• by Art Binder , November 5, 2024

Can programmatic professionals double as brand market researchers? Brands and agencies have long been using brand study platforms that directly or indirectly integrate with DSPs to survey consumers who have been exposed to ads across CTV, video, display, and audio channels. The basic questions are designed to understand consumer levels of awareness, consideration, and intent to help validate a brand’s media spend. The information provided in these studies helps build the foundation for developing media metric proxies to better evaluate effective programmatic investment. 

Awareness, a core programmatic KPI can be defined as a correlation of reach and frequency. The KPI is often defined with generic benchmarks to identify success, but in reality, the only true way to understand your target audience is to directly connect with them. CPM and CTR metrics in a vacuum mean nothing. Comparing and relating those delivery metrics to insights derived from consumer surveys and panels could fill that gap. One study, alone, may not deliver clear and definitive answers on whether the media campaign drove a positive or negative response and why, but it will open the doors to asking the necessary questions! 

One example compared two markets/locations for a client’s national footprint. If the outcomes of the two markets showed consistent and parallel results, either positive or negative, we can make some correlation to scale spend and continue the positive trend if the data was positive across metrics. If the data showed negative lift consistent and across markets, this would be a signal that the issue might be systemic. At that point we could test various different messaging in subsequent campaigns to measure changes against the benchmark we created in the original campaign. When data shows divergent results across markets, this insight could suggest looking at each market individually, under a magnifying glass to identify the anomaly. Negative results can sometimes present greater value because it offers the opportunity to ask questions that could either be media focused, but also allows the brand's leadership to explore adjustments to internal process and execution to fuel growth beyond what media can do alone.

Our work at Assembly focuses on linking measurable business growth and programmatic agility through qualitative and quantitative research in partnership with industry-leading survey providers. However, there is more that can be done and ultimately, a vision for the future of programmatic trading. We know that many of today's digital brand surveys don’t offer the science or precision of traditional, in-person studies and focus groups, but they do offer significant sample size. The opportunity to take the large sample size and isolate a few dozen or hundred participants to take part in virtual or in-person research and focus groups would allow a perfect, closed loop effort to first validate the original findings and then dig deeper into more precise questions. Connecting these dots will provide the brand invaluable insights, direct from the consumer on how to best optimize everything from product and service to media investment and messaging…all at a fraction of the price and time that it takes with traditional methodologies.

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