What Is Account Based Marketing?

A growing number of B2B marketers are embracing account-based marketing (ABM) as part of their overall marketing efforts. ABM perfectly complements the traditional, short-term marketing goal of generating leads with efforts aimed at driving long-term revenue growth.

What is account based marketing?

In its simplest form, ABM is a strategy that directs marketing resources to engaging a specific set of target accounts. ABM doesn’t just call for alignment between sales and marketing teams – it forces teams to align because personalization at the account level requires sales and marketing to be in sync on account-specific messaging. The motivation? Higher revenues in a shorter time frame.

Instead of casting a wide net with their lead-generation efforts, marketers using ABM work closely with sales to identify key prospects and then tailor customized programs and messages to the buying team within target accounts.

Why would you want to practice ABM?

Even as buying circles are growing, marketing teams are feeling more pressure to directly impact revenue growth. It’s a core reason that the ABM approach is seeing significant uptake. ABM focuses you on relationships in your highest opportunity, highest-value accounts.

For instance, assume you sell an expensive SaaS product or consulting service. Rather than take a blanket approach – going after small businesses, SMBs, and enterprises – you might start by focusing on those accounts that have the highest need and the required budget.

By combining efforts and resources, marketing and sales can more efficiently engage and convert accounts. In fact, they gain the luxury of slowing down to develop a thoughtful approach that boosts the odds of driving engagement.

That well-considered approach matters at a time when buyers are increasingly insistent on outreach tailored to their business and even their personal interests within the business. ABM requires that marketing and sales engage each person on the buying team in a personalized way. A personalized approach is essential when aiming marketing and sales efforts at a few select, high-value accounts.  

Personalize well and buyers are more open to your outreach and less likely to ignore your content and communications.

Who does ABM benefit and how?

Some say ABM is most effective for B2B companies that sell to a few large key accounts or accounts of a certain size in a specific industry. Others argue that ABM can work for B2B organizations of any size, as long as the focus is on high-value accounts.

At a more granular level, ABM is a win-win-win for sales, marketing, and customers.

ABM perfectly complements the account-based approach sales teams have embraced for years. With the dedicated involvement of marketing, sales teams can better personalize their outreach. Nurturing targeted members of the buying committee with appropriate marketing messages tends to speed up the sales process, allowing sales to achieve better close rates while closing bigger deals faster.

Marketing benefits because sales sees the marketing team as a trusted ally on a strategic mission. Rather than deliver leads that languish, marketing works in tandem with sales on a defined list that both teams agree make the most promising targets. In fact, 84 percent of businesses using ABM say it delivers higher ROI than other marketing campaigns.

A valuable by-product is that ABM enriches the marketing team with a much deeper understanding of the company’s overall target audience. Marketing can apply their insight into what content and messages resonate to amp up the results of their other efforts.

Customers also benefit from ABM in the form of a better experience. Buyers prefer personalized interactions, and ABM delivers just that. Serving targeted content and messages that resonate takes up-front work, and customers will recognize and appreciate this – and the fact that you don’t waste their time with ones that are off the mark.

How to align sales and marketing around an ABM strategy

Getting sales and marketing working as a cohesive account team is the ultimate secret to success. Without that alignment, your target accounts will suffer through a fragmented experience as marketing and sales trip over each other, rather than pave the way for each other to effectively engage with key decision makers.

Success starts with clear communication between your sales reps and marketers, and continues as both groups execute their part of the strategy throughout the buyer journey. Agreeing from the get-go on the ultimate goal of the ABM program helps marketing and sales get in sync and figure out the most fitting target accounts and the best strategy for reaching and engaging them.

While the top objective is to land new accounts or expand business with existing ones, marketing and sales should define smaller goals that align to the bigger goals. These stepwise goals can include:

• Pinpointing a higher number of decision makers within each account
• Securing a greater number of senior-level appointments/meetings
• Accelerating the sales cycle
• Encouraging higher customer loyalty or reducing churn
• Closing a higher percentage of large deals
• Boosting revenues within existing accounts

Creating an account based marketing strategy

When marketing and sales share a similar mindset – how to target and land accounts – they can collaborate around a common goal. The first step is co-developing an ABM strategy so sales and marketing can work together as parts of a joint “account team.”

