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DataView: The DataXu Blog

Category: demand side platform

  • Search and Display: Has Convergence Arrived?
    08/23/2010 | Categories: , , , , , , , ,

    By Mike Baker, President & CEO, Dataxu

    For years, many have viewed paid search advertising as the most simple and measurable form of online advertising. But with the growth of display ad exchanges and demand side platforms to manage the buying, display advertising has “gotten back in the efficiency game,” relying more squarely on data and bottom funnel metrics, and less on clicks and views.

    Building on the data-driven approach championed by search engine marketers, demand side platforms are now enabling display advertisers to replace much of the guess work of traditional media plans with bidding algorithms built on the learnings from a campaign as it runs. Borrowing even more literally from search, advertisers are now starting to use consumer search data to retarget display advertising.

    So, are search engine marketing and exchange traded display advertising ready for their convergence moment? Will search agencies successfully cross over into data-driven display practices? I recently spoke with Dax Hamman, VP display media at iCrossing, a Hearst-owned global digital marketing agency, to discuss these and other questions.

    Mike Baker: Search advertising, by its nature, is highly measurable. In your role as a display advertising evangelist in an agency with its roots in SEM, how do you educate clients about the value of display campaigns and their unique metrics?

    Dax Hamman: iCrossing has pioneered an approach to display that is particularly effective in ROI situations, focusing on talking to the individual expressing intent rather than simply shouting at the crowd. This approach is much more familiar to a search marketer and therefore is understood more by our client base than premium CPM buying and home page takeovers.

    Often, the hardest leap a search marketer must take is how to measure the campaign. SEM is very click based and an action is easily tied to a result. Display conversely relies more on post-impression data, a continuing hot topic amongst marketers in general. At iCrossing, we advise clients to run quantifiable studies to benchmark the post-impression results and determine what should be accounted for. This is often enough to alleviate any concerns.

    MB: Expertise in search engine marketing and display advertising has traditionally resided in separate domains – for both agencies and their clients. What will it take to successfully bridge that divide?

    DH: Agencies often structure themselves to suit the needs of a client, and while clients continue to typically manage SEM and display out of separate budgets with distinct goals, agencies will provide two teams of specialists. At iCrossing, we have merged SEM and display into one single media practice and have been cross-training individuals in order to find the synergies that may exist. This “new” world of exchange buying makes display planners think more quantifiably and bid-based like a search marketer and so the two camps are more aligned. Sometimes questions arise such as “who should manage a performance campaign that uses real time bidding” as you need both types of expertise working together. Quite simply, we can provide the framework for both parties to learn the other’s trade, and then the more experience each person gains, the quicker the synergies will come.

    MB: What can search advertisers learn from display advertising, and vice versa?

    DH: Like any form of marketing, display and search do not sit in silos, therefore the learnings from one channel should inform the other. There are some specific cases though where the learnings are more direct. iCrossing has been testing search retargeting, with Yahoo for instance. We also have been buying the data directly, of which there are now several including Magnetic, Chango and Simpli.fi. The success of these campaigns is in part based on selecting the right keywords, of which the SEM campaign is the richest source of learning.

    We also see cases where a SEM campaign can be improved by understanding why certain contextual buys in display are effective and what messaging works best. For instance, the iCrossing display team will often provide the creative units for a banner campaign on the Google Content Network for the SEM team to run.

    MB: Cross-channel, multi-format convergence is the “holy grail” of digital advertising. How close are we? What role will the big three (Google, Yahoo, MSN) search engines play in making this vision a reality? This may be controversial, but do you view them as partners, competitors, or both?

    DH: As an industry, we move closer and closer to convergence every day, and the benefits are being felt by brands already. The big 3 are certainly a factor in this, but we see them as more partner than competitor, educating search marketers about techniques such as display retargeting, and making it easy to buy it and place it. With the typical size and complexity of our clients, we do not see any of the engines being a sole provider to any of them. For smaller brands and smaller agencies I think the threat is greater – the reality is there are very few needs that a marketer at a small company cannot fulfill with Google.

