Acquisition at the time of internalisation: what means for a coherent media strategy?

Guilhem Bodin, senior manager at Converteo, takes part in this One to One Biarritz conference to discuss the media strategy to be deployed during the internalisation phase, in order to acquire new customers.

Converteo is a consulting partner, data and techno, fields of extremely broad competences to improve the business of companies (project management, engineering, analytic, CRM, etc.).

It is also a training institute. Historically, the company is more oriented towards the analysis of online conversion paths, but now the acquisitionof data is found everywhere. The model in sight is that of the advertiser-centric, helping customers to stimulate their projects, to better understand the tools available.

Digital as a field of expertise

Today, 75% of an inventory can be purchased in programmatic marketing. In addition to what is already available, the future segmented TV will only amplify this momentum. These new practices completely disrupt business, not only in terms of purchases, but also in terms of measures to challenge the inventory.

Digital technology increases the costs involved, which becomes a strategic element. If these investments can be controlled (by contract or by improving efficiency), savings can be generated in return. This is the role of purchasing teams, responsible for returning to internalisation.

To illustrate his point, Guilhem Bodin recalls that “The consumption of individuals is now essentially digital: the average is 1.9 smartphones per individual, we are approaching the six screens usable per individual and per household, and 77% of TVs are connected to the Internet.”

What is internalisation?

It consists of including or re-inventing within the company those activities that were previously outsourced, entrusted to agencies (generalists or specialists). Until the 2010’s, advertisers needed advertising agencies to take care of the creative and a media agency to acquire advertising space. Now you can use a trading desk and, in general, a set of services (data marketing, social listening or data collection).

Internalisation is perceptible from three different angles:

• Total outsourcing (the agency manages the purchase of space, delivery, reporting and insights)
• Hybrid methodologies (self-test A/B tests)
• Full internalisation of an activity (the search expert will not work in the same way in the branch or in-house).

Finally, there is an interest in internalisation for three main reasons:

• know the scope of possibilities in a DSP and master the operation to refine its strategy in relation to its business
• the need for flexibility and agility, the ability to be faster by working for yourself whenever possible
• spending control with a number of safeguards and transparency

How to implement it

All of this makes it possible to aim for better advertising efficiency. The challenge is to understand what can be done with it. There are in fact several processes of internalisation.

Note that internalisation is already underway

It allows to control at least its strategy. For example, what keywords are more relevant to choose according to the objective set (search or performance)? This issue can be discussed internally. Entrusting 100% of its strategy to an external agency can be problematic.

Understand how tools work

It is above all a question of appropriating them. For example, how do you operate if you want to recover your history for a three-year econometric study? Ad server training can respond concretely to the need to control such issues (granularity required according to the information, campaigns compared with two different creations, etc.).

In order to internalise media strategy, you will have to call on someone with a broader expertise in this area. For example, this person must be able to distinguish between mobile operators with their own DSP and know when to call on one or the other.

The necessary tools

Unlike the manager previously mentioned, who will have a senior profile, the use of the tools can be entrusted to a junior profile, expert on a platform, and not necessarily on a global ecosystem.

Here we are talking about web analysis and tracking, DSP and Netserver, which mainly require the right understanding of the tool. There is therefore no need to have five experts in a field; only one is enough, supported by less mature operators. Converteo can help manage the internalisation of tools (benchmark) based on the needs of the requesting advertiser, and in its own premises.

Synergy of the teams

It is imperative that all tools and teams work synergistically. From the moment a campaign has to re-target all the visitors of a site, we must be able to mobilise analytical measurement, dashboarding, CRM operation, marketing automation, social networks, search, etc.

All these teams must be able to work together. In addition, a Facebook-type campaign and a programmatic campaign must have the same remit and blend into the same communication strategy in order to centralize and compare data: naming, tracking, tools.

Operations to be conducted

There are different topics to be taken care of depending on whether or not internalization has been carried out: audience, tools and steering. For retargeting, it is always about Criteo, Facebook and search.

But if everyone operates in their corner or if the configuration is not the right one, we will not be able to obtain a global vision. With regard to scoring, we can also obtain audience beyond the CRM, via social networks, via search or display, which can bring an overall consistency while avoiding the risk of overexposure.

Acquisition is ultimately refined as all data is centralised and analysed. It is even possible to automate matching. The management of the project is necessarily impacted, but the ROI can be increased thanks to a standardization of campaigns and a recourse to the right actors, datascientists for example.

Speaker:

Guilhem Bodin, Senior Manager - Converteo