There is a tremendous amount of information and discussion around changes on iOS and Google Chrome. We will be posting updates about what is happening and how we are planning to handle any changes. We will continue to evaluate the cookie-less identity solutions, and we feel we’re in good shape with our LiveRamp relationship. In this blog series CEO Keith Gooberman will address many of the changes that are around the corner, speculate how this plays out, and address how Programmatic Mechanics and Pontiac Intelligence are preparing for all possible scenarios.

Advertising seeks to convince an individual or a group of individuals to take a certain course of  action. The goal of advertising is persuasion, and for as long as humans have sought to influence  each other, advertising has been around in one form or another. Present day advertising utilizes  a variety of media and cutting edge technology to communicate targeted messages to audiences  across the globe. From the early days of the printing press, which enabled ads to circulate widely  in newspapers, to the invention of the television and Internet, advertising has evolved alongside  technology, refining the ways in which advertisers can target audiences.  

Advertising can be traced back to the Ancient world, where remains of ads have been found in  Ancient Egypt, China, Greece, Rome and Arabia. Sales messages written in papyrus and rock wall paintings were the earliest forms of out of home (OOH) advertising, like billboards today. Ads from the ancient world, and for thousands of years thereafter, would remain highly localized.  

For example, Figure 1 reflects a bronze plate ad for the Liu Family Needle Shop circa 990. Business was centered around local communities and commerce was restricted due to restrictions and difficulties with transportation. 

Figure 1

With the advent of deep water navigation in the 15^th Century,  the most powerful empires of Europe began globalizing the  world via major trade routes, which opened new markets. This, coupled at the same time with the  invention of the printing press, allowed sellers to mass produce ads to be placed in newspapers that could be circulated far and wide. As the world  entered the industrial revolution in the 18^th Century, the  capacity to produce goods and the  ability to widely distribute them  continued to increase dramatically.  

Figure 2

In response, sellers began to “brand” their goods, or turn everyday products into household  names. Early examples of this include James Lock & Co., a UK based men’s hat fitter established in  1676 and Hudson’s Bay Company, a Canadian retailer founded in 1670, see 1675 Tobacco ad in  Figure 2.  

A brand is defined as a product that is marketed in a uniform fashion, which ultimately establishes its own personality and image. Ranchers began “branding” their cattle two hundred years ago by  burning hot iron images onto their cattle to keep track and identify ownership.  With the diversity of media space available came the importance of creating a differentiated and  memorable brand, from here, a new business evolved: the advertising agency. These Madison Avenue organizations would assist advertisers in creating cutting edge messaging. In today’s model, agencies focused on messaging are called creative agencies. “Creative” is the industry term for the actual content of the ad, whether that be the picture for a billboard, the 15-second audio clip for radio, the 30-second visual ad for television, or the 3”x 2” message tailored for a newspaper. These early agencies would also assist in placing the messaging in the best  publications or locations. 

Figure 3

Advertisers within each agency would approach newspaper publishers directly to buy space on  the page to promote their brands. The benefit to both parties was clear: the business would gain  exposure and the publications would generate revenue. As America entered the 20^th century, a  variety of new media emerged to deliver ads to consumers, including radio and TV, which were  present in almost every home around the country. Radio advertising began to blossom in the  1920’s followed by television advertising in the 1950’s (see Figure 3).

The advertising industry was growing, and with it the responsibility of placing creative in well targeted publications. The job spun off into a separate business model, creating need for a new  type of company, “Media Agencies.” Once the assets or creative were produced, the Media Agency determined which medium and which publisher they should pay to show the advertisements. Media Agencies focused on aggregating advertisers in order to create leverage with pricing or buying power. By amassing a portfolio of large (high spending) advertisers, these agencies could force publishers (the biggest being the TV networks: ABC, CBS & NBC and big publishers like Hearst and Time) to lower rates across the board to win the business. While a strong portfolio dominated the early efforts by these Media Agencies, they also built strong attribution practices to determine the effectiveness of the ads placed across the landscape. 

Figure 4

The next medium for advertising was the personal computer in  

the late 1970’s and ultimately the Internet in the mid 1990’s. The ubiquity of the Internet  revolutionized the ways people would come to consume content and purchase goods on a massive  scale. The opportunities for advertising were (and remain) virtually unlimited, and the  advertisers and media agencies would have to begin to adapt to this revolutionary, fast- growing technology. Smaller agencies focused on the new Internet technology began popping up with  the aim of bridging the gap between web publishers and advertisers. These digital media agencies became indispensable, assisting advertisers in reaching this new flourishing new online audience. Advertisers began spending money on digital channels, seen in Figure 5. By the year  2000 the online industry reached $2 billion in overall media spend. Noting the chart to side overall  spend will reach nearly $100 Billion by 2019. 

Figure 5

These digital agencies focused their attention on the different formats available for advertising on  the Internet. Google.com launched in 1996 (see Figure 6). Today they are the dominating force in Search Engine Marketing. Google allows advertisers to customize  text ads, which would serve against individual Internet searches. 

Figure 6

Email marketing, the next incarnation of direct mail or catalog marketing, would target individual’s email addresses with offers catered to subscriber lists. Finally, the development of the banner advertisements and visual billboards online became known as “display advertising.” The first banner advertisement, or display ad appeared on hotwired.com,  the Internet publication of Wired Magazine in 1994. The ad in Figure 7, facilitated by Modem Media, was sold to  AT&T.  

Figure 7

With the expansion of the World Wide Web a new market emerged. Websites, much like newspapers in the early  days of advertising, began to focus on the number of  people who would be exposed to the ad. With billions of  web pages visited every day, the potential audience is  huge, allowing advertisers to reach larger audiences than  ever before.  Along with unprecedented reach, display ads allow advertisers the unique ability to measure and  target their audiences. As shown in Figure 8, “cookies” allow a technology provider to stamp a  user’s browser with an ID number.

Figure 8

In this way, a consumer can be tracked around the Internet,  much in the same way that animals can be stamped and traced. Internet technology allows direct  1:1 insight into the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. This is revolutionary compared to television, print, and OOH, which must be determined using in-store sales, loyalty cards, or unique  1-800 numbers to measure the effectiveness of an ad campaign.  

With the addition of cookies, the concept of “target advertising” became a reality. It quickly  became possible to serve ads on specific websites or subsets of a specific publisher. Using cookies,  companies began providing profiles of how users browsed the web independent of the specific  website in which the ad would appear. These capabilities, which are still evolving, provide much  more control for both advertisers and publishers in how ads are placed compared to all other  forms of traditional advertising.  With the clear advantages of display advertising, two types of organizations emerged as suppliers  of display inventory: publishers and networks. Major publishers continued to focus on the same  sales strategies as they had through other channels such as a magazine. They placed ads on the  top or the side of the webpage. Publishers would approach agencies to discuss specific sections  (news, finance, sports, entertainment, etc.), the amount of visitation, and the demographic  breakout of the audiences who regularly view these pages (as defined by third party audience  verification tools). These publishers would offer this space on a CPM (cost per mille, Latin word  meaning thousand) and compared the price per ad exposure or impression to the other channels,  like the circulation statistics used for pricing a magazine ad.

“Ad networks” were born in the late 1990’s, first as firms whom would represent publishers and  act as middlemen selling their inventory to agencies. One of the earliest networks was TeknoSurf  founded in 1998, which went on to become Advertising.com and was  eventually swallowed by AOL. Usually these were smaller publishers who were unable to fund their own sales teams. Boutique magazines, inspired bloggers, small newspapers, public record  aggregators, and others would begin driving traffic to their websites. Networks specialized in “traffic monetization,” handling the  operations behind selling and managing the banner inventory that would  show on the website.  

Figure 9 

Ad networks came to define any organization that would amass a group of publishers and present  their inventory in bulk to buyers. They could establish the same metrics as the larger publishers  and sell this inventory on a CPM basis. Because their clients were usually publishers focused on  producing content and not monetization, the networks could sell the inventory at a low CPM while  providing the publishers with a new, and at times substantial, revenue stream. 

To entice advertisers, these ad networks began building in-house ad delivery technology or ad  servers. This became an arms race, where the networks could customize the technology to offer  new products. Founded in 1996, Double Click was one of the first third party ad servers (see Figure 10). Now it is the largest and owned by Google. They used this technology to allow advertisers  to measure clicks and “conversions.” Conversions are, for  example, actions taken by a user who is exposed to an ad for Nike then later buys the sneakers from Nike.com. They created frequency capping, meaning a user would only see the same ad a certain number of times per day  (or per hour, month, etc.). They would sequence ads, meaning advertisers could create stories  played out over several pages. These advancements in technology continued to improve  drastically as computer space (servers) became cheaper and cheaper. 