    DSPs like DataXu will be at the center of the convergence as more and more media comes together. I do not see just display or even display and search together being bought through such a platform, but potentially all media, including offline.

    (This article also ran on ClickZ on 8/23: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1728864/search-display-has-convergence-arrived)


  • DataXu Helps iCrossing Extend Search Services into Display Traded Media
    08/17/2010 | Categories: , , , , , , , ,

    Today we announced our partnership with Global Digital Marketing Agency iCrossing.

    DataXu was selected as iCrossing’s Demand Side Platform, helping extend iCrossing’s growing display services into the exchange-traded display media market.

    Already leaders in the search marketing space, this partnership will further develop iCrossing’s display offering, guiding clients’ media buying strategy with sophisticated decisioning and audience buying technology.  Mirroring iCrossing’s search-advertising efficiencies, DataXu’s machine-learning technology creates advertiser-specific algorithms as well as simple pricing and targeting controls to guide display campaigns and improve ad performance.

    “The convergence of search and display is all about data.  We’re pleased to be working with an industry leader to define the next generation of data driven marketing,” said Mike Baker, President & CEO, DataXu.

    Both DataXu and iCrossing will be speaking at SES San San Francisco this week.  Per our most recent post, DataXu’s CEO Mike Baker will be participating in a SES panel on the topic of “Crossing the Digital Divide: The Leap from Search to Display.”

    Today’s full press release is available at: http://www.dataxu.com/news/DataXuDSPforiCrossing.php


  • Mike Baker in 140 Characters
    07/23/2010 | Categories: , , , , , , , , , ,

    Per our recent blog post, DataXu CEO Mike Baker was a busy man this week. He was in L.A. Monday for an OMMA AdNets panel in the afternoon and Dapper panel in the evening. Then off to Chicago on Tuesday for a panel at the Right Media Open.

    With 3 panels in 2 days, Mike had plenty to say; in fact the Twittersphere did a great job of capturing some nuggets from each of Mike’s panels. But if you weren’t at the events, we thought these 140 character sound bites might be confusing, see the below for some additional context and detail from Mike Baker…

    • MB: This was part of a discussion regarding the increasing complexity of the media buying and ad technology space. Here I was making the point that instead of existing companies innovating to include new features, what seems to be happening is that entirely new companies are popping up with products that could have simply been rolled into existing technology platforms thus the space gets more complex and crowded.
    • MB: At the Right Media Open, I was on a panel about the evolution of agencies in the digital media world. I’ve always been of the mind that machine-learning technology, like that of DataXu, can handle the tactical execution of media buying and planning, allowing overburdened media buyers  to focus their energy and time on more strategic marketing initiatives.
    • MB: As I wrote about on Forbes.com a few months back, Google’s acquisition of Invite Media and expansion into the DSP (Demand Side Platform) space is exciting and validating for DSP technology, but there are still some concerns around Google’s neutrality.  Google is the largest digital media seller, yet they’re going to remain an impartial  buy- side advocate for OMG?  Seems unlikely.

    Stay tuned for more event news and updates and remember, you can always find us on Twitter at @dataxuinc!


  • DataXu MarketPulse: “Beyond Audience: What Drives Campaign Performance?”
    06/28/2010 | Categories: , , , , , , , ,

    Today we published the second issue of the DataXu MarketPulse, a research newsletter designed to highlight trends in digital advertising based on DataXu’s own proprietary data.

    In this month’s issue, we explored campaign performance and the impression attributes that are most highly correlated with conversions and the results were surprising!

    DataXu MarketPulse, June 2010

    Beyond Audience: What Drives Campaign Performance?

    Since the dawn of the Internet, advertisers have been on a quest for the holy grail of digital advertising: delivering the right ad to the right consumer at the right time.  This quest has yielded great insights about how to improve each of these ad dimensions. Consumer targeting is the current priority for some high-profile ad agency holding groups. But which factor is the most important driver of a campaign’s success?

