3 ways to improve ad buying efficiency and outcomes during tough economic times

The news is filled with stories about inflation and supply chain challenges. While consumers are feeling the pinch, so is the advertising industry. According to a recent Advertiser Perceptions survey, seven in ten advertisers report being negatively affected by elevated inflation rates and supply chain disruptions. While most advertisers say the impacts have been minor, 49% have reduced or paused budgets.¹ However, overall spend will likely be redeployed in time for the holidays.²

With tough economic headwinds expected to continue or worsen, it’s not surprising that many advertisers are monitoring their expenses and looking for efficiencies while striving to maintain strong relationships with brands. Brands that pullback will lose market share to those that do not.³ Challenging times can lead to positive outcomes for advertising teams and agencies open to trying new ways to drive efficiencies. Those that dedicate resources upfront to resolve and reduce operational inefficiencies are more likely to thrive in both good and bad economic times.

The Yahoo DSP simplifies day-to-day ad buying operations by offering a seamless ad campaign booking experience. 

Check out these three new features that help you operate more efficiently and drive performance no matter the headwinds. 

1. Audience Overlap: Know your audience strategy

This tool makes it easy for advertisers to discover and compare the overlap between audience segments. Whether using Yahoo proprietary segments, an advertiser’s first-party data, or third-party audiences, details can be surfaced by devices, people and households, giving you the insights most relevant to your performance goals.

Use Audience Overlap to:

• Compare and size audience segments or groups of audiences. For example, suppose a retail client wants to know the audience size difference between their homepage and add-to-cart page to understand what portion of users are making it through the conversion funnel, Audience Overlap provides the clarity they seek.
• Find incremental audiences. Compare a Yahoo interest-based segment with your first-party segment to ensure you’re reaching new prospects.
• Identify where you’re duplicating efforts. Data from the Audience Overlap tool may lead you to remove costly audience segments in favor of less expensive alternatives if there is a high degree of overlap between them. It’s an efficient way to find the incremental value in your data strategy.

‍2. Report Builder 2.0: Powerful insights to track performance

The DSP’s enhanced reporting suite includes brand-new capabilities, including detailed charts and graphs, that bring your campaign data to life. 

Use Report Builder 2.0 to:

• Get the insights you need when you need them. The customizable dashboard experience allows for deeper analysis by easily comparing metrics over multiple data ranges, making the full suite of data options available more apparent, and pulling the data into your choice of rich visualizations.  
• Reduce your manual workload. Optimize campaigns faster without having to check performance manually. Set up performance alerts so you know precisely where performance may be declining.
• Solve pain points. We’ve added enhancements to resolve reporting challenges, including:
  - Ability to use templates across seats
  - Enabled the sharing of reports to an S3 bucket
  - Made it easier to edit reports

‍3. Deal Troubleshooter 2.0: Address deal issues faster 

Deals are an excellent way to get the inventory and price you want, but doing so can be complex, and issues can arise. Deal Troubleshooter 2.0 makes it easy to investigate deals already in the works. Here’s how we improved Deal Troubleshooter 2.0:

• We improved the insights offered and how they’re displayed, making them more visual and easier to read. 
• You now receive a clear, concise message explaining a problem so you can easily understand why a deal delivers less-than-expected results.
• You can now apply changes directly in the tool based on our guidance. In areas where that wasn’t possible, we now provide a link directly to the appropriate page of the DSP so you can more easily make changes without having to navigate on your own. 

Yes, we’re all in for some challenging times. But these updates, among many other enhancements, open the door for business improvement. Start today by examining the efficiency of your ad buying technology. Does it help your budgets work smarter? Does it make your life easier and more productive? If not, now’s the time to connect with ad tech solutions that move you forward, not push you back. 

Learn how we can help you move in the right direction, connect with us today. 

‍^1-3 Advertiser Perceptions, "Macroeconomic Effects and Perceptions July/August 2022." Survey of 205 U.S. advertisers.