Figure 10

Along with the explosion of search advertising, display advertising grew year over year from 2002  through 2008. This constant growth benefited both the major publishers and the networks.  According to www.adnetworkdirectory.com, there are currently 449 Networks – most of which  began during the upward swing of online advertising. 

The network model continues to grow today. Ad networks now come in many different forms and  vary from organizations that represent very prestigious publishers on a transparent and fair basis  to technology experts who use jargon to win agency budgets.  

With so many different types of content providers and middle men, the world of display  advertising remains very difficult to navigate. There are thousands of ad tech companies approaching agencies. Ultimately, ad serving has become a centerpiece for the entire display  ecosystem. Computers became extremely cheap and extremely fast at the end of the 00s, paving  the way for new developments in the Ad Tech world. In January 2007, the patent was filed for the  Online Ad Exchange, which marks the official introduction of Real-Time Bidding (RTB), the next technological step in the evolution of advertising. 

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This is the basic description of all players involved in the programmatic exchange ecosystem.  Display, Native, Video and Mobile In-App ads all use the OPEN RTB exchanges to help monetize inventory. 

WE MADE UP THE COMPANIES BELOW. FOR COMMON SSPs and DSPs, Google it.

This is how we see the ecosystem.

The publishers are the parties with content, money and resources.

The DSP & SSP, or the “Exchange” is full of venture capital money and great technology minds,  utilizing high speed processers and Hadoop capabilities across the web to create a fair and open  auction environment. 

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Ever wonder how items you shop for online seem to follow you long after you’ve left the page?  It’s crucial to understand, as a consumer shopping online, or to as an advertiser looking to  increase ROI.

Real time bidding technology allows ad space on a web site to be purchased in the time period  between when the user calls for the page and when the page renders, as shown below in Figure  1. This transaction is accomplished through an instantaneous auction triggered by an SSP, or  Supply Side Platform, deconstructing the ad space characteristics into a string of text. The SSP is  also often referred to as an “Ad Exchange.” This string of text is an HTTP call, and is conveyed  very quickly across web servers (the Internet). The HTTP call which defines the space is sent to a  list of bidders. These bidders, or Demand Side Platforms, recognize the ad call and reply with  the amount they would be willing to pay to advertise in that space.¹ The SSPs then determine  the winning bidder and award the highest bidding DSP ad space at a price approximately  $0.00001 over the bid of the second highest bidding DSP.

Figure 1: Real Time Bidding in Action ²

• URL or Domain – typically the website (e.g. www.ebay.com), but can also be ‘masked’ by only providing the name of the network or ‘seller’
• Operating System – the OS of the computer loading the ad, be it Windows, Mac, etc…
• Browser – the browser of the computer loading the ad such as Chrome or Safari
• IP Address – The internet address of the computer loading the ad. IP addresses can be  converted into: 
  • Geo – the geographical location of the computer: Country, State, DMA, Zip 
  • Internet Speed – the speed of user’s connection (high speed, dial up, etc)
  • Business – 20% of the time this can be mapped to the business registered using  the IP Address 
  • Time – This is not actually passed in the Ad Call, but can be inferred as the  impressions are being sold in real time 
• Cookie ID – the identifying number according to the SSP of the user. This is a cookie, or text  file which is attached to the user’s browser. Usually this is a number at least 16 digits long.  At times a combination of numbers and letters. This allows the bidders to categorize users  on their end. With this cookie the buyers can target using the following: 
  • Frequency – How many times the bidder had seen the user. And how many  times the user has seen certain ads 
  • Data Segments – A host of companies offer categorization of users using cookie  IDs including: gender, age, income level, interest, browsing behavior, shopping  behavior, etc.  
  • Sequencing – Serving ads in sequence to a user 

Programmatic Media has a variety of different meanings. At its core the term ‘programmatic’  includes anything that is determined using machine learning. Since the early days of ad servers,  machine learning has been employed to select the most valuable ad to serve on the publisher  side. This technology, similar to how Google decides which search ads to show on Google.com,  has been around before the widespread adoption of the term programmatic. The term has  been a buzz term for the past few years as the buyers have gained control due to the RTB  revolution.

Part II. Types of Digital Campaigns

Programmatic Media includes all campaigns that employ technology and machine learning to  make advertising decisions on the buyer’s behalf. Each advertising campaign has the same basic parameters. Using a set of creative assets, the  marketer is going to run a certain amount of budget over a period of time with the intention of  driving a measurable result. Many different types of publishers and networks approach  marketers. Almost all networks use the RTB ecosystem in some fashion, but only four  organizations can claim to be ‘programmatic solutions.’

Most networks still use RTB solutions but do not inform the client of their techniques. By doing  this, networks are able to take higher margins than their typical business where they determine  a revenue share with their publishers. The four organizations inside the green circle depicted in  Figure 2 are those that are using the RTB technology. 

• Programmatic Direct: Programmatic direct includes campaigns run on specific publishers,  similar to an upfront insertion order (IO) deal, but is executed entirely through the DSP.
• Performance Network: The evolution of the Ad Network ultimately led to RTB specialists  who then started organizations that buy exclusively on the exchange and tout technology.  The Agency Trading Desks also fall under this category. These are groups who buy nearly the  entire inventory using RTB and sell the technology and ‘best in breed’ direct response  results. These organizations are not transparent in the costs of media, and therefore their  incentives are not aligned with the buyers.  
• Private Exchange: This is an RTB deal that allows an advertiser to control the targeting. The  publisher and the advertiser agree to floor pricing and the URL, but the advertiser can use  all other metrics in the Ad Call, through their DSP, to control the targeting. 
• Open Exchange: This is purely the advertiser buying inventory made available through the  exchange using a DSP. This is the most efficient way to purchase digital media, but the  individual controlling the DSP becomes very important.  

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FOOTNOTES 

¹ Actually, the DSP has an internal auction of its advertisers to determine the highest bid internally. This is the first of the instantaneous auction.  The DSP leads with the bid for the advertiser in their platform who bid the highest based on the Ad Call 

² Image sourced from livelyimpact.com

Real-time bidding (RTB) or what has become known as programmatic technology allows instantaneous decision making with regard to which ad will show on a website. Instead of deciding in advance which assets the ad server will display, now the decision can be made as the user  loads the website page. The ad server runs an auction to sell the ad space in real time, forming an online ad exchange driven by a Sell Side Platform (SSP). Not surprisingly, this technology has seen strong adoption and continues to thrive today. 

Figure 1: US RTB Digital Display Ad Spend

While the technology was developed in early 2007 it wasn’t until later that the market began  adopting at scale. The technology is now used  by much of the market and the amount of money spent through RTB continues to increase each  yea, as seen in Figure 1. ¹ 

RTB technology provides solutions to numerous problems that plague publishers and advertisers  trying to buy and sell digital ad space. On the publisher’s side, RTB technology solves issues of  forecasting and unsold inventory. On the advertiser’s side, RTB manages issues of distrust and  control.  

Forecasting Issues 

As display advertising became a ‘must buy’ for digital agencies, all major advertisers began  purchasing inventory. The most prestigious brands started cutting up-front deals with their  favorite publishers. All of the leading online publishers established ‘yield management’ teams  who were tasked with ensuring the rates created enough demand to fill the supply. These teams  would use data from the ad server, as well as other third-party applications, to determine how  many impressions were available in each section. They would then price out the inventory (available impressions) in the interest of maximizing revenue. Some publishers pulled talent from  the airline industry, as they were the most advanced in supply/demand analysis and inventory  management.

Figure 2: Actual Delivery vs Forecasted Availability Chart 1

The yield management team would use historical data to determine how many visitors on each  page. Using spreadsheets, advanced database techniques, or third-party software, these teams  would estimate how many ad impressions would be available for sale in the future. Sales teams  would, in turn, approach the market and sell the inventory, in pieces, to any advertiser willing to 

pay the premium prices. To avoid constantly providing ‘make-goods’, or future inventory due to  under delivery, the yield management team would forecast 5%-10% less than the exact amount  they anticipated. The inventory would vary by day and the forecasted inventory vs. sold inventory  would look like the chart in Figure 2.

Figure 3: Actual Delivery vs Forecasted Availability Chart

Unpredictability, an inherent characteristic of the Internet, creates a far larger loss of revenue  than shown above. The Internet provides the most up to the minute information possible, and  when major events happen websites can see 10x the traffic they had forecasted. The supply  spike can occur on a weather website as a northeaster approaches, a news website during a  natural disaster, a gossip website after the sudden death of a major celebrity. The advertisers do  not want ‘uneven delivery’, meaning the publisher cannot deliver all of the impressions for a 12- 

week campaign in one single day. This means that when a spike of 10x occurs, even if the yield  team anticipates this based on the morning numbers, they cannot deliver more than 2x or 3x the  amount they predicted. The monetization of that day would look like Figure 3.  

