Large brands may have a budget advantage with real-time bidding. But midsize companies with less to spend can still make large returns, argues Melissa Hodgdon, vp and media director of the digital marketing agency Enguage.
Last week, at the Digiday Exchange Summit in Austin, Hodgdon addressed the ways in which midsize agencies can help smaller brands effectively target a niche audience through RTB.
“It doesn’t matter how big or small your budgets are. If you do the right targeting, you can do phenomenal things,” she said. “Real-time bidding has helped our clients compete with the Coca-Cola’s of the world.”
With that in mind, here are Hodgdon’s tips for smaller brands that want to build a successful real-time bidding campaign:
Start Targeting
“We looked for people who were young, professional and fun, and had kids. We felt really good about the target audience and went after them online, because that’s where they’re spending most of their time, … and then we started seeing new audiences develop from the insights coming back from our trading desk.”
Get Smarter
“We started dividing up the creative regarding when they were going to order, and what message we should send them. We started limiting our time of day — why advertise at 10:00 p.m. at night when customers aren’t responding?”
Be Specific
“With the trading desk, you can do more than just target by demographic. We had specific audiences that we developed with the propensity of buying their product. We built out every one of those audiences on the trading desk, so we could actually see who was buying. And we were able to do it across a geographic location.”
Partner Up
“There are companies out there to help midsize agencies. We don’t have millions to spend, and we don’t have the talent or salaries to bring in real-time strategies or professionals to our agencies.”
Find a Balance
“Real-time bidding is a layer in a tactical plan. It’s a part of an overall strategy; it’s not the only strategy.”
How Programmatic is Changing the Game for Mid-Sized Agencies from Digiday on Vimeo.
Image via Flickr
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