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TanmayMathur
Adobe Employee
TanmayMathurAdobe Employee
Adobe Employee
August 2, 2016

Blog and Article Sharing Corner

  • August 2, 2016
  • 13 replies
  • 54022 views

Hey Community Folks!

This space is created exclusively for users who write blogs or articles around Adobe Advertising Cloud/Adobe Media Optimizer/Tubemogul and related technologies. You can feel free to post your genuine content around topics like Search/Display/Social Marketing, programmatic ad buying etc. If we like what you have written, we may well include it in our official Knowledge Base Articles and give you the due credit! If you have any questions before posting you can send me a private message.

Hope to see some great content here!

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    Adobe Employee
    ritikam90154231Adobe Employee
    Adobe Employee
    September 4, 2016

    By Ritika Mahajan, AMO - Consultant, Adobe

    AMO: Conversion Tracking

     

    In today’s dynamic digital marketing space, it is very crucial to track the conversion, this helps us to quantify our marketing efforts into Return on Investment (ROI). Industries which do not track conversion assume that if the sales increase during the run time of the ad copies it is due to the ad copies however there is no data to back this assumption and it may or may not be the case.

     

    An intelligent marketer would always setup a conversion tracking system and make all his marketing efforts quantified assets of the business. Another myth regarding conversion is considering conversion equal to a purchase. This is not always true. Any action that a visitor takes on the advertiser website that results into benefit of the advertiser is a conversion.

    For instance, in services industries specifically B2B Business there is no purchase instead a call made to the advertiser’s call center results into revenue for the advertiser. Does that mean Digital marketing is not for Services industry at all, the answer is No, A Service industry advertiser can have different ways of tracking conversion like offline conversion or tracking chats on the website through analytics.

    Being A marketer it is absolutely critical for us to define the conversion and set up an achievable target – AMO hits the bulls eye here. With the Portfolio theory of AMO it is very easy to set up a target and let the optimizer work towards the same in order to maximize the ROI.

     There are three types of conversion tracking that can be done through Media optimizer, based on advertiser’s need we can choose one:

    1. Pixel tracking
    2. Feed tracking
    3. Combo tracking

     

    Media optimizer tracking if enabled will have a unique click tracking code in the URL of the Adcopy, keyword or a placement in each campaign managed by media optimizer. It is through this code the technology will track ad impressions, clicks and conversions.

    Pixel Tracking —  In this type of tracking, you must include either a 1-pixel x 1-pixel transparent image or a JavaScript tag on the conversion page, with information embedded in the tag to note the transaction data and send it to a tracking server.

    This type of tracking must be used for advertisers whose conversions are online and no offline calculation is required for the same. Also they won’t delete augment, or correct previously-reported conversions.

     

    Feed Tracking —  In case the business requirement is to track conversion data from a different method, Media optimizer provides an option of sending a daily feed file with conversion data.  This data can be either aggregated daily by keyword or consist of individual transactions.

    This type of conversion tracking can be used by advertisers who already has a conversion tracking system in place that provides conversion data at a keyword level. Also, the advertiser wants to be able to delete, correct, or augment previously-reported conversions (such as when orders are canceled, rebates or partial refunds are applied, or applications are converted to loans).

     

    Combo Tracking — Combo tracking is a combination of both pixel and feed tracking methods and can be used to track online conversions, and capture offline conversions using another method. To accomplish this method, it is necessary to include either a 1-pixel x 1-pixel transparent image or a JavaScript tag on the conversion page and send a daily feed file with transaction-level conversion data that was captured by another method for the offline conversions.

    This type of tracking can be used by advertisers where the customer completes one phase of a transaction online (for example, applying for a loan), but a second phase in the transaction (such as the application approval) occurs offline. Also, in the cases where purchase products online but discounts, credits, or other adjustments may be applied to the transactions in an offline process.

    Most of the event types are easily tracked with the Media optimizer conversion tracking. Also, it is absolutely essential to switch off Google's Conversion Optimizer or ECPC Option to let the optimizer do its job in the best possible way. However, the optimizer lets other tracking methods track conversion as well by adding extra piece of code in the URL of the entity being tracked for instance keywords, ads placement etc.

