over 20 global networks. In our team, we aim to deliver on higher user quality versus other self-run or media optimized CPI networks. Our campaign managers will evaluate and optimize the campaign performance through data analysis and direct media communication to ensure the success of the campaign. To avoid fraudulent installs, after a user clicks on the ad and installs the app, the data will be passed to Perry’s system first. Our system scans traffic to filter out undesirable traffic in advance, before that traffic can proceed to advertiser servers or the app store. Then based on the SDK data, our operation team will further analyze the data and optimize based on Site IDs at a very granular level.
To share some case studies. For a well known mobile gaming app that has been released for almost 2 years, the target D30 ROAS was 15%, but we were able to achieve 21% in April 2022. For a strategy MOBA game, the D1 retention reached 179% of the client’s KPI and D30 ROAS hit 115%. Through deep understanding of the traffic and diligent optimization, we were able to continuously drive results for direct response campaigns. At the same time, we also monitor the traffic source and optimize the platform to safeguard both campaign results and user quality.
Q5: So for Perry, you are optimizing the CPI network, similar to CPC media? How does it work?
A5: Yes, indeed! Most of the CPI networks will deliver installs with simple volume targets and a fixed cost. That’s the end of it. We are different in that we commit to the further post-install KPI events, achieving both CPI and other key metrics goals at the same time. Just like other CPC media that we run in-house, we have CPI ad network consultants monitoring and optimizing the campaign toward the KPI on a daily basis as well.
Most traditional CPI ad networks are built based on the assumption that the overall quality of the CPI is of good quality and they optimize by eliminating low quality media through blacklisting and other methods. However, Perry thinks otherwise. Instead of spending time blocking the bad ones, we devote our resources in finding the most effective traffic to acquire high quality users.
Thanks to our extensive expertise in advertising operations and our network of media, Septeni Global’s Perry team is able to flexibly set optimal KPIs for each client and perform quality management with our unique know-how for higher client satisfaction.
If you are interested in learning more about Perry, please feel free to reach out to us at hello@septeniamerica.com.
RALPH
SENIOR MANAGER
Joined Septeni (Now Septeni Global) in 2013. Previously in Brand Advertising, Ralph made the shift to digital in Septeni and has previous experience with social media tools, campaign management and programmatic advertising. As Senior Manager of the Product Division at Septeni Global, Ralph has been leading the business, and the technology sectors of the Perry product with a focus on leveraging the deep experience of Septeni in Direct Response advertising and working with both advertisers, media and technology partners to drive superior performance for the advertisers of Septeni Global. His area of focus is the platform and industry technology that powers digital and programmatic advertising.
ABOUT SEPTENI GLOBAL
Septeni Global is a global organization that specializes in digital marketing. With end-to-end services, we are committed to providing solutions from strategic planning to creative production that centers on brand awareness and user growth in the digital domain.