Depending on circumstance, this could equate to lost revenues anywhere from tens of thousands  of dollars to several million, all due to the inability to monetize inventory in one single day. 

Unsold Forecasted Inventory 

Premium publishers who can sell the ability to reach a specific niche audience are often able to  set their prices correctly as to sell through 100% of their inventory. Other publishers have the  opposite problem. The largest internet publishers, or portals to the internet, amassed such  enormous traffic they cannot sell all of their ad space at effective rates. The largest portals saw 

three billion visits a day at times. Three ads on a page per day equates to 9,000,000,000 available  each day. If organizations with too much inventory could determine a method to sell the long tail or ‘remnant’ inventory at even a $0.01 CPM they would make millions of dollars a month in extra revenue. While remnant solutions were available, they still could not handle the majority  of this unsold inventory. 

Distrust 

When Ad Networks started gaining popularity circa 2000, they all represented unique publishers  and could show differentiation with their ‘site lists’ or domains in which ads would serve. The  biggest publishers began running their ads across several different networks. This style of yield  management would become the core of the Internet publishing business. By rotating the ads, the  networks began having an issue of differentiation, as the same site would be available across a  variety of networks. Additionally, many of these ad networks were restricted to selling blindly or  undisclosed in order not to undermine the publishers’ relationships with marketers. 

To achieve the scale necessary, they began to avoid disclosing to buyers the delivery reports by  domain. They would insist they could not share how the delivery varied across the websites on  the ‘site list’. This would allow them to ‘dump’ a lot of inventory on a low-quality website.  Facebook apps such as Farmville, websites such as myclassmates.com and dictionary.com are  classic locations where you will see network ads in volumes, which are not conveyed to the  agency or more importantly the advertiser. These networks could also adjust their margin 

methodology and charge advertiser’s margins as high as 70%-80%. 

Some networks began using other forms of technology to show differentiation. Networks claimed  uniqueness by “focusing on a special audience” or “providing scale” or “using contextual search  technology,” but until the advancement of the programmatic RTB exchange there was basically  no difference between these organizations as they all worked with the same publishers. 

As these problems leaked out of the back rooms of these networks and into the ears of media  buyers, there was a clear need for greater transparency. By handling the auction for the  advertising space on an impression-by-impression basis, the RTB exchange offered a  technological solution.  

Control 

The networks were the first to implement and develop ad serving technology and continued to develop in the interest of their own bottom lines. The best advances in targeting were made  available to the publishers. Publishers could use the up to date ad servers to control what type  of ads would show on a certain section of a website, in a specific geographical location, or at a  particular time. While advertisers could request these targeting parameters, there was no  control on their side of how the ads were served. Someone on the publisher or network side  needed to handle the trafficking.

As the lack of control became a growing issue on the advertiser side, the RTB technology became  available. Programmatic pushed the ‘control’ into the hands of the “buy-side” or what is often  referred to Demand-side. This allowed the advertiser to manage how they want to target their  ads across publishers (in bulk, becoming ‘exchanges’). This was a clear benefit for all involved, as  the newfound confidence led to larger budgets. 

The RTB exchange provided solutions to these four issues, but the agencies we’re set in their ways and comfortable with the accustomed methods. Changing the way an entire industry  behaves takes time and takes ‘buy-in’ from big players early. How could the networks and  publishers ensure the advertisers would test this technology that offered ‘control’ and  ‘transparency’ into pricing and targeting? They created an auction environment promising the  buyers they would pay only a ‘penny’ more than the next highest bidder for each impression.  This Second Price Auction method created a ‘perfect’ market allowing the next generation of  media to emerge: Programmatic Media. 

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References 

¹ http://www.iab.net/about_the_iab/recent_press_releases/press_release_archive/1996_pr_archive 

² (or nodes, or boxes, or servers – all terms which refer to a computer, usually without a monitor and in a building with no windows  somewhere relatively unpopulated) 

³ Pemberton, Steve. http://homepages.cwi.nl/~steven/Talks/2011/05-07-steven-visualisation/ , CWI and W3C, Amsterdam, © 2011 ⁴ http://www.google.com/patents/US20070192356.pdf 

⁵ http://adage.com/article/digital/real-time-bidding-account-25-display-ad-spending-2015-emarketer/238300/

When online advertising hit its stride in the 2000’s, DoubleClick “ad serving” service became the  premier technology used by publishers to configure their website’s ad space. With  overwhelming market share, this technology continued to grow and balloon into a massive  organization. In 2007 it was purchased by Google. Doubleclick was making $300 million in  revenue at that point, primarily from the publisher technology. Doubleclick for Publishers, or  DFP, is a program used by major publishers across the world to set up the targeting schemes  advertisers demand from their publisher partners (see Figure 1). 

With the advancements of real-time bidding (see ‘RTB & Programmatic Media’ White Paper),  DFP would allow the publisher to sell the ad on the ‘Ad Exchange’ via Doubleclick AdExchange  (AdX). This is the ad exchange product produced by Google for publishers to use to sell their ads  in real time with very strong results. Although AdX is not the only exchange in the market.  There are several other competitors to the Doubleclick exchange which publishers can use. 

AdX integrates seamlessly with the DFP. This is not surprising, because they are both produced  by the same company and can build the technology into the same program. But, AdX is not the  only ad exchange on the market. Many other technology players have built exchanges, such as  AppNexus, Index Exchange, Rubicon, Pubmatic, Mopub, Smaato, OpenX. These systems do NOT integrate as seamlessly into DFP. In the below chart they are the ‘other networks’.

Because of Header Bidding, these other exchanges now seamlessly integrate with AdX, allowing the publisher to give these other exchanges equal opportunity to participate in auction for the ad space.

How does this impact Demand Side Platforms? 

At the end of the day, the ones most effected by Header Bidding implementation are the  Demand Side Platforms (see ‘How the Ad Exchange Works’ White Paper). The instantaneous  auction the Demand Side Platform (DSP) responds to happens when the exchange makes the ad  available while the user is loading the webpage. This is the definition of Real-Time bidding and  the technology driving Programmatic advertising. Before header bidding, the SSP would only  auction the ad when their slot was called in the publisher waterfall. Now, each time the page is  loaded, the SSP makes the ad available for auction, even if it rarely is responsible for selling the  ad unit. DSPs must ‘listen’ or ingest the ad calls from billions of web pages a day. With the  advent of header bidding, now DSPs see 3x – 5x the amount of traffic they saw previously. This  is an increased load on the need for servers to respond to all these available ad units. Many of  the smaller DSPs are having a difficult time keeping up and, in the end, they are not able to see  as many available ad spaces as the used to see.  

For prospecting campaigns, or video campaigns, this is not a big deal. DSPs can still pick off the  ads they want to target and typically get performance similar to what they saw before header  bidding. But for remarketing campaigns, which are the money-makers in this business, these  smaller DSPs are having a hard time ‘listening’ to enough inventory to compete with the larger scaled DSPs on remarketing campaigns. 

Another, buyer-be-ware change with the increased use of header bidding is the introduction of  ‘First-Priced Auctions’. Typically, an SSP would see all the DSP bids, award the ad space to the  highest bidder, but charge them the PRICE OF THE SECOND HIGHEST BID. This was done to  increase competition and buyer’s interest in this technology as it first appeared. As a buyer this  statement made this landscape very intriguing (although, still extremely complicated): “You will  NEVER pay more than the second highest bidder is willing to pay for each individual ad space”.  It was in the interest of developing a perfect market. Well, things don’t always work out like  that. 

Now, with the need for the exchanges to push the highest price to DFP through the header  auction, they are now passing the price they receive directly from the DSP to the publisher. This  is a ‘first priced auction’. Or, if as the exchange would justify “we are taking the highest bid we  saw to increase the publishers CPM”. This is not a bad thing. It does question why we have the  SSP layer at all. But, ignoring that statement, this is ultimately going to drive better pricing for  the publisher who must exist for us to have the ad tech ecosystem at all!

But, with the increase in first price auctions, DSPs must now build into their technology the  ability to identify first-priced auctions versus second price auctions and enable the buyer to  correct their bid strategy to avoid getting hurt by this change in auction mechanics. 

What does this mean for a Trading Desks? 

Well, to be honest, not much. If anything, it is a positive change in the ecosystem. Most trading  desk practices license technology from the largest DSPs in the world who have no problem  seeing all available bids, even with the increase in header-bidding auctions. Any reputable  trading desk, would already have implemented advanced bidding algorithms to drive the  strongest cost per acquisition. Whether or not they pass those savings onto their client is a  whole other story, hence the shift for a more transparent partner like ProgMechs. In the end,  not much changes with this introduction except that publishers are able to make more money  through programmatic channels. With that, more publishers make more inventory available,  allowing Trading Desks to see more inventory, increase performance, and continue to offer  stronger, more ‘high-impact’ style ad units.

