Due to its inherent trackability, mobile programmatic has largely been reserved as a performance vehicle. However, with more and more brands recognising its benefits as an awareness tool, how can both brand and direct response advertisers continue to achieve success? ExchangeWire speak with with Paul Carolan (pictured below), chief commercial officer, Widespace about the role mobile programmatic can play in advertising strategies.

ExchangeWire: As a business that focuses on branding, what encouraged the shift into also offering programmatic inventory?

Paul Carolan: We are all about creating brand engagement and delivering results driven by data and intelligent algorithms. Our shift to programmatic doesn’t change that. More than anything, we see programmatic buying as a new access point and as a way of making the buying process more efficient for our clients.

Widespace offer two different programmatic solutions: the Widespace Brand DSP (a programmatic direct solution) and Widespace Connect (a private marketplace).

What trends and performance are you seeing in mobile programmatic?

Programmatic has a legacy of being performance-focused, but more and more brand advertisers are starting to realise the benefits of programmatic buying.

As a result of this, programmatic direct, when inventory and price is negotiated directly between buyer and seller, with fixed inventory and price, is growing rapidly. This way of buying is similar to traditional media buying, but with the advantages of a more automated buying process. Today, programmatic direct is the best solution available for brand advertisers who want to buy brand-safe inventory at a pre-negotiated price, and who want to avoid inventory losses caused by low viewability rates and non-human traffic.

According to eMarketer, programmatic direct will continue to grow exponentially. In 2014, programmatic direct accounted for 8% of total programmatic spend in the US, and it is expected to reach 42% in 2016.

Does mobile programmatic have a role to play for direct response advertisers?

Paul Carolan, CCO, Widespace

Yes, absolutely. No matter if the campaign is bought through Open RTB, or in a more controlled fashion through a private marketplace (PMP), there are great opportunities for direct-response advertisers. Efficient advertising is all about reaching the right person, in the right context, and at the right time, and programmatic is ideal for buying precision at scale.

It’s important to remember that mobile advertising still, to a large extent, drives conversion on other devices, and that this can make it difficult to evaluate the effect of a direct response-campaign in mobile. This will change though, as m-commerce is growing and methods for tracking post-view attribution are becoming more sophisticated.

How can brand advertisers effectively leverage mobile programmatic? What should success look like for them?

Brand advertisers have historically avoided programmatic due to its lack of guarantee of inventory and brand safety. Programmatic has evolved at a rapid pace in the last couple of years though; and today it’s so much more than just buying remnant inventory through open RTB auctions.

With programmatic direct, like in the Widespace Brand DSP, brand advertisers can enjoy the benefits of automated buying, but still get the same quality as they would expect from traditional media buying. We encourage our clients to trust the data and let the machines do the optimisation work, but to evaluate campaigns with brand metrics rather than performance metrics. This can be, for example, how long the audience has spent with the brand (the ad’s time in-view) or their perception of the brand.

Should premium inventory offered through a PMP only be reserved for brand advertisers?

No. Programmatic direct and private marketplaces are well suited for brand advertisers, but can also be a good environment for performance-based advertisers. Which access point best suits the advertiser is mostly a question of ROI, and it all depends on the buyer’s needs, target audience, and willingness to pay.

Could mobile programmatic ever be effective as a branding channel? What would need to change?

Yes, definitely. In the infancy of programmatic, inventory was offered through exchanges that allowed buying and selling online ad impressions in real time. Since then, the buying methods have refined, but the scalability remains. However, the open ecosystem is still based on desktop and has the performance legacy. When done right, programmatic buying has endless of possibilities for brand marketers. Today, programmatic direct offers the client the same kind of quality and brand safety as traditional media buying, but in an automated fashion.