    Based on the business requirement the advertiser can choose anyone of the conversion tracking methods and start gaining insights on what is working for the business and what not. Also. This would help digital marketers to get more customers and improve the ROI of the business.

    Be the digital marketer with intent and insights, track your conversion and let each of the marketing effort count.

     

    ** Data Taken from AMO Help Section.

    TanmayMathur
    Adobe Employee
    TanmayMathurAdobe EmployeeAuthor
    Adobe Employee
    September 5, 2016

    The Blog Post below is from Pete Kluge, Product Marketing Manager for Adobe Media Optimizer

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    5 Reasons Now Is the Time to Implement Dynamic Creative

    Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) was introduced to marketers a decade ago, but after the initial excitement, the implementation and delivery of use cases didn’t match the expectations. However, today, DCO is riding a new wave of adoption by advertisers and agencies.

    Gartner shows DCO rising on the “Slope of Enlightenment” for its July 2016 Digital Marketing and AdvertisingHype Cycle. According to Gartner, this is the phase where “more instances of how the technology can benefit the enterprise start to crystallize and become more widely understood.” We believe several factors contribute to this newfound enthusiasm.

    Internal Image - 5 Reasons Now Is the Time to Implement Dynamic Creative

    Five Reasons Why DCO Is Back and Stronger than Ever

    1. Programmatic Advertising Powers DCO and Retargeting
    Before demand-side platforms (DSPs) and real-time bidding (RTB), media for DCO was bought directly from the publisher or an ad network. Getting sufficient scale and unique reach could be a challenge—an advertiser had to buy media on multiple publishers or ad networks. Reaching many small and granular audiences required a manual and cumbersome set-up process. This lacked efficiency and there was no way to de-dupe user targeting among the different inventory partners.

    Being able to retarget ads to consumers who show interest in products and services through their online behaviors is an important application of DCO and RTB technologies. Combining DCO with real-time audience-based buying through a DSP addresses key challenges around scale and unique reach. The DSP is integrated with many ad inventory sources for maximum scale and has controls like frequency capping across all the inventory, allowing the advertiser to better manage scale and reach. Advertisers now have access to vast amounts of data and advanced technology platforms to apply that data to display advertising campaigns.

    2. DCO Moves Beyond Retargeting
    Early on, DCO was used primarily by the retail and travel industries for retargeting high-value consumers with advertising. Given the large number of possible ad permutations for retail and travel (thousands of SKUs or origination/destination combinations), these are the logical verticals to be the first to adopt DCO. But advertisers now grasp how DCO can be used beyond retargeting for campaigns across the marketing funnel and across verticals.

    While DCO campaigns at the lower end of the funnel—like retargeting and loyalty programs—have always made sense, DCO is also now being applied to top-of-the-funnel prospecting and awareness campaigns. Even if very little is known about a user (for example, from a geotargeted prospecting campaign), DCO can algorithmically optimize the ad content to drive the best performance for the advertiser. DCO evaluates all possible ad permutations and optimizes creative elements and delivery to the best-performing option for the advertiser’s objectives. Any vertical that has granular audience data can benefit from DCO.

    3. It’s All about Experiences
    Consumers are engaging with brands across multiple devices and digital channels and they’re expecting a personalized, consistent, and compelling experience whenever and wherever they’re accessing brand content. This is truer today than ever before. The fact that ad blocking is on the rise sends a clear signal that consumers are demanding better ad experiences.

    DCO is the solution advertisers need to deliver a better experience for their consumers. Advertisers have access to deeper audience insights than ever before and DCO allows advertisers to deliver relevant and engaging ad experiences, and in turn drive better engagement and performance.

    4. Data Feeds Are Everywhere
    A key component of DCO is the data feed. This is the content that is used to populate a dynamic ad in real time. In a change from just a few years ago, many advertisers are now using data feeds regularly to power their online advertising.

    In addition, DCO technology has become more flexible in ingesting data and it no longer requires a third-party vendor. For example, a Google Merchant Center feed can easily be translated for DCO and an Excel file can be mapped for DCO.

