Building technology infrastructure is one of the key building blocks for success in digital marketing. The ad tech stack is often the by-product of a series of different technologies chosen for their individual capabilities, not how they work together. But there are huge efficiencies to be gained if the architecture of the stack is reviewed and refined.
For many advertisers their ad tech stack has built up not by design but as a collection of disparate technologies that were bought in to provide a particular solution (and often owned by different teams). For example, Adobe might be used for site analytics, Google Campaign Manager is the ad server, Oracle the DMP and Silverpop as their email CRM tool. They may have been assessed as the best tool for the job when originally chosen but when it comes to working together for the purposes of efficiencies and data sharing, the ad tech stack falls short.
As more advertisers move to a customer centric point of view, and look for efficiencies in their digital marketing endeavours, more and more focus is being put on the building blocks of their ad tech stack, not only in how well the individual elements work, but also in how well they work together. It’s the foundations on which success in digital marketing will be built.
Looking at the core architecture of their ad tech stack is an increasing requirement of a digital marketing team but can often be a daunting challenge due to the number of unknowns, a lack of knowledge of what the alternatives are, and how to manage a migration process to a new technology partner when needed. Many advertisers have the added complexity of historically effectively hiring in elements of an ad tech stack in the form of agency owned ad servers and buying platforms. But, with the right guidance this needn’t be a daunting process as the solution breaks down into 3 key areas: firstly, an advertiser should take control of their ad tech stack, secondly assess if it’s the best it can be and thirdly see if you have the right talent to exploit its potential.
James Coulson, Strategy Director, Infectious Media
This article is part of the IM programmatic trends 2019 series, read more here