Have the “Q4 scaries” started yet? Media buyers anticipating the competitive surge of CPMs and limited inventory find that this time of year never seems to get any easier. Especially as they’re met with waves of heavy election spending, routine holiday demand, and heightened competition for premium placements (looking at you, connected TV).
You’re likely prioritizing share of voice for the final stretch of the year to maximize your return on ad spend (ROAS), leads or other KPIs while being mindful of using your media dollars.
Google’s Display & Video 360 (DV360) can help with its transparent cost structure, media format consolidation and exclusive inventory available within one interface. With DV30, you have the freedom to bring any Q4 media plan to life. So as you strategize for 2025, here are four questions to consider while honing your campaign checklist for Q4 and beyond:
First-party data (1PD) will always be the cherry on top of every media plan. It’s cost-effective, relevant to your brand and can be utilized for precise audience targeting or suppression. You can collect 1PD through a variety of methods like web analytics, cookies, mobile apps, customer relationship management (CRM) systems and more. Having a mix of data sources can mean a higher likelihood of capturing new prospects and retaining loyal customers while protecting your users’ privacy.
Want to extend the reach of your 1PD Consider tapping into Google’s Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation (PAIR), which matches the data through encryption without relying on third-party (3P) cookies.
And make sure to explore LiveRamp. Its direct integration with DV360 makes it a preferred clean-room provider for uploading and managing data. Reach out to your Adswerve account manager to learn more about LiveRamp and its additional capabilities.
Media cost calculations can vary dramatically depending on inventory, targeting and the ad-serving fees required to set a campaign into action. Before setting your campaign live, you need to assign and QA all fees required to ensure there aren’t any surprise costs added to the total that could be deducted from your reported ROI. DV360’s cost settings allow you to capture all fees equated to a gross budget, such as revenue markup for agencies, third-party integration fees, platform fees, service fees and CPM fees.
Be sure to check that these are accurately applied and at the correct rate, as they can adjust based on the total impressions served (special reduction rates may apply for the volume of impressions served) or the negotiation type (direct buys vs. RTB). Setting fees at a rate higher than necessary can eat into your net media costs, while setting them at a lower rate can incur unaccounted costs and lead to campaign overspending.
The 2024 political season offers two options: leaning into the ever-evolving news content or excluding it altogether. Even within the last year, advertisers have shifted to more contextual strategies in anticipation of 3P cookie deprecation and privacy consent changes, along with quick pivots after reading the eye-opening articles highlighting MFA sites that are far from desired premium content.
Taking it a step further, you can manage content you consider unsuitable for your brand primarily through blocklists, category and keyword targeting, or using a third-party partner for a more customizable approach to managing ad–fraud and content avoidance. DV360 offers free brand safety content labels and sensitive category exclusions, including an easily accessible pre-bid integration with Adloox, IAS and DoubleVerify.
DV360 is ideal for reaching and engaging audiences throughout the entire customer journey, from brand awareness to final conversion. With its robust suite of targeting, creative optimization and reporting tools across display, video, audio and connected TV, DV360 covers a wide approach.
You can build unified, data-driven strategies by aligning top-of-funnel awareness efforts with mid-funnel consideration and bottom-funnel conversion campaigns, And you’ll be able to tailor messaging to your user's intent at each stage, driving stronger performance, higher engagement and more conversions.
Stay tuned to learn how to buy and measure 2025 media successfully with the Google Marketing Platform (GMP). In the meantime, please reach out with any questions or to get help with your Q4 media strategy.