    Digital advertisers are generally more comfortable using data feeds and customer files to power their advertising campaigns, and they have a greater awareness of how data feeds support DCO.

    5. Creative Flexibility
    While early DCO vendors required an advertiser to select from a set of predefined and inflexible templates, today’s DCO solutions offer an agency and advertiser complete control and flexibility over the creative layout design. Dynamic ad templates can be custom built for the advertiser so they have control over how their brand is conveyed and experienced by the consumer. The ad layout can include features like a promotion countdown clock, drop-down box, search form, and product carousel, and can be delivered on mobile and across devices.

    What does the future hold for DCO?
    As DCO approaches the “Plateau of Productivity” on the Gartner hype cycle, it will attain mainstream adoption. We will continue to see advertisers better understand how DCO works and what it can do for them. Access to data and ad-buying technology combined with DCO enables advertisers to deliver relevant and personalized ads to drive better performance and improved ROI.

    Last year, Adobe acquired Tumri from Collective, adding DCO to its advertising technology stack alongside Adobe Media Optimizer, a cross-channel programmatic ad-buying platform, and Adobe Audience Manager, a data management platform (DMP).

    This is the first in a series of five blogs on DCO. Stay tuned for blogs on what DCO can do for advertisers.

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    Read the original Blog post at - https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/advertising/5-reasons-now-time-implement-dynamic-creative/

    M
    Adobe Employee
    ManuMalhotraAdobe Employee
    Adobe Employee
    September 9, 2016

    The Blog Post below is from Manu Malhotra, Consultant for Adobe Media Optimizer at Adobe

    Edit: This article has been published as a Knowledge Base article for Adobe Media Optimizer and can be viewed here yes

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    Dealing with Model Inaccuracies

    AMO technology predicts performance based on data models it builds over a period of time. However, at times, it is very challenging to get the models accurate. When models go off because of various factors changing in the eco system, it results in uncertain performance. Hence, it is very important to keep a close eye on model accuracy.

    What is Model Accuracy?

    Model accuracy shows how precise the cost and revenue models are which are being used to optimize bids. In simple terms, model accuracy is a comparison of predicted performance and the actual performance. You can check model accuracy by clicking on Portfolio Cards > View. Day on day break down of accuracies is listed in the table.

    The model accuracy reports for multiple portfolios can also be easily accessed in AMO by clicking on Reports > Create Report > Model Accuracy > Forecast Accuracy

    Why is it important?

    If model accuracy is off, it simply means AMO doesn’t have as much information as is required and hence the bidding on the bid units is not resulting in expected impactful returns.

    Why do I have inaccurate cost models and what can I do to correct them?

    • Following a large scale account audit, check if you have changed a large number of landing pages / ad copies. In such a case it might result in cost model inaccuracy. It should take some time for quality score to build again.
    • Nature of the business – Check if there is a case of seasonality or a big event such as Olympics or change in competition such as a new entrant or aggressive strategy by competition. This can bring in cost model inaccuracy. Though AMO will adjust and adapt to changes but it may take time. In such cases try reducing the cost half-life to make AMO take more consideration of recent change in eco system.
    • New Additions – If new campaigns and keywords are getting added, this will impact cost models.  In such cases, you might like to add the new campaigns in active state initially in a separate portfolio. Else, wait for some days and AMO cost models will stabilize.
    • Significant changes in settings – Any changes in campaign settings such as geo targeting or match type strategy at search engine level can result in cost model inaccuracies too. You can either wait for next sync cycle for AMO to fetch the changes from search engine or you can make changes directly from AMO so that the technology is very much aware of the changes.
    • Significant changes in budget: This is a tricky scenario, try sticking to small and incremental changes in budgets. However, if you do have to make drastic changes because of business requirements, be ready for cost model inaccuracies. To handle it, try reducing the half-life.
    • Changes beyond your control: Bing updates its search algorithm, google decides to do away with right side ads, what do you do? Try reducing the half-life and technology should well adapt swiftly to the change.

    How to handle Revenue Model inaccuracy?

