The possibilities the stack offers
It’s certainly not a new thing anymore. It was in July 2018 that the creation of the Google Marketing Platform was announced. Its purpose was to replace and combine the potentialities of DoubleClick and Analytics 360, and today it is (or it should be?) a part of most digital marketing strategies.
It can be useful to provide answers for some of the frequently asked questions put to us every day, in our role as certified a Sales Partner, about the Google tech stack, which offers a complete set* of advertising and data analysis solutions.
To simplify things, we decided to compile a list of FAQs.
- What benefits do I gain from purchasing multiple tools from the GMP?
- Is integration possible with third-party platforms as well?
- What are the benefits of adopting an Ad Server?
- What possibilities does a DSP offer?
- What are the benefits of a Search Bid Management tool?
- Why purchase from a Google Certified Sales Partner?
- What are your pricing structures?
- Can I get GMP product training?
1) What benefits do I gain from purchasing multiple tools from the GMP?
Let us start from the premise that no individual platform in the stack, when used independently, is better than that of another player.
For instance, the Adform Ad Server can offer the same management benefits as Google Campaign Manager. If, on the other hand, multiple platforms in the GMP are used together, the synergies that are created by working within the same environment allow for greater control over advertising activities and data management.
Let’s think about it for a minute. If, for example, you wanted to integrate an analytics system and/or a DMP with a DSP belonging to a different supplier, this could lead to significant and unrecoverable data loss. The ability to integrate different platforms that belong to the same player prevents or reduces to a minimum the chance of this happening, while allowing you to have complete control over your data and the results achieved, which in turn makes it possible to make more rapid and effective decisions.
2) Is integration only possible among Google platforms or is it possible with third-party platforms as well?
Integration is not possible only among Google platforms, but among these and other platforms as well.
As an example, the Salesforce DMP can easily be linked to DV360 to allow for the direct use of its native audiences. There are many possible combinations in this case, and we can also look at creating other look-alike audiences using that same first-party data as a starting point and defining more advanced attribution models.
We have noticed that the most common integrations among the GMP’s internal platforms are those between CM360 and DV360, and between GA360 and DV360.
Some of the most commonly implemented integrations with platforms external to the GMP are those between Krux by Salesforce and DV360, and between Power BI and GA360.
3) What are the benefits of adopting an Ad Server?
There are many benefits to be gained from adopting an ad server to help with the complex management of your ad campaigns.
The principal ones can be broken down into three main categories. The first is the ability to manage and serve your Display, Video, Audio and Dynamic creatives rapidly and directly. The second is that of being able to track all of your KPIs from one control center, deduplicating data from across multiple ad channels and thus making it possible to perform a more holistic analysis of your digital marketing strategies. Last, but not least, is the certification of the results (i.e. impressions) acquired from the different channels used for digital marketing.
To sum up, here are the most important features of an Ad Server such as Campaign Manager:
- It allows you to store all of your creatives on one server. This means you have complete control, and not only over the types of formats you wish to serve. You also have the possibility of using more advanced formats, such as dynamic creatives, and of reusing them automatically for any Display Advertising activity. This allows you to avoid duplication in the placement of your creatives and accelerates ad serving.
- Floodlights (Campaign Manager’s tracking tags), which monitor every action users take on a site and each campaign’s performance, allow you to deduplicate your data and centralize its analysis, in order to more accurately define your optimization actions.
- The ability to track and certify different types of channels: Display, Search, DM, etc.
4) What possibilities does a DSP offer?
A DSP allows you to engage with a variety of publishers without necessarily having to enter into long negotiations about inventory purchasing.
It will query SSPs (Sales Side Platforms) directly, based on a series of preset parameters and targeting criteria (formats, geotargeting, brand safety, gender targeting).
What’s more, it allows you to access different types of pricing based on the result you wish to achieve:
- Open Market: auction pricing, where impressions are not reserved, in order to obtain the lowest possible price;
- Private Auction: auction pricing with a “floor” price, where impressions are not reserved, so as to obtain the lowest possible price, but the minimum price is set in advance by the publisher;
- Preferred Deals: one-to-one price negotiations with the publisher, but here, too, impressions cannot be reserved. In this scenario, the price is determined through negotiation;
- Programmatic Guaranteed: direct negotiation with the Publisher to determine the price, but here the precise number of impressions can be reserved.
5) What are the main benefits of a Search Bid Management tool?
Advanced search engine management and faster results collection.
Search campaigns have become an essential asset in digital advertising and their complexity has grown over time. This means that managing them has also evolved, both in terms of the technologies adopted (see AI) and in terms of strategies. Today, Bid Management tools meet these needs by providing a series of tools that allow for increasingly advanced search engine management and ever faster results collection, compared with when different Search platforms are managed separately.