At a high level, this means marketing focuses its budget on the accounts that sales deems most important. Sales and marketing agree on common goals, messaging and content, how to execute, and metrics to evaluate success. Let’s walk through the core steps of developing an ABM strategy.

Step 1: Identify high-value accounts

Analyze your existing customer base to identify the ones that fit your definition of an ideal customer. While this definition can vary based on nuances such as industry and other overarching descriptors, it often boils down to the most profitable, long-term, happy customers who are a pleasure to work with. In other words, they’re a strong fit for your company, enjoy success with your solutions, and deliver the biggest lifetime value.

Keep an eye out for the existing accounts that have shown openness to expanding their footprint with your company, along with new accounts that satisfy your strategic criteria. For new accounts, you might answer the question “Does this account have an urgent need we can address and that would compel it to spend $X amount?”

Step 2: Map individuals to accounts

In any B2B deal involving a significant purchase, your marketing and sales teams will need to help drive consensus among the key stakeholders. Your first step is identifying those who can wield influence on the final buying decision. These are the committee members you need to engage and persuade to take action.

For example, let’s say a company selling marketing software is identifying key decision-making roles within select accounts. The list of individuals might include the CMO, digital marketing managers, CIO, and CFO.

Just remember: Individual contacts are important, but in the context of the entire account. In other words, you need to connect the concerns and needs of each person on the buying committee back to the strategic objective of their company. Your main goal when engaging each stakeholder is to help drive consensus for a purchase decision.

Step 3: Define and create targeted campaigns

Once you’ve chosen your target accounts and individuals, you need to develop personalized campaigns designed to resonate with them. Keep in mind that building and nurturing relationships is central to a successful ABM program. You’re most likely to succeed by providing valuable consultation and education, all mapped to the account’s buying cycle.

It starts by aligning your messages and content with the interests, needs, and challenges of each account and key stakeholder. Ideally, you should develop a unique value proposition and relevant content for each stakeholder that influences a buying decision.

Bake ample thought leadership content into your content plan:

1. Understand what stakeholders believe. Start with research into the existing state of the conversation, so you can meet your reader where they are.
2. Develop and articulate a well-informed point of view. Make a strong case for your position, and make it clear that you have the authority to take a definitive stand.
3. Frame your story in terms of value delivered. Back up your viewpoint with real-world examples that demonstrate your ideas in action.

If your messages and content are on point, buying committee members might share it with their colleagues. Truly personalize the message for each individual within an account. Doing so, you instill confidence in your company as a trusted advisor and partner that has done its homework and is providing useful information and guidance.

Step 4: Pinpoint optimal channels

To reach your target accounts and the key stakeholders, figure out which channels they use most to research trends and solutions. This may vary by role or even industry, so don’t assume you can apply a one-size-fits-all approach here.

Step 5: Develop a strategic playbook

To clarify roles and responsibilities, put together a playbook that outlines who does what and when. Specify the tactics that both marketing and sales will use to engage contacts within accounts and drive interest and action. Give this meaning by designing a campaign cadence that maps each communication/outreach with the appropriate channel and message or content.

Step 6: Execute your campaigns

Marketing and sales engage with accounts on an individual level using a personalized strategy that makes sense for each contact. Campaigns can include an array of tactics, including email, special events, direct mail, ads, and more. Since relationships drive ABM strategy, use that to guide your outreach.

For example, maybe a specific team member reaches out because they went to the same college or share the most professional connections with the contact. That team member can then make introductions to the team member who owns the account.

Step 7: Measure and optimize

Measuring ABM results is different than measuring the impact of standard lead-generation tactics. Marketing and sales are jointly accountable for driving pipeline and revenue when it comes to ABM. You care about moving accounts – not individuals – through the purchase process.