    • Special promotions: The rate of conversions will see a jump and models might take some time to adapt and learn from the changes. It is suggested to reduce the half-life for models to adapt and learn quickly.
    • Market competition: In case of competition getting aggressive or new entrants bidding high results may differ from forecasted. In such a case resort to reducing revenue half-life for models to catch up.
    • Lag in revenue numbers from feeds: This can happen for operational as well as other business reasons. In such a case try increasing revenue half-life to accommodate the lag in reporting revenue.

    Apart from these scenarios, at times there are pixel tracking codes issues where in pixels aren’t firing for some reason on the web properties. It is best recommended to highlight such an issue to AMO and the client team to troubleshoot it.

    nidhik
    nidhik
    Level 4
    September 12, 2016

    The Blog Post below is from Nidhi Kapoor, Senior Consultant for Adobe Media Optimizer at Adobe

    *****************************************************************************************************************************

    Bulk Edit Feature to Support Manual Bidding

     

    ‘’Manual Bidding” is the most common and important step seen in case of newly created campaigns. This method let the advertiser set the manual CPC for keywords as per its targets and enhance their exposure.

    AMO has its competitive bidding technology with which it takes the control and automate bids on bid units (keyword + match type) using its algorithm such that it maximizes advertiser’s objective.

    The process being followed in AMO for newly created campaigns is that when they are new should be kept under ‘Manual Portfolio’ first for few days before getting assigned to the ‘Optimized Portfolio’. This is to ensure that they build good performance data history around them before getting under AMO’s technology. In an Optimized portfolio, bid units are bid automatically by the technology as per its algorithm.  The factor history plays an important role in bidding technology of AMO as it helps in generating the models (cost & revenue) and therefore calculating appropriate bidding for bid units.

    Usually the common method seen among advertisers for manual bidding regularly for keywords in bulk are through the bulk sheet method. In this, keyword's bids are modified as per their performance, business requirement or some best practices such as for example:

    • Keywords with conversion and avg pos worse than position 3 = +20%
    • Keywords with conversion and avg pos between 2 and 3 = +10%
    • Keywords with no conversion and avg pos worse than 3 = +30%
    • Keywords with no conversion and avg pos better than 2 = -10%

    These increases or decreases are made as per the bids in ‘current bid column’. This method requires downloading the current status of keywords first in a bulk sheet format and then making changes and posting the modifications later on through AMO on search engine.

    There is also another way to execute and expedite the manual bidding is by using AMO’s ‘bulk edit feature’.

    To use the ‘bulk edit’ feature, visit the keywords tab, create a filter to select the keywords to perform the bid increase/decrease action. To start with, use the ‘Add Filter’ option, select the date range of the data on which the analysis will be appropriate for keywords and then filter the keywords on the basis of their conversions/avg. position data etc.

    Select those filtered keywords > click on the ‘bulk edit’ option on the left > select the ‘available actions’ such as ‘formulaic bid change’ in case of ‘manual bidding’ and then increase or decrease the percentage depending upon the data, best practices, budget targets and requirement of exposure. In case of increase, it’s always good to set the max limit and in case of decrease, the minimum bid limit to avoid the sudden increase or decrease. Click ‘Apply’ then to execute the changes.

    Changes made will be available under ‘bulk edit status’ link under the ‘filter’s row. This is one of the quickest method to avail the option of manual bidding in bulk, change the ‘status’ of keywords, ‘create’ and ‘Find & Replace’ in bulk.

    Depending upon the number of keywords to be manual bid, filter requirement and the frequency of changes to be made, a choice can be made between the options of bulk sheet or bulk edit to be used.

     

     

     

     

      TanmayMathur
      Adobe Employee
      TanmayMathurAdobe EmployeeAuthor
      Adobe Employee
      September 14, 2016

      The Blog Post below is from Pete Kluge, Group Product Marketing Manager for Adobe Media Optimizer

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      Creating Relevant Ad Experiences Without Thousands of Ad Units

      Consumers are frustrated with the number of irrelevant advertisements they have to deal with daily:

      • According to Infolinks, only 2.8 percent of study participants thought ads on websites were relevant.
      • Adobe and PageFair found that in the United States, there were 45 million monthly active users (MAUs) of ad blockers during Q2 2015—equal to about 20 percent of Internet users, according to Strategy Analytics.
      • According to PageFair, 33 percent of Internet users find display ads completely intolerable because they are not pertinent or interesting.

