Should brands bring their programmatic advertising in-house?

Over the last few years, the increasing accessibility of programmatic advertising technology has led to a desire for brands to bring their programmatic in-house. But moving programmatic in-house can be a complex process, and needs to be financially viable. Here are 3 questions brands should ask themselves before making the change.

The desire for brands to take programmatic in-house is understandable. No outsourcing situation can really match the level of control and transparency over the entire programmatic campaign achieved by overseeing things yourself.

But moving programmatic in-house can be a complex process, and needs to be worthwhile from a financial perspective.

Here are three key questions brands should ask themselves before deciding whether they need to make the change.

1. Do you have the right staff?

Control is a vital attribute of in-house programmatic campaigns. Your brand can oversee every phase – from planning and rollout, to measurement – and can be far more agile when it comes to implementing changes and tweaks as the campaign moves forward.

But who is going to manage these new technologies? Do you have the necessary managers, optimisers and data crunchers within your staff already? Or will you need to upskill or recruit new employees?

The likelihood is that you will need to grow your staff. And the likelihood is that this will be easier if you are in the right place, location-wise and business-wise in terms of capacity and capital, to be able to attract new talent.

2. Do you have the right tech?

Bringing programmatic in-house is essentially bringing technologies you haven’t yet needed to purchase and maintain beforehand.

Key considerations need to be made when purchasing programmatic technologies: How easy is it to set-up and use? Is it supported? Is it simple to update and how long is it expected to work? What does it offer in terms of measurement and analytics?

There is also the question of ensuring any new technologies you bring in-house can work in-conjunction with systems you already have in place. What is the price of implementing this tech and ensuring it works, and would an agency be likely to negotiate a better price due to the well-established relationships they have with such organisations.

3. Do you spend enough?

With the considerations of staff and technology, we often find ourselves returning to questions of finance. So is there an estimated spend threshold on programmatic after which moving such operations in-house makes fiscal sense?

In an interview at The Drum, Wayne Blodwell of The Programmatic Advisory proposed an answer to the question of how much programmatic spend should prompt a move in-house.

“We have cited $20m as the minimum spend threshold for an advertiser to be spending in programmatically enabled channels before considering bringing programmatic in-house,” Blodwell says. “This is so the advertiser can make significant savings on their investment to deliver better marketing performance.”

For Blodwell this scale of spend across global display, video and mobile programmatic is the first indicator that a brand is ready to go full in-house. This is alongside the expectation that 10% of this should be made in savings in order provide a financial buffer to account for investing in recruitment and technology, etc.

Conclusion

While Blodwell understands the pros of full in-house programmatic, he accepts that a 100% model might not be suitable for all brands and businesses. Indeed, the question of how brands deal with programmatic doesn’t have to be a hard binary of in-house versus outsourced.

Hybrid approaches to programmatic can include building an in-house team while outsourcing certain elements such as media planning or the analytics elements. It is also possible to have in-house programmatic specialists who still use an agency to get the best deals with vendors.

With that said, there are an increasing number of brands currently spending more than $20m a year on programmatic via agencies. These businesses – that have a global presence and the room for expansion across their technology and staff – are undoubtedly in a strong position to further explore the feasibility of moving programmatic in-house and hammering out a plan to make the change.

Subscribe to get your daily business insights

Whitepapers

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Whitepaper | Mobile US Mobile Streaming Behavior

5y

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing habits. Streaming video, however, still comes with a variety of pesky frustrations that viewers are ...

View resource
Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

Whitepaper | Analyzing Customer Data Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

5y

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics f...

Data is the lifeblood of so many companies today. You need more of it, all of which at higher quality, and all the meanwhile being compliant with data...

View resource
Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people

Whitepaper | Digital Marketing Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people

2y

Learning to win the talent war: how digital market...

This report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. It provides expert insight on how companies can ret...

View resource
Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

Report | Digital Transformation Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

4w

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Exp...

Customers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touchpoints – globally! Make sure your brand shines in those critical moments. Read More...

View resource