Choosing The Right DSPs Can Protect Your Brand

You might be overwhelmed by the sheer number of available Demand Side Platforms (DSPs). With the age-old pioneers in the market and the young bloods being churned out as we speak, choosing a DSP in this saturated market space can be a herculean task. However, choosing the right DSP will make or break your brand’s image. Here is what you need to consider before deciding:

1. Inappropriate Ad Placement

Protecting your brand from inappropriate ad placement is critical. Many DSPs only offer a generic safety filter thus resulting in your ads being misplaced. Picture this, an ad for a luxury watch brand is shown on a low-quality website with poor design and spammy content, or one that primarily functions to clickbait users. This devalues the brand by associating it with low-quality content and increases the risk of ad fraud. The ad budget could now be wasted on bot traffic or non-human impressions.

1. Users as Targets

DSPs tend to target users rather than carefully select websites. This means that an ad can follow a user to another website that they access. This new website might host content with little or no correlation to the ad whatsoever, confusing the brand’s core values and eroding consumer trust. An ad about sports shoes can follow a user to a website with say violent content. The user might feel uncomfortable seeing ‘family-friendly’ products advertised in controversial contexts. This lack of control over ad placement in some DSPs induces risk.

2. Transparency

Ad campaigns can falter without direct visibility of where and how advertisements are placed. Detailed reporting allows advertisers to keep track of where their ads have appeared and whether they have met the brand’s safety and suitability standards. An optimal DSP allows the advertiser to check and ensure all-round transparency in its operations, including the bidding, inventory, cost, performance, and audience data. This ensures that brands can understand the rationale behind algorithms resulting in brand protection that is not simply mechanised, but rather fully personalised.

“A cosmetic brand launches a new line of sustainable products. The DSP they use specifically targets women aged between 20-45 who are eco-conscious.”

If the DSP employed is not completely transparent, they can run into multiple issues.

• The number of impressions for the ad is rising but the brand cannot determine on which sites these ads are being placed. If they are being placed on sites that are contradictory to their values, like say a fast fashion website, their brand image is hurt.
• Albeit it appears as though the ad campaign is reaching a broader audience; the brand can never be sure as to whom the ads are reaching unless their DSP is transparent. It is possible that impressions are being misallocated to the audience with no interest in the ads. Now funds are being wasted on irrelevant audiences and the return on ad spend (ROAS) is not high.
• Suppose the DSP offers an overview of the performance of the ad campaign through clicks, impressions, and the Click through Rate (CTR) it may lack granular details related to specific sites, devices and even ad formats. The brand might continue spending on video ads despite it having the least reach as it is unaware of the complete scenario.

3. Future-Proofing:

In an evolving digital landscape with new content platforms, consistent changes in regulations, and sustained advancements in technology, threats to brand safety are always shifting. A DSP that can identify and stay ahead of these changes is the right choice for a brand. Choose DSPs that are actively adapting and incorporating new tools such as Blockchain and Machine Learning algorithms. Continuous improvement ensures that a brand’s ad strategy evolves with the digital ecosystem, instead of falling behind.

4. Legal Obligations:

When choosing a DSP, a brand should adhere to major legal regulations. In the recent past, numerous laws have been enacted in several countries; the GPDR – General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union (effective 2018), the Revised Federal Act on Data Protection (2023) in Switzerland and the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill (DPDPA, 2023) in India, which all prescribe penalties for data fiduciaries who fail to follow the rules and regulations outlined.

According to the DPDPA, if a brand continues to use a DSP that violates these laws, it will be held jointly liable and can be fined about INR 250 crores.

Suppose a health brand in the EU is advertising its supplements and uses a DSP and Data Management Platform (DMP) well knowing that it violates a user’s privacy. When regulators find this violation, the DSP, DMP and the health brand could face significant fines—under GDPR, this could be up to €20 million or 4% of global revenue, whichever is higher.

5. Ad format Support

Consider ad format support a DSP offers. A good-fitting DSP must support an extensive range of ad formats. Some common formats include-

• Display ads- These are usually banner-based ads which are placed on websites and apps.
• Search ads- These are ads that appear as a response to user queries on search engine result pages. Specific keywords picked by the advertisers will lead users to see the ad.
• Video ads- These are visual and catch the attention of viewers. They can be skippable and vary in duration. The sight and motion tend to leave an impact on viewers.
• Native ads- These blend seamlessly with the main content of the website or app and seem as though they are part of the original content. These include travel companies’ ads on travel blogs, and grocery delivery apps sponsoring ads on a blog titled “The only pasta recipe you need.”
• Rich media ads- These ads aim to maintain the viewers’ attention by immersing them in the ad experience. For example, a phone manufacturer’s advertisement could provide users with the experience of selecting the colour of a phone, the memory size, its accessories etc.
• Adaptive ads- These ads are ideal for brands that are selling multiple products. They can be an image or a video depending upon user preferences.

Now a user who is say a clothing retailer can run his display ads on websites, video ads on YouTube, and rich media ads on apps. A well-thought-out ad campaign with the correct formats is bound to boost engagement and conversion rates.

6. Omnichannel Advertising

This marketing strategy ensures that users have a seamless experience whether they interact with a brand online, in physical stores, on apps or even on social media. No matter where a consumer interacts with a brand, the same message, feel and experience must be put across. The right DSP supports this cross-device ad campaign and can provide a collated report with data from all channels. The consistency offered by the multiple touchpoints improves brand recall. Omnichannel advertising is a customer-centric approach as it considers a consumer’s journey from one medium of advertisement to another.

For example-

A food delivery service wants to promote its new “Late Night Delivery” feature. Using a DSP with a variety of ad formats and an omni-channel approach, the company can target users across different platforms and contexts. A user might first see a billboard ad on their way home from a night out, then later see a display ad on their phone while browsing, followed by a video ad while watching YouTube the next evening. This motivates the user to subscribe to the service as it now seems popular and reliable. The DSP should provide the brand with insights as to how these touchpoints work together, offering a deeper look at the most effective channels for late night orders.

Choosing the right DSP is not just about making your advertising efficient but it is also about keeping your brand safe in the digital landscape. With the right DSP navigating the complexities of ad placement, data privacy and audience targeting becomes simple. So, remember, when it comes to choosing a DSP, do not just wing it—be sure to platformyourself for success! After all, you would not want your brand to be in a clickbait situation, would you?