Digital Advertising Technology 101

What Is Digital Advertising Technology?

Digital advertising technology, often called ad tech, describes software that supports paid online advertising tactics.

In the radio world, these systems focus on the life cycle of the sale. It begins with proposals. Once approved comes execution, using ad operations (ad ops) to traffic and execute the ads. This software also provides reporting on campaign performance and invoicing to advertisers.

Technology can manage a variety of ad types, most of which fall under third-party digital advertising. This includes:

• Programmatic display (static or video)
• Geofencing (static or video)
• CTV/OTT (streaming ads)
• Social media ads
• SEM (search engine marketing)
• Streaming audio
• Location-based retargeting

Your radio station’s ability to streamline and standardize the sales, ordering, reporting and billing components can yield better returns.

How Does Digital Advertising Technology Work?

The inner workings of these platforms vary, depending on the tactics they offer, their targeting capabilities and how ad ops work.

The following describes the most optimized workflows.

Proposing Capabilities

The proposal initiates the ad campaign life cycle. It should be a feature within the platform, not something you have to create manually. In the proposal, you should be able to pull information automatically from the system or your traffic software.

Then you add tactics that are third-party digital and airtime (if your system integrates with traffic). Next, you complete targeting, enter start and end dates and assign a budget. The output is a customer-facing proposal that outlines all initiatives for the campaign.

Proposal to Order

Once the customer approves the proposal, you convert it to an order. Depending on the tactic, the ad gets trafficked to the relevant system. For programmatic ads, the execution occurs within a DSP (demand-side platform), which enables RTB (real-time bidding) based on available inventory for ads to run.

The DSP matches the ad’s content and targeting with the publications. It places bids automatically, and the highest bid (or CPM) wins. Keep in mind not all DSPs have the same quality of content or targeting abilities. Digital advertising technology deeply integrated with a premium inventory DSP offers many benefits:

• It streamlines activation and management.
• Targeting is the most up-to-date.
• Live campaign changes for creative, budgets and more are possible.
• Every impression purchased through this exchange is shared for greater transparency.

Other ad types use different channels for ordering. CTV and OTT execute via SSPs (supply-side platforms). Social media ads go directly to the platforms, and SEM is through Google or other search engines.

Reporting That’s Simple and Meaningful

Every advertiser wants the details on campaign performance. What they don’t like is lots of vanity metrics or hard-to-understand reports.

The details matter, but they need to be simple and meaningful. The best software efficiently delivers this, highlighting standard metrics like impressions, clicks, click-through rate (CTR) and video completions. It should also be able to show:

• Site names where ads ran
• Locations and what areas had the best engagement
• The pacing of campaigns
• Which creative performed the best
• Ad viewing by device

Further, customization should be part of the reporting module. It should guide you through this so you can get more insights.

Integrations with Traffic and Payments for Easy Billing

The last part of the ad life cycle is the invoice. When digital advertising technology connects with traffic and payments, it’s part of one workflow. The advertiser receives one invoice for airtime and digital and can then pay online.

Offering options like guest checkout makes this more convenient for advertisers. You can also request pre-payments with some software before the campaign launch.

How Does Radio Implement Digital Advertising Technology?

Every platform has a different learning curve and onboarding processes. Ideally, you’d go through an implementation where users get training on the system and on digital advertising in general. Additionally, a library of resources for how-to content and strategy is helpful.

If it’s your first digital advertising software, you want to understand integration capabilities and how to define the processes for your sales team.

You may need help migrating campaigns and data if you are replacing an existing system. If the new system links to traffic and payments, you’ll now have a truly connected ecosystem, which improves efficiency.

Implementation then transitions to adoption. You must get your sales team in the system and using it. Some software providers can support this, too, by providing you with on-demand resources and digital strategists to upskill your staff.