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In the digital advertising industry, the term “Trader” refers to an individual who manages ad  campaigns through a Direct Service Platform (DSP) in a real-time situation. The term is used to  describe an industry professional who buys and sells commodities, currency or financial  instruments. As the ‘Wall Street Trader’ puts it: 

“A very good trader has a very deep understanding of the products” ¹ 

While there are many differences between traders on Wall Street and traders working in  media, both must have similar skill sets necessary to be successful in their “trade”. Like  financial traders, the best media traders have an extremely clear understanding of what it is  that they are trading and its entire ecosystem. Financial traders and RTB traders who work to  buy and sell advertisement space, both need to have sound analytical and data mining skills. An excellent media trader must excel in all four responsibilities associated with executing an  RTB campaign: 

1. Market Education 
2. Ad Ops: Launch Documentation / Tag Management / Pixel Management  
3. Trading: Campaign Management & Optimization (Managed Service) 
4. Reporting: Standard and Customized 

Market Education 

A large part of media trading is the ability to describe the mechanics and market color  surrounding the real-time interactions and cookie targeting to the principal who controls the  budget. Whether the principal is an advertiser, agency or a buyer, a great media trader will be  able to explain, in as much depth as necessary, to the buyer how each strategy works.  Strategies continually evolve across channels, but can be categorized or more of the following:

• Retargeting (use of 1^st party cookie data to drive online actions) 
• Prospecting (use of algorithm to drive online actions) 
• Branding (use of media to drive offline & long term actions) 
• Third party data targeting (use of 3^rd party cookie) 
• Contextual targeting (use of web crawler / semantic targeting) 
• Hyper geo targeting (zip code, IP based, or lat/long based targeting)  

Each one of these targeting solutions define the way data will be manipulated to execute the  strategy: through one or more demand side platforms, across mobile, display, video, & social  advertising channels. There are advanced integrations that should be used for each set up,  including post-back URL reporting and attribution alignment. As strategies are introduced, the media  trader often assists the advertisers in defining and refining the specific goals and methods by  which the campaign will be executed.

Ad Operations 

The technical side of launching a campaign include ad operations duties, that consist of three  distinct categories:  

1. Launch Documentation – A successful transition from the hands of a media planner to a trader  must convey specific information. It must clearly delineate the restrictions on the placement of  the ads and the campaign goals in concrete terms. Generally, agencies need some assistance in  putting their plans into executable trading instructions. Much of any campaign’s success can be  attributed to clean, strong, and detailed launch documents. The iterative process of creating this document has a positive and direct effect on the quality of the campaign.  
2. Tag Management – Most campaigns have 3^rd party creative assets. Uploading, debugging, click  tracking and implementing macros is referred to as ‘tag management’. Tag management  includes confirming the creative serves correctly, is eligible for all applicable publishers, and  tracking components on the 3^rd party ad serving sites are setup correctly. This also includes  troubleshooting all creative issues. 
3. Attribution – Most large-scale digital advertising campaigns have some type of key performance  indicators (KPI) which define the success of the campaign. In display, this is generally cookie  based. In mobile, this is usually a post-back URL integration. In the case of managing attribution,  this includes any troubleshooting or implementation of pixels, post-back URLs, macros, and click  trackers.  

Trading 

Depending on the strategy associated with the campaign, managing a campaign’s day to day is  referred to as ‘trading’. Trading is the core of intellectual property in regards to driving successful results. Trading includes setting the campaign line items and strategies up in the  demand side platform via UI or API. The trader, or person who executes the campaign is the  party that ‘green lights’ the campaign. Once the campaign is ‘spending,’ or purchasing the ads,  the trader is responsible for the feedback cycle that is running reports and making changes to  the targeting. These changes are in the interest of achieving the highest return on investment  (ROI) as well as monitoring for fraud. The trader is the person responsible for ensuring best  possible outcomes.

Reporting 

Reporting is the process of pulling the big data results of a campaign and presenting them in an  understandable and clear fashion. Most reporting in the industry is done in Microsoft Excel or  via Dashboards. These are all web interfaces or applications that aggregate data on the  backend. A talented media trader is able to pull all of the reporting and highlight not only the  performance of the campaign, but the key drivers of that performance. The reporting also  includes details where the media ran and attribution goals. 

Ultimately, a media trader can drive results through the RTB exchanges and explain how  mechanics were utilized to achieve success. They can integrate any form of attribution into a  group of DSP partners, set up detailed conversions reporting and determine fraud. They should  be able to recommend budgets and forecast on the scope of each campaign before launch. An  excellent media trader, much like financial traders, can clearly bring the efficiencies and value  proposition from the market directly to their clients.

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REFERENCE 

¹ Justin Weinberg

Ad Network:

An Ad Network acts as a broker between a group of advertisers and a group of publishers. Ad Networks allow advertisers to more easily access consolidated inventory and audiences from various sources in one purchase.
 

Ad Server:

Ad servers are pieces of advertising technology used by both publishers and advertisers. Publisher ad servers are responsible for displaying ads for web users. Advertiser ad servers are responsible for collecting and reporting data about advertising campaigns. Pontiac can be your ad server, but you can also upload creatives that are hosted in other ad servers using an Ad Server Tag (subject to approval).
 

Ad Server Tag:

The term ‘tag’ is often used as slang for the HTML code that will represent the creative in the ad server. This piece of HTML code contacts the ad server and informs the browser to open a small window and place the returned content (ie. the ad image or video) in that window. 
 

AdChoices Icon:

During the Creative upload process in Pontiac you will see ‘AdChoices Icon’ with the box checked. This box cannot be unchecked, it must be included in all ads. This will include the AdChoices icon at the top of every ad, linking out to the IAB and informing users on how they can opt out of receiving advertisements.
 

Advanced Setup:

Advanced setup is a setup option for Line Items. Advanced setup will give you access to all the Pontiac features allowing you to control bid data, set frequencies, select the KPI the platform is optimizing to and more.
 

Advertiser:

An Advertiser is the Pontiac term for the ‘level’ in the platform that represents an individual brand that is paying for the advertisement.
 

Advertiser ID:

Each Advertiser created will have an ID number in the Pontiac system. This ID number is displayed next to the name of the Advertiser in the ‘Advertiser’ tab.
 

Allow list:

An ‘Allow list’ is a site list that is being targeted by a Line Item. If you associate a site list to a Line Item as a white list, this campaign will only serve on these websites. 
 

Alternative Mobile Click URL:

During the Creative upload process there is a box you can check to ‘Use Alternative Mobile Click URL’. If you are serving a campaign to both Web and Mobile Web inventory, this feature allows you to use a different Click URL for ads served on Mobile Web inventory.
 

Application Programming Interface (API):

The API (Application Programming Interface) enables users to interact with Pontiac programmatically, allowing them to integrate Pontiac’s ad buying capability with external applications. This allows campaign setup, reporting and optimization to be automated or controlled without user interaction with the Pontiac interface.
 

App List:

An App List is a list of mobile applications that can be targeted by a campaign. These can be Android or iOS applications and a custom list can be created in the ‘Inventory’ tab. If an App List is associated to a Line Item, this Line will only attempt to purchase ad space through the listed applications.

Artificial Intelligence (AI):

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the ability for a computer to process information about its environment and use that information to take actions that increase the likelihood of successfully achieving a goal. Pontiac’s AI uses information about ongoing campaign performance in order to bid highest on active, high-value users, and bid lower on users who have not displayed high-value web behavior.
 

ASAP Pacing:

ASAP Pacing is a feature found in the Line Item setup that will attempt to spend the campaign’s daily budget as quickly as possible. ASAP pacing will double the bid prices and focus on spending out the budget as opposed to optimizing towards the selected KPI. 
 

Attribution:

Attribution is the science of evaluating users that converted on your website and determining if the conversion originated from a specific advertisement that the user saw or clicked-on. Post-Click Attribution reports on users who click to reach the end result. Post-view attribution includes users who saw the ad, did not click on it, but later visited the site and converted. Pontiac reports on both types of attributions to help prove the effectiveness of your advertisements. 
 

Audience:

An Audience is any group of users defined by certain parameters that can be targeted and served your ads through the Pontiac platform. Also called ‘Segments’ an Audience can be made up of users who have visited your site previously, users in the same geographic location, users in a certain demographic, etc. 

Banner Ad:

A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of digital advertising entails embedding a static or animated image into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking to the website of the advertiser. 

