This document outlines Wayfair's playbook for achieving hyper-personalization at scale. It discusses Wayfair's massive online catalog, supplier network, and revenue growth. The goals of being more programmable are to gain greater control and customization of campaigns without increasing spend. The playbook provides steps and questions for marketers, including finding the right programmable partner, deciding what to build for success, and determining core competencies to achieve goals. Building internal skills in areas like trading, data science, and custom modeling is discussed. Benefits of being more programmable include increased revenue, streamlined workflows, unified marketing, and more profit per dollar spent.

1. #ANEventsWeek
Wayfair’s Playbook to
Achieving Hyper-Personalization at
Scale in the Programmable Age
Matthew Herman
Associate Director,
Marketing Platforms, Wayfair

2. MASSIVE
ONLINE CATALOG
with over 7,000,000
home products
SUPPLIER DIRECT
FULFILLMENT NETWORK
connecting over
7,000 suppliers
$2,250 MILLION
2015 net revenue with
minimal inventory
97.8% Q4 YoY
GROWTH
in direct retail, 81%
total growth

3. Impression Value
1st party
data
3rd party
data
inventory
data
desired
action

4. PROGRAMMABLE GOALS
Gain greater control, customization, and
transparency of campaign data to employ more
sophisticated targeting strategies without increasing
– and in often cases, even decreasing – spend
Continue forging the transformation in user
perception of a creative being an ad to instead being
an extension of a storefront that adds value to the
user’s experience

5. P L AYBO O K FO R P RO G R A M M A BL E SU C C ESS

6. Find the right partner that cultivates
innovation and experimentation, can
keep
up with you, and inspires you
STEP 1

7. PROGRAMMATIC

8. PROGRAMMABLE

9. Does your vendor push an off-the-shelf
product or framework or customize a
solution tailor-made to your needs?
Are you working with a company that
challenges and stretches your team’s
abilities?
Are your vendor's goals aligned with your
goals?
P L AY B O O K
Questions marketers
should ask themselves
when choosing a
programmable partner

10. P L AY B O O K
Example email our
client sent his team
after optimize

11. Decide what you want and need
to build in order to be successful
(and get buy-in)
STEP 2

12. • Search
• Display
• Transportation
• Fulfillment
• Recommendations
• Site personalization
… and more!
Our
algorithms
power

13. P L AY B O O K
Decide what you want & need
to build in order to be successful

14. Ask yourself: what are you really, really good
at? How will it help you achieve your
marketing goals? What will it help you
achieve in the long-run?
Do you have the resources required to
pursue the investment?
Do you have organizational buy-in?
P L AY B O O K
Questions
marketers should ask
themselves when
choosing what – and how
– to build to realize their
programmable goals

15. Determine what core
competencies you need to
nurture to achieve your marketing
objectives
STEP 3

16. Matt
Analysts
2013

17. 2016
Matt
Engineers Data Scientists Analysts

18. P L AY B O O K
Determine what core competencies you already have (or
need) and nurture those
• Train & trade with AppNexus
trading team
• Learn & teach with AppNexus
data scientists
• Custom modeling and
algorithms

19. What skill/capability will make us achieve our
marketing goals?
Can this skill/capability can be leveraged
across multiple parts of the business?
What core competency will outlast the newest
trend or technology innovation?
P L AY B O O K
Questions marketers
should ask themselves
when choosing what –
and how – to grow core
skills to achieve their
marketing objectives

20. The Impact
Increased
Revenue
Streamlined
Workflow
Unified
Marketing
Unified Marketing
• Display strategy is fully
coordinated with marketing
efforts across other channels
• Transparency makes
it possible to have a
comprehensive feedback loop
Streamlined Workflow
• Full control over execution
allows for better optimization
• Automation of campaign
setup to decrease operational
overhead
More Profit Out
of Every Dollar Spent
• Reduced costs without
sacrificing revenue
• Ability to reinvest savings
in underserved pockets

21. PROGRAMMABLE