The post The Benefits of Retail Media for Retailers and Advertisers appeared first on Clearcode.
]]>With a staggering $45 billion US retail media market, retailers are attempting to seize the golden opportunity that retail media presents to not only cater to evolving consumer preferences, but also open up new avenues for advertisers seeking to engage with their most coveted audiences.
In this blog post, you will learn about the opportunities for retailers and advertisers in the retail media space, as well as the challenges related to using AdTech within the retail landscape.
While both retail and retail media share the common goal of driving sales and enhancing the customer experience, they operate on distinct fronts within the retail ecosystem, so it’s crucial to differentiate them.
Retail, in its classic form, encompasses the brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce platforms where products and services are sold directly to customers.
Retail media, on the other hand, is a relatively new phenomenon that has roots in traditional retail advertising but has evolved to adapt to the digital age; it represents a convergence of commerce and advertising within the retail space.
There are various reasons for retail media’s rise in popularity among advertisers and retailers, one of which is the desire to reach consumers just as they’re about to buy a product.
The end of third-party cookies in web browsers and the focus on using first-party data for advertising is another key force that’s driving interest in retail media.
Yet another key aspect is the fact that the demand for shopper convenience has become one of the top priorities, accelerated even more by the transformative impacts of the pandemic and continuous technological advancements.
This leaves retailers with no choice but to accommodate consumers’ needs by improving the overall shopper experience, whether it’s through a smoother shopping process or by providing personalized but non-intrusive ads.
Moreover, in a recent survey by Prosper Insights & Analytics, around 19% of consumers expressed a preference for the convenience of purchasing online and utilizing in-store pick-up services, while 18% used grocery delivery apps, and 16% made regular online purchases for home delivery, making it crucial for retailers to boost their social media presence either through paid advertising or social media marketing, which will simultaneously generate traffic in their physical stores.
It’s also worth mentioning that from 2024 onwards, and at least until 2027, retail media is expected to undergo an exceptional upswing, meaning that establishing a fresh retail media partnership model that brings retailers, advertisers, and AdTech together will be crucial.
As the digital advertising landscape continues to evolve, retail media is poised to play a pivotal role in the success of both advertisers and retailers, as it represents a win-win situation for both groups.
In short, advertisers can gain access to highly targeted audiences, improve their ROI, and obtain valuable insights, while retailers can enjoy a new revenue stream, enhanced customer experiences, and a competitive edge in the market.
However, let’s explore a bit further to see what advertisers and retailers can actually gain by including retail media as part of their business strategy.
In order to reach consumers right on the verge of purchasing the product, manufacturers and brands are increasingly redirecting their investments, mainly into RMNs.
According to research done by McKinsey, 73% of advertisers expect to boost their spending on RMNs in the next 12 months, and RMNs are anticipated to account for roughly 10-15% of the complete media expenditure.
RMNs employ sophisticated data analytics to identify and reach ideal shoppers. By tapping into first-party shopper data, advertisers can gain invaluable insights into consumer preferences, behaviors, and needs, ensuring that customers are exposed to products that genuinely resonate with their interests.
With ad impressions and sales occurring within the same platform, advertisers can precisely monitor the effectiveness of their advertisements and, therefore, readily demonstrate that their marketing efforts are delivering tangible results.
Thanks to closed-loop attribution, the influential marketing channels are automatically credited, making it easier for advertisers to understand the customer journey and to determine which of their ads contributed to a conversion.
Our AdTech development teams can work with you to design, build, and maintain a custom-built retail media network (RMN) for any programmatic advertising channel.
In the world of retail media, Amazon and Walmart significantly dominate the industry due to their large amounts of first-party consumer data.
However, across the entire retail media ecosystem, numerous independent AdTech companies exist to help retailers unlock the value of their first-party data to power audience targeting, measurement, and attribution.
AdTech can help with better inventory management since it can provide product information and highlight product availability at specific stores.
This can help retailers promote the products they have in stock and avoid promoting those products that are out of stock, leading to better inventory management and an increase in sales.
It’s not always possible for retailers to increase the margins on their products, but by building an advertising business, they can create a new revenue stream.
By establishing an advertising business that’s centered around their first-party customer data, retailers can create a new revenue stream that will allow them to offset revenue from low-margin or fixed-margin products sales.
Despite the rise in popularity and investment, the retail media industry is facing growing pains. While most of these issues are business related, some are connected with the technological side of building and running a retail media network.