      To rebuild consumers’ trust and drive better engagement, businesses today need to build more personalized ads.

      Many advertisers still use static ads for their display advertising. This means that the actual content within the ad doesn’t change and therefore a different ad must be created for each audience segment. For any brand that is interested in delivering personalized ads to highly segmented audiences, the number of static ads necessary becomes a nightmare for the creative and traffic teams. The result? Impersonal ads that don’t engage the customer.

      On the other hand, dynamic ads use a single ad layout (or dynamic template) that can be populated on-the-fly with predetermined personalized content.

      Introducing Dynamic Creative Optimization
      Dynamic creative optimization (DCO) allows advertisers to drive better engagement and performance from their ads by delivering the most relevant experience to the user in real time. DCO uses an ad layout with several dynamic elements that change depending on who the user is or which audience is actually seeing it. The content changes can include things like the product description, image, price, and call-to-action (CTA). Promotional copy can also be switched dynamically.

      Retargeting campaigns is currently the most common use for DCO. It requires an advertiser to maintain a data feed with the dynamic outputs used to populate the ad at the time of the ad call. The ad is assembled in real time to deliver the most relevant content for any user. But DCO is not only for retargeting. It enables advertisers from a variety of verticals to deliver personalized experiences for consumers across the marketing funnel.

      internal-image-creating-relevant-ad-experiences-without-thousands-of-ad-units

      Elements of a DCO System
      DCO works by combining several elements to output a real-time and relevant ad. Here’s a primer on some terms and definitions related to dynamic creative:

      Dynamic Triggers: Pixels on a brand website capture retargeting values (i.e., product SKU) and are used to trigger outputs from the content source—such as data feed or API—to populate a dynamic ad. Other elements that can trigger dynamic ad content include geolocation and audience segment data.

      Content: In the case of DCO, content refers to the advertiser feed, API, XML, business rules, offer grid, or product catalog that the dynamic trigger references for outputs to populate fields in the ad template. Content is provided by the advertiser, ingested by the DCO system, and output in the dynamic ad.

      Dynamic Outputs: These outputs are ad elements that can be referenced by a dynamic trigger in the content source. Examples include images, URLs, and copy that are referenced in a data feed.

      Variable Attribute: Variable attributes are dynamic elements within ads that are not referenced from the content source by a dynamic trigger. Delivery of the ad element is based on business rules (like A/B testing) and is not feed based. Examples include CTA, background color, and offer. Some items, such as copy or CTA, can be either a dynamic output or variable attribute, depending on setup.

      Ad Layout or Dynamic Template: In DCO, these elements are the shell design that houses the dynamic content.

      Experience: An experience is created by the combination of one ad layout and one or more content sources.

      (No Cookie) Default Ad: The default state of a dynamic ad occurs when cookie targeting is missing or does not match the content source. Advertisers predefine defaults for each dynamic output. For example, if the DSP makes an ad call and there is no matching DCO cookie or if the dynamic trigger does not match the content source, the default experience will be generated.

      DCO Delivers
      Delivering highly personalized ads improves your campaign effectiveness. DCO can help manage the expense of ad creation and production by using an ad template and data feed to create infinite ad combinations without infinite time and money.

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      Read the original blog post at - https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/advertising/creating-relevant-ad-experiences-without-thousands-ad-units/

      TanmayMathur
      Adobe Employee
      TanmayMathurAdobe EmployeeAuthor
      Adobe Employee
      December 2, 2016

      The Blog Post below is from Siddharth Shah, director of business analytics for Adobe’s Digital Marketing Business

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      Are Your Multichannel Marketing Campaigns Flying Blind?

      The famous Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” That’s an apt summary of the guesswork many marketers use when allocating their budgets. The process goes something like this: marketers have a budget, run marketing campaigns based on that budget, and then evaluate the results to determine how to move forward.

      The problem with this strategy is in pinpointing the best way to proceed. Even when the campaign is successful, marketers have no idea where they should allocate marketing spend for future endeavors.

