How to optimize your marketing using adtech

What is adtech and how can you implement it?

Whether you’re new to the topic of adtech or simply want to refresh your knowledge, this story provides an overview and explanation of the key terms related to advertising technology. After all, this marketing field is full of different technical terms that marketers need to know if they want to select the right tools and use them effectively.

Adtech is one of the most important aspects of digital, programmatic advertising. It stands for advertising technology and combines all tools, software solutions, and programs that can help you boost your campaigns. Only when you use the right adtech tools can you maximize your marketing measures and channels.

Adtech is predominantly focused on managing your advertising on digital platforms and optimizing its targeting. Adtech tools form the interface between analytics and the placement of your ads – in other words, they tell you how well your campaign is performing, how it could be improved, and where you should ideally run it depending on your budget.

What role does AI play in adtech?

Providers of adtech tools are programming solutions to collect and present data with ever-greater precision, enabling you to refine your campaigns even more effectively. These digital tools are now also incorporating artificial intelligence. Using predefined processes, AI can improve the creation, placement, and evaluation of your ads. With that in mind, advertisers would be wise to get to grips with this complex, yet highly promising topic.

What features and technical concepts can give marketers a helping hand?

To implement adtech properly, marketers need to familiarize themselves with the features it offers. Our list explains the key terms as well as the features behind them.

Demand-side platform (DSP)

When it comes to campaign management, you have the advertisers on the one hand, who are looking for media to optimally display their ads; on the other hand, you have the publishers, who sell spaces on their sites for marketers to place their ads.

A demand-side platform is a kind of marketplace for marketers to buy digital ad spaces and manage their campaigns. DSPs are tailored to the needs of advertisers, offering them important features such as precise target group selection and the purchase of ad spaces. These platforms also usually enable you to optimize your ads in real time to ensure the best possible placement.

Like all good adtech tools, they additionally facilitate in-depth reporting throughout your campaigns so that you can quantify their success using figures and derive suitable measures accordingly.

Supply-side platform (SSP)

A supply-side platform is like a trading floor for publishers to sell their digital ad spaces. The features therefore differ from those of demand-side platforms. An SSP is designed for centrally selling placements and thus impressions to customers from various sources. A good supply-side platform will enable you to ascertain the value of placements on your website and also sell them via automated auctions. So, an SSP essentially offers the ads that are then bought on a DSP.

Data management platform (DMP)

A data management platform is an adtech tool that helps you evaluate customer data in order to individualize your marketing measures even more effectively. A DMP collects data from various sources – ranging from general buying behavior to click behavior on social media. This anonymized data is compiled into detailed customer profiles and made available to users of the tool.

These features enable you to better understand the needs of your customers and respond to changes in real time, both of which are key factors for a successful campaign.

Agency trading desk (ATD)

An agency trading desk is relevant to media planning because agencies can use this adtech tool to manage purchases made by media providers. An ATD usually functions as a demand-side platform and not only allows media to be purchased via auctions, but also provides useful information on the performance of campaigns.

Ad server

You can use an ad server to place and evaluate ads. Such tools usually come with a wide range of helpful features to simplify these processes and increase the performance of your measures. For example, many ad servers offer creative assets, which are useful for your campaigns. Reporting features are also often integrated into these adtech tools.

Ad networks

Ad networks are platforms that bring advertisers and publishers together and make it possible to purchase ad spaces. The agreed-on placements are then run via ad servers.

Real-time bidding

Real-time bidding is one of the most important features of programmatic advertising. The automation of key processes results in dynamic auctions where all bidders predefine factors such as their target groups and maximum budget. The algorithm then identifies suitable buyers with the highest bids and runs their ads.

Frequency capping

The rapid development of adtech has given rise to a number of useful features. Frequency capping is one of them, which lets marketers limit how frequently their ads are shown to individual users. For example, stipulating that someone should only see your ad once a day at most will mean they won’t regard it as mass spam.

Adtech: new possibilities for marketers and publishers

The term “adtech” encompasses a vast array of tools and software solutions for turning the digital world into a unique advertising environment. Precisely tailored campaigns will ensure that ads no longer frustrate users but instead pique their interest. In the background, various players from the advertising market are coming together and creating a space for free competition where everyone gets their money’s worth. The automation of transactions and detailed analytics and reporting features are also playing a vital role. The terms we’ve described here comprise strong features for taking your marketing to the next level.