While the potential for any retailer with a receptive audience to establish an RMN exists in theory, the practical execution of such networks demands a substantial investment of both time and financial resources.
As marketers venture into the world of retail media, they are confronted with the intricate challenge of managing media purchases across numerous networks. The endeavor, although promising in terms of reach, often proves to be costly and time-intensive.
Retailers that decide to go down the build-it-yourself path quickly realize that developing an AdTech platform to power their retail media business is not an easy task, even for seasoned developers.
Without support and input from an experienced AdTech development partner, retailers will likely experience delays in launching their retail media network.
Even with the potential of closed-loop attribution, the absence of standardized measurement practices is a prevalent concern, making it difficult for advertisers to measure ad campaigns.
This lack of universally accepted metrics and methodologies also hinders effective assessment and comparison across campaigns and platforms.
It’s a challenge that retailers face when building a retail media network, but that’s not to say that it can’t be achieved with the right technology and first-party data strategy.
Also, it’s likely that industry bodies like the IAB will introduce measurement standards for retail media in the future, just as has been done for other digital advertising channels.
As the retail sector witnesses a gold rush of retailers vying to establish their RMNs, the industry will soon find itself with a fragmented landscape that includes hundreds of RMNs for brands to choose from.
Smaller retailers at the fringes of this expansion may face a natural process of consolidation and be acquired by larger players.
For retailers, the influx of competitors necessitates a strategic approach that encompasses innovation, value proposition differentiation, and a keen awareness of the evolving market dynamics.
For this reason, it’s vital that retailers get the technology part right — both the internal and external integrations, as well as the technical consultancy and development aspects — when building their RMNs.
Doing so will help them to fully utilize their first-party data.
The allure of cultivating a walled garden approach, while fostering exclusivity, comes with the inherent risk of alienating potential advertisers.
Striking a balance between creating an enticing environment for advertisers and upholding the principle of openness is an ongoing challenge for RMNs, but it can be achieved with the right business strategy and development partner.
Our AdTech development teams can work with you to design, build, and maintain a custom-built retail media network (RMN) for any programmatic advertising channel.
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]]>The post What Is In-App Mobile Advertising and How Does It Work? appeared first on Clearcode.
]]>Fast forward to 2023, when 1.96 million apps are available on the App Store and consumers are predicted to spend $33.9 billion in app stores.
Moreover, as many as 86% of people use other devices while watching TV, with between 68%-76% of viewers using a smartphone to research information, use social media, and reply to messages.
Taking all that into consideration, in-app mobile advertising presents a great opportunity for advertisers. With many of us being so dependent on mobile devices, using mobile advertising to reach a target audience is a no-brainer for marketers and advertisers.
In this article, you will learn about mobile advertising, how it’s different from in-app advertising, and how in-app advertising works
These are just some of the events that have shaped mobile advertising into what it is today:
The release of the first iPhone in 2007 totally changed the game for mobile advertising, giving users the option to interact with a mobile ad in a new way: the touch-sensitive, multi-sensor interface enabled ads to to be shrunken or enlarged, as well as rotated.
Considering that people use apps for all sorts of things, it’s not surprising that time spent “in-app” keeps increasing year-on-year (YOY).
However, users tend to spend more time in-app compared to on the mobile web these days, so although marketers and advertisers have more hours and ways to reach them each day, they have to think of innovative ways to actually catch the attention of their target audience.
Evidence of this behavior is illustrated in the following statistics from Data.ai’s State of Mobile 2022 report:
Our AdTech development teams can work with you to design, build, and maintain a custom-built AdTech platform for any programmatic advertising channel.
In-app advertising, aka mobile-app advertising, refers to displaying ads within mobile apps on smartphones and tablets. Brands and advertisers run ad campaigns across multiple mobile apps to increase brand awareness and conversions, just like they do with other digital advertising channels, such as web advertising.
Gaming, social, utility, and entertainment companies are quite dependent on in-app advertising (IAA).
Since app developers get paid to serve advertisements within their mobile app, publishers can keep their content free for users.
Not only does this model keep content free, but it also drives the number of downloads up, as well as providing scalable revenue for app developers and publishers.
Currently, it’s rather rare for apps to require payment up front, as most have a freemium model that lets you download the software for free with the option to upgrade later in order to be able to use more features, remove ads, have access to more content, or buy stuff.
Moreover, only a small portion (~5%) of users decide to make in-app purchases (IAP) and, therefore, generate revenue.
There are apps that are capable of relying on IAP alone, but most of them prefer to use ad revenue from in-app advertising (IAA) as their main revenue stream.