In addition to tracking account engagement, tally opportunities created, along with closed-won deals and their value. Give your teams enough time to generate results – in line with the typical purchase cycle – and then adjust your strategy and tactics as necessary.

Types of account based marketing

ITSMA is widely credited with pioneering the ABM approach in the 2000s. Along the way, it has identified three ABM approaches companies take: strategic, lite, and programmatic.

Strategic ABM

This approach is executed on a one-to-one basis, typically for highly strategic accounts. Relationship-building is a core focus of strategic ABM. As a result, this approach relies heavily on personalized marketing campaigns that demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the target account.

ABM Lite

The ABM Lite approach makes it possible to pursue ABM at scale. In this version, the focus is lightly personalized/customized campaigns aimed at a small group of like accounts. For instance, accounts of a similar size facing comparable challenges and pursuing analogous initiatives might get the same messaging and creative.

Programmatic ABM

You could say programmatic ABM combines strategic and lite ABM by calling upon the latest technologies to tailor marketing campaigns for target accounts at scale. Usually this approach goes hand in hand with a focus on a certain horizontal or vertical segment.  

You might find it makes sense to use just one approach or a mix depending on your business and the sophistication of your ABM program.

Account based marketing vs. inbound marketing

Some marketers wonder whether they should dedicate their resources to ABM or inbound marketing. But it’s not an either-or decision. Both are core practices in the modern marketing toolbox. And they actually complement one another.

While you are engaging individuals within target accounts with personalized content and interactions through outbound methods, you can reinforce your messages with your online presence calling upon best practices for inbound marketing. In other words, you are trying to attract your target accounts through helpful, relevant content. You may even gain a new target account through your inbound marketing efforts – one that perfectly fits your definition of an ideal customer but was overlooked as you pulled together your target list.

Since your inbound success depends on your content being found online, you need to develop your content with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. Many B2B organizations also find it effective to amplify their content reach using online ads.

Account based advertising

With account-based advertising, you proactively choose who should see your display ads. To that end, every account-based marketer can take advantage of LinkedIn Account Targeting. After you upload a list of your target companies, Account Targeting matches them against the 13+ million Company Pages on LinkedIn.

At scale, you can get in front of key stakeholders across target accounts with ads tailored to their role and stage of the buying cycle. For your initial outreach, you can use LinkedIn Sponsored Content campaigns to display relevant content to a select audience segment. Then through Sponsored InMail, you might directly reach out with a short message from a sales rep with a personalized offer.

While you can reach any stakeholder using account-based advertising, it’s especially valuable for engaging the decision makers who aren’t actively conducting purchase research for the solution in question. Think the CFO or Procurement Officer. Account-based advertising is a relatively inexpensive way to expand your reach within your target accounts.

In a pilot of LinkedIn Matched Audience campaigns, marketers saw an average 32 percent increase in post-click conversion rates and 4.7 percent drop in post-click cost-per-conversion.

Common barriers to ABM success

While it takes a concerted effort and up-front work to launch an ABM program, success is within reach for every B2B organization. So why do some companies struggle to unlock their full revenue potential via ABM?

Failure to align on the right target accounts

It’s a given that if marketing and sales don’t agree on the same target accounts, all the promise of ABM goes out the window. ABM works largely because of the combined power of marketing and sales hyper-focused on the accounts with the highest potential. Fail to get in line on this foundational element of your ABM program and all your other program tactics will be for nothing.

Lack of accurate shared data

Calling upon a shared source of data about target accounts goes hand in hand with identifying the right target accounts. According to InsideView, 43% ranked lack of accurate/shared data on target accounts is the top challenge to sales and marketing alignment. If marketing is turning to its marketing automation system of record while sales consults CRM to pinpoint target accounts, it’s no surprise the two groups are out of sync.

Check out our recent post for ways you can align around your target audience and knock down these barriers to success.

