Programmatic vs Adwords

Programmatic
Thinking beyond Google Adwords
Mcounts consumer Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Demand Side Platforms (DSPs)
- Neeraj Mishra | Mcounts

Google AdWords, as the name implies, was
primarily built around search, keywords,
and text ads. The display network was an
afterthought, bolted on after Google's
acquisition of DoubleClick and the
expansion of the AdSense program.
DSPs were purposely designed around
building display ad campaigns. Both
DSPs and AdWords are buying platforms
for advertisers, but when it comes to the
focus, DSP's wins hands down in display
advertising.
Adwords Programmatic
DSPs = Demand Side Platforms
Programmatic, Programmatic DSPs, RTB (Real Time Bidding are used interchangeably in this presentation

Amongst experienced marketers, most only have little idea of how DSP's work and how
they ultimately differ from a platform like Google AdWords.
“Isn’t Programmatic Display
kind of like AdWords?”

Most Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) are similar to AdWords in that
they are used to create ad campaigns. But, DSP's provide advertisers
access into the vendor-neutral RTB (Real Time Bidding) ecosystem;
whereas AdWords only allows campaigns to run within the Google
network.
The differences go beyond that, as well, especially on the display advertising side of things as explained next

Extent of Reach
Adwords vs Programmatic

The reach of the RTB ecosystem (Programmatic) is
unparalleled in the history of online display advertising.
Extent of Reach

DSPs centralize access to inventory from well over a dozen
supply-side platforms (SSPs), enabling access to a pool of
over 15 billion impressions per day and rising.
Extent of Reach
With the relatively recent addition of the Facebook Exchange (FBX), there is no question that DSPs
have the upper hand in terms of reach.

With access to billions of impressions combined with right
targeting data, you can basically find your audience
anywhere on the web (whether desktops, tablets, or mobile
devices) and show them your ads using Programmatic
Extent of Reach

On the other hand, the Google Display Network (GDN), as available
through AdWords, is limited only to Google/DoubleClick properties.
Inventory from GDN is also available through DSPs as part of the
Google/DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdEx), among other premium
publisher inventory.
Extent of Reach
Non-GDN inventory on Google Ad Exchange is not available through AdWords!

Data Freshness & Granularity

Important difference between AdWords and DSPs is the ease with
which you can view the performance of your campaigns through the
reporting interface, and the granularity with which you can apply
optimization decisions to your campaigns. .
Campaign Optimization is largely dictated by the freshness and transparency of your campaign data

In AdWords, there is a reporting delay of roughly 2-3 hours for some
stats (such as clicks, impressions, and conversions), while other
metrics are only updated once a day!

Most Programmatic DSP's report in real time – meaning that you are
both bidding on impressions in real time, and getting up-to-
the-minute statistics, as well. It also provides significant granularity
in reporting, allowing you to uncover insights and optimize
immediately, some things that are not possible with AdWords.

With Programmatic DSPs, looking at the performance of specific placements on a
specific website, you can uncover some extremely useful optimization insights. You
might find that a certain ad unit, placed below the fold, happens to draw a very low
click-through rate (CTR), bringing down overall campaign performance. Being able to
disable such under-performing elements is crucial to effective optimization.

When you look closely at these two factors — data freshness and
granular reporting — you realize that both are key features for
effective optimization, especially with the rate at which ad
impressions can be bought from today’s massive real-time
exchanges.

Targeting Options
Adwords vs. Programmatic

Targeting
Many of the targeting options available on AdWords are
also available on DSPs, geographic targeting, day parting,
frequency capping, and so on. Even more advanced
targeting options like retargeting (or remarketing) are also
available on both platforms.
However, DSPs are unquestionably more effective at targeting audiences, given the reach of the RTB ecosystem.

Targeting
Contextual targeting (i.e., targeting specific URLs based on
the topic of the page) is another similarity between the two
platforms, even though there are some differences in
implementation.
1. AdWords allows contextual targeting by keyword or category
2. DSPs typically only allow for targeting by category.

Targeting
Keywords gives AdWords an advantage in that display
inventory can be bought on a keyword basis; however, the
relevance of the Keyword targeting via Adwords is quite
low, making performance difficult to achieve, even
amongst veteran AdWords advertisers.

Targeting
Target capabilities of
DSPs, made possible by
real-time bidding, are
far more advanced.
E.g: when creating a mobile
campaign you can choose to target
by a number of different criteria,
including:
Device manufacturer
Handset model
Mobile carrier
Operating system
Web browser

Targeting
Targeting segments include everything from
demographic data (age, gender, income,
marital status, education level, etc.) to
psychographic data (likes and interests) to
behavioral data (e.g., company they bank
with, brand of car they drive, who they use for
insurance, etc.)
The scope of targeting options using cookie data is practically limitless, and the easiest way to
achieve scale is via DSPs.

Pricing Options

Pricing Options
When it comes to display ad inventory, CPM is the
foundation of all pricing. (In the RTB ecosystem, it’s eCPM,
to be more precise.)
DSPs do offer the ability to run campaigns with a CPC or CPA price target, but such options only
optimize to those goals, effectively. Underneath, impressions are still traded on an eCPM basis.
eCPM = Effective Cost per Mile
CPC = Cost per Click
CPA = Cost per Action

Pricing Options
Google can afford to offer a CPC pricing option through AdWords,
mainly because they have direct control over publisher ad
placements through DoubleClick and AdSense.
Using their own algorithms, they can optimize both CPM and CPC
bids to show higher-CTR ads at certain times, and CPM ads at other
times, depending on price and performance, and what yields them
the highest revenue.

Pricing Options
As a marketer, you can use this fact to your advantage. Using the
AdWords platform, you can effectively test a variety of banner ads
with very little risk using CPC bids. Once you find a set of
high-performing ads, you can move them over to DSPs and direct
buys with higher confidence.

Accessibility

Accesibility
While Programmatic has an entry cost with minimum
of 5K-20K $ per month, both adwords and DSPs have
self-serve options mainly that provides great
accessibility to marketers

Verdict
Extent Of Reach
Data Freshness
& Granularity
Targeting
Pricing Options
Accessibility
Programmatic Adwords
Win
Win
Tie
Tie
Win
Lose
Lose
Tie
Tie
Lose

Verdict
AdWords is obviously the king of search engine marketing
(SEM) platforms. But when it comes to display advertising,
the industry has evolved beyond what AdWords offers.
Superior reach, targeting, and optimization are now found
in the realm of real-time bidding technology and realized
through Programmatic demand-side platforms.

Mcounts consumer Solutions Pvt. Ltd.Adwords vs Programmatic
Queries?
neeraj@mcounts.com
+91-77 99 65 6664
Helpful Resources: http://digitaladblog.com/2015/03/22/programmatic-the-top-infographics/

Programmatic vs Adwords

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