The internet has essentially become a great equalizer for businesses. Entering into digital marketing allows any company, regardless of how big or small they are, to get enough consumer traffic and brand recognition. This has become extremely crucial, especially since the outbreak of the global pandemic. The world’s digitalization has been drastically accelerated given the current circumstances.
Over the past year, countless entrepreneurs were forced to substantially transition most, if not all, of their business operations digitally. In this light, digital marketing also skyrocketed with the hopes of business leaders keeping their companies afloat during the health crisis. Now, almost every business has some form of an online presence.
As the landscape for digital marketing continues to grow, it’s also highly likely becoming more competitive as well. Depending on how long your business has been online, whether you were already investing a lot into digital marketing before the pandemic or right after it, it can be safe to assume that this tool has become extremely saturated.
Competitive Digital Landscape
You’ve probably noticed that securing a virtual space for your digital advertisements is slowly becoming more and more difficult as time goes on. This is exactly because of the digital shift that almost all businesses had to make over the previous year. It’s no longer enough for you to keep posting on your own social media channels to gain visibility and engagement.
With this in mind, you should definitely begin considering entering into an ad marketplace. If you have something you want to publish online, you’ll surely want to have the best real estate to significantly boost its viewership. In turn, this will help you generate substantial traffic on your business site and gain more consumers in the process.
There are already plenty of ad exchanges out there for you to choose from. Of course, Google has its own form in Google Ad Manager, which is also the leading ad marketplace. However, just like with any other form of marketing, you should attempt to find more avenues to widen the reach of your digital advertisements. When looking for other ad marketplaces, learn about some aspects you should take note of.
Avoid Fraudulent Marketplaces
An ad marketplace is extremely effective because it can deliver personalized ads to your target marketing by connecting your business with a network of publishers. This same model also makes it extremely prone to fraud which can leave you with a less than ideal digital ad space or none at all.
If you’re looking into different ad exchanges, you should always consider its anti-fraud capabilities. Be sure to check what kind of validators or traffic quality partnerships it has. This will help you guarantee that your digital ads are going into credible platforms that produce legitimate traffic.
Look for IAB Standards
It’s important to note that just like any other market, an ad marketplace also has a supply-side platform and a demand-side. As a potential advertiser looking for digital space, you should necessarily be looking at the demand-side platform. Demand-side platforms will essentially allow you to view and explore the inventories of a particular publisher.
These inventories come in the form of partner websites or traffic resellers. Moreover, you should also identify if an ad marketplace adheres to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standards. The IAB provides publishers with files, like the ads.txt, that will show you an authorized list of its ad spaces which will help you determine whether their platforms are legitimate. Again, this will help you combat fraud.
Optimized Bidding
Another thing you should know about ad marketplaces is that they primarily sell digital ad spaces. To secure these spaces, you have to engage in real-time bidding (RTB), given how competitive digital marketing has become recently. This is the fundamental technology that has been driving these ad marketplaces since the beginning.
In this regard, you should also consider how a marketplace optimizes its bidstream. This essentially means that their platform can analyze your bidding patterns, which will usually include your geolocation and target markets. Entering an ad marketplace with proper bidstream optimization will significantly help you bid more effectively and gain better traffic for your virtual ads as well.
The Future Lies in Digital Marketing
From a digital marketing standpoint, you should be aware that digital ad spending grew by a substantial 12% year-on-year in 2020. Most prominent ad agencies expect this trend to continue through the rest of the year, especially as the rise in e-commerce persists. This alone should tell you that a profitable future lies within the industry.
Along with entering into an ad marketplace, however, you should also be up to date on the latest digital marketing trends to help you reap immense benefits. Nonetheless, you should definitely begin looking into these marketing platforms as the digital marketing scene becomes more competitive.