The main benefits of adopting Search Ads 360 can therefore be summed up as follows:
- Centralized management of all of the search engines, Google, Bing, Baidu,Yandex;
- Floodlights used to monitor the KPIs defined during the strategy phase;
- Use of every sort of automation, such as automatic optimization strategies;
- Use of AI and machine learning to improve Search campaign performance.
To sum up, here are the most important features of an Ad Server such as Campaign Manager:
- It allows you to store all of your creatives on one server. This means you have complete control, and not only over the types of formats you wish to serve: You also have the possibility of using more advanced formats, such as dynamic creatives, and of reusing them automatically for any Display Advertising activity. This allows you to avoid duplication in the placement of your creatives and accelerates ad serving.
- Floodlights (Campaign Manager’s tracking tags), which monitor every action users take on a site and each campaign’s performance, allow you to deduplicate your data and centralize its analysis, in order to more accurately define your optimization actions.
- The ability to track and certify different types of channels: Display, Search, DM, etc.
6) Why purchase from a Google Certified Sales Partner?
The main advantage lies in data ownership: You are the true owner and you have full ownership of the platform account. Transparency is ensured, because you are able to access the platform entirely independently in order to manage your campaigns, monitor their performance and carry out any action you wish.
The most common way to sell programmatic advertising is when the agency has a proprietary account, within which it activates an Advertiser for each customer. This means not only less transparency, but also that you are not the actual owner of the data and, if you should ever switch agencies, it is very likely that you would lose it.
On the other hand, if you purchase from a Google Certified Sales Partner like Webranking, you will always be able to access your campaigns to assess their actual results and costs. That is why we focus on this type of reselling program.
7) What are your pricing structures?
We offer two, based on the degree of independence you wish to have when it comes to management.
The GA360 license is sold to you directly and you can either manage it internally or rely on our internal consultants for setup, monitoring and data analysis.
Display & Video 360 and CM360 can be sold under two different plans with different pricing:
- Self Service: You pay only for the license to use the platform. Under this plan, the management is entirely your responsibility; we handle the initial setup and provide technical troubleshooting via email.
- Managed: With this plan, we handle the management of your campaigns on the platform.
For both of these plans we offer a free training slot, to introduce you to the world of the stack and understand its complexities, plus customized training based on your needs.
8) Can I get GMP product training? If so, how is it structured?
We offer training programs to meet any company need and we design bespoke alternatives on request.
Our goal is to provide you with technical and strategic skills to use on the GMP platforms and to offer a general overview of how the world of Ad Serving, Programmatic and Analytics platforms works, so as to supply you with the necessary tools to make internal decisions about which products are the most suitable for you to adopt.
Our training can be broken down into three macro-categories:
- Top and Middle Management: This training deals with all of the essential concepts and latest developments in programmatic advertising, ad serving and analytics, through to the definition of implementation strategies for Analytics and Programmatic Advertising tools.
This specific course can be organized in one of two ways:
a) Group training: All of the attendees, from different companies, will be invited to come to one location where the course will be held;
b) Custom: A course for a single company, in a location to be decided with the customer. - Basic Operation: The basic logic of each individual platform is explained in detail: how to create campaigns or views on Analytics; how to set up campaigns and creatives on Campaign Manager; linking between the different GMP platforms; audience use. In general, all of the basic setup to begin launching campaigns and the primary rules of optimization. On top of this, there will be a Lab session, where you will be able to put everything you have learned into practice directly on the platforms.
- Advanced: The advanced tools on every platform; connections with DMPs; defining campaign and data management strategies and related useful tips; naming methodologies for correct campaign management; advanced audience management.
A Lab session will also be added to this plan, to allow you to use the platforms directly.
Why choose the Google Marketing Platform?
Display & Video 360 is the GMP Demand-Side Platform, offering a centralized approach to managing advertising
Campaign Manager makes it possible to simplify the organization of ad campaigns, from planning to final reports.
Search Ads 360 allows you to manage multiple digital campaigns on one platform, with complete purchasing, reporting and multi-channel attribution functions.
Data Studio is the data visualization and reporting tool that integrates with other products on the platform and other non-Google data sources.
Analytics 360 allows you to analyze and make sense of users’ online behavior using just one interface that features a collection of continuously-updated data
Tag Manager allows you to easily implement tracking codes and measure conversions without having to rely on the IT team.
Data Studio is the data visualization and reporting tool that integrates with other products on the platform and other non-Google data sources.
Data Studio is the data visualization and reporting tool that integrates with other products on the platform and other non-Google data sources.