• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, February 22, 2017

Turns out that size does matter—as in the size of digital display ads. That’s according to the findings of a whitepaper published on Wednesday by Choozle, a self-service programmatic platform.

The company’s 2016 “Digital Advertising Findings & Best Practices Whitepaper” found that where digital display ads are concerned those that were 200 x 200 and 300 x 600 had the highest CPM values. Ads sized at 300 x100 and 320 x 480 came in at third and fourth place. In addition, display ads sized at 400 x 300 had a $9 CPM value though by comparison, other ad sizes were all ranked in the low $1 range. Retargeted display ads also had the highest ranked CPM value at $18, nearly five times more so than any other ad targeting strategy.

The whitepaper aims to offer guidance for individual campaign efficiency compared to marketplace averages, according to Choozle. The analysis offered performance metrics from more than 4,000 campaigns that were implemented on Choozle’s platform in 2016.I The paper also highlights best practices for marketers, analyzing what worked and what didn’t in 2016 and how to improve programmatic campaign execution and measurement.

While many marketers continue to use click-through rate (CTR) to measure the effectiveness of a digital ad campaign, this isn’t an effective tactic for campaigns that are implemented programmatically, according to the paper.

Among the findings:

Targeting:

--CTRs performed best when campaigns focused on retargeting and contextual targeting, which logged a $2 CPM value. IP (Internet protocol) and data targeting had an even higher CPM value, at $4.

CPMs:

--Display ads that averaged 728 x 90 and 300 x 250 in size had the best value for mobile and display advertising, both coming in at $2.22.

--By contrast, video CPMs had a much higher average value. For example,  a video display ad sized at 1920 x 800 had the highest average at $13.65.

Additional insights:

--Marketers expect programmatic strategies to work on the first try with little or no optimization.

--Marketers don’t build enough time in to learn how to run successful programmatic campaigns.

The paper also pointed to three areas that are quickly developing in the world of programmatic self-service campaigns:

Attribution:

The paper defines attribution as the process of identifying a set of user actions, whether it’s an event such as conversions, CTRs, or a touchpoint that contributes in some way to the desired outcome. Values are assigned to each of these events. The findings recommend using a platform that enables one view and analysis of multiple campaigns in a single dashboard in order for marketers to better understand and assign appropriate values to the right channels, campaigns, and individual tactics. Further, third-party party attribution specialists enable an even more thorough view of a marketing spend and its impact on ROI.

First-Party Data:

The use of third-party data has become nearly ubiquitous -- no longer a differentiator, but a baseline requirement for efficient digital advertising. The paper suggests that marketers use first-party data assets to improve campaign performance. Marketers often use a list of existing clients as a “seed list” then model that data into a larger “lookalike” audience that can then be targeted directly via programmatic platforms.

Virtual reality, connected TV, and digital-out-of-home are also entering programmatic markets.

Programmatic Creative:

The paper noted that improvements in programmatic creative have enabled machine learning to mix and match the right combination of creative assets in an individual ad unit in real time. Feedback on campaign performance is immediate and enables marketers to optimize and reconfigure their creative messaging throughout the run of a campaign. As more marketers implement dynamic creative strategies and learn from them, they’re likely to see campaign performance improve.