By Milan Blazevic, Head of Programmatic, Paramount Australia.
Did you know that, on average, buyers miss out on 65% of their premium programmatic video reach? That’s right, two-thirds of your audience is unexposed. Imagine what that does to your brand’s impact.
In the world of streaming, it’s never just “Live vs. Video on Demand.” There’s so much more to it. The real magic happens when you layer in factors like device, location, and time of day. Are you tapping into these data points to make smarter, savvier targeting decisions? Or are you sticking to the basics and hoping for the best?
If your game plan is purely about reach and frequency, let’s pause for a second. Are you genuinely connecting with all your audiences, or just pinging the same two devices at the same time every day? We’re talking about moving beyond the basics and diving into a connected digital ecosystem that captures audiences wherever they are, whenever they’re watching.
Curious to see what this all looks like in action? Let’s get into real insights and real data to reveal how enriched audience understanding doesn’t just tick boxes, it powers buyer strategies that are smarter, savvier, and way more efficient.
Let’s move beyond the basics and see how deep audience insights turn into efficiencies that make a real difference.
Introduction To Supply Path Optimisation: The Waterfall
Before we jump into the numbers, let’s set the stage with a little context on what factors shape your supply path strategy, and why understanding them matters. We’ll also revisit the traditional publisher tech waterfall to see where it all begins.
Take Paramount Australia’s legacy waterfall setup. When our audience tuned in to Paramount+ or 10, a signal would ping from the viewer’s device, letting our system know, “Hey, it’s showtime!.” From there, the Programmatic Waterfall took charge, determining which ad to serve and why. This is how it worked.
- Programmatic Guaranteed and Direct Deals: At the top of the waterfall, the ad server handles direct deals and programmatic guaranteed (PG) transactions. These are high-priority placements where inventory is reserved, ensuring premium ad delivery.
- Underneath that is our Supply-Side Platforms: Below the ad server, Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs) come into play. They aggregate inventory from various sources and make it available for real-time bidding (RTB). This layer includes multiple demand channels, allowing for a competitive auction environment where the deals receive supply and can be access by the buyer when they chose.
As the programmatic ecosystem evolved, buyers brought their own Demand Side Platform (DSP) technology and data layers, looking for more control over when they could access supply. This shift called for a unified ecosystem, enter Paramount Connect.
A Unified Ecosystem: How Paramount Connect Brings It All Together.
Navigating the programmatic ecosystem isn’t just about keeping up, it’s about making sure your reach is efficient and impactful. Paramount Connect, powered by FreeWheel, moves beyond the old-school waterfall model, offering a direct integration between SSPs and FreeWheel.
Don’t go chasing waterfalls by centralising Paramount’s inventory in one ecosystem, we can optimise ad delivery, create optimal ad pods, manage frequency, and avoid those dreaded back-to-back ads. This setup means advertisers reach audiences with precision, maximising efficiency, impact, and insights to support your supply path strategies.
Supply Path Optimisation Insights: What Impacts Your Win Rates?
Here’s the truth. Millions of bid requests pour in daily from multiple SSPs, but not every request makes it to a screen. Here’s what impacts those win rates when you’re fine-tuning your supply path optimisation (SPO) strategy:
- Frequency Capping: When frequency capping is based on IP or device within a DSP, it can be too restrictive or even misidentifying a new user as an existing one that has seen the ad and potentially missing out on valuable exposure.
- Data: Applying restrictive third-party audiences to the buy can limit reach.
- Ad Quality: Latency issues with ad creatives not meeting specification requirements.
- Targeting: Using niche or untailored targeting overlays on limited inventory.
Boosting Your Win Rate.
We’ve helped buyers improve their win rate by up to 80% by focusing on these key areas.
- Frequency Capping: Apply frequency capping within the ad server, such as FreeWheel, which uses a logged dataset rather than IP addresses. Alternatively, use the SSP, which is closer to the supply. This approach ensures efficiency and helps you avoid missing out on unique reach by capturing unidentified audiences.
- Data Quality: Not all data is created equal, use publisher-sourced deterministic audiences to hit target demographics more effectively.
- Targeting: Precise targeting is crucial for reaching your audience effectively. Verify the source of your targeting data. Ensure your geo list is comprehensive and that your contextual targeting matches the inventory.
- Ad Quality: Ditch VPAID, ensure assets are optimised for the platform with correct specs and duration.
The Need For Speed.
In the fast-paced world of programmatic advertising, speed is of the essence when finding the best supply path. The ability to make quick, accurate decisions can be the difference between reaching the right audience in the right place at the right time.
With Paramount Connect, powered by FreeWheel, you’ve got the speed and fuel to make it happen.
Finding Unique Reach.
Winning auctions is just the start. To truly get ahead, focus on unique reach.
- On-Peak And Off Peak: Targeting during off-peak hours on streaming can help advertisers achieve unique reach by accessing less competitive inventory, potentially leading to the opportunity to engage audiences who might be missed during peak viewing times or audiences that have different watching habits.
- The Unique Ad Experience: Premium ad formats that are personalised to the audience are 25% more likely to be recalled than that of a standard TVC. Think immersive, dynamic, and tailor-made for your audience’s preferences. Like this Tulsa King Season 2, social and vertical interactive video ad example.
- Enriching Your Audience – Capitalise On Addressability: Harness declared first-party data to expand campaign reach effectively. By using people-based identifiers over modelled data sets, you can extend sponsorship and campaign reach to untapped audiences while selectively excluding existing customer groups, prioritising prospective customers to drive growth. Designed to deliver media efficiency across buy types.
SPO In Action
With these strategies in place, here’s how to get more from supply path testing.
- Test And Consolidate Supply Sources Based On Efficiencies: Collaborate with the publisher to minimise the number of SSPs involved in the auction. Utilise a unified ecosystem to set up deals across multiple SSPs, assessing them for the best response rates, latency, and win rates according to your requirements. This approach reduces wastage and enhances transparency, leading to more efficient ad spend and higher win rates with the optimal SSP for your brand.
- Optimise Bid Strategies: Adjust your bid strategies based on inventory type such as live TV and video on demand (VOD). Analyse which SSPs and inventory sources are delivering the best results and allocate more budget towards those. This can help in maximising unique reach and ensuring your ads are delivered across the most effective channel.
The Takeaway
Not all targeting is created equal, and let’s face it, if your strategy doesn’t hit the mark, your ad spend is going to work harder, NOT smarter. Effective SPO is all about getting the biggest bang for your buck by ensuring every dollar flows through the highest-quality inventory and the best channels. Because why settle for average when you can aim for impact?
To stay competitive, brands and streaming platforms need to keep evolving. It’s not just about throwing money at ads; it’s about sharpening the strategy and making every impression count. By harnessing the right insights, we’re not just boosting efficiency, we’re dialling up precision and packing more punch into every buy. That’s how you stay in the game and deliver results that matter.