Base Bid:

The ‘Base Bid’ that is set for a Line Item is the CPM (Cost per 1000 ads) at which the Line will enter an Auction. This is the default amount your campaign will bid on it’s first bid. If the closing price comes in below the base bid, the AI will bid the amount one cent more than the next highest bid.
 

Basic Setup:

‘Basic Setup’ is an option in the Line Item setup that will limit the configurable parameters for the campaign to simplify the process. Basic Setup is great for users who are new to programmatic advertising. 
 

Behavioral Targeting:

Behavioral targeting can be leveraged to serve your ad to an Audience of users who have demonstrated their specific interests or lifestyles through their web activity. For example, users who have been looking for jobs in entertainment, users in the market for school supplies, or users who use teeth-whitening strips.
 

Bid Data:

This is where you can control the CPM (Cost per 1000 ads) of the campaign. Pontiac users have full control of the value of a Line’s bids. Base Bid is the CPM in dollars at which your line will aim to bid, while Min and Max Bid allow you control over the upper and lower bounds of bid values.
 

Bidder:

A bidder is the component of a DSP that uses code and algorithms to receive bid requests and respond by placing bids on inventory during real-time bidding (RTB) auctions. 
 

Blocklist:

A ‘Block list’ is an anti-targeting tool that allows you to create a list of sites or apps that you would like your campaign to avoid. If a ‘Block list’ is associated to a Line Item, the Line will not purchase ad space on the listed applications or websites. 

Boolean Logic:

Boolean Logic is a form of algebra which is centered around three simple words known as Boolean Operators: “Or,” “And,” and “Not”. In the Pontiac platform, Boolean logic can be used to layer Audiences, to target users who fall into multiple groups 
 

Bounce Rate:

Bounce rate is a term used in web traffic analysis to represent the percentage of visitors who open a site and then immediately click away, rather than continuing to view other pages within the site. Bounce rate can be measured through third-party systems such as Google Analytics.

Budget by Impressions:

The budget of a campaign can be set in the Line Item setup by indicating the total number of impressions that you would like to serve in the lifetime of the Line.
 

Budget by Spend:

The budget of a campaign can be set in the Line Item setup by indicating the total dollar amount that you would like to spend in the lifetime of the Line.
 

Budget Multiplier:

This is built in as a pacing function to ensure campaigns stay on target. It allows the Pontiac AI to adjust the daily spend to either catch the campaign up to perfect pacing, or slow down spend to keep the campaign from spending out too early. The budget multiplier multiplies the budgeted amount by this number. For example with a $100 Budget and a 1.1 budget multiplier, the campaign will pace out to $110. 
 

Budget Type:

A Pontiac campaign can either be budgeted by spend in dollars or by number of impressions.
 

Campaign Count:

The ‘Campaign Count’ displayed in the Line Item Flight Metrics indicates the number of optimizations that have been made to the Line Item by the Pontiac Algorithm to date.
 

Campaigns:

In the quick metrics displayed next to the name of a Line Item in the ‘Advertiser’ tab, ‘Campaigns’ indicates the number of optimizations that have been made to the Line by the Pontiac Algorithm during the selected Reporting Interval.
 

Carrier:

‘Carrier’ is the mobile service provider of the user that was served an impression- ie. Verizon Wireless. Carrier is a dimension that can be included in Basic Custom Reports and Log Level Custom Reports. 
 

Click Through Rate (CTR):

The number of clicks divided by the number of impressions. This is the rate at which users interact with your ad.
 

Click Trigger (Conversion Pixel):

A conversion pixel configured with the ‘click’ trigger will only fire when a user clicks the ad and immediately completes a conversion. Only ‘post-click’ conversions will be registered by this pixel.
 

Click URL:

The link to the web page where a user will land if they click on an ad, also referred to as the ‘landing page’.
 

Click:

The action of selecting something in a computer interface by pressing a button on a control device (such as a mouse). A click on a Creative will take the user to the designated landing page.
 

Clone:

Clicking the ‘clone’ button will duplicate the Line Item. When a Line Item has not been used for 60 days, it will be archived. An archived Line Item can not be edited or activated, but it can be cloned. 
 

Co-branded White Label:

With the co-branded White Label, the platform will show the Pontiac Intelligence name and logo as well as your own. We will build you a version of the platform with its own login page, and a url that displays your company such as, yourcompanynamehere.pontiac.media, allowing you to provide access to the platform through a unique URL. Sub seats are a unique feature to our platform that allow your clients to obtain access to the platform to either run or view their campaigns in their own Pontiac seat.  Your parent account will have a screen that allows you to manage all accounts connected to the master seat.  Through this you can manage additional margin on the seats, view all spending on the seat, as well as move into the specific seat for a more in-depth view.
 

Connected Television (CTV):

Connected TV (CTV), also referred to as over-the-top (OTT), is a TV that can be connected to the internet. Ads can be placed on any TV or device that can be connected to the internet and access video streaming content beyond what is available via the normal offering from a cable provider. CTV ads include ads bought programmatically and shown on consoles, computer/mobile streaming, gaming devices, over-the-top (OTT), or Smart TVs.
 

Contextual Targeting:

Contextual targeting can be leveraged to target Audiences that are on websites looking at relevant content. For example, ‘Pets’ contextual advertising can be used to reach users who are currently consuming content related to pets, or ‘Women’s Fashion’ to serve to users browsing articles on that topic.
 

Conversion Pixel:

Conversion pixels are a line of code that when fired, allows for the tracking of an event on your webpage. These pixels are placed on pages where Pontiac Intelligence will ultimately try to drive users. Usually this is a purchase ‘Thank You’ page, and this pixel will fire whenever a user completes a transaction.  These can also be used to track micro conversions on your site such as, newsletter signups, meeting requests and more.
 

Conversion Report:

A Conversion report is a type of custom report that can be created to view data for conversions and attributed revenue generated by Pontiac campaigns.
 

Cookie:

When a web user is exposed to an ad unit, that ad unit will put a short line of code called a “cookie” on that user’s browser. Pontiac is then able to keep track of who has been exposed to the advertisement, to control frequency, remarket, and attribute conversions to these users. 

Cost per Acquisition (CPA)

Cost per acquisition or action is the cost of the campaign divided by the number of conversions the campaign has driven. (Acquisition/action are other terms for conversions)
 

Cost per Click (CPC)

Cost of campaign to date divided by the number of clicks the campaign has received. This is the average cost incurred to drive a user to the landing page. 
 

Cost per Install (CPI)

Cost of campaign to date divided by the number of app installs the campaign has driven.
 

Cost per Mille / Cost per thousand (CPM)

The cost of 1000 ads. (Cost per Mille, Latin meaning thousand). A commonly used measurement in advertisement, all inventory bought through Pontiac is on a CPM pricing model.
 

Country Code:

A Country Code is a 2 letter abbreviation used to identify a specific country when targeting a local postal code system using the Zip Code Custom Audience.
 

Created Date:

The ‘Created Date’ is the date on which the Line Item was created.
 

Creative:

A Creative is the advertisement unit that a web user sees on their webpage. This can be a banner ad, native ad, video ad, audio clip, or HTML5 that is designed to communicate a brand’s marketing message to the user that sees the advertisement. 
 

Creative Audience:

The ‘Creative Audience’ allows for dynamic retargeting of users who have received an ad previously run through Pontiac.  This audience collects User IDs, Device IDs or IP Addresses of users that have been served a Creative through Pontiac and follows the user around the internet to any page they visit, allowing us to re-target that user directly in subsequent campaigns.
 

Creative Audit:

The Creative Audit process is the method used to review Creatives and ensure that they comply with the Pontiac Intelligence Creative Acceptance Policy. All Creatives pass through two external audits conducted by Xandr/AppNexus & RiskIQ, the result of which will be reflected next to each Creative in the platform. In addition, Pontiac Intelligence conducts its own human and technological audit.
 

Creative Bulk Upload:

Creative Bulk Upload is a feature that allows a user to upload a large quantity of Creatives to an Advertiser in the Pontiac platform at one time, from a CSV file. All Creatives uploaded through this feature must be uploaded to the same Advertiser. This feature cannot be used to upload Creatives to multiple Advertisers.
 

Creative ID:

Each Creative unit uploaded to the Pontiac platform will be assigned an identification number that can be found next to the name of the Creative in the ‘Creatives’ section of the Advertiser.
 

Creative Type:

During the configuration of a Line Item, the ‘Creative Type’ can be either Standard, Video, Native, Audio, or CTV. Standard includes Banner, HTML5 and Ad Server Tag Banners. Video includes Hosted Video and Ad Server Tag Video.
 

CRM Data:

Custom Relationship Management (CRM) data refers to any customer data collected by a business and includes email addresses, names, phone numbers, etc.  
 