    With real time bidding (RTB), advertisers can get closer to the answer than ever before. Impression level data essentially maps the path to the grail. At MarketPulse, we like to look past the hype and let the data do the talking.

    With 100s of millions of impressions served daily, we recently evaluated whether consumer, context, or creative attributes of ad impressions were most predictive of conversions.

    The result? Each category was well represented, but creative attributes were the winner — correlating most highly with conversions for 48% of the campaigns.

    “The data shows that a single campaign performance driver cannot be predicted with confidence in advance. This suggests that a more effective ‘media plan’ is one that instead responds to the nuanced, unique data each campaign generates. The implication is that brands and their agencies need systems that can glean the data and automatically adapt, rather than relying on a rigid, one-size-fits-all approach,” noted Mike Baker, CEO of DataXu.

    Our analysis included nineteen large-scale, online display campaigns that ran for at least four weeks, across the leading RTB ad exchanges. In each campaign, we evaluated multiple impression attributes in the categories of consumer (who saw the ad), context (where the ad appeared), and creative (what the ad looked like) to see which attributes appeared most consistently across ad impressions that preceded conversions.

    For additional results and takeaways from this month’s MarketPulse, you can download the pdf: DataXu MarketPulse_Campaign Performance Drivers_June 2010

    DataXu’s MarketPulse explores the data that defines today’s digital advertising marketplace. Sign up here to have future MarketPulse newsletters delivered directly to your inbox.


  • Agencies Grapple with Ad Technology and its Place in a Services Business
    06/25/2010 | Categories: , , , , , , , ,

    There’s been a wave of innovation in online advertising over the past year; new ad technology made just for ad buyers (DSPs) are quickly gaining traction as a way to improve media effectiveness and realize operational efficiencies.  DSP’s give agencies a powerful new tool, but the emergence of “buy side technology” is forcing them to grapple with a tricky new issue: how best to build a new technology core into an old services business model.

    Some agencies have decided that forming strategic partnerships with external technology providers is the way to go.  Others believe that the best strategy is to try to develop the technology themselves.  While it’s too early to conclude the winning approach, this is an issue that smart clients will monitor as the digital era marches on because it will affect not only agency performance, but also the basic economic structure of the agency-client relationship.

    In-house ad tech
    The in-house technology approach is probably best embodied by WPP, with its 2007 acquisition of ad network and technology firm 24/7 Real Media.  Since the acquisition, WPP has done a nice job of using these assets to grow an internal innovation engine known as MIG (Media Innovation Group).  In a recent interview, MIG’s Brian Lesser explained some of the reasons for their continued investment in proprietary ad technology:

    • More holistic media strategy – can alleviate issues that result from a fragmented media buying approach and result in a more efficient media spend.
    • Data-driven marketing – integration of client data throughout the agency’s decision-making process informs the marketing strategy and results in more valuable insights to guide the clients’ campaigns.
    • Less data exposure – with in-house ad technology, proprietary data is pushed solely through an agency’s platform and is thus able to be leveraged exclusively by the agency.

    Third party ad tech
    Alternatively, Publicis and Omnicom have weighed in as favoring partnerships with external ad technology providers.  Curt Hecht of Publicis’ Vivaki business unit recently discussed with AdExchanger their partnership with Internet giant Google, which includes use of Google’s new “house DSP” Invite Media (acquired by Google last month).  And  Omnicom’s Randall Weisenburger explained to ClickZ that they have opted against building an in-house DSP because of the vast benefits technology partners can provide to clients:

    • Greater access to innovation – when agencies partner with outside technology vendors, they can innovate more quickly and better align with client needs.
    • Focus on core competence – agency resources can be focused on larger strategic considerations that are core to the agency.
    • Less risk of agency bias in media buying decisions – advertisers can be confident that an agency’s recommended technology strategy will not be influenced by an in-house proprietary service.

