Hoping to cover as much of the market as possible, an average digital advertiser handles at least three DSPs (demand-side platforms) when bidding for ads today. But, as you’d expect, switching between platforms comes with an ongoing list of bonuses like piecing together scattered customer info, harmonizing disparate analytics and reporting from numerous ad exchanges, and more.
And yes, we’re now talking about using just a few DSPs. But what if it’s 10, 15, or 20? After all, it’s inefficient to stick with just one or two, as each DSP brings unique functionality, specific premium inventory, and some may excel better in specific markets than others.
Luckily, the reality is that efficiency can actually be significantly higher when employing 20 DSPs together, as opposed to using only two, but separately.
This holds true, of course, only when employing Meta-DSPs.
What is a Meta-DSP?
The programmatic ad purchasing process is laden with intricate terms and abbreviations, so before we go into all the wonderful things a Meta-DSP can do, let’s take a moment to clarify what it really is and how it differs from DSP aggregators and DMPs (data management platforms).
In a nutshell, Meta-DSPs and DSP aggregators are essentially the same thing that play a vital role in the real-time bidding process. They act as overlays that integrate various demand-side platforms into a cohesive system. This integration merges the data, reporting, and purchasing capabilities of each DSP, simplifying the process of reaching a wider audience.
But what about DMPs, which are sometimes equated with DSPs, as they both provide tools for managing and optimizing programmatic campaigns?
The key distinction between these two concepts centers around their approach to data.
DMPs deal with raw data collection, segmentation, simplification, and activation from various sources, including first-party data from advertisers, information acquired through partnerships, and data from external providers. In contrast, Meta-DSPs, constructed upon multiple DSPs that already exist, gather only the data essential for bid-making and limit their collection to the information already accessible to the DSPs they consolidate.
How does a Meta-DSP work?
Establishing a Meta-DSP hinges on one crucial factor: the alignment of the APIs from many DSPs with integration standards. Once this prerequisite is met, the APIs are linked together, creating a unified platform that enables:
Campaign management
This encompasses various tasks and components essential for effectively executing and optimizing marketing initiatives, like the creation of programmatic campaigns, selecting the appropriate channels for promotion, identifying opportunities for budget allocation, and configuring settings for advertising campaign optimization.
User management
The Meta-DSP establishes a cohesive environment that ensures smooth connectivity and provides comprehensive capabilities for user administration, corporate onboarding, and secure access control tailored to specific roles.
Conducting analytics
The Meta-DSP simplifies analytics by centralizing report collection for accessibility. It offers tailored BI visualizations and allows diverse analytical approaches based on parameters like ad channels and audience segments, providing comprehensive insights.
Receiving timely alerts
The Meta-DSP ensures the capability to receive immediate notifications, providing valuable information about exceeding budgetary limits or insights into the most effective ad channels. The Meta-DSP also includes a push notification feature, informing users of inventory availability on a publishing platform they’re interested in.
Management of advertising resources
Meta-DSP facilitates efficient inventory checks, providing advertisers with a quick and convenient way to verify the availability of websites and apps in their inventory.
Enhancing the efficiency of targeting
By simplifying the coordination of targeting efforts, optimizing retargeting, tailoring content based on geographical location, and strategically positioning advertisements within mobile applications, Meta-DSPs enhance the efficiency and precision of digital advertising campaigns.
Blacklists management
To get full control of who sees the ads, advertisers can incorporate default blacklists at various levels, including clients, accounts, ad campaigns, and line items.
To avoid leaving you entirely to your imagination, here’s a detailed illustration of how these components integrate within the Meta-DSP architecture, guaranteeing a smooth operational workflow.
Ready to learn more?
Would like to explore the ins and outs of a Meta-DSP architecture or the specific aspects of implementing such a solution in your business? Sounds like a perfect reason for a free consultation with Oxagile.
Why it makes sense to take advantage of a Meta-DSP
Meta-DSPs deal with the common challenges marketing agencies occasionally face, like:
- Time-consuming data compilation from all DSPs
A Meta-DSP’s primary benefit is its capability to gather advertising statistics and metrics from all DSPs, enabling the creation of dashboards that offer valuable performance insights on all inventory spaces and helping all interested parties make informed decisions. And implementation of real-time data analytics can help dynamically adjust strategies, ensuring campaigns remain effective and responsive to changing conditions.
- Limited capabilities of the DSPs in use
Most DSPs often operate within their own isolated ecosystems and have limitations in terms of audience reach and scale, restricting the overall impact of campaigns. A meta-DSP aggregates inventory from multiple DSPs, providing marketers with access to a broader audience and greater reach for their advertising campaigns.
- Compromising efficiency when running campaigns
Meta-DSPs eliminate this concern by allowing marketers to operate across various walled gardens and access the entire market through a single point with a convenient, centralized interface. This provides an unparalleled advantage, enabling marketers to navigate multiple platforms seamlessly across different DSPs without compromising on effectiveness. And the smart budget allocation system can further streamline operations, cutting unnecessary costs and decision-making time.
How do you build a Meta-DSP?
Whatever business goals a company has, our experience highlights six crucial steps for building a Meta-DSP that consistently yields positive results. Let’s explore them using a real-life example.
Case in point: An orchestrator solution merging multiple DSPs under one roof for peak performance
Our client was grappling with cumbersome management processes and manual campaign handling within disorganized DSPs, hindering all their margin optimization efforts.
In response, we came up with a decluttering tool — an orchestrator that would enable seamless communication within various DSPs for effective campaign optimization. Here’s how it unfolded:
- We conducted a business analysis to identify a minimal number of DSPs to meet all client requirements.
- Checked APIs for each chosen DSP to ensure effective integration.
- Created integration algorithms for selected DSPs to enable unified campaign creation.
- Implemented functionality for switching between campaigns or selecting the most beneficial one in case of identical ad campaign rules.
- Integrated multiple DSP features into a unified UI in the new Meta-DSP solution.
- Set up analytics collection from all systems, data visualization, and the generation of clear BI reports for instant data comprehension in one centralized place.
Will the effort put into setting up Meta-DSP lead to profits?
While building a Meta-DSP from start to finish may look complex at first glance, the metamorphosis from its blueprint into one of your most significant assets is quite swift and straightforward. By carefully considering the unique features of each DSP and their APIs, a Meta-DSP will quickly begin to bear fruit: smoothly combine data from all DSPs you’re using or going to, determine the most effective ones for launching your campaigns, compile accurate reporting, provide comprehensive metrics and present consolidated results in insightful dashboards.
Having seamlessly integrated meta-DSPs in our past projects, tailoring them to our clients’ specific business nuances and market constraints, Oxagile is equipped to help you adopt a similar solution. Or, if you prefer, our expert AdTech developers are also here to provide free consultations and guide you through the Meta-DSP implementation process that is poised to greatly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your budget allocation and ad buying processes.