CSV File:

A comma-separated values file is a delimited text file that uses a comma to separate values. Each line of the file is a data record. Each record consists of one or more fields, separated by commas. CSV files can be used with most any spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft Excel or Google Spreadsheets.
 

Custom Audiences:

Custom Audiences are a feature in the Pontiac platform that allow Advertisers to target users using first-party data such as Zip Codes, Device IDs, Lat Long Coordinates etc.

Daily Frequency Cap:

The daily frequency cap controls the maximum number of times an individual can be served an ad in a single day. 
 

Daily Pacing:

Daily Pacing controls how the campaign will spend the daily budget throughout the course of a day. ‘Even’ pacing will spend the daily budget spaced out evenly throughout the day. ‘ASAP’ pacing will attempt to spend the daily budget as quickly as possible. This will double your bid price and may cause your Line to pace ahead of schedule. 
 

Data Management Platform (DMP):

A data management platform (DMP) is a system for integrating third-party data with first-party and applying this data to one’s advertising strategy. LiveRamp is a DMP that allows you to match CRM data with User IDs to target these users on the open web.
 

Day Parting:

Day Parting allows the Advertiser to select the times of day and days of the week they would like to serve an ad. The times will serve based on the user time zone (UTC). Campaigns will start serving 3 hours later to the west coast and continue 3 hours after the east coast has stopped for the day.
 

Deals:

These are private marketplace deals or ‘PMPs’ with pre-negotiated rates and inventory. Typically, these deals are made directly with a publisher to guarantee inventory at a certain floor CPM.
 

Demand Side Platform (DSP):

Programmatic advertising allows demand-side platforms (DSPs) to bid on advertising space made available by publishers in real time auctions. When a web page is loaded, the publisher’s SSP sends an ad call to DSPs. The DSP recognizes the ad call and replies with the amount that they would be willing to pay to advertise in that space. The SSPs then determine the winning bidder and award the highest bidding DSP the ad space. Pontiac Intelligence is a DSP platform.
 

Device ID:

A ‘Device ID’ is an advertising code assigned to each singular device. If a user has multiple devices (Mobile Phone, laptop, tablet, etc.) each one of these will have a unique device ID to target. 
 

Device Make:

Device Make refers to the manufacturer of the device, for example, Apple or Samsung. In Custom Reports, Device Make is a dimension that can be retrieved for impressions served.
 

Device Model:

Device manufacturers use a Device Model number as an identifying factor for the type of device. For example, an Iphone 7 would have a different model number from an Iphone 8.  In Custom Reports, Device Model is a dimension that can be retrieved for impressions served.
 

Device Type:

Device Type can be defined as Mobile, Desktop, or Tablet. In Standard and Custom reports, Device Type is a dimension that can be retrieved for impressions served.
 

Device Type Prefix:

The Device Type Prefix is a numerical value that must precede the Device ID in a Custom Device ID Audience to indicate the operating system of the Device. 
 

Designated Marketing Area (DMA)

A DMA region is a group of counties that form an exclusive geographic area in which the population receives the same TV or Radio offerings. There are 210 DMA regions in the United States. DMAs are identified by the largest city, which is usually located in the center of the market region. 
 

Dynamic Budget Multiplier

Pontiac offers a Dynamic Budget Multiplier option to automatically adjust the budget multiplier on your behalf based on the spending patterns that it detects. If the campaign is behind on pacing, the campaign will adjust the budget multiplier to increase the amount of budget that the campaign can spend that day.  This will adjust daily to keep the campaign on pace.
 

Dynamic Frequency:

The Dynamic Frequency function allows the platform to adjust frequency caps based on the campaign’s pacing. If a campaign is pacing behind, this will increase the number of times a user can be served an ad. If the campaign is pacing ahead, this will decrease the number of times a user can be served an ad.
 

Dynamic IP Address:

Internet protocol address (IP Address) is a numerical label assigned to each device that is connected to a single network.  This allows targeting of a network and all the devices that are connected to that network. A dynamic IP address is an IP address that is periodically reassigned. Most home networks are likely to have a dynamic IP address and do not represent the same user.
 

Estimated Daily Cost:

The Estimated Daily Cost is the estimated amount in dollars that the Line will spend each day. The platform will automatically calculate the Estimated Daily Cost for a campaign by using the lifetime budget, the bid data and the dates of the campaign. 
 

Estimated Daily Impressions:

The Estimated Daily Impressions is the estimated number of impressions that the Line will be able to serve each day. The platform will automatically calculate the Estimated Daily Impressions for a campaign by using the lifetime budget, the bid data and the dates of the campaign. 
 

Even Pacing:

Selecting ‘Even’ pacing in the Line Item setup will attempt to spend the campaign budget evenly throughout the day.
 

Exchange:

Ad exchanges, also known as supply-side platforms (SSPs), are used by publishers that want to sell ad spaces programmatically. When a person visits a publisher’s site, the SSP triggers an instantaneous auction that deconstructs the available ad spaces into a string of text called an HTTP call. This call is sent to bidders, or DSPs, which rapidly evaluate the value of the space on behalf of their advertisers and issue a bid.

Exchange ID:

Pontiac Intelligence assigns an identification number to each exchange or SSP through which a user can buy ad space. 
 

File Transfer Protocol (FTP):

The File Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used for the transfer of computer files between a client and server on a computer network. FTP is built on a client-server model architecture using separate control and data connections between the client and the server.
 

Frequency:

In the Pontiac platform the term frequency refers to the number of times that a single user has seen an advertisement.
 

GDPR:

The General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy in the European Union. It also addresses the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas.
 

HTML5 Ad:

An HTML5 Ad allows you to upload an interactive or animated ad by uploading an html file.
 

Hybrid Trigger (Conversion Pixel):

A ‘hybrid’ trigger will allow a conversion pixel to fire for both post-view and post-click conversions. 
 

iFrame:

An HTML iFrame tag is an inline frame used inside a webpage to load another mini browser window inside the current window. This prevents ad units from expanding beyond the indicated size.
 

Impressions:

The number of times your ad has been served to a user. 
 

Insertion Order (IO):

An insertion order is the agreed upon media plan that will govern managed service campaigns. This includes the CPM, budget, number of impressions, flight dates, site lists that will be used and any additional information necessary for the implementation of the campaign.
 

Instream Video:

Instream Video is the placement of a video ad before, during or after existing video content, by selecting ‘Pre-roll’, ‘Mid-roll’ or ‘Post-roll’ as the player type. While sometimes skippable, these video ads cannot typically be stopped.
 

Inventory:

Inventory refers to the advertisement spaces available for purchase on websites or in applications. The Pontiac ‘Inventory’ tab is where Site lists and App lists are housed. The predetermined lists are not exhaustive of Pontiac inventory, they are simply suggested sites in certain categories. 
 

IP Address:

Internet protocol address (IP Address) is a numerical label assigned to each device that is connected to a single network.  This allows targeting of a network and all the devices that are connected to that network. 
 

Keywords:

Keywords are words or phrases that define the content of a webpage. Keywords can be used to target certain websites based on their content, to serve your ads in a contextually relevant environment.
 

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

A key performance indicator or KPI is a metric used to evaluate the performance of a campaign. The Pontiac algorithm will optimize to the KPI chosen in the setup of a Line Item.
 

Last Opt Date:

Displayed in the Line Item Flight Metrics, ‘Last Opt Date’ indicates the last date on which the Pontiac algorithm made an optimization to a Line Item.
 

Lifetime Cost:

The Lifetime Cost of a Line Item is the total budget for the campaign. If the budget is set by impressions, the Lifetime Cost will be estimated based on the budgeted impressions and the bid data. 
 

Lifetime Frequency Cap:

During the configuration of a Line Item, this feature allows the Pontiac user to set a maximum number of times that they would like an individual user to see their ad in the entirety of the campaign or the ‘lifetime’ of the Line.
 

Lifetime Impressions:

During the configuration of a Line Item, this feature will display the total budget of the campaign if the user is budgeting by impressions. If the user is budgeting by spend, this feature will display an estimate of the number of impressions that will be served in the lifetime of this Line based on the budgeted spend, flight dates and bid data. 
 

Lifetime Report:

A Lifetime Report is a Custom Report that can be run for any date or date range in the lifetime of a Line or Advertiser. 
 

Line ID:

Each Line Item created in the Pontiac platform will be assigned an identification number that can be found next to the name of the Line in the ‘Advertiser’ tab.
 

Line Item:

The Line Item level represents a campaign that will run under an Advertiser. 
 

LiveRamp:

LiveRamp is a data management platform (DMP) that allows you to upload personally identifiable information (PII) that you have about your Audience and match this information with User IDs to create an Audience segment.
 

