The Best Self-Service DSPs for Programmatic Ads

By Marianne Chrisos - Last Updated on May 6, 2019
The Best Self-Service DSP for Programmatic Ads

Automated marketing tools continue to elevate the marketing game of many businesses. Marketing automation allows for companies to not just target their marketing to more specific audiences, but also takes some of the tedious manual email generation and marketing outreach processes that some marketers struggle with.

One advertising tool helps automate digital advertising for marketers: programmatic ad. The programmatic ad process allows for digital ads to be delivered to users automatically in spaces where target market users consume media, helping to simplify and streamline the digital marketing process.

What is the programmatic ad?

According to Clockwork Talent, a staffing firm that specializes in placing digital marketing professionals, the programmatic advertising process works as follows:

“After the advertiser has inputted their desired target audience preferences into a demand-side platform (DSP), programmatic bids can be placed using Artificial Intelligence (AI). The auctions take place in the time it takes for web pages to load and the highest bidding ad will appear once the page has fully loaded. This includes ad space in online display, social media advertising, mobile, video and, most recently, television markets.”

This high-level automation helps to connect businesses to more potential buyers and users and gives marketers hard data about what resonates with their target market so that they can fine-tune their campaigns components.

What is Demand-side platform (DSP)?

Demand-side platforms, or DSPs, are one side of the programmatic ad process. DSPs are used by brands to define target audiences and bid on the ad space available to buy the customer impression with their ad.

Digiday defines it as “a piece of software used to purchase advertising in an automated fashion. DSPs are most often used by advertisers and agencies to help them buy display, video, mobile and search ads… DSPs allow advertisers to buy impressions across a range of publisher sites but targeted to specific users based on information such as their location and their previous browsing behavior. Publishers make their ad impressions available through marketplaces called ad exchanges, and DSPs automatically decide which of those impressions it makes the most sense for an advertiser to buy.”

What are the best self-service DSPs?

So if DSPs are a crucial part of the digital ad buying process, which DSPs are best for your advertising? Here are some of the more popular choices.

1. SmartyAds

This DSP is connected to ad publisher partners like Pubmatic, Smaato, InMobi, AdColony, Cheetah Mobile and other trusted ad networks. Their automated process provides higher optimization for ads, resulting in better user acquisition, more conversions, and higher engagement. Whether your ads are traditional banner ads, video or native ads, or a dynamic ad format, SmartyAds is an effective tool.

2. Facebook Ad Manager

Facebook Ad Manager is the DSP for buying Facebook ad space. Because they provide the buying platform and the biddable ad space, they’ve removed the need for another DSP provider as the middleman. All Facebook and Instagram ads impressions are bought and managed through the Facebook Ad Manager.

3. DoubleClick

Google’s DSP service is called DoubleClick and provides advertisers with a huge advertising network available for customer impressions and brand marketing. DoubleClick is a powerful tool in handling all assets that are part of a digital campaign, and in 2017 Google and DoubleClick announced that users would be able to purchase television ad space with their platform.

Connecting with the right DSP matters. Some brands may have a relationship with several DSPs to handle all of their advertising, while some may choose to use Facebook Ad Manager only or invest in DoubleClick to avoid having to use more than one. Researching the features of any DSP as well as the costs, impression rates, and publisher sites associated with them is key in finding the right DSP for your marketing needs.

Marianne Chrisos | Born in Salem, Massachusetts, growing up outside of Chicago, Illinois, and currently living near Dallas, Texas, Marianne is a content writer at a company near Dallas and contributing writer around the internet. She earned her master's degree in Writing and Publishing from DePaul University in Chicago and has worked in publishing, advertising, digital marketing, and content strategy.

Marianne Chrisos |Born in Salem, Massachusetts, growing up outside of Chicago, Illinois, and currently living near Dallas, Texas, Marianne is a content writer at a company near Dallas and contributing writer around the internet. She earned her master's degree in Writing and Publishing from DePaul University in Chicago and has worked in publishing, advertising, digital marketing, and content strategy.

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