      Fortunately, marketers now have some pretty cool campaign-optimization tools at their disposal that show them exactly what they need to do. One such tool — a marketing-budget simulation — enables marketers to test the efficiency of marketing campaigns in a virtual marketplace that is safe, informative, and cost-effective.

      Those who don’t use marketing-budget simulation tools risk sending their marketing campaigns in the wrong direction. Following are three ways to improve your brand’s marketing planning-and-budget-allocation strategy.

      1. Get Granular With Your Cross-Channel Measurement.
      More accurate forecasting begins with measurement. One brand that has mastered granular cross-channel measurement is Monarch Airlines. Monarch uses a programmatic ad-buying solution that helps them measure key performance indicators (KPIs) such as bookings and revenue. This data helps Monarch ensure each channel is correctly valued while continuing to drive customers to their website.

      Programmatic ad buying also helps Monarch purchase keywords more efficiently by allowing the brand to bid on thousands of individual keywords each day. This type of granular approach lets Monarch know which keywords are driving conversions so they can place more-competitive bids on the keywords that matter most.

      However, there is one inherent holdup to placing a primary focus on measurement and attribution: while attribution presents marketers with a clear picture of what happened in the past and why, it doesn’t tell marketers how to allocate their marketing spends for current or future periods.

      Historically, the allocation problem has been partially refined in a very different field: the stock market. Let’s say, for instance, you are an investor. You want your investments to grow as much as possible, but there are two caveats: (1) you have a specific amount of money to invest, and (2) you want to limit your risk.

      This leads to the modern portfolio theory (MPT), which helps risk-averse investors minimize risks according to whatever level of risk each can tolerate. The math behind MPT isn’t exclusive to investors. CMOs allocate media spend across different ad types and media channels because they need to make the most of their marketing dollars, but they also must mitigate risks because media does not always work as effectively as planned. That’s where marketing-budget simulations come in.

      2. Improve Allocation With Marketing-Budget Simulations.
      Every C-level marketer has revenue goals, and it’s up to them to demonstrate how implementing marketing initiatives will drive revenue. Convincing executives to allocate marketing spend on a specific channel based on a hunch isn’t a strategy you want to take to the boardroom.

      Don’t get me wrong: a marketer’s experience is an incredibly valuable tool. Spending years in the marketing trenches helps marketers develop opinions and perspectives worth considering. But, marketers are also human and subject to intrinsic biases and beliefs.

      Here’s the bottom line: it’s 2016, and if you aren’t using budget-forecasting tools, you are living in the dark ages. By deploying the right programmatic ad-buying solution, marketers can balance long-held beliefs with actual quantitative numerical data that is highly accurate in its forecasting ability. CMOs can then allocate media spend across the different ad types and media channels to help company executives successfully attain the most for their marketing investments.

      Running budget simulations also enables marketers to run multiple campaign scenarios without risking marketing dollars. Imagine being able to show your CEO how much of an ROI he or she could expect subject to a certain amount of variability. Budget simulations are essential risk-mitigation tools, and every digital marketer should be using them.

      Budget simulations take painful planning cycles and costly guesswork out of the equation. With simulation tools — such as those available in ad-buying solutions like Adobe Media Optimizer — businesses can improve both marketing efficiency and forecasting efforts.

      By leveraging signature forecast simulations in a virtual marketplace, you can be sure the decisions you make are backed by data — without the high price of in-market testing. Campaign optimization doesn’t get more sophisticated than that.

      3. Support Your Marketing Team With Budget-Forecasting Tools.
      Simulation and budget-forecasting tools were never meant to replace marketers. With the help of a programmatic ad-buying solution, CMOs can spend more time focused on their marketing strategies and less time on fierce quantitative planning exercises.

      Think about it: machines help marketers predict the future with almost flawless results — provided the future is similar to the past. While we all know there’s much to be learned from previous campaign outcomes and marketing fails, the future can be very unpredictable.

      This makes person-to-machine interaction essential. Use these tools to support your marketing team by letting the machines analyze the Big Data you already collect. You can discover which channels are best at driving your customers to conversions — and which can take a backseat.