Now that we’ve got the definition of in-app advertising out of the way, let’s move on to how in-app ads work.
Mobile apps need to use a software-development kit (SDK) in order to display ads, meaning that developers have to integrate the given AdTech vendor’s SDK into their app. In terms of how ads are shown, it’s done through an AdTech platform, such as a mobile ad network.
An ad network is a platform that brings developers and advertisers together.
Due to constant changes in formats, programmatic ad buying, and real-time bidding, developers are now able to automate and handle ads more efficiently than in the past.
In addition, ads have undergone advancements to enhance intuitiveness and seamless integration within the mobile user experience.
Like all the other digital advertising channels, the in-app mobile advertising ecosystem is divided into the buy side and the sell side, with various advertising technology (AdTech) platforms playing a key role in the delivery and measurement of in-app ads.
The buy side consists of stakeholders buying the ads. These are app developers and agencies who are responsible for designing mobile ads, coming up with a campaign strategy, and then launching the ad campaign.
The sell side, on the other hand, is made of apps selling ad space, known as publishers, with app publishers (developers) combining a mediation platform with various ad networks through a software development kit (SDK).
An ad network acts as a broker, meaning that it takes care of selling the publishers’ in-app inventory to the advertisers, along with handling the process of matching a publisher’s ad supply with the advertiser’s demand.
Apart from the ad network, we’ve also got the ad exchange.
An ad exchange resembles a stock exchange, so instead of simply selling impressions by the thousand, the ad exchange lets advertisers select their desired audience and bid on individual impressions.
Two other key AdTech platforms are the demand-side platform (DSP) and the supply-side platform (SSP).
The former gives advertisers access to inventory from numerous ad exchanges, while the latter lets publishers manage their in-app ad inventory and make it available to advertisers via an ad exchange and DSP.
So, how does the whole system work exactly?
Well, it depends on how the in-app mobile ads are bought and sold.
If an ad is being transacted via an ad network, then an ad request will be sent from the mobile app to an ad network via an SDK. The ad request will be matched with an advertiser’s campaign, and an ad will be selected. The ad will then be sent back to the mobile app and displayed to the user.
If the ad is being transacted via real-time bidding (RTB), then an ad request will be sent from the mobile app to an SSP via an SDK. The SSP will then pass on the ad request to an ad exchange, which will then pass on the bid request to multiple DSPs.
Each DSP will evaluate the bid request, match it with the advertisers’ ad campaigns, and send back a bid response. The ad exchange will then hold an auction where each of the bids from the various DSPs will compete against one another.
The highest bid will win the impression, and the ad will be shown to the user.
Below is an overview of how in-app mobile ads are bought and sold via ad networks and RTB.
Here’s a short comparison between mobile and in-app advertising:
Now, let’s see exactly how these two types of advertising can be differentiated.
When it comes to mobile devices using a browser to display ads, they don’t require a software-development kit (SDK), as these ads are served in the same way as ads on websites.
Mobile apps, on the other hand, need the mobile app’s developers to integrate the given AdTech vendor’s SDK into their app so that the ad space where the ads will run is defined, along with information about the ad medium (e.g., text, image, native, and video) and the ad format (e.g., interstitial and banner).
Despite less time being spent on the mobile web compared to in-app activity, the mobile web offers more contextual- and audience-targeting opportunities, due to the fact that new web pages are being created all the time.
Thanks to that, advertisers are capable of reaching audiences based on their interests across the whole Internet, making the mobile web a huge opportunity for advertisers in terms of scale.
There’s also the matter of available formats.
Most ad formats adjust well to the mobile web — whether it’s native ads that seamlessly blend into their surrounding content, or video ads, which are a useful weapon for battling “banner blindness”.
What’s also important to mention is viewability. Based on research from eMarketer, the global viewability rate is much higher in-app than for either the mobile web or desktop:
It’s all due to the fact that ads shown in apps are better at capturing one’s attention, as they are often more prominent and can’t be closed as easily as ads displayed in a browser.
It’s also worth pointing out that desktop and laptop computers might be shared, whereas mobile phones generally only have one owner, so installed apps have a thorough personal connection with the user and their daily habits, making the in-app environment a perfect space for creating effective and personal advertising touchpoints.
There’s no right or wrong answer as to which in-app ad format you should choose to get your desired results, but you can certainly find one that is suitable for your needs.
The best way to do this is by deciding what you’re aiming to achieve with your campaign.