Unrealistic expectations

If you’re hoping your ABM program will transform the buying cycle and your revenues overnight, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Rather than expect miracles, set realistic goals. Until you smooth out all the wrinkles and your ABM program kicks into high gear, you’re far more likely to see incremental improvements rather than mind-blowing results. As long as you maintain an upward trajectory, you’re on the right track.

Examples of account based marketing in action

A number of new tools and technologies on the market have made ABM more practical by enabling marketers to deliver targeted messages with improved precision. As we previously mentioned, LinkedIn has a targeting capability that helps support ABM: LinkedIn Account Targeting.  

LinkedIn Account Targeting enables marketers to engage the accounts that matter most to their business by tailoring their LinkedIn Sponsored Content and LinkedIn Sponsored InMail campaigns to a list of top priority accounts, and then layering profile-based targeting, such as job function or seniority, to put their content in front of the right people in a particular organization.

If you’re looking for more inspiration, look no further than these examples of marketers who have used LinkedIn to drive ABM success.

Genesys uses ABM to drive 60% of net-new leads

When the Genesys digital marketing team needed a solution to underpin their newly launched ABM program, it chose LinkedIn. As Bhavisha Oza, Director of Digital Marketing for Genesys, says, “LinkedIn, with its massive professional network, was unique, as it offered an ABM program targeting IT and support functions, our core buyer personas.”

Using LinkedIn’s highly accurate account targeting capabilities and LinkedIn Sponsored Content, the team ran campaigns that put their brand in front of the target audience. Thanks to a combination of targeting and optimization, the team’s ABM efforts have yielded encouraging results, with 60 percent of all leads generated being marketing-captured, or net-new leads.

ServiceNow captures 100% of form fills using ABM

In support of its ABM strategy, ServiceNow used LinkedIn’s targeting capabilities to deliver content to niche decision makers within select accounts. “We haven’t seen any other solution that is able to give us that level of targeting,” says Suma Warrier, Manager of Customer Acquisition and Personalization for ServiceNow. Once it noticed a high percentage of LinkedIn traffic was coming via mobile, ServiceNow integrated Lead Gen Forms into its campaigns. The company saw stellar outcomes, including a nearly 100% improvement in form fills by using Lead Gen Forms.

SalesLoft reduces cost-per-conversion by nearly 50% with ABM

Every quarter, SalesLoft’s marketing and leaders agree on account list tiers. Then the company uses account targeting and contact targeting to run ABM campaigns designed to engage decision makers at the prioritized accounts. By using ABM and LinkedIn to connect with prospects on a deeper level, SalesLoft has cut its cost-per-conversion (CPC) nearly in half.

Spigit converts a higher percentage of leads into revenue with ABM

While a lower CPC is cause for celebration, the real proof of success is revenue generation. Spigit used LinkedIn’s targeting capabilities and LinkedIn Sponsored Content to run a series of ABM campaigns. The results far exceeded LinkedIn’s benchmarks, with an overall lifetime click-through rate (CTR) of 0.517%, with an engagement rate of 0.567%. According to Lin Ling, Growth Marketer at Spigit, “LinkedIn has been, by far, the best channel for generating quality leads that convert, helping us exceed our revenue goals and achieve 7X ROI.”

10 Marketing experts define account based marketing

Marketers can learn how to bolster their ABM efforts – or implement a new program – by studying other marketers who are ABM leaders. We asked 10 ABM experts to share their definitions of account-based marketing, which can provide some insight of how they put it into practice. Share their words of wisdom with your colleagues should you need to inspire them to get on board with ABM.

Account based marketing is more targeted and personalized versus spray and pray, where you’re just trying to capture anyone in your net. You’re being very specific about who you want to talk with, and it’s a way for sales and marketing to align on the target.

