6 Advantages of Demand-Side Platforms in Advertising

Advertising tech has come a long way in a short space of time, and one of the most significant developments in recent years is that of demand-side platforms, or DSPs for short.

The purpose of the average DSP is to enable advertisers to bid on ad inventory across a broad range of publishers, thus getting promotional content in front of the right audiences at the right moment.

There are a plethora of perks that are afforded by DSPs, so let’s go over the main benefits to help you decide whether this is the right type of ad platform for your next campaign.

Automation is Achievable

The less time you need to spend handling the nuts and bolts of being an ad buyer, the more time you have available to dedicate to the more interesting challenges.

This is where the automated aspects of DSPs come into play. Managing campaigns is a breeze when you don’t need to spend hours overseeing large teams, liaising with sellers, reviewing contracts or processing invoices. It should therefore be no surprise that ads of this kind now account for the majority of spending in the digital space.

Variety is Assured

Whether you’re looking to leverage ads on SERPs, ads on video platforms, ads on mobile devices or any other type of digital services, DSPs have got you covered.

This variety also means that you can home in on your target demographics wherever they are most likely to be, rather than simply hoping that your efforts will find them through sheer ubiquity of coverage.

Costs Are Kept Under Control

With the automation and improved targeting capabilities of a DSP, the cost of acquiring ad space has been brought down significantly.

Then, with the help of DSP reports, you can make further optimizations and efficiency savings based on the performance data gleaned from your past campaigns. This allows an already affordable avenue for digital advertising to get even cheaper with time, without making compromises.

Scalability is Guaranteed

Whatever your budget or ambitions for your ads, DSPs give you the flexibility to adjust your reach accordingly.

Whether you want to get content onto 10 websites or 10,000, the size of modern platforms makes this a possibility, and of course this feeds back into the aforementioned cost-effectiveness.

Accuracy is Enhanced

We’ve touched on the targeted potential of the DSP approach already, but there’s more to it than simply setting parameters for the desired demographic and letting the platform work its magic.

This is where contextual targeting makes itself known. It enhances the usefulness of keywords, whether specific or longtail in nature, so that their appearance in URLs, in the body of content, in hashtags or anywhere else can determine whether or not an ad is displayed.

Competitiveness is Increased

Prior to the proliferation of DSPs, it was harder for up and coming brands to get noticed alongside their larger rivals without spending significant amounts on ads that might not generate the traction they were hoping for.

Because of the variety and diversity of platforms and contexts created through demand-side platforms, the smaller players can stand shoulder to shoulder with their established rivals.

Final Thoughts

More and more marketing pros are being made aware of the advantages that DSPs provide, and the wider programmatic advertising movement shows no signs of slowing down for all of the reasons covered above.

You will still need to overcome a bit of a learning curve when getting to grips with DSPs, whether as a buyer or a seller. Yet once you are up and running, you’ll wonder how you coped before.