      Then, when you’re testing a new marketing strategy, product, or approach; let human intuition take the reins. Using simulations and budget-forecasting tools to accurately predict outcomes — such as paid search-advertising performance — frees valuable time for marketers to focus on the next big thing.

      Know Where You Are Going.
      Deploying marketing-budget simulations can help your brand advance your multichannel-marketing efforts without costing a small fortune. Work to improve your allocation strategy by measuring KPIs while giving attribution its due. Then, run simulations to determine which channels your media spend will benefit from the most. Finally, remember to use budget-forecasting tools as essential tools — not replacements — for your marketing department. By incorporating budget simulations into your marketing strategy, the path to cross-channel campaign success will become crystal clear.

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      Read the original blog post at - https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/advertising/multichannel-marketing-campaigns-flying-blind/


      The Blog Post below is from Pete Kluge, Product Marketing Manager for Adobe Media Optimizer,

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      Bridging the Data/Creative Divide With Dynamic Creative Optimization

      We can all agree that data-driven marketing (DDM) has crossed the line from being a sleek, sophisticated nice-to-have to being a true marketing imperative. By leveraging customer data, brands can deliver more meaningful, more relevant experiences at scale; deepen relationships; drive incremental engagement and action; and ultimately, create levels of long-term loyalty and advocacy that separate the good from the great. It’s a total gamechanger in any vertical — and, it’s here to stay.

      However, while I’m in support of harnessing the power of data to drive superior, customer-led experiences, there still appear to be some decidedly gray areas in the mix. And, oftentimes, those gray areas seem to be tied to the creative process. It makes sense — creative brand content has always had its own parameters. But, now that DDM is more or less the universal mandate, where’s the line? Is data now the be-all and end-all decision maker for customer experiences, including creative touchpoints, or is there a give-and-take that ensures a smart, strategic balance between the two? Further, is this desire for data-driven experiences hindering the creative process as well as content performance — and, if not now, could it down the line?

      The Power of Dynamic Creative Optimization
      Enter dynamic creative optimization (DCO) — the process that enables brands to use data-driven advertising at scale with redefined creative parameters designed specifically for those ads. Under the DCO umbrella, custom ad creative gives way to custom ad layouts or templates, facilitating broader creativity that’s always underscored by data. Creatives have the space they need to create, but — because ads leverage a set ad layout with dynamic elements — marketers can ensure they’re still wholly data driven, and thus, driving maximum ad effectiveness.

      One of the biggest design-focused perks is that DCO removes some of the mundanity from dynamic-ad creation. Let’s say, for example, you’re a travel brand that wants to personalize your digital ads by weaving targeted destination cities throughout the campaign. So, if someone were to search for Seattle, your ad would include a prominent Seattle callout. Changing the travel city isn’t particularly exciting for a designer, pulling them away from more creative tasks, but it’s still very important to the success of your campaign.

      The Dynamic Potential

      While DCO is primarily used for retargeting campaigns nowadays, infinite possibilities exist for brands and creatives to expand their views of what dynamic creative can do. Done right, DCO can extend across the entire marketing funnel — from personalized experiences and loyalty programs to new-customer acquisition and awareness initiatives. Designers can really dig in, updating ad layouts and creating more personalized experiences for individual audiences — much greater than simply swapping ‘sneakers’ for ‘lightbulbs’ or ‘Seattle’ for ‘New York’.

      For example, let’s say that you know User A was just shopping for skis. With DCO in place, you can now do something really cool with that intel — maybe upsell or cross-sell her helmets, ski clothing, or vacation packages as she surfs the web.

      But, it doesn’t stop there. The more data you have, the more possibilities you have. So, perhaps, you want to create a “high-intent ski-buyer” segment with an ad layout to support it. By integrating Adobe Analytics, you can segment audiences like this and use those segments to trigger specific ad layouts.

      The same applies for data management. Adobe Audience Manager can take an audience segment and use it to inform or trigger an ad layout in DCO. You can even layer on third-party data — lifestyle interests, demographics, and business attributes, for example — creating even more-robust audience segments and even tighter creative messaging. So, maybe you know that the skier researched expensive skis and — based on third-party data — that she’s an avid traveler who buys a ski pass for a nearby resort every season.