                            -- Meagen Eisenberg, CMO, MongoDB

In its purest form, account based marketing has been around forever. Account based marketing is simply instead of fishing with nets, we’re fishing with spears. You identify exactly the prospects you want to do business with and then you market very precisely and narrowly to them directly. I think we have a renewed interest in ABM now, because there’s an advancement in tools and technology that make it a little easier to execute – but the idea of doing target account selling and target account marketing is not new.

                            -- Matt Heinz, President, Heinz Marketing

Our definition of account-based marketing is just good marketing. If you only had one prospect to sell and market to, you would treat them with the same principles as outlined in ABM. It’s just aiming at a more well-defined area of that funnel, and treating your best buyers in a much more personal way. And we’re focusing on not only the lead but the account as a whole.

                            -- Justin Gray, CMO, LeadMD

To break down walls between sales and marketing, ABM is pretty close to a silver bullet in that it aligns programs’ dollars and focus behind the accounts that the sales teams cares about. So there's inherent buy-in. That said, ABM is only as good as your visibility into your highest potential accounts and best-fit customer segments, which gets clearer over time. So it’s most effective when deployed as part of a comprehensive set of targeting strategies.

                            -- Dave Karel, Principal, OutLeap Marketing 

Account-based marketing is thinking of the account as a market of one. It’s about being laser-focused on their needs and deploying the most effective marketing tactics available to nurture value-added, pervasive conversations with key stakeholders. This is the place where marketing and sales are at their closest, brought together by common goals and a crystal clear understanding of what success looks like.

                            -- Nick Panayi, VP, Global Brand, Digital Marketing & Demand Generation, DXC Technology

I define account-based marketing as total marketing and sales alignment around who are target customers and the efforts to go get them. They align with the same outcome in mind: to get a specific account as a customer.

                            -- Dave Rigotti, VP of Marketing, Bizible

ABM to me and to CSC is treating a single account as a market of one, and within that marketing of one we’re looking to customize our marketing activities and message in close collaboration with our sales team – and not just down to a buying center or persona but right down to the individual.

            -- Dorothea Gosling, Director, Marketing Programs, Pursuits & ABM, DXC Technology

Account Based Marketing is a strategic approach that coordinates personalized marketing and sales efforts to open doors and deepen engagement at specific accounts.

                            -- Jon Miller, CEO and Co-Founder, Engagio

Instead of leveraging a set of broad-reaching programs designed to touch the largest possible number of prospective customers, an ABM strategy focuses marketing and sales resources on a defined set of targeted accounts and employs personalized campaigns designed to resonate with each individual account. With ABM, your marketing message is based on the attributes and needs of the account you’re targeting.

                            -- David Cain, CMO, PlanGrid

Account based marketing is focused B2B Smarketing. I say “Smarketing” because ABM is all about focusing on the right accounts in collaboration with sales. ABM is not a solo activity. It's the combination and range of activities from advertising, direct mail, calls, emails, content — all centered around the ideal set of accounts that you believe has the need for your solution. It's quality over quantity in its most basic form.

                            -- Sangram Vajre, Co-Founder and Chief Evangalist, Terminus

#LikeAGirl | Always

Always: Like A Girl

Consistently labeled one of the most influential examples of great marketing from the past decade, the inspiring #LikeAGirl campaign for Always kicked off in 2013 with the help of Leo Burnett Chicago and Holler.

Faced with the challenging task of making a feminine-hygiene brand popular in the eyes of its young female audience, the realization that the brand had lost relevance with 16 to 24 year-olds urged them to try something different.

Based on their research, the team found that over half of girls quit sports at puberty as a result of a crisis in confidence.

Using these insights, Always set out to appeal to its younger audience, harnessing social media to reverse the widespread perception of the term ‘like a girl’ in an empowering way, embarking on an “epic battle to stop the drop in confidence girls experience at puberty”, encouraging them to ‘Keep Playing #LikeAGirl.’ Judy John, Chief Executive Officer/Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett Canada says:

“We set out to champion the girls who were the future of the brand,”

In 2014, Always launched a new leg of its epic battle to make sure that girls everywhere keep their confidence through puberty and beyond by tackling the societal limitations that stand in their way. Since then, #LikeAGirl has gone from a simple phrase to a powerful and empowering movement.