    Ultimately, these different approaches are still very new and only time will tell what truly makes the most sense for the agency and for its clients.  But just as advertisers want to know about an agency’s creative approach, it’s now best practice to dig into their technology roadmap.

    - Mike Baker, CEO, DataXu

    (**This piece was also posted on the MarketShare blog at Forbes.com: http://bit.ly/d0hEX3)


  • Hyper Target without Sacrificing Scale: DataXu Introduces Audience Optimization
    06/22/2010 | Categories: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    As digital moves from the fringe to the core of most media plans, marketers are looking for more effective ways to engage the online consumer.  From traditional demographic targeting to social influencers to search intenders, finding your audience and delivering the right message is key.  Third party data enables advertisers to more precisely target their audience, but advanced targeting techniques can also have the unwanted effect of limiting campaign reach and scale.

    Today, we announced our Audience Optimization program that allows advertisers to easily integrate proprietary and 3rd party data into the DataXu system for advanced audience targeting, optimized campaign performance and sophisticated audience insights.

    What makes DataXu’s Audience Optimization unique is actually the same thing that makes DataXu unique, our proprietary learning system.

    Unlike other DSPs, DataXu is able to not only target specified audience segments, but actually learn the most effective combinations of creative and context within those segments and apply those learnings to extend the campaign beyond the originally defined audience segment.  This solves the scale problem that plagues pure play audience buying strategies.  DataXu’s real-time bidding system then uses a variable-pricing model to “bid down the curve” or value impressions relative to how closely they resemble the optimal performance patterns.

    Here’s how it works in practice: a financial services company is looking to target 34-54 year old males with a high household income for a new “retirement product.”  Their media plan projects a target audience of 2 million consumers  online, but with the specific campaign parameters in play, they are able to reach only 250,000 unique impressions initially.

    Using DataXu, the advertiser can then run an Audience Optimized flight across an additional 1.75 million uniques, all of which resemble the consumers that are converting on the offer.  The Audience Optimized flight is built from impression- level data and web site activity and predicts which combination of consumer, ad creative and context signals are most likely to result in a conversion – pattern matching from our learning system.  The media is valued and purchased, and creative selected, based on how closely the pattern resembles the target audience conversions.

    For more about our new Audience Optimization capabilities, see the full press release here: http://www.dataxu.com/news/audience_optimization.php or contact us at sales@dataxu.com.

    -Mike Baker, CEO, DataXu


  • If 6 Turned Out to Be 9
    05/24/2010 | Categories: , , , , , , , , ,

    It’s no secret that Google has been shopping for a so-called Demand Side Platform (DSP) for some time.  With the AdMob acquisition signed off by the Feds, the rumors are that Google will acquire Invite Media (http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20100523/with-admob-out-of-the-way-is-google-set-to-buy-invite-media/), a DSP known primarily for a user interface that enables audience buying across exchanges.  This move seems sensible enough as a way for Google to shore up its exchange user interface, which even Google concedes needs more care and feeding.  But would it undermine the core value proposition of the DSP?

    A history lesson: before DSPs, online display advertisers have had to rely on the sellers of media to target, price, and optimize media.  That’s why agencies have become so reliant on ad networks.  And that’s why their clients increasingly are questioning the value added and the fees paid for media planning in the digital era.  Enter the DSP.  Using a DSP like DataXu, an agency and its client can for the first time effectively crunch their own proprietary data, develop their own campaign algorithms, and seek price/performance optimality across multiple sellers, effectively breaking the reliance on the seller to deliver all the value.

    So the question is: would buyers rely on the largest digital media seller for their media investment allocation decisions?  Would a Google system ever have a buyer take money out of Google media and allocate it to Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple or other supply-side aggregators?  Consider the potential similarities to Google’s search engine marketing model – very efficient, but advertisers must accept the one-size-fits-all approach and seller-controlled black box algorithms.  If you’re a managing director of a digital agency, consider how much value you are creating for yourself and your clients if you leave the work to the seller.  Isn’t that how the agencies got into the current pickle in the first place?  It will be interesting to see how this all plays out!