Loads:

Pixel loads indicate the number of times that a pixel has been triggered during the selected Reporting Interval. This is the number of times that a user has been on the page where the pixel is placed, causing the pixel to fire. 
 

Log Level Report:

Log Level reports make all of the relevant data available across every dimension for each and every individual impression served. 
 

Macros:

A macro is a line of placeholder code located in the HTML tag for third-party ad hosting services, which is filled in when the creative serves.
 

Malvertising:

Malvertising is the use of digital advertising for spreading malware, such as by having an ad link place a virus on a user’s computer. Risk IQ and AppNexus vet creatives before a campaign runs to ensure that advertisements are not malicious. Pontiac clients who upload ads deemed malicious will lose access to the platform and forfeit deposit funding.
 

Managed Service:

Pontiac Intelligence offers a managed service solution in which one of our experienced Account Managers can manage your campaigns for you. Your Account Manager will advise on campaign strategies, execute and optimize all line items, and provide weekly reporting and insights. Pricing is set on a flat rate CPM basis, and all pricing and terms are governed by a signed Media Plan and Terms & Conditions.
 

Max Bid:

The ‘Max Bid’ is the highest CPM that you are willing to pay for the specific campaign. Once an auction reaches this point, the system will stop bidding on that placement.
 

Measured Impressions:

‘Measured Impressions’ in the Line Item Flight Metrics is the number of View Measured Impressions. There are times when an impression cannot be measured for viewability. View Measured Impressions is the number of impressions served that the publisher confirmed were able to be measured for viewability.
 

Mid-Roll Video:

A video ad that is played in the middle of an existing streaming video. 
 

Min Bid:

The ‘Min Bid’ is the lowest CPM you are willing to target. This will keep the lower quality impressions from being targeted as the campaign will not try to serve the ad in spaces that are below a certain CPM threshold.
 

Native Ad:

A Native ad is an advertisement that matches the form and function of the webpage where it is published. Native Ads blend in with the page in such a way that they appear to be part of the surrounding editorial content. 
 

Net Terms:

Net Terms refers to the payment method in which an invoice is received at the end of the month for all media and associated costs incurred.
 

Onboarded Audience:

The Onboarded section of the ‘Audiences’ tab is a space to house external data pushed to the platform, that can then be associated to a campaign. These segments can be integrated using your CRM data through LiveRamp, they can be custom segments created in Grapeshot, Bombora or Onspot, or they can be segments provided by other Third-Party behavioral targeting companies such as Factual. 
 

Operating System:

An operating system is the software on which a potential ad viewer’s device runs. Pontiac offers the ability to decide whether or not ads target Android, Apple iOS, Apple Mac, and Microsoft Windows devices.
 

Opt:

In the breakdown of optimizations made to a Line Item, the optimization type ‘Opt’ indicates an update to a previous optimization.
 

Opt_Base:

In the breakdown of optimizations made to a Line Item, the optimization type ‘OPT_Base’ indicates the base campaign that all optimizations stem from.
 

Optimization Schedule:

Pontiac’s optimization algorithm operates on a schedule that you can control. On the selected days of the week, an optimization will make changes in the bid rate, budget, and allocation across Sellers, Sites, Geo’s, and Placement IDs. In order to allow the algorithm to learn effectively, we recommend optimizing only once per week to start.
 

Optimization:

The Pontiac Algorithm will make specific performance enhancement changes called optimizations. As the Line runs, the Pontiac optimization technology makes and records categories that are essentially sub-lines within a line. 100% of the budget for a Line gets distributed across the categories that the AI creates. The AI will consistently reevaluate the distributed budget percentage of each category depending on predicted performance.
 

Order_ID:

‘Order_ID’ is a string query macro that allows the platform to track the exact order ID number of a transaction generated from a Pontiac ad.
 

Outstream Video:

Outstream video is mobile-specific and the video ad is placed in non-video environments among other content.
 

Pacing:

The is a measure of the total spend to date, compared to what the spend would be with perfect pacing. This percentage indicates how the Line is actually spending compared to how it was budgeted to spend. 
 

Performance:

In the Line Item Flight Metrics, ‘Performance’ will display the Line Item KPI. If the Line is optimizing to CTR, then Performance will display the average CTR for the Line to date. 
 

Personally identifiable information (PII):

Information the real-world identity of a data subject to be determined. To maintain strict privacy standards Pontiac Intelligence does not receive or view any PII gathered or utilized by Pontiac users. If a Pontiac user utilizes PII through LiveRamp, this data will be entered and anonymized by the Pontiac user directly, using their own LiveRamp credentials. 
 

Pixel:

Pixels are small pieces of HTML code which are placed on webpages to track users online. Pontiac Intelligence provides the capability to create Segment pixels and Conversion pixels. 
 

Player Size:

For Video advertisements a player size of small, medium or large can be selected in the Targeting menu. These sizes are publisher defined and do not have exact specifications.
 

PMP:

Private Marketplace, or PMP, refers to a digital marketplace where advertising is bought and sold programmatically between exclusive parties. These deals are made with publishers with pre-negotiated rates and inventory.
 

Political Disclosure:

If an advertisement is of political nature, the Advertiser must include a disclosure that includes the information of both the Pontiac user and the political organization funding the advertisement. 
 

Post Click Expiration Days:

The number of days between a user clicking on an ad and the user completing a conversion for the transaction to be counted as a valid post-click conversion attributable to the Pontiac ad. This is the ‘attribution window’ for post-click conversions.
 

Post View Expiration Days:

The number of days between a user viewing the ad and then completing a conversion for a transaction to be counted as a valid post-view conversion attributable to the Pontiac ad. This is the ‘attribution window’ for post-view conversions.
 

Post-Click Conversion:

A user that clicked on an ad served through Pontiac and then completed a transaction within the ‘post-click’ expiration window as defined during the configuration of the conversion pixel.
 

Post-Click Revenue:

The revenue that was generated by a user that clicked on an ad served through Pontiac and then completed a transaction within the ‘post-click’ expiration window. This is revenue attributable to a certain ad served on Pontiac generated by post-click conversions that are tracked with a Pontiac conversion pixel.
 

Post-Roll Video:

A video ad that is played after existing streaming video content. 
 

Post-View Conversion

A Post-View Conversion is generated by a user that viewed an ad served through Pontiac, and later completed a transaction within the ‘post-view’ expiration window as defined during the configuration of the conversion pixel.
 

Post-View Revenue:

Post-View Revenue is the revenue generated by a user that viewed an ad served through Pontiac, and later completed a transaction within the ‘post-view’ expiration window. This is revenue attributable to a certain ad served on Pontiac generated by post-view conversions that are tracked with a Pontiac conversion pixel.
 

Pre-Roll Video:

A video ad that is played before existing streaming video content. 
 

Programmatic Advertising:

Programmatic Advertising is the use of software to purchase advertising space, as opposed to traditional processes that use human negotiations between a single advertiser and a single publisher.
 

Prospecting:

Prospecting is an online marketing strategy that serves advertisements to individuals across the open web. Although it does not get high levels of engagement compared with remarketing, which serves specifically to individuals who have already expressed interest by visiting the site, it allows you to acquire visitors who have not yet heard about your product or service.
 

Raw HTML:

Raw HTML is a code format that can be used in the Pontiac platform for the code of a Creative hosted on a third-party ad server.  
 

Raw-js:

Raw-js indicates Raw Javascript and is a format that can be used to enter the code for a Third-Party tracking pixel.
 

Reach

Reach is a key performance indicator (KPI), that when selected will optimize the campaign to serve out the budgeted impressions. 
 

Real Time Bidding (RTB)

Programmatic advertising allows “bidders,” also known as demand-side platforms (DSPs) to bid on advertising space made available by publishers in real time. When a web page is loaded, it’s SSP sends an ad call to bidders. Bidders recognize the ad call and reply with the amount that they would be willing to pay to advertise in that space. The SSPs then determine the winning bidder and award the highest bidding DSP the ad space.
 

Remarketing:

Remarketing is an online marketing strategy that serves advertisements to individuals who have visited a specific website or webpage. It is a technique that tends to see far higher engagement rates than any other, as it serves ads to people who have already shown interest by visiting the webpage. By placing a small piece of code, a segment pixel, on the web page and Advertiser can track visitors and add them to an Audience segment so that digital campaigns can target them across the open Internet.
 

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS):

Return on Ad Spend is a metric measuring the profit generated by an advertising campaign as a multiple of spend. It can be calculated by dividing the profit from a campaign by the amount of money spent on it.
 

Return on Investment (ROI):

Return on investment is a ratio between net profit and cost of investment. ROI is a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment. A positive ROI indicates that the investment will generate profit. The higher the ROI, the more efficient the investment in comparison to the cost. 
 

RON

Run of Network, refers to all of the inventory that is available through a network. 
 

