Maintaining brand consistency across platforms, formats, audiences and markets is challenging enough, even before considering the chaotic way digital ads are often created. As campaigns begin to run in multiple markets on a variety of channels it gets complicated. The common belief is that marketing is all data driven and a pure science. But it’s not. It’s both an art and a science and how you communicate still matters.
Many times a marketing team, especially if they are an in-house client team, will work with the assets that are easily available. It might not be the right font, colors, or product shots but they are available and since programmatic ads require brevity, the team puts them out there and starts counting click thrus. Yes, it’s working to a degree but that’s because advertising works in general, the goal is to build a brand over time and maximize your dollar.
As a marketer you should care about your brand and how it is being presented. The creative process needs to be integrated into digital technologies especially since you generally have less than 8 words to incite action.
Too often companies are shifting their marketing teams to data analysts, and of course, they need to be on every team but in today’s overly cluttered landscape the message has to be unique and break through the clutter. How the message is communicated in programmatic, and ultimately how you funnel that lead has to be carefully considered.
Creative Management Platforms software combined with a creative and analytic team, is the answer. Ultimately it allows brands to run more sophisticated and better performing creative and it allows for more testing of what really works.
It integrates all stakeholders allowing for collaboration and therefore faster innovation. It can also help create ads that work better for the native experience (the platform your audience uses i.e. IOS or Android).
But with or without a CMP here are some ideas on how to improve your programmatic advertising:
- Remember the message matters as much as the medium.
- Collaboration between creative teams and media buyers is essential.
- Benchmark and track so you know what works and where to course correct.
- Take the platform into consideration – most people will see it on mobile – did you do the best you could with that space?
- Don’t forget your brand – the challengers are on your heels and whoever breaks through with the most meaningful message will get the conversion.