Self-serve advertising is often associated with textual advertising and micro-advertising campaigns. Although not synonymous, they do share a common goal; efficiency.
By simply eliminating the expense of an advertising salesperson, the self-serve model allows publishers to offer smaller minimum ad buys than would otherwise be just profitable.
Self serve ads replace banner ads with text ads. Thus self-serve programs make advertising easier for the many small businesses who do not have compelling graphical ads to design.
This also prevents delays in the do-it-yourself campaign signup.
Data-driven digitalization to the fore
Digitization is at the center of the ongoing evolution of the advertising industry, employing new and innovative tools to best meet growing customer demands.
As this technology continues to infiltrate every aspect of society, advertising isn’t spared. However, in spite of the rapid changes seen over the last decade, today’s world is even more unpredictable than ever before and with the rapid spread of COVID-19, it has left no industry untouched, including advertising.
With social distancing and business closures leading advertisers and agencies to take new approaches to the normal course of business, this rising trend is affecting an increasing number of businesses.
Self-serve advertising allows the advertiser to place their own ads without the assistance of an advertising sales representative. Self-serve is available on multiple platforms from Google to Snapchat and allows for fast, easy purchasing and rapid campaign launches while reducing costs as well as providing advertisers more convenience in the placement of their advertisements.
This is a relatively new approach to advertising – something that does make those in more traditional roles a little concerned – but is a concept that is only growing in popularity, not shrinking.
Self-serve Advertising Benefits
Self-service ads provide major advantages and can benefit everyone involved in the ad sales equation. The top five benefits of self-serve ads are,
Benefit #1 – Control Over Advertising Sales
The person-to-person methods in conventional advertising are undoubtedly effective, but there is often pressure on both sides to come to an agreement that is mutually beneficial.
A self-serve ad platform, however, puts all control in the hands of the user i.e, the advertiser. It is now possible to customize every aspect of any advertising strategy, from frequency to audience targeting, to even where your advertisements will appear on certain websites, without requiring the normal interpersonal processes to take a campaign from concept to reality.
The control doesn’t end when the purchase process does, for example, if something in a campaign isn’t working properly, it’s easy to go back and make changes and adjustments at the click of a button.
With self-serve advertising, the ability to switch directions seamlessly can save both time and money while removing the strain of improving and adapting campaigns over time.
Benefit #2 – Campaign Effectiveness
All types of advertising have a budget. The introduction of data-driven technology makes maximizing a budget easier than ever before, replacing the method of years past that wasted both time and money.
As advertisers understand the importance of demographic targeting such as age, gender, geographical location and more, they can increase their chances of buying advertisements that make a difference to profit margins.
Self-serving enables advertisers to manage all of these demographic & contextual targeting options for their individual budget to ensure that they are maximizing their campaign effectiveness and profitability.
Targeted advertising campaigns makes it much easier to maximize your campaign effectiveness while minimizing spend.
Self-serve platforms allow for fast and easy targeting, creating an environment in which every facet of a target demographic can be planned in advance for a maximum ROI.
Benefit #3 – Non-stop access
Under normal circumstances, making changes, placing new orders, or executing campaigns requires speaking with a salesperson – something that can limit both time and the ease of making changes or launching something new.
With the introduction of self-service platforms, advertisers can access their ads and campaigns and make changes to them as needed, without waiting for a sales rep or ad ops specialist.
Advertisers can work to their own campaign schedule and quickly update and optimize their campaigns without being held up due to the busy schedules of campaign execution partners.
This allows small organizations to best prioritize their resources or larger ones to test concepts and launch new campaigns as needed, whether at noon or midnight – or anywhere in between.
Benefit #4 – Evolving advertising platforms
Self-serve advertising is a new approach in the world of online advertising. It’s not exactly an established practice, which means the opportunities and options are always changing with plenty of room for growth.
As a concept in its infancy, there’s a lot of room for resources to grow, develop, and provide even more benefits to users as time goes on.
Many businesses already appreciate self-serve solutions for media buying and ad management, and as these strategies become more innovative, we will continue to see an increase in popularity and evolution of these kinds of platforms.
Users who are familiar with what self-serve has to offer from the start will be in the best possible position as future innovations roll out.
Benefit #5 – Multiple opportunities
Finding the right approach to advertising is never easy, and there’s not always one single path that works at any given time. Previously, there was no sure way to test the efficacy of ideas and options prior to launching a large campaign, creating a potentially costly logistical issue.
Self-serve advertising can be a great way to test variable strategies without a large investment of either time or money. This approach allows for the measurement of different advertising opportunities, quick alterations, and a way to pivot strategies to best suit the needs of different clients or audiences.
The more you learn while testing different advertising opportunities, the more you can alter your marketing strategy to suit the needs of a specific client or target audiences without having to worry about paying extra to start the entire process from scratch.
If you want to make the most of your advertising strategy, adopt self-serve advertising courtesy – digital transformation. Speak to us to know more about this, and how it can boost your revenue. Also, follow our unique digital transformation blog to learn more everyday.
