It’s estimated that we’re exposed to more than 4,000 ads each day, both online and offline. Whether browsing the internet or waiting at a bus stop, consumers come across countless brand touchpoints throughout their day. For marketers, the challenge lies in striking the right balance between broad reach and genuine relevance.
Demand-side platforms, or DSPs, are software systems that enable advertisers to purchase online inventory through an auction process. This automated, data-driven method of buying and selling digital ad space appears in formats ranging from website banners to digital out-of-home displays, including placements at major events like the Super Bowl or on your favourite news site.
Display and Video campaigns are among the most commonly used formats for this kind of advertising. However, marketers still need to ensure they’re reaching the right audience. The challenge? The sheer volume of DSPs available, each offering slightly different options for audience access, creative execution, inventory, and measurement.
The choices can be overwhelming, so how can we be confident that we are making the right decision for your marketing goals?
Choosing the right DSP requires careful consideration to ensure the platform’s capabilities match and deliver against your long-term objectives. Some key elements you want to consider are:
- Data & targeting needs – The target audience can be reached with the capabilities of the platform, including built-in brand safety controls and private marketplaces.
- Creative capabilities & availability – The platform can support the preferred creative type (display, video, native, DOOH, audio and CTV).
- Measurement & tracking – The platform has visibility of the success metrics for the wider business, among other factors.
A Google search for ‘what are the best DSPs’ brings back search results ranging from the Top 5, to the Top 10, to even the Top 25 DSPs you should be trying… so how can you start to narrow this down?
Broadly speaking, the ‘top’ DSPs are those that have superior access to inventory (bonus points if it’s exclusive!), advanced measurement capabilities, AI-first features, superior customer support and a future-proofed roadmap. Frequently featured on the list for these reasons are Amazon, Trade Desk, Xandr, StackAdapt and DV360.
Below is a case study of how we found a DSP that best suited our client’s needs.
Impression’s tech-agnostic stance gives us the flexibility to adapt our DSP selection based on goals, requirements and capabilities, which is exactly what we did recently for a construction trade client. Historically, this client ran its campaigns via DV360 but were struggling to engage their niche audience, seasoned professional tradespeople and apprentices, and drive them to the website at scale.
DV360, part of the Google Marketing Platform (GMP) stack, is a popular choice as it works natively with other Google platforms, including Search Ads 360 (SA360) and Google Analytics (GA4). This platform offers exclusive access to YouTube inventory. As this client ran both YouTube and Display, DV360 was a strong fit for them, and centralising their activity reduced media wastage and kept frequency low. However, we found that audience capabilities on the platform became increasingly constricted, having already activated across targeting features such as custom intent, keyword and 3rd party segments.
Instead, we recommended testing a DSP called StackAdapt to drive more qualified sessions to the site.
We found that StackAdapt’s strengths are in its AI-powered campaign optimisation capabilities and machine learning-driven contextual targeting. This opened up additional opportunities for our client to reach its audience as the platform targets semantic meaning and not just exact match keywords. and the optimisation abilities allowed us to bid towards more valuable inventory whilst balancing budget. The contextual AI targeting allowed us to define ‘in context’ and ‘out of context’ phrases to refine audiences and ensure the client only appeared on pages that were contextually relevant. This meant that the client could keep the campaign focused on targeting its trade audience and not waste budget serving content relevant to non-professional users.
By implementing this targeting approach, StackAdapt drove 129% more sessions than DV360, despite DV360 having a larger reach for the same budget. Although StackAdapt was the best choice for this client’s specific needs, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach.
For this client’s goal of driving website sessions, StackAdapt was the clear winner. However, DSP choice will heavily rely on your specific goals. For the same campaign, DV360 was more cost-efficient, with a 23% lower CPM and a 58% lower CPC, so if those are metrics most important to your campaign, this may be a better choice.
For help choosing the best DSP for your goals, get in touch.
