Favorite Things: Programmatic Gift Guide Edition

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Q4 a.k.a. the holiday season is upon us yet again! Digital media buyers are heads-down in 2022 planning and these days the sun “logs off” before we do. Outside of the DSPs, CRM systems, and ad servers, holiday gift guides full of favorites are being shared by influencers, celebrities, and close friends as we prepare for what is likely to be a busy holiday season. So, to spread a little holiday cheer with you all, here are my current six favorite programmatic things!!

YouTube CTV

Display & Video 360 (DV360) offers the best of both worlds by allowing buyers to access Google O&O inventory and third-party supply all in one platform. One of the Google O&O inventory sources available is YouTube. Since YouTube alone is accountable for 21% of total hours watched on CTV in the United States, this is pretty important for my campaigns. Access to third-party supply allows for unique inventory through the publisher’s YouTube inventory and content, which adds even more unique character to a CTV campaign.

Audience Profile Analysis

The Audience Profile Analysis feature is a hidden gem for planning and is located in the “Audiences” tab of a DV360 Advertiser. This built-in, free DMP takes your first-party audience list and lets you understand its composition based on its similarity to other audiences in DV360. Essentially, buyers can discover similar audiences to their known and qualified audiences so it takes the guesswork out of audience strategy planning. 

Cookieless Targeting

Trying to keep track of where the industry is when it comes to deprecating cookies and providing new identifiers can be time-consuming and exhausting. I love having solutions to rely on that are inherently cookie-free, like eNewsletters with LiveIntent, mobile carrier data-based audiences with Emodo, and predictive, intelligent contextual audiences with Eyeota and Media.net.

“Brand Suitability” Is Trending in Place of “Brand Safety”

Due to the nature of the digital world, brand safety has long been a concern for brands. However, DV360 credits back spend from IVT, has integrated with major brand safety providers and has even built its own brand safety. So hyper-focusing on brand safety is no longer as needed. Now campaigns are basically brand-safe by default—especially on YouTube,—and buyers are catching on that brand suitability is what they should consider when setting up campaigns. Examples of brand suitability include not showing a gas car display ad alongside a Tesla owner’s forum or not running a fast-food video ad on a plant-based YouTube channel. Advertising doesn’t change an audience's mind or intentions, so it’s important to dodge inventory that isn’t specifically suitable to your brand. That way your media dollars go toward the right audience(s) and aren’t wasted.

Free First-Party Data and Lookalikes

Media efficiencies are key to a successful campaign so free audiences are a *chef’s kiss.* DV360 has many free first-party audience opportunities. A few of my favorites include:

  • Campaign Manager 360 auto-synced floodlight audiences
  • Customer Match CRM onboarding
  • GA360 and Google Ads lists
  • YouTube channel interactions
  • Non-tag-based campaign activity-based audiences

Even better, DV360 can natively build look-a-likes of your first-party and Google audience targeting for free expansion into highly indexing audiences. It’s an all-around win, win and makes media planning a breeze in times like these.

Programmatic Podcasts

Programmatic streaming audio and radio was the first to be available in the market, but consumers have been actively engaging with podcasts for quite a few years now. It took podcast providers a little bit of time but they are finally offering programmatic inventory! DV360 has access to podcast inventory via Youtube Audio. SXM Media Podcast Network. Triton and iHeartRadio’s Voxnest. 

Note: Stay tuned for Spotify’s update on offering programmatic podcast inventory. In the meantime, you’ll need to use their self-service platform, Ad Studio

Hopefully, you’ll love these tactics as much as I do. Have one you’d like to share? Engage with us on Twitter or reach out via our contact page!