Control. It’s a hot commodity in digital advertising, one that brands, agencies and publishers all covet, but few tech partners are able to provide.
In the past, those that did provide control to both buyers and sellers—namely end-to-end platforms—were viewed with suspicion and concern. They were considered to be too involved or too powerful to have their buy- and sell-side clients’ best interests at heart.
Recently, though, the tide has started to turn. The benefits of end-to-end platforms—from the data and scale they deliver to the cost efficiencies they supply—have come to light, particularly as challenges like viewer fragmentation proliferate and plague advertisers.
Using end-to-end platforms inherently means you have a more in-depth understanding of the advertising ecosystem, regardless of which side of the industry you’re on. This, in turn, means you have more of that ever-coveted (and ever-scarce) resource: control. And there has never been a greater need for control over supply, data decisioning and targeting than there is today.
Data and scale
When supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-side platforms (DSPs) share the same identity graph (as they do in an end-to-end platform), there is no need for “syncing” identifiers, as there would be when working with separate, independent partners. As a result, there are fewer losses and a substantially elevated match rate, meaning spend on one’s own media can drive more scale when targeting audiences.
Supply path optimization is another core benefit here. With end-to-end platforms, publishers are given direct access to demand and third-party tech and transaction fees are significantly reduced, increasing net pay to publishers while reducing costs for advertisers.
Seamless, flexible deal activation
In addition to increased scale, having targeting data available on both sides of a platform enables end-to-end partners not only better to forecast deal IDs (thus simplifying troubleshooting and reducing potential downtime, providing better service-level agreements to clients), but also to support greater lines of communication, ultimately streamlining transactions between buyers and sellers.
Using end-to-end platforms means you have a more in-depth understanding of the advertising ecosystem.
They can also offer similar products and services across all transaction methodologies, giving clients flexibility on how they’d like to engage with the platform.
For instance, end-to-end platforms can deliver the same TV audience targeting options, data insight and analytics, creative services, and more against media to everyone—from enterprise clients looking for a DSP for activation to managed clients looking for white-glove service—leveling the collective playing field.
Cost efficiencies
Ad tech is a complex space, and the number of products and services needed to remain competitive increases each year. An end-to-end operational structure enables platforms to build products that benefit both the SSP and DSP businesses simultaneously, reducing overhead costs while delivering best-in-class solutions to clients. Further, being able to go directly from one side (SSP) to the other (DSP) means budget goes further for both advertisers and publishers.
Think of it this way: If you cross the street on a windy day with a coat full of cash, each step on that walk is going to mean more money flying out of your pockets. The shorter the journey, the more money you save.
Ad tech operates in a similar fashion; end-to-end platforms provide quicker, more efficient, more controlled (and, to keep up the metaphor, less windy and fee-filled) routes.