      To upsell her, you’ll have your templates and layouts that will weave in real-time recommendations and relevance based on her latest movements — and those ads will look and feel much different from ads you show casual hobbyists or first-timers. The layout experience will change based on the audience — with DCO driving hyper-personalization.

      Granted, this endless potential can feel a little overwhelming, especially for organizations with less data maturity. So many opportunities can cause marketers to fall into action paralysis much more easily — instead of making decisions, they just choose not to choose. It’s a very real risk that companies need to be mindful of from the beginning. Advertising and analytics teams must be in sync with creatives from day one, working together and focusing on the data — what they have available, what they can use in advertising, and what technologies and systems tie it all together.

      By taking stock of the data and working through a typical customer journey, you’ll be better prepared to think cross-funnel and identify the optimal experiences needed. Maybe you only need one ad experience, maybe you need 10 — or maybe you need 100, driving tens of thousands of combinations of creative elements and product messages. Just deciding where you need to land will help your designer determine where to take the ad layouts.

      Considerations for Creatives
      But, like anything, DCO comes with a host of considerations and tradeoffs. For designers and creatives, the biggest — hands down — is flexibility. Generally, static ads are easier to develop and push out into the market and tend to be less vulnerable and have fewer functionality issues — unsurprising, since static ads have fewer moving parts than dynamic ads do.

      That said, static ads tend to tie back to lowest common-denominator messaging. When you use dynamic ads, you have more choices about what to say and how to say it. If a customer is interested in a wide range of products or offers, that can be a real win. However, show one product or message, and you’ll most likely miss the mark with a good chunk of your addressable audience in addition to the potential performance lift. One retail advertiser (and Adobe customer) using DCO experienced an 81 percent higher conversion rate and a 73 percent increase in engagement (click-through rate) versus standard display ads for retargeting. Using DCO to retarget consumers who abandoned the payment page resulted in a 400 percent higher conversion rate!

      DCO’s dynamic templates give creatives and designers the ability to present multiple messages, offers, and value propositions based on the data-driven profile of each consumer. DCO facilitates messaging that’s much closer to a 1:1 approach versus the one-size-fits-all approach that static ads provide. Relevance and flexibility increase, time to market decreases — and still, designers can flex their creative muscles more than they can with DDM-centric ads.

      Preparing for the Future of DCO
      DCO is no longer just for retail and travel advertisers, and its opportunities have expanded beyond retargeting. Now, it’s for all verticals in which granular audiences exist, and it can be used in loyalty programs and for customer acquisition, upselling, cross-selling, and retargeting.

      Take the auto industry, for example, in which both potential and existing customers research dealers and customizations. Here, upselling and cross-selling are often welcomed. Likewise, in the financial-service industry, potential customers look for personalized credit-card offers that will meet their reward and rate requirements. In both verticals, advertisers can create lucrative and long-term loyalty by offering exactly what the customer wants, regardless of his or her place in the customer journey. This means that brands are increasingly competing with regard to advertising personalization. In DCO, the marriage of analytics and creative allows for deeper-than-ever ad-layout personalization. But, organizations must be prepared to deliver.

      As more and more advertisers in all verticals adopt dynamic creative for cross-funnel use, teams will need to band together more closely — and that means eliminating the silos that tend to separate these core stakeholders. Data and analytics teams need to be in-step regarding that data and the audiences that can be built with it. Advertising teams must have a robust strategy that extends across the entire funnel and into the different programs, campaigns, and initiatives. Designers should work with everyone to generate the right creative for these audiences. And everyone needs to understand a few key details such as what the customer journey actually looks like, where customers need to be delivered, and ultimately, what kinds of experiences will move customers through the marketing funnel and into the conversion zone. It’s about collaboration — plain and simple. Is it already happening? Absolutely — but we’ll need to see even more of it for DCO to reach its full potential.

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      Read the original blog post at - https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/advertising/bridging-data-creative-divide-dynamic-creative-optimization/

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