    (**Another history lesson: For those who may not be Jimi Hendrix fans, the title of this post references one of his greatest tracks – and the potential role reversal of sellers becoming buyers.)

    - Mike Baker, CEO, DataXu


  • Predictions: “Mobile Will Surprise People This Year”
    05/07/2010 | Categories: , , , , , ,

    This past Monday, DataXu CEO Mike Baker spoke on the “Looking Forward…DSP, RTB, OMB!?!” panel at the IAB Networks & Exchanges event.  Mike was joined by representatives from both the agency and vendor side of the digital advertising space for a rousing discussion that covered topics such as:
    •    Content vs. context in digital advertising
    •    Premium advertising inventory in the DSP space
    •    Buyer, seller, and media trader differentiations
    •    Evolving ad standards, and more…

    Jay Sears from ContextWeb moderated the panel and ContextWeb posted a full-length video of the session to their blog. Check it out here: http://blog.contextweb.com/blog/bid/32659/IAB-Marketplace-Video-Looking-Forward-RTB-DSP-OMG

    At about 23 minutes in, Jay poses a very interesting question around the ability for rich media, mobile and pre-roll advertisements to deliver the same standardization, volume and liquidity as display ads.

    Mike explains that in his opinion, mobile will surprise people this year.  With the tremendous growth of smartphones and data plans, he believes the volume will definitely be there to make mobile a significant channel for advertisers.  And while the mobile platform may not be as visually glamorous as digital, its static display capabilities will help mobile advertising to eventually be traded in a similar fashion to online display.

    Check out the video and see what YOU think.


  • DataXu CEO Speaking at IAB Networks & Exchanges Event
    04/30/2010 | Categories: , , , , ,

    On Monday, May 3rd DataXu CEO Mike Baker will be in NYC to speak at the IAB’s Marketplace event: Networks & Exchanges. Mike will discuss RTB, DSP and the future of digital advertising on a panel moderated by Jay Sears, General Manager of ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Exchange.

    The Networks & Exchanges event brings together luminaries from across the advertising ecosystem to help advertisers navigate the complicated ad buying space by defining the field, detailing successful campaigns, breaking down the value and offering a look at what the future holds—and where the next opportunities lie.

    Mike will be speaking alongside Sloan Broderick, Managing Director, MediaCom Interaction; Steve Katelman, VP, Publisher Development, Omnicom; and, Philip Smolin, General Manager, Platform Solutions, Turn on a panel titled “Looking Forward: RTB, DSP…OMG!?!”

    Event Details
    What: Networks & Exchanges: IAB Marketplace
    Panel Discussion: “Looking Forward: RTB, DSP…OMG!?!”
    Who: Mike Baker, DataXu, CEO
    When: Monday, May 3, 2010 at 5:25 p.m. ET
    Where: Crowne Plaza Hotel – New York, NY

    The event is SOLD OUT, but you can sign up to be on the waiting list here: http://www.iab.net/events_training/ne2010/register


  • DataXu Joins Yahoo’s Demand-Side Platform Pilot Program
    03/15/2010 | Categories: , , , , , ,

    Big news today: Yahoo has today announced their demand-side platform pilot program (see Yahoo’s announcement). This marks a significant milestone in the emergence of demand-side platforms and real time bidding because the industry’s largest publisher is embracing this new paradigm.

    We are pleased to be one of the demand-side platform partners selected to participate. Yahoo has a great history of innovation through leadership when it comes to display advertising, and we look forward to working with them—along with major agencies and advertisers—to create a sustainable ecosystem that makes digital advertising more effective. We share Yahoo’s vision that innovations such as RTB will benefit all participants.


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