This document discusses best practices for programmatic advertising. It recommends (1) optimizing ads based on advertiser goals like sales or leads rather than publisher metrics, (2) starting with goals like awareness or purchase intent and mapping the customer journey, and (3) developing your own attribution model to understand customer touchpoints rather than relying on default models. It also warns against "reporting magic tricks" and advocates for transparent reporting and always-running "time-based" campaigns to continuously improve performance over time.

1. PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING
How can machine and human
work together
to predict your next purchase?

2. AVOID DISTRACTOR METRICS

5. If an ad loads in a browser and no one is
there to notice it, does it really matter?

6. PLAN BY GOAL, NOT CHANNEL

7. Traditional media planning in 1930’s

8. Remember this guy?

9. Publisher
Time

11. Plan by mindset
Awareness
Engagement
Leads
Direct Response
Acquisition

12. Think like a customer, not like a publisher
Awareness
Engagement
Leads
Direct response
Acquisition
Online
sales
Call centre
Leads
nurturing
Store sales
Mobile
video
YouTube
Facebook
video
Instagram
Premium
programmatic ATL Referral
I’m becoming aware of
the brand
Facebook Native Display SEO SEM
Direct
traffic
Non-branded keywords
I’m interested in the
brand
Facebook Native Display
I’m considering the brand
Facebook Display
SEO SEM
Direct
traffic
branded keywords
I’m showing intent to buy
the brand.
Facebook Display
I’m purchasing from the
brand
SEO SEM
Direct
traffic
branded keywords
Engaged Visitors
Leads
Quotes
Completed Views
Sales

13. SEGMENT YOUR AUDIENCES

14. Listen to Audience Signals
What product was I looking at?
What product was I interested in buying?
Product
What media source did I come from?
How well does this source usually convert?
Source
What stage of the buying process did I get to?
Did I add the product to my cart or enter
personal details?
Stage
What topics have I demonstrated interest in?
What other pages have I interacted with?
Interest
How long ago did I interact with the website?
When am I likely to purchase?
Time
How many times did I interact with the website?
Touchpoint

15. Cold Warm Hot Customers
3,810
2 days
15,608
7 days
90,448
30 days
172
2 days
856
7 days
6,748
30 days
163,792
30 days
2,146
30 days
12,416
365 days
Move from Pools to Ponds

16. Attribution is a Point-of-View

17. Sales vs Attribution Windows
0
250
500
750
1000
PC 1 PC 7 PC 30 PV 1 PV 7 PV 30
Sales
Attribution Methods and Windows

18. Time Lag from First interaction
January
February
March

19. Error Magnitude
The further you get from the buyers true goal,
the greater the error (and it’s cost)
Click
ROMI
View
Error
Acquisition

20. Be Aware of Reporting Magic Tricks

21. CPM CPC Clicks Conversions
$3.20 $3.84 1570 62
$1.80 $2.16 1874 54
$2.40 $2.88 1953 71
$1.20 $1.44 2044 97
$3.90 $4.68 1453 57
$4.10 $4.92 1653 48
$3.20 $3.84 1754 66
$2.40 $2.88 1955 74
Conversions
0
25
50
75
100
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Conversions
RED FLAGS
• Totals only (missing
columns)
• Graphs only (no
trends)
• Hiding negatives
• No editing!
✔

22. Time based campaigns only
Always-on = Always-improving

24. Time-based Performance
CPA
2.5
3
3.5
3.9
4.4
Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Campaign 1
Campaign 2
Campaign 3
?
Establish a baseline

25. Key Takeaways
1. Optimise towards Advertiser metrics
2. Start with the goals
3. Map your audience using tag management
4. Develop your own attribution model
5. Make sense of your reports
6. Stay in Market – establish a baseline