Are you considering Self-Service for your business? Interested in hearing from some of the companies that are already enjoying the benefits of automation? We’ve taken the liberty of interviewing some of our clients regarding their thoughts on Self-Service Advertising and what role they believe it will play in the future. If you’d like to learn more or get in touch with us or any of our clients, reach out and we’ll talk!
First up: let us introduce Anthony Blackford. Director of Advertising at dubizzle, the UAE’s largest Classifieds.
In your opinion, what are the benefits for a media company working with a self-service platform?
I think the largest benefit is the ability to scale the volume of clients you can work with. One salesperson can only cover so much ground. A self service tool works around the clock 24/7 and is not capped on how many clients it can service. By leveraging technology and automating processes, you can really increase the number of clients you work with which would not have been possible via a managed service.
Why do you think there has been an increased demand from the media companies for self-service platforms?
As technology evolves and the way we consume media continues to shift towards digital channels, we are increasingly moving towards a connected world which offers huge opportunities. Machine learning and AI seems to be the core focus of most tech companies now as we try to replace more manual tasks with automated processes. Although self serve isn’t a fully automated process, it does remove the need for most of the manual work on the publisher side, plus allows for greater scale without the need to increase your operation footprint.
Are self-service platforms good for advertisers of all sizes?
It really depends on what advertising product you’re selling and if it’s fairly basic or has multiple moving parts to it. The more complex it is, it’s less likely you’ll have your larger spender operating from a self serve platform. Although I see no reason why advertisers of all sizes cannot use self-service. We know some larger clients prefer a managed service, especially if the campaign has an added technical component or complex execution, but there is no reason why they cannot be helped through the self service tool by the publisher.
What advice would you provide to media companies looking to enable a self-service advertising platform?
Start with an entry level product which is easy to use and does the basics well. Once you know what works for your clients, build on that for stage 2. There is no point spending several years and tons of cash building an over constructed platform that does not work or deliver the value for your clients.
What are your predictions for self-service advertising platforms in the media industry in the future?
I think we’ll see an increase in publishers using self-service platforms as they try to grow their client base whilst leveraging technology where possible. We have the ability to build really intelligent systems that will always outperform manual effort, which are built for scale. It makes sense to build on this potential.
Anthony Blackford, Director of Advertising, dubizzle
