How good is your campaign data, really?

Spotting the red flags that could be plaguing your programmatic play

Data costs are higher than ever. 

In some ways, it feels like it happened overnight. But really, it was a continuous creep hastened by a confluence of unavoidable market developments. 

This has been made worse by skyrocketing inflation that’s got consumers pinching pennies everywhere they can. Of course, if they’re shopping less, they’re engaging with less ads. 

What does this all mean for marketers? There’s just no room for error or waste in campaigns. 

This reality is at odds with approaches that have ruled supreme in recent years. Approaches that were born out of easy access to huge volumes of data that were as plentiful as they were cheap. 

Spray, pray and the results would come in. It didn’t matter that ads were targeted to people that didn’t actually exist. Or that the same person was mistakenly served the same ad over and over. That they didn’t live anywhere near where the data suggested. 

As long as enough people clicked, the campaign was a success. 

But today? Every dollar spent on data has to be validated. Privacy trends demand marketers be more discerning about the data they use. In some cases, the law even demands it. 

These compounding issues are leading many marketers to reevaluate the data they are trusting in DSPs to drive programmatic plays. 

And they’ve got questions…

How much of my data is redundant? How much of it is unique? How much is outdated? Where can I get fresh data I can trust to supplement so much of what’s going bad?

Unfortunately, their data providers don’t always have the answers. 

Demanding more from your data

It’s time to demand more from your data. Here are some signs your marketing strategy may benefit from a new provider:

• Your campaign has plateaued. Campaign metrics should continuously be improving. You take feedback from the last campaign and feed it into the next to increase results. If you’re not able to do this, expect a future filled with more diminishing returns. 
• You can’t measure attribution. If you’re still relying on cookie-based data linked to personas (not people), it’s impossible to attribute campaigns to retail foot traffic, match back to sales or new subscriptions, etc. If you can’t measure accurately, you can’t win. This is a challenge plaguing even some of the most well-known services still relying on digital personas to target ads. 
• Audience quality is murky. All those questions noted above? We know marketers are asking them because we’re having these very discussions with prospective customers. If your own data provider can’t provide the answers, it’s time to move on. Table stakes today are for data to be privacy compliant and refreshed at least quarterly (BRIDGE does it monthly). Different advertisers will have different needs. An auto dealership may need data that is updated monthly whereas a mattress retailer may be able to rely on data updated quarterly or bi-annually. Know what you need and make sure you’re getting it. 
• Reach and frequency measurement. When marketing across channels with cookie-based data it’s impossible to measure reach and frequency. It could be you’re reaching the same people way too many times. That’s exactly the kind of waste that new data budgets can’t bear. 

Finding your way to new campaign approaches that align with changing budgets and still power growth isn’t easy. But it is within reach. 

If you’re having a tough time getting answers to these questions, or just thinking about making a switch to a new data provider in the wake of new campaign objectives, let’s talk.