Marketers Seek Clearer Picture of Automated Ad Market: GSD&M’s Dave Kersey

Advertisers in the United States are wasting $22 billion a year in what’s known as the programmatic market, which automates transactions between buyers and sellers of media, according to a study by the Association of National Advertisers. Media buyers are demanding greater transparency from demand-side platforms that provide a gateway into the marketplace.

“It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to track the data flow across the ecosystem, which is ultimately creating a little mistrust between agencies and DSPs or partners, as well as some of the clients,” Dave Kersey, chief media officer at Omnicom Group’s GSD&M, said in this interview with Lisa Granatstein, editorial director of Beet.TV.

Made-for-advertising websites that generate clicks are one source of inefficiency. Another key concern is ad fraud, or the deliberate effort to defraud advertisers by artificially inflating the value or performance of an ad campaign.

“The fraud and misinterpretation of impression delivery — this is something that really allowed us in the industry to take a step back and say, ‘Okay, we need a full audit of our entire operation to understand what we’re buying, how the data is sourced, what inventory from the SSPs [sell-side platforms] is accurate and are we actually reaching our clients’ objectives?” Kersey said.

Despite these concerns, advertisers have an opportunity to reach consumers and engage them through different parts of the purchase funnel, the marketing model that describes a customer journey toward buying a product or service.

“The opportunities, I think, outweigh some of those challenges,” Kersey said. “Now, we’re able to buy programmatically across most screens, most places. And connecting it from an omni-channel perspective is going to be really interesting as publishers and DSPs allow us to do that more effectively.”

Retailers that sell advertising have become a major category of media. They promise to help marketers to reach consumers based on their purchase histories and when they’re ready to shop.

“The rise of retail media networks is something really important,” Kersey said. “Being able to overlay some of that data set onto our programmatic efforts will allow us to get closer to really driving effectiveness and efficiency, while looking at things all the way from brand to performance across the entire lifespan of a campaign.”