There are the existing systems and tools you’re already using, along with the ones you’re looking to invest in. You’ll need to cater for your current business requirements and future growth plans, as well as ensuring that any platform you choose has the flexibility to scale up and evolve with the needs of your consumer and the market.
It can be a tough decision to make. Here we’ll guide you through some key factors to consider when implementing ad technology.
1. Look at your business first
Before diving into analysing the available platforms and technology, you need to look closely at your business and your current advertising. How efficient and mature is your team? What is it they need to help them do their job better and faster? What budget is there? How successful have your previous campaigns been? What data do you have and how is it being used? These are all key questions you’ll need to answer.
Specifically, you’ll want to understand your business objectives, goals, and KPIs for the immediate future and further down the line. Once you know what you need, the process can begin, and you can start shortlisting platforms and providers.
2. The flexibility of the technology
You want a technology solution to be flexible and agile, and crucially it needs to cater for your specific requirements. Technology partners shouldn’t force you into how they work, they should partner with you to enhance the way you currently work. When it comes to ad-tech, consider how it integrates with your existing CRM system, eCommerce platform, inventory system and ordering system.
Is the team flexible enough to create bespoke integrations with your current systems and ways of working to enhance your workflows?
Crucially, any ad-tech platform should promise ease of use, and provide access to complex technology in a simple and straightforward way. The best ad-tech should always work alongside your current strategy and make improvements. If it requires you to change too much it could hinder you in the long term.
3. Question the functionality in line with your business needs
You may want to engage with a specific audience on a local level? Key objectives of the business may include enhancing efficiency and cutting costs for ad production. The ability to change creatives to engage with your customers in key moments at different times of day or to get get the right priced products in front of their nose could be essential to your current advertising strategy.
Whatever your digital advertising needs, the platform you choose needs to cater for each of them. As martech consolidation continues, more and more platforms offer an end-to-end solution catering to omni-channel requirements. You should favour these over single-channel options.
4. Understand the strategic benefits
Yes, your chosen technology needs to be able to assist you with creating and activating your ad campaigns, but it shouldn’t finish there.
The best technology platforms will also give you insights and business intelligence to improve and enhance your advertising strategy to take you to the next level. Can it help you define your key demographics and target audience? Does it have the capability to map-out the customer journey and provide the data to improve your marketing efforts across all your channels?
5. The agility to assist your future requirements
How agile is your chosen platform? Does it give you access to the latest technology? Is it continuing to evolve with the changing needs of consumers and enabling advertisers to get ahead of the curve?
It’s vital that you can positively answer these questions.
You may now know that one of the best ways for your business to engage with your potential customers is through geo-location technology for example, but you might not have known this previously. It’s vital for your ad technology platform to be agile enough to move with the latest technology trends and provide you with access to them, illustrating how it can positively impact your business.
6. Cost and ROI
This will always be a core consideration. How cost-effective is your chosen technology? What will be the ROI? Is it a flat rate for the service or do you pay on a campaign by campaign basis, with specific add ons?
Access to the latest tech is one thing, making sure it comes in within budget and offers a truly cost-effective solution for the needs of your business is another.
Are you looking to implement ad technology in your business? Contact us today to learn more about the capabilities of the Fluid Ads platform and how it can cater to the needs of your company to enhance your digital marketing strategy. Get in touch now to for a demo or to start your trial.