Expansive Test Featuring Multiple Formats KPI’s, Execution Platforms and Publishers Shows up to 10x Improvement Through Multi-Vendor Supply Path Optimization

The optimal programmatic media buying strategy requires multiple partners, shows results of a study released recently by advertising technology provider Visto. With an estimated 80 percent of digital ad placements purchased using programmatic exchanges, per the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), this finding is a valuable insight for advertisers looking to get the best performance while not over-complicating their ad tech stack.

Visto conducted the study to quantify price, performance and quality variations across formats, buying platforms and methods – even when targeting the same publishers and using the same tactics, just through different partners. Leveraging the Visto Enterprise Ad Hub’s Multi-Platform Optimization tool (MPO), the company compared campaigns that were run through four industry-leading execution platforms accessing premium inventory on 50 publisher properties in 10 top metro areas.

Also Read: Visto Enterprise Advertising Hub’s Integrations Bring Clarity to Programmatic Media

The test evaluated both video and display impressions, with uniform bids by format distributed across desktop, mobile and video screens. Using MPO’s single screen UI to assess performance side-by-side and in real time, Visto observed broad performance and quality variations for the same KPI even on the same publisher sites. Further, no single platform delivered the best results in every scenario – rather, each platform performed better under different conditions. Differentials between highest and lowest performers for different KPIs include:

• A 10x improvement in cost per completed view on Weather.com
• A 6x difference in viewable CPM for ads served on TheGuardian.com
• A $250,000 higher CPM cost for 100M ad impressions on AOL.com
• A 5x difference in cost per click for Zillow.com

Visto’s testing with MPO also proved that the platform with the highest cost might not yield the best ad quality scores. Across seven different premium publisher sites, only three had the highest eCPM yield the best viewability. In one case, it was the lowest eCPM platform that had the highest viewability.

“We created the Visto Hub and MPO tool in order to help marketers, agencies and media companies find the best path to performance, and through this test, we can see without a doubt that the ability to evaluate and transact centrally across multiple platforms will drive better return on advertising spend,” stated Kerry Bianchi, President and CEO of Visto. “Those who elect to use just one DSP, SSP or exchange partner, will, unfortunately, find one size does not fit all.”

Also Read: Visto Multi-Platform Optimization Tool Unveiled to Simplify Cross-Platform Programmatic Ad Campaigns

According to insights provider Pathmatics, the average advertiser in April 2018 used 4.2 DSP partners for their programmatic buying, and this doesn’t even include additional programmatic technologies such as ad servers, verification and research tools or non-DSP channels like Facebook and Google Adwords.

MPO, developed as part of Visto’s mission to bring transparency, control and operational efficiency to the programmatic ecosystem, offers advertisers the benefit of unified performance and pacing metrics, as well as easy reallocation and optimization of ad spend across channels and formats including search, social, mobile, display, video, native, programmatic TV and more. With a single UI, time-saving workflows and an insight into data across vendors, partners and platforms, MPO enable media buyers to better orchestrate their omnichannel workflow and campaign execution.

The feature augments Visto’s Multi-Platform Allocation (MPA) tool, which automates previously unwieldy and manual ad trafficking processes while eliminating repetitive tasks associated with managing budget and performance across multiple partners. In testing, Visto reduced the time required for implementing an ad buy on numerous disparate platforms by 90 percent.

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