Axel Ernstsson
Head of Solution Engineering
At DanAds, we build some of the most advanced automated self-serve advertising platforms for a range of innovating publishers. So it’s no wonder that we have created some really useful features in partnership with our clients, that we are then able to share.
In this series of blogs, we ask some of our amazing technical colleagues behind the creation of these platforms, to talk us through a product feature they love.
Today, it is the turn of Axel Ernstsson, our Head of Solution Engineering.
Axel has selected our ‘Product Manager’ feature.
The product is an essential piece of any ecommerce Platform – the product is what you’re buying. Our Product manager lets publishers easily make their whole inventory available to the world, in such a simple way that it’s understandable no matter the advertiser’s expertise level. It allows for easy selection and customization for both advertisers buying their first campaign and agencies with decades of experience.
Why I love this feature
Publishers come to us with incredibly complex product portfolios, listed in spreadsheets with thousands of rows or in third-party systems. They request us to make the portfolio available in a self-service advertising platform, and simply showing advertisers a list of thousands of products wouldn’t be a good user experience.
Thanks to the Product Manager, publishers get the opportunity to simplify their direct-sales focused product portfolio into something more easily understandable, that allows advertisers with any experience level to purchase campaigns on the DanAds self-service advertising platform. Meanwhile, from the advertiser’s standpoint, the Product mindset makes pricing completely transparent, allowing them to review the pricing throughout the process of building their advertising campaigns. Due to the fair pricing system (explained below), advertisers only pay for the targeting options they activate.
What it does
The Product Manager umbrella in the DanAds self-service advertising platform can be split into two parts: the Product manager itself where products are built by the publisher, and the advertiser’s product selector where the products are displayed.
From the Publisher’s view, the Product manager allows them to create, edit and delete any products within the platform. A product must minimally consist of a handful of dimensions, e.g. name, price, creative size, placement and priority. If it’s a digital campaign, these are used to instruct the ad server how and where the campaign should deliver.
The publisher also has optional dimensions that they can add on the product, largely focused on targeting. These can either be hidden from the advertiser, or shown to the advertiser for selection. The list of targeting options that can be available is limitless and only depends on how the publisher have set up their ad server, typical examples are:
- A news site might make contextual news section targeting available, e.g. business, sport or entertainment.
- A travel site might make audience based targeting available, e.g. a visitor who in the last 30 days searched for a luxury hotel in New York.
- A video streaming service might make audience based genre targeting available, e.g. a subscriber who normally watches action movies and live sporting events.
- A print publisher might want to make placement targeting available, e.g. front page, insert, full page.
Each targeting value can either have no additional costs or have a unique price associated with them. They are all set up on product level, meaning there can be e.g. two products offering one targeting option and another set having a different offering. While the available combinations of settings and pricing are limitless, it is important to remember that the advertiser’s user experience is still key when setting them up.
For this reason, it’s important to only show relevant products for each advertiser. Someone who only deals with video creatives does not need to be bothered with display banner offerings. An advanced user, e.g. an agency, does not need to be bothered with the most basic products that have limited options. The platform solves this by analysing the advertiser and recommending the products relevant to their account type. The publisher also has the option to manually provide private offerings to selected advertisers, e.g. an exclusive placement, a cheaper price on a public product, or premium targeting options.
In either case, all the advertiser has to do is to select a product, decide their campaign settings, upload a creative, pay for it – and the campaign is ready to deliver on some of the largest sites or apps in the world within minutes!
Why our publishers love it
Dynamic pricing. If the options mentioned above would be offered through a direct-sales relationship, the salesperson would need to figure out the pricing of a campaign based on the campaign options selected by the advertiser. Due to the fact that the DanAds self-service advertising platform is automated, the pricing needs to be calculated based on the advertiser’s choices.
The platform sets the pricing on a very granular level – not only based on the fact that the advertiser e.g. decides to use Geography targeting, but also on individual values under that option. This means that there can be a higher price set if the advertiser targets New York, compared to if the advertiser targets e.g. a much smaller city. All this is calculated by the platform automatically, in real-time, and is fully transparent in the user interface to the advertiser.
Multi-channel support. The DanAds self-service advertising platform is not only limited to e.g. digital display campaigns, but manages a host of channels. While new channels are continuously launched based on the feedback of our clients, examples are digital banners, print, audio, video, podcasts, linear TV, streaming, social platforms, OTT, and more. Products of these options can easily be set up through the Product manager by the publisher and be available to advertisers within minutes.
Endless promotion opportunities. Building a product through the DanAds self-service advertising platform’s Product manager is quick and easy! This allows the publisher to always keep their product line-up up-to-date and relevant. If the summer holidays are coming up, a travel-focused publisher can quickly launch travelling focused promotions and products within minutes. Before Black Friday, an ecommerce-focused publisher can do the same with relevant promotions. If a new site or magazine is launched, the publisher can quickly launch the relevant product line-up. The publisher can also create exclusive products only available to their own salespersons who are selling through the platform. All this is done easily through the Product manager with the click of a few buttons!
Why advertisers love it
Inventory transparency. In addition to pricing transparency, there is also transparency in terms of where the advertiser’s ads will be displayed. Brand safety is important in DanAds self-service advertising platforms, as a relationship is created directly between the publisher and the advertiser without middlemen involved. This allows the advertiser to get a full look into the publisher’s inventory and all e.g. brands, sites and/or magazines they offer advertising on. The advertiser can freely choose between the inventory available and their respective products, and make sure that their campaign delivers on only the parts of the publisher’s inventory that make sense to the offer or brand they advertise.
Exclusive deals. The Product manager on the DanAds self-service advertising platform allows the Publisher to not only set up specific products for selected inventory, but also specific products for certain advertiser groups and even individual advertisers. The publisher may create a complex, premium product for agencies. It can even create specific products for individual advertisers, e.g. offering premium inventory or cheaper pricing to selected partners.
Any additional benefits of the feature?
Advanced ad server options. For our friends in the ad ops departments it’s worth mentioning that the Product manager options available are not only beneficial for the advertisers. On a Product there can be hidden options being set that are not displayed, or available to select from, for the advertisers. These are normally related to trafficking or brand safety. Examples are pacing, priority and creative rotation options, frequency capping, app related options, and much more.
Do you have any tips on how to get the best from this feature?
The Product manager has a vast amount of options which might inspire the publisher to create a complex product line-up, with hundreds of products. However, the user experience of the advertiser must always come first! With the help of DanAds, the publisher will find a way to simplify their complex direct-sales focused line-up into something that is easily graspable for advertisers with any level of expertise. This will give the advertiser an easy selection, reach their goals and be the start of a great relationship between the publisher and the advertiser!
Last words
How do you build a booking flow that works for both advertisers with no advertising experience and agencies with decades of experience? Thanks to the Product manager, publishers have the power to meet the requirements of both! Publishers have the power to make their whole inventory, all their sites, brands, apps, magazines, radio channels and more available to any advertiser in the world. This feature is the most important aspect when building a campaign, and we’re continually putting a lot of effort into improving it. We love talking about the Product manager and if this got you inspired, don’t hesitate to reach out to us to learn more!
