7 Things that Matter in the New Normal
Who would have thought an unknown virus would play such a role in accelerating digital transformation across B2B marketing? Programmatic marketing has given brands a ray of hope in driving business growth in these challenging times.
Real-time bidding and detailed demographic data have replaced “blind” ad buys. More informed programmatic strategies put B2B marketers at par with changing buyer needs. Intent-driven programmatic marketing has shown its ability to drive ROI and increase brand awareness and loyalty.
With creative innovation and hyper-personalization at scale, more and more organizations are inclined towards expert solutions launched with B2B programmatic partners. For many brands, this approach has more to offer than of hiring or building a solution themselves.
Seven Things to Look for in Programmatic Partnerships
What do you consider when evaluating the best B2B programmatic partner for your business? To make your search simpler and more productive, consider these seven things and ask about them in your conversations:
1. Guaranteed transparency: Transparency is the biggest concern when you’re selecting a programmatic partner -- Transparency and openness about sourcing, costs, guarantees and other items. Ask a potential provider whether they guarantee transparency about mark-up costs, ad placements and inventory sources. Evaluate their solution to see how easily it aligns with your marketing stack. Ensure they provide detailed campaign performance analysis for CRM strategies and future planning.
2. Precise targeting options: Programmatic advertising soars higher than other marketing strategies due to its rigorous targeting and retargeting options. If this isn’t already a strength in your organization, it doesn’t have to hold you back. Look for a partner with a success team to quickly target and launch campaigns. Reaching the right audience at the right time is essential. Every marketer knows that, but they may not know how to do it. B2B buyers move fast, and you need to target and respond quickly to those specific prospects, rather than casting a broad net. With appropriate features in a solution, you can reduce unwanted costs, process delays and increase ROI through precise targeting.
3. Proprietary technology: It seems there’s a different set of technological tools for every marketing need. Make sure your B2B programmatic partner is technologically sound to meet your digital marketing requirements. For example, many B2B brands have a wide-spread audience base, so hyper-local radius targeting probably won’t be suitable. Cognitive technologies involving AI ensure real-time optimization, which is pivotal for efficient programmatic marketing. Is your potential partner using this programmatic game-changer? Ask about your partner’s track record of innovation.
4. Data quality: A bulky set of unstructured data can be quite messy and not ready for any useful purpose. User data, or intent data signals, on the other hand, can be the magic ingredient for successful programmatic marketing. Quality, contextual data helps you develop appropriate campaigns for prospective buyers, thus increasing conversion rates. Discuss the quality, volume and sources of data signals to engage with targeted audiences. Ask potential partners about their data management and hygiene practices. Are there guarantees about data quality? All of this matters for your programmatic targeting.
5. Personalized solutions: In programmatic marketing, there’s no “one size fits for all” solution. Every brand and campaign is unique, be it for awareness, engagement, action or sales. A proactive B2B programmatic partner delivers personalized solutions within an estimated budget to help brands reach revenue goals.
6. Measurement metrics: You want to track live digital campaign performance and evaluate what’s working and what’s not. Check whether your B2B programmatic partner covers essential metrics like website traffic, impressions, click-through rates, CPC, conversions, etc. Ask about full account-level reporting and alignment across any account-based marketing (ABM) targets with relevant content. An experienced partner will set you up to track and optimize the right metrics from the beginning.
7. Multichannel approach: B2B programmatic marketing lets you engage with prospects and customers using different tactics across the entire funnel. Buyers typically respond to these multichannel programmatic campaigns. Engagement metrics, action metrics and perception metrics help you determine the impact of campaign exposure across a certain audience. But pulling multichannel programs together into a holistic approach may require programmatic partner expertise to help you launch professional-level campaigns and targeting.
What to ask before saying YES to a programmatic partner
Before you opt for a specific programmatic partner, there’s still a bit more to think about before you make a decision. Remember to ask these crucial questions to improve your chances of a successful programmatic partnership.
- Do the solutions meet your needs?
- How much is the pocket pinch? Is the budget at par with your planned investment?
- Are the solutions effective and aligned with your martech stack?
- Is there concrete technical support? What about customer success teams?
- How fresh is the data, and what are its sources?
- Is there any omnichannel or multichannel optimization available?
- Does the provider share detailed analytics reports and campaign performance?
- Does the provider use live intent signals or first party data, as third party data phases out?
Choosing a suitable B2B programmatic partner for your business can be stressful, time-consuming and challenging. It can also be the best move you make this year to improve your pipeline health.
To know more about intent data-driven programmatic marketing, read the Programmatic FAQs.
