Question 1

What is a Demand Side Platform (DSP)?

Accepted Answer

Demand side platforms (DSPs) act as a central hub to manage all the data related to advertising campaigns. A DSP is used by advertisers to buy different types of ads (mobile, social, video, etc.) from a marketplace where publishers list advertising inventory. To be efficient, advertising teams need to target the right audience, at the right time, on the right channel. Since many companies compete to get their ads on the same channels, they have to bid on impressions to ensure they can reach their goals.  
 DSPs enable automated ad buying or programmatic ad buying. This type of software is integrated into multiple ad exchanges to enable advertisers to automate buying ads that may include banner ads on websites or mobile ads on apps. The automated bidding process, where ad placements are auctioned off within microseconds, is called real-time bidding (RTB). While DSPs help companies with all media-buying activities, it is also important to have personnel with advanced expertise in this field or work with external consultants or agencies.  
 What Does DSP Stand For? 
 DSP stands for demand side platform, and the term “demand” can be seen as synonymous with “buying”. These platforms help companies identify advertising opportunities across multiple ad networks and helps find the best prices for the targeted audience.  
 What Types of Demand Side Platform (DSP) Exists? 
 Mobile DSP 
 When searching for a DSP, some companies may want a specific DSP for mobile ad-buying capabilities. A mobile DSP is not a standalone product, but is part of and integrated with any robust DSP and is responsible for buying mobile ad inventory. A mobile DSP is focused on buying ads across varying apps, browsers, locations, and devices and also ensures that the advertiser’s creatives are displayed correctly and are optimized for mobile screens. These types of DSPs assist app publishers and app developers in offering available mobile impressions. That being said, buyers don’t need to purchase a separate DSP for desktop and mobile programmatic ad-buying. 
 Omnichannel DSP 
 Omnichannel DSPs enable companies to manage ads across multiple channels, like desktop, video, audio, OTT, etc. These types of DSPs help companies manage ad campaigns without having to switch between platforms.  
 Single-channel or niche DSP 
 These types of DSPs can serve the needs of businesses that only want to send ads on a specific channel. Single-channel DSPs can help small businesses that may have a lower budget or a more focused advertising strategy.

Question 2

What are the Common Features of Demand Side Platform (DSP)?

Accepted Answer

The following are some core features within DSPs that can help users in a variety of ways:

Campaign management: Omnichannel campaign management is used to target audiences across multiple channels, from traditional media such as TV and newspapers to online and social media channels.

Ad retargeting: Retargeting allows companies to resume media assets for new campaigns and to target different audiences without starting from scratch.

Buy management: DSPs help manage different types of programmatic buys such as preferred deal, programmatic guaranteed, or private marketplace.

Ad variety: This feature provides different types of advertising such as native ads and mobile or cross-device promotions to target broader audiences.

Audience segmentation: Audience segmentation allows media companies to choose whom to target based on multiple types of criteria (demographics, technology platforms used, etc.).

Asset management: Asset management helps manage creative assets to allocate them to each campaign, based on the audience and its characteristics such as region, language, age, and so on.

Bidding: Bidding allows companies to acquire advertising inventory or impressions that are used to place ads on various channels. DSP software usually provides access to multiple sources of inventory.

Reporting: Reporting and analytics features assist in tracking key performance indicators such as effective cost per click (eCPC) and effective cost per action (eCPA).

Brand safety: The software integrates with or provides brand protection or brand safety features to monitor and block fraudulent ad-buying activity.

Other features of demand side platforms: API / Integrations, Contextual Targeting, Creative Optimization, Fraud Protection, In App Ads, Machine Learning Optimization, and User, Role, & Access Management.

Question 3

What are the Benefits of Demand Side Platform (DSP)?

Accepted Answer

Key benefits of DSPs include accelerating the process of buying online advertisements through direct interaction with web publishers, reducing spend on impressions that are not part of a target audience, gaining transparency in the advertisements that are purchased by knowing the demographics of every impression, and increasing ad conversion rates by putting ads in front of people who are more likely to click on ads, in turn increasing the return on ad spend (ROAS).  
 Some of the challenges advertisers face nowadays that can be addressed by DSP software are: 
 Omnichannel: Omnichannel is both a challenge and an opportunity for media companies. On the bright side, they now have more options than ever to target audiences, but this also makes it harder for them to find the right audience segments and promote content on their preferred channels. Companies cannot afford to invest in advertising on all possible channels and need to focus on the ones that are the most efficient. 
 Real-time tracking: Real-time performance tracking is critical to determine what content works on which channels. It also helps companies adjust their campaigns to make them more efficient or cancel advertising that is costly and brings little or no revenue. Since companies invest a lot of time and money in advertising, it is difficult for them to cancel campaigns even when they don’t seem to be very successful. Real-time data is therefore essential to determining when campaigns can be considered successful; it also enables companies to quickly react to any changes that may jeopardize their advertising efforts. 
 Brand safety: Brand safety is more challenging than ever, mostly due to technologies like social media which can disseminate information very quickly. Individuals and institutions also scrutinize brands, and it is very common that controversial advertising becomes viral and has a negative impact on the brand. The challenge with brand safety is that advertising content can be shared outside of the channels used by the company, which makes it almost impossible to retract.

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