DataXu Research Reinforces The Creative Piece In The Exchange Trade; UK Search Firms Eyeing Exchange Trading Opportunity

» Dataxu released its market research newsletter, MarketPulse, this week. The main thrust of the research focused on campaign performance and the key drivers for success. Carried out over a thirty day period and across impressions for 19 campaigns for leading advertisers, the research returned some interesting results. It looked at three specific attributes: audience, context and creative. All three performed well, but the creative attributes correlated most highly with conversions for 48% of the campaigns.

Here's the major points from the report:

- The power of creative remains significant. Audience and context targeting can be highly effective, but creative parameters still edged out both for their influence on campaign success. Creative agencies can partner with an advanced DSP to be a powerful extension of their capabilities—and prove to their clients—using data—the value of their creative.
- Even similar campaigns have different performance drivers. The most predictive category was not consistent for campaigns within the same industry vertical—or even for separate campaigns by the same advertiser.
- “Perfecting” one dimension is risky. Trying to predict which category matters most and putting all of your targeting or optimization “eggs” in one of these three baskets may not yield the desired ROI. Basic techniques like cookie retargeting leave opportunity on the table.
- Advertisers need to adopt a “global optimization” approach to performance. We all know that display advertising has multiple variables affecting performance. As we’ve discovered, the significance of these variables can be challenging to predict, so marketers should seek a global approach to optimizing campaign performance that looks across attributes before homing in on key performance drivers.

» Ah the great debate about how display is becoming more like search continues to rumble on. This week it's the turn of Mark Fagan in the NMA. Fagan suggests that DSPs open up a whole new world of opportunity for search experts. Sure, they will be able to buy impressions in an auction based environment, and use search data to target users. But they will still need to convert, and in display creative still plays a big role. It's not something that pure search firms will excel in. I guess when Google get around to integrating Teracent's dynamic ad technology into their shiny new DSP kit (aka Invite Media) they will be in opportunity to compete properly in the exchange space. It all suggests momentum for automated trading now that the search wonks are seriously eyeing the exchange trading opportunities. Let the games begin.