Seat ID:

Every account that is created on the Pontiac platform will have an account number or ‘Seat ID’. The welcome email that you received with your login credentials will contain your Seat ID. You can also find your Seat ID along the bottom bar of the platform in blue text, next to ‘Contact Us’.
 

Segment:

A segment refers to a pool of users, or an Audience. 
 

Segment Group:

When Audiences are associated to a Line Item, they can be layered in groups using Boolean Logic. 
 

Segment Pixel (Remarketing Pixel):

A segment pixel is an HTML code placed on the Advertiser’s website to collect the User ID of the individuals that visit the page where they are placed. These User IDs are collected in an audience in the platform that you can then target in remarketing campaigns.
 

Self Service:

The Pontiac platform is a simple, straightforward interface designed for all users, including those new to programmatic advertising. If you choose to activate and manage your own campaigns through the self-service model, you will have full control of all aspects of your campaigns and you will be assigned an Account Manager who can answer any questions along the way. 
 

Sensitive Creative:

A ‘Sensitive Creative’ is an ad unit that has been flagged by the audit process as containing content in certain categories that publishers have deemed ‘sensitive’. Many publishers block these types of content. Sensitive Creatives will be limited to exchanges that permit these types of content.
 

Site List:

A site list is a list of top level web domains that can be targeted by a campaign. If you associate a site list to a Line Item, this campaign will only serve on these websites. A site list  can also be implemented as a ‘blacklist’ of websites that your campaign will ‘anti-target’. If you associate a blacklist to Line Item, this campaign will not serve on these websites.
 

Spend:

‘Spend’ is a metric that will display the dollar amount that has been spent by a Line or Advertiser within the selected Reporting Interval.
 

Standard Creative Type:

In the setup process for a Line Item, there is a field to select the ‘Creative Type’. The ‘Standard’ Creative Type is used for Banner ads, HTML5 ads, and Ad Server Tag Banners.
 

Static IP Address:

Internet protocol address (IP Address) is a numerical label assigned to each device that is connected to a single network.  This allows targeting of a network and all the devices that are connected to that network. A Static IP Address is an IP Address that is not reassigned periodically, but will always be assigned to the same device. 
 

Stripe Daily:

This payment method will charge your credit card each morning for the costs incurred the previous day.  To utilize Stripe Daily, you must have 30 days of proven spend within the platform. Once this criterion is met, send a request to your Account Manager. Each request is evaluated on a case by case basis. 
 

Supply Type:

There are four supply types that can be purchased through the Pontiac platform: Web, Mobile Web, In-App and Connected TV. These supply types represent the environment in which the advertisement will be published.
 

Targeting:

Targeting is a digital advertising strategy that utilizes data to reach certain populations or audiences most likely to engage with the ad or complete a transaction. 
 

Third-Party Audience:

Third-Party Audiences are segments that contain users in categories based on their internet history, demographic etc, that have been created from data collected by external providers. These segments can be targeted in Pontiac at an additional CPM. 
 

Third-Party Pixel:

A Third-Party Pixel is a tracker provided by a third-party such as Doubleclick, that can be used to track certain aspects of a campaign, such as impressions and clicks.
 

Timestamp:

The date and time that a specific event, such as an impression, occurred. The Pontiac Timestamp format is in seconds since epoch. Epoch is January 1st, 1970. To convert the timestamp to a date and time, use this link: currentmillis.com. Add three 0s at the end of the timestamp to convert it from seconds to milliseconds and enter it in the box ‘convert milliseconds’. In the box below ‘convert milliseconds’ you will see ‘UTC time and date’. This will give you the date and time that an impression was served in UTC. For example, the timestamp ‘1609949531’ would be entered as ‘1609949531000’ and converted to Wed Jan 06 2021 16:12:11 in UTC. Use the ‘User Timezone Offset’ to convert this date and time to the date and time in the User’s timezone. 
 

Touch Remarketing:

Touch Remarketing refers to a digital marketing strategy through which users who have viewed an advertisement are added to a remarketing pool and can be targeted in subsequent campaigns. This strategy requires associating a remarketing or ‘segment’ pixel into the Creative, or creating a Custom ‘Creative’ Audience prior to the campaign serving. 
 

Tracker:

A ‘Tracker’ or ‘Third-Party Pixel’ is a code provided by a third-party such as Doubleclick, that can be used to track certain aspects of a campaign, such as impressions and clicks.
 

URL-html:

A code format for a Third-Party Tracker, you can enter a URL for the tracker and this will return the response in html. This allows advertisers to collect data and real time stats about the ad being served through an external provider.
 

URL-image:

A code format for a Third-Party Tracker, you can enter a URL for the tracker and this will return the response in the form of a transparent 1×1 image. This allows advertisers to collect data and real time stats about the ad being served through an external provider.
 

URL-js:

A code format for a Third-Party Tracker, you can enter a URL for the tracker and this will return the response in javascript. This allows advertisers to collect data and real time stats about the ad being served through an external provider.
 

User:

The person browsing the web who will be served an ad.
 

User ID:

User IDs are unique identification codes issued to a specific person.  A User ID can connect to all of the devices used by the specific user. 
 

User Timezone Offset:

In a Log Level report, the User Timezone Offset dimension can be used to interpret the timestamp to determine the time the ad was served in the user’s time zone. If the timestamp is Wed Jan 06 2021 16:12:11 and the user timezone offset is -5, this can be interpreted to mean that the impression was served Wed Jan 06 2021 at 11:12:11 in the user’s time. 
See Timestamp to interpret Pontiac timestamps.
 

Video Completion Rate:

Video Completion Rate is a metric that measures the percentage of users who were served a video and viewed the entire video.
 

Video Context:

Video Context refers to whether a video was served in a ‘Pre Roll’, ‘Mid Roll’, ‘Post Roll’ or ‘Outstream’ environment. This information can be found in a Custom ‘Video Events’ Report. 
 

Video Events Report:

A Video Events Report is a type of custom report that can be created for video campaigns to include video completion rates, video context and other metrics/dimensions that are specific to video campaigns.
 

Video Quartiles:

To measure video completion, a series of pixels fire at each quartile of the video as it is played. These pixels indicate the percentage of a video that has been played or viewed by the user, firing at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% completion.
 

View Confirmed Impressions:

View confirmed impressions are the impressions that have been served, measured for viewability, and confirmed to have displayed at least 50% of the pixels in-view for 1 second or more.
 

View Measured Impressions:

There are times when an impression cannot be measured for viewability. View Measured Impressions is the number of impressions served that the publisher confirmed were able to be measured for viewability.
 

View Trigger (Conversion Pixel):

A conversion pixel configured with the ‘view’ trigger will only fire when a user views the ad and later completes a conversion. A ‘view’ trigger will also count for users that click, do not immediately convert, but return to the domain and convert at a later time. Only ‘post-view’ conversions will be registered by this pixel. 
 

Viewability Threshold:

The platform will determine how likely an impression is to be viewable through pre-bidding technology, and only bid on spaces above the set threshold. Per IAB guideLines, an ad is considered viewable if 50% of the pixels are in-view for 1 second or more.
 

Viewable Click Through Rate (vCTR):

Viewable Click-Through Rate (vCTR) is a KPI that is used to drive clicks using information about an ad’s viewability. It optimizes to serve ads to those who are both most likely to view the ad and click on it when they do. As a performance measure this is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of viewable impressions (whereas regular CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the total number of impressions). 
 

Viewable Impressions:

Viewable impressions is the number of times that an advertisement was published and registered as viewable. This means that 50% of the pixels were in view for at least 1 second.
 

Web Browser:

A web browser is a software application for accessing information on the World Wide Web. When ‘Web Browser’ is selected as a dimension in a Custom Report, the report will include the web browser the user was using when they were served your ad. For example, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer etc.
 

White Label:

Pontiac Intelligence offers the platform in a skinned version that can be customized to display your logo and color scheme on the user interface.  This version of the platform provides you with all the features of Pontiac, as well as the additional sub seat feature.  This feature allows your master account to link many sub seats to your account, giving you access into each sub seat, and the ability for each of your clients to set up their own payment method with a customizable margin.
 

Whitelist:

A ‘White list’ is a site list that is being targeted by a Line Item. If you associate a site list to a Line Item as a white list, this campaign will only serve on these websites. 
 

Zip Code:

A ZIP Code is a postal code used by the United States Postal Service. The basic format consists of five digits. Zip codes can be used to target specific geographic areas. 

2 min frequency:

This is a feature in the Line Item setup that will only allow ads to serve once every 2 minutes to an individual user. This is a safeguard to avoid publishing an ad to an individual user twice on the same page.
 

% Budget:

For each optimization made to the campaign a % of the budget will be shown that is allocated to this change.