Each type of in-app ad offers various useful benefits, so let’s explore them to know what they bring to the table.
Playable ads are like app “samples,” as they allow users to try out the software through all sorts of mini-games before installing it.
Since these ads are interactive, they tend to be received positively by the audience, provide a good user experience, and deliver the highest eCPMs in the industry.
Interstitial ads provide users with rich, customizable, and appealing static or in-app video ads at natural pauses in an app’s flow, such as when a user opens the app, browses between pages, or switches between games. This frequency of ad exposure keeps the disruption of the user experience to a bare minimum.
They do, however, require user action in order to be closed or display the desired content.
One of the most distinguishable interstitial ads is a splash ad, a full-screen interstitial ad shown when the app is opened but before any other content is loaded.
Offerwalls are essentially mini-stores within the app.
They mainly present a list of tasks that users can do and in exchange for an in-app reward.
The user has to initiate this type of ad, which extends session length; hence, they hold a dominant position among eCPMs.
With rewarded video ads, users receive various prizes for watching a video.
Not only are they displayed voluntarily, but they also boost in-app purchases and encourage users to come back.
In-app video ads last between 15 and 30 seconds.
Moreover, compared to desktop ads, users pay more attention to in-app video ads because, without the ability to multitask, their attention is solely directed toward the ad.
Although expandable ads are usually rich media ads, they are also considered a mix of banner and interstitial ads.
Starting with a teaser banner (320×50 pixels), they then expand to 320×480 pixels after being clicked on by the user. The enlarged version of the ad gives advertisers more space to deliver the message they are trying to convey in the ad.
Standard banner ads vary from 320×50 to 300×50 pixels, and they’re usually static or animated. Moreover, they commonly appear at the top or bottom of the screen.
Despite being fairly simple, this is the most popular advertising format.
Back in the day, these ads weren’t quite effective, but if implemented in the right context, they’re passive and non-intrusive; thus, they contribute to user experience satisfaction.
Overall, native ads combine advertising messages with user-centric content.
As publishers aren’t given an actual ad but rather the components of the ad, they’re the ones deciding how to display the element in ways that fit well with its app, meaning that there’s no one established standard in terms of form and size.
Our AdTech development teams can work with you to design, build, and maintain a custom-built AdTech platform for any programmatic advertising channel.
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]]>The post What’s the Difference Between CSAI and SSAI? appeared first on Clearcode.
]]>Video advertising has always been seen as a premium medium as it allows brands to show engaging video ads to their target audience and allows publishers to receive a higher CPM compared to display ads.
It has also provided users with more choice over how they consume video content.
For those viewers who are unwilling to pay for an ad-free plan, whether they were previously subscribed or not, can still enjoy the content on the streaming service for a lower price.
For streaming services, it allows them to attract new subscribers and potentially convert them to the higher paid subscriptions, as well as generate additional revenue via advertising.
The primary revenue sources for streaming services are as follows:
Our AdTech development teams can work with you to design, build, and maintain a custom-built connected TV (CTV) ad platform for any programmatic advertising channel.
Client-side ad insertion (CSAI) is a video ad-serving method whereby the video player requests an ad from an ad server via the video player located inside an application or website. When the ad server has received the ad request from the video player, it sends back an ad and displays it inside the video content.
With client-side ad insertion, it’s the client application and video player that are responsible for handling communication with the ad server. For example, the video player has to stop the video and make an API call to the ad server to request an ad. Once the ad has been displayed, the video player then resumes the video.
The actual advertisement that is displayed to users is selected based on the campaign’s criteria, which can include information relating to the user, publisher (e.g. website) and contents of the video.
Here are just some of the main advantages of client-side ad insertion:
Server-side ad insertion (SSAI) is a video ad-serving method whereby the ads are stitched directly into the video content on the server side instead of the client application or video player, as is the case with client-side ad insertion (CCAI).
It can be compared to traditional broadcast channel ad breaks as the transition from the video content to the ad break is smooth since the viewer isn’t waiting for the ad to load.
This makes it a continuous viewing experience with no pauses or breaks between the content and ads.
This method consists of various separate functionalities:
Because SSAI is done on the server side, it works even for devices where inserting code might be difficult.
What’s crucial about this insertion method is that the client is not making calls to servers. Because of that, it’s harder to block ads inserted using SSAI.
Here are some of the main advantages of server-side ad insertion:
Now that we’ve talked about both CSAI and SSA, let’s compare these 2 ad insertion methods.
