• by Steve Pelletier , November 24, 2009

The world is changing.  It seems as if you can buy almost everything without having to interact with a person.  Plane ticket? Who doesn't book online?  Groceries?  Have you seen the scanning systems?  Banking?  When was the last time you dealt with a teller? Search marketing?  Enough said.

 

In a prior post, I hypothesized that one of the reasons that publishers have too much unsold inventory is because of the overall lack of "self-serve" systems. Buyers simply do not have access to the publisher's standard products -- common ad products such as IAB banners and other basic products that a publisher offers to its customers -- without the assistance of a salesperson. This creates friction in the sales process that keeps publishers from maximum sell-through-rates. Display advertising needs to adopt a more direct approach to sales if it is to fully reach its potential.

What do we mean by self-serve?

For many, self-serve for online display advertising means that advertisers can buy media from publishers through a technology solution.  And I agree that this is a most important aspect of self-serve, as it facilitates more sales for the publisher.  However, I think we should expand our definition to include inventory and conflict management as well as client services.

Inventory management can be an important aspect of a self-serve platform.  With an integrated inventory and self-serve platform, one which provides a unified view of products and their availabilities, publishers can reduce the chance for over- and under-booking because all sales are booked against the same capacity figures.  With respect to over-booking, if a salesperson sells some inventory, it means there is less available to others.  With respect to under-booking, all available inventory can be made public in real time, ensuring that maximum sell-throughs are possible. 

And why should we limit the products made available on self-serve platforms to remnant inventory, as is sometimes the case with non-integrated platforms?  When you book a seat on a plane flight, are you limited to the seats next to the bathrooms?  Of course not.  You can purchase super-economy, business-class or first-class.  With proper pricing and capacity controls, the same should hold true for display ads.

Needless to say, from an operational perspective, a single inventory pool is easier to manage, since availability updates are automatic.  The burden of manual posting and calculating up-to-date avails is eliminated if your entire inventory is managed through one system.

Further operational benefits can occur if the platform facilitates downstream ad operations workflow such as trafficking and approvals.  Let's face it, there are a lot of steps required to get a campaign properly flighted, and these steps are similar regardless of the order size.  Thus, many publishers are forced to turn away "small" orders because it costs too much to process them.  Automation of some of these key steps can turn almost any order into a profitable one and thus help a publisher increase sell-throughs while enabling them to service smaller endemic advertisers.

Client service is another aspect of self-serve -- and one that doesn't get its fair share of attention.  Consider the airline industry again.  Sure, customers can book tickets by themselves.  But they can also enroll in frequent flyer programs, check flight status, enter credit card info, and create traveler profiles. 

Display advertising can and should be similar.  Providing customers with access to campaign and other reporting, through a client portal, can further eliminate the resources needed to manage a customer post-sale.  These reports can answer the important questions, including:

 

·     How is my campaign pacing?

·     How much have I spent thus far?

·     What products have I purchased in the past? 

·     What prices have I paid in the past?

In summary, there are several key benefits that can accrue to publishers who implement a self-serve client portal.  These include:

·      Higher sell-through rates

·      Reduced sales conflicts

·      Higher average CPMs

·      Increased operational efficiencies

·      Ability to service smaller ad buys

·      24/7 customer service

·      Happier advertiser customers