How to Save up to $36,000 on Advertising? The MarTech Podcast with Epom's Sergey Shchelkov

For the time that programmatic ad vendors have existed, advertisers have complained that they take too much money. By cutting out the middleman and using a white label DSP to connect directly with SSPs, advertisers can make huge savings. But what exactly is a DSP, and how much technical knowledge do you need to effectively set one up for your business?

The Martech Podcast is hosted by Benjamin Shapiro. He interviews industry experts to discuss how they use marketing and technology together to drive business growth. In this week's episode, he speaks with Epom's Sales Executive, Sergey Shchelkov about how to save up to $36,000 on advertising budget. As more and more businesses shift online due to the COVID-19 response, they need to re-think their digital strategy. In this podcast, you will learn how to maximize your advertising budget through this shift.

Will DSPs Completely Replace Ad Networks?

A DSP is used for programmatic media buying, where publishers and advertisers don't negotiate the price but participate in a real-time-bidding auction instead. This process is automated by the platform and requires little effort to secure an ad placement.

With a demand-side platform, you can connect to multiple supply-side platforms and ad exchanges and choose the best inventory for your needs. It also offers a decent level of transparency, as you are the only owner of your campaign data and analytic insights.

Yet, a DSP is always a self-serve platform. Advertisers will have to hire an in-house team to manage their media buying campaigns, and not all the brands are ready for that. A fair share of them is more willing to delegate these chores to an ad network, which may in turn also use a white-label DSP and give out self-serve accounts to advertisers, just in case they'd like to take a look at their campaign reports.

Thus, DSPs won't replace ad networks completely. This event is as unlikely as if the high demand for food delivery services suddenly dropped and all people decided to cook at home instead.

Still, there is another issue. There are businesses that rely on javascript and fixed deals with their publishers for which they need an ad server and not a DSP. Not everyone has already adopted programmatic. For example, in the US and the UK adoption rate is 82% and 87% respectively.

However, this is where the future lies: 15% more ad networks are predicted to implement programmatic in 2022.

Are Ad Servers Dying Out?

A DSP and ad server complete similar tasks but in a different way. The DSP allows you to buy media with RTB but the ad server is more streamlined and offers more control over which ads to show when and where. With an ad server, you can control targeting and all of the optimization rather than relying on the third-party staff to do this for you.

Direct media buying with ad servers is still widespread. While some say it is the less effective way to buy inventory, it is still a popular method with advertisers and publishers. Recently, 32% of advertisers increased their spending on direct and programmatic guaranteed (PG) deals, according to Adomik.

As such, ad servers are far from dead, despite what you might hear about the world of advertising being mostly programmatic.

Both ad servers and demand-side platforms can make brand advertising more effective. At Epom, we have a client who was spending a lot of time on manual optimization, relying on spreadsheets that contained their performance. With Epom, they see all of their analytics in one place, make adjustments on the go, and save their money and time as the result.

Does Ad Server Management Require Technical Knowledge and Efforts?

Ad servers give you complete control and access to deep analytics, but also require your organization to interpret that data and make decisions that will optimize your performance.

However, this shouldn't scare off anyone from using an ad server. We have had clients who came to us without knowing a thing about ad servers. But they utilized our guides and account management tips, we gave them a step by step walkthrough to help them better optimize their campaigns. Now they make more sophisticated and accurate adjustments on the go, relying on real-time data.

Which Businesses Need White Label DSP?

A white-label DSP is a platform created for businesses that want to purchase traffic without paying to intermediaries. By using your own DSP you can connect directly to the SSP and essentially cut out this agency fee. Typically programmatic vendors can take anywhere from 5% to 30% of your ad spend as a fee.

If you are a business that has an ad spend of $20,000+ per month, a white-label DSP may be a more financially viable option. Even though you'll pay a platform fee, you'll save more on avoiding bid markups. For example, you might spend $6,000 (30%) of your ad spend without even knowing it. In the case of a white-label DSP, you'll spend $2,000, which is 33% less.

Rethinking how your business uses ad networks can potentially save you big bucks. Operating a white-label DSP or an ad server can help you cut out the middleman, save on the sometimes extortionate fees that ad networks and ad tech providers charge, and gain transparent insights on your campaign performance.