CSAI might have been more popular when it comes to streaming and over-the-top (OTT) ad delivery, but it has some challenges that are addressed by SSAI. That’s exactly why SSAI has been catching up to CSAI in the video-based ad monetization landscape and soon will become the superior option.
All in all, no matter which method you pick, both can provide ads that will be targeted and relevant to the viewer.
With that being said, they are way better than traditional broadcast channel ad slots, as you can never be completely sure who is watching and the audience data is most certainly not as precise.
Our AdTech development teams can work with you to design, build, and maintain a custom-built connected TV (CTV) ad platform for any programmatic advertising channel.
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]]>The post What Is a Meta-DSP and How Do You Build One? appeared first on Clearcode.
]]>On the buy side, the most common platform used by brands and ad agencies to purchase ad space is called a demand-side platform (DSP).
DSPs allow media buyers (i.e. brands and ad agencies) to purchase ad space on an impressions-by-impression basis via a process known as real-time bidding (RTB).
Over the years, many brands and ad agencies have started using more than one DSP to run campaigns. This has led to inefficiencies and time-consuming and redundant tasks.
In an effort to help brands and ad agencies solve these issues, a new type of platform has emerged — a meta-DSP.
In this blog post, we explain what a meta-DSP is, how it works, and how it differs from a regular DSP.
A meta-DSP is a piece of software that sits on top of existing DSPs. While a meta-DSP is classed as an AdTech platform, it’s not actually a demand-side platform (DSP). Instead, a meta-DSP is a tool designed to centrally manage and automate campaign design, targeting, trafficking, and reporting across various DSPs.
Compared to your standard DSP, a meta-DSP doesn’t usually conduct media buying. The DSPs that connect to the meta-DSP are responsible for media buying via real-time bidding (RTB) auctions.
The role of a meta-DSP is to allow brands and ad agencies to create, set up, and manage multiple campaigns across various DSPs via one user interface.
A meta-DSP is responsible for analyzing the different targeting capabilities and inventory sources of the various DSPs it is connected to. Not only that, but they are also capable of choosing which DSP should be used to purchase a particular impression based on the campaign’s KPIs.
Our AdTech development teams can work with you to design, build, and maintain a custom-built demand-side platform (DSP) for any programmatic advertising channel.
To allow meta-DSPs to create, set up, and manage campaigns, they need to integrate with the various DSPs — typically via an API. If the meta-DSP utilizes data for ad targeting or reporting on campaign performance, then they’ll also need to integrate with data platforms and sources, such as a data lake and customer data platform (CDP).
Once an advertiser has created a campaign in the meta-DSP, that information will then be passed on to the various DSPs it’s connected to. Data and metrics about the performance of the campaigns can also be sent back to the meta-DSP for creating and viewing reports.
A regular DSP allows media buyers (advertisers and agencies) to run advertising campaigns and buy inventory from numerous ad exchanges and SSPs through one user interface. DSPs play a crucial role in the real-time bidding (RTB) process, allowing advertisers to buy media on an impression-by-impression basis.
A meta-DSP, on the other hand, is a platform that essentially aggregates many DSPs in one place.
A meta-DSP should be distinguished from a regular DSP as it is an advanced trading and management platform responsible for unifying multiple DSPs and technologies through one single entry point that creates a holistic view of the media ecosystem.
Because a meta-DSP brings many different DSPs together, it gives marketers access to multiple and powerful media-buying tools from a single entry point. By managing multiple DSPs from one user interface, meta-DSPs provide advertisers and agencies with greater audience reach, unique customer data, and better insights into campaign performance.
One of the main reasons why brands and agencies use a meta-DSP is because it can be hard for them to find a DSP that has all the features and targeting capabilities they need.
For instance, DSP 1 might offer geo-fencing technology, DSP 2 might specialize in mobile advertising, and DSP 3 might only offer a certain type of ad format (e.g. text and image ads).
While many advertisers and agencies use different DSPs for different campaigns, by using a meta-DSP they can automate their workflows, increase efficiency and improve the performance of ad campaigns.
While there are many meta-DSPs on the market, many companies, especially ad agencies and AdTech companies, can benefit from building their own meta-DSP.
When we’re talking about “building a meta-DSP”, we’re referring to a custom software development project whereby you design and build your own proprietary meta-DSP.
View the image below to learn more about how we build AdTech platforms like meta-DSPs.
Our AdTech development teams can work with you to design, build, and maintain a custom-built demand-side platform (DSP) for any programmatic advertising channel.
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