When you look at core DoubleClick products, such as Campaign Manager, Google provides a wealth of different metrics for businesses to pull data from. In particular, Google has been keen to include viewability metrics in its reporting suite. To this end, it's made a number of technical changes over the years such as the launch of INS tags and enabling YouTube impression trackers to pass back additional video data.
However, the DDM platform can only drill down so far into granular details. Therefore, the use of additional data platforms in conjunction with DCM data can greatly enrich the data you have and provide valuable insights to clients.
Below are just a few examples of platforms that can plugin to DCM data to provide those extra insights:
Nielsen: In terms of focusing on specific demographic data, Nielsen is a very powerful tool. It allows users to drill down to specific user data such as age and gender, geo-location and device usage. For many awareness campaigns, where the main KPI is usually based on offline activity, it’s often leaned on to show detailed reach analysis to clients.
Plugging it into DCM data is made simple with the use of universal tags that incorporate DCM macros. This allows a single tag to function across an entire DCM campaign. If properly configured, DCM will allow you to pull data direct from Nielsen via the GRP Reports in the DDM reporting suite.
MOAT/Integral Ad Science (IAS): Both platforms have a heavy focus on viewability while also providing additional benefits, including Brand Safety. While DCM does provide support for viewability and brand safety, some clients may wish to incorporate the use of dedicated platforms to focus more squarely on these aspects.
Using tag wrapping solutions, both platforms have the ability to add an extra layer of tracking against DCM tags, as well as control the serving of ads to comply with specific brand safety requirements.
Adobe DMP: Since Data Management Platforms work on importing data from various platforms, they allow you to build traits and segments that can provide more effective measures of retargeting.
Once specific IDs from the platforms are mapped against the specific segments of the DMP, gathering the data is relatively straightforward since it utilises universal tags with relevant macros to pull the data from the corresponding systems.
Thankfully, with a multitude of data partners, many are reaching out to Google to provide easy plugin solutions for DCM integrations. It also means that these technologies can be registered with Google’s Third Party Ad Serving team (3PAS) to ensure that these are widely accepted across connected Google products.
Conclusion:
It’s important to note that while many of these solutions provide extensive data that can be directly reported to your clients, it also provides insight for your optimisation and can play a pivotal role in your bidding strategies in platforms like DBM. Being able to understand the exact audience that you are reaching means a better adjustment to your bidding strategies to avoid unnecessary spend and help deliver on KPIs.
However one thing to note is that if you try to mirror campaigns across different platforms, it’s generally best to keep your campaign structures simple. When mapping data, having a 1:1 relationship makes things much easier to manage. It also makes it much simpler in terms of implementing any additional trackers and avoids having to revise the setup to get it functioning correctly.
Here at iPropsect, we have a wealth of knowledge in working with these partners to get the most from your data,. If you have any questions about whether a specific data platform can be used or how best to utilise these on your campaigns, please get in touch.
