A Long-term RTB Relationship Is Not An Oxymoron

It seems counterintuitive that a publisher should think about having a healthy, long-term business relationships over today’s impersonal, instantaneous, machine-mediated pipes. However, with the right information and transparency, programmatic has enabled us to have deeper, more efficient relationships — if we utilize our data and tools correctly.

With this relatively recent preoccupation with technology and “real-time”, we have ignored that these modern tools – and “big data” they generate – can be used to not only to affect much more efficient commerce in the short-term, but also to build stronger and longer-term relationships, even as the level and dimensions of human involvement has changed.
In today’s world, if I am a publisher and I have command of my trading data, then I can isolate a given buying partner and determine that they would win 25% more inventory if they just increased their bid by 5%.
Buyers, particularly Brands, need predictability as a key factor in their buying. Sharing this type of information provides a buyer with more confidence and predictability and improves the relationship. This confidence not only drives more brand dollars to flow into the programmatic channel, but also improves the publishers confidence to move more inventory into their programmatic channel. The buyers that are offered this type of visibility will become stronger and stickier to their publishers. Eventually, buyers will only seek and depend on the supply partners that offer this type of transparency. As publishers help buyers fulfill their obligation to their brands, these publishers will develop longer, more profitable long-term relationships.
In the preoccupation with technology (and keeping the lights on) in a changing programmatic world, publishers often forget that the buyer goal in addition to performance is to fulfill their campaign goals with who they reach within in a fixed amount of time. When publishers empower buyers to be be successful within these constraints, they win deeper partnerships.
The key to long-term relationships in todays programmatic-preoccupied world is informed dialogue. When both buy and sell-sides have the information and tools to conduct insight-bearing analyses, more informed and evolved dialogue will occur. Conversely, if a publisher doesn’t understand all their data, they are unable to inform their buyers bidding logic and improve the relationship.
The closer buyers can come to guaranteeing a campaign spend for a time period, and the more they understand their buying for a publisher, the happier these buyers are – and the more they will invest. Most publishers (knowingly or unknowingly) possess all the raw data to help buyers. However, many are hampered by the lack of tools, insights, and resources required to make this happen.
In today’s real-time world, strong relationships are increasingly important to build successful commerce that lasts beyond 200 milliseconds. Both buy and sell sides should have command of their data to make dialogue more efficient. If one party to trade is unprepared for this dialogue because they do not possess insights and recommendations for partners, they will be disadvantaged versus peers who are prepared.
At Adomik we build the tools to empower publishers to analyze, optimize yield, and strengthen relationships with buyers. Let us know if you want to see a quick demo or chat about our solutions.