Do you work in media sales, or more specifically in digital media sales? Whether it is your sole responsibility or part of it, you need a minimum amount of knowledge about the ad tech your company employs and that which your competitors and clients use. You also need an understanding of the other marketing related technologies, systems and tools used by your company, competition and clients to fully understand the opportunities at your fingertips and how clients really track what they measure.

Types of tech in marketing:

So far, we’ve explored a variety of types of marketing management tech solutions in the previous post and trafficking solutions more commonly known as Ad Tech. This time we will explore another category of ad tech specifically tailored for the real-time bidding and programmatic media buying ecosystem: RTB Tech.

RTB Tech

Demand-Side Platform (DSP)

Demand side platforms enable the buy-side, namely advertising agencies and advertisers directly, to manage display ad buying across multiple Ad Exchanges in a programmatic and real-time method. These systems only buy ad inventory that matches exactly all specific campaign parameters.

DSPs integrate with the agency adserver, ad exchanges, data management platforms and other relevant data sources for targeting or reporting.

The principal DSPs include MediaMath (formerly Adroit Interactive),  Turn, SiteScout, TubeMogul, Acuity, The Trade Desk, AppNexus, DataXu, DoubleClick Bid Manager and AdGear.

Ad Exchanges

Ad exchanges facilitate the buying and selling of display ad inventory across the web in real-time, one impression at a time. Ad exchanges are in other words the auctionneer, the system that manages to match demand that meets supply.

Ad exchanges are mostly interconnected with each other. They also necessarily connect with DSPs. Some ad exchanges also include the SSP function (next) which means it would also connect with DMPs and the publisher’s ad server.

Major ad exchanges include DoubleClick AdExchange, OpenX, AdMeta, RightMedia (Yahoo!), Facebook Ad Exchange, AppNexus, Microsoft Ad Exchange (previously AdECN) and Adjug.

Supply-Side Platform (SSP)

Supply-side platforms enable the sell-side to optimize unsold (premium and remnant) display ad impressions across multiple Ad Exchanges in a programmatic and real-time method. Like the DSP does for the buyer, they enable the seller to establish the parameters that impressions are sold according to internal rules. These include exclusion lists (black lists) and minimum pricing (floor price).

SSPs integrate with the publisher’s adserver, DMPs and other relevant data sources for targeting or reporting.

Principal SSPs include DoubleClick AdExchange (previously AdMeld), AppNexus, PubMatic (previously ReviNet), Rubicon Project, Altitude Digital and OpenX (previously LiftDNA).

Data Management Platforms (DMP)

DMPs or Data Management Platforms enable companies to manage their own proprietary data AND to access (bid on) publicly available data. They manage cookie-based data be it behavioral or profile in nature. For advertisers and agencies, DMPs allow for retargeting and using third party data of all kinds (profile, behavioral, demographic, psychographic, shopping, intent to buy, interest…).

Integrates with ad servers, web analytics, CRM, SSP, DSP and all other relevant data sources for targeting.

The bigger DMPs include BlueKai, X+1, eXelate, Bizo, Krux, DemandX, DG MediaMind (previously Peer39), Lotame, Upfront Digital Media, nPario, CoreAudience, Knotice, Aggregate Knowledge and Adobe Audience Manager.

            

That’s it about ad tech, rtb tech and marketing tech. Any questions or comments? Please don’t hesitate to ask!

To know more about digital media sales, I teach a Digital Media Sales course through IAB Canada which is a great preparation before taking the Digital Media Sales Certification exam through IAB (US) which IAB Canada fully endorses. It is a two day program which you can attend in-public once a year (see calendar for dates — a session is coming up in Vancouver February 4-5th) or have organized as a custom session within our company. Contact me to set up training with your organization, be it in English of French, national, regional or local – I will adapt for your organization’s needs.
Authored by Samuel Parent.

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