Using #LikeAGirl as an insult is a hard knock against any adolescent girl. And since the rest of puberty's really no picnic either, it's easy to see what a huge impact it can have on a girl's self-confidence. Always wanted to show that doing things #LikeAGirl is amazing!

Do we limit girls and tell them what they should or shouldn’t be? Do we box them into expected roles? Well, Always asked, and the answer was shocking: 72% of girls do feel society limits them. Always’ mission is to empower girls everywhere by encouraging them to smash limitations and be Unstoppable #LikeAGirl.

Playing princess, getting their nails done, dancing in bunny ears – is this a true representation of all the things that girls do? 

That’s the question Always asked a few years ago when taking a critical look at how girls were portrayed in emojis.

A picture is worth a thousand words and Always wanted to empower girls to show that they can do anything.

7 out of 10 girls feel they don’t belong in sports. And as they’re pressured to conform to societal expectations, it’s no wonder that at puberty girls’ confidence plummets and half quit sports. Yet sports are exactly what help girls stay confident! Always wants to keep them playing #LikeAGirl and is inviting everybody to join in to rewrite the rules.

 

At puberty, 50% of girls feel paralyzed by the fear of failure, with a majority of girls feeling that societal pressure to be perfect drives this fear of failure.

This leads to girls avoiding trying new things because they’re too afraid to fail. But the truth is, failing is a good thing!

It helps us learn, grow and ultimately build confidence. Let’s keep her going #LikeAGirl!

Targeting Strategies : The Devil is in the details

Performance-based marketing is affiliate marketing, which pays Internet publishers (affiliates) to promote a particular product or service, paying a commission for each lead or sale generated by the affiliate website.


There are two main types of targeting – inventory targeting, which serves ads on sites that offer a specific type of content or visited frequently by individuals within a particular demographic, and user targeting – which serves ads to individuals who have exhibited a particular behavior or interest.

Also, there are two activities to track  1- people-based and 2- device-based.

The Best Targeting Strategy Is Diversified & Comprehensive

You don’t have to pick just one of the strategies ; check each of them out and see how they might fit your various target market segments.

Create personas for your ideal customers – who are they? Where do they live? What do they do for work and what do they do after work? What traits and characteristics might they have, and how do those align with the many targeting parameters listed ?

Identifying just who it is you want to reach will guide you to the most effective  ad targeting tools and options to get in front of them.

Let’s look at following different performance targeting strategies i tested  for social media and beyond CRM databases:

Recent Purchasing Behavior 

Purchasing behavior subcategories include Buyer Profiles, Clothing, Food & Drink, Health & Beauty and a lot more. Within each broad subcategory, you can drill down into types of behavior; for example, choosing Buyer Profiles will then let you target DIYers, Fashionistas, Foodies, etc.

Life Events Targeting

The Life Events parameter is unique in that you can choose to target people at specific intervals of time after the change.

Custom Audiences

Custom Audiences are an advanced feature that enable you to connect with your existing contacts. Getting in front of your existing customers and app users on their favorite social network reinforces your brand, but also gives you the opportunity to increase lifetime customer value, order frequency, and loyalty.

This works the other way, too – you can increase the efficacy of your campaigns and avoid wasted clicks by excluding your existing customer list. If you’re offering a free trial to new users, for example, there’s no reason to show it to your loyal customers.

Custom Audiences are created by uploading your customer phone list, or purchaser/subscriber email list in CSV or TXT format, to a platform. You can also create a Custom Audience based on your site visitors (and specific pages visited on your site), or on specific actions taken within your game or app.

Lookalike Audience

Lookalike Audiences are a logical next step, once you have a good Custom Audiences strategy in place. Even if you don’t have your own email or phone list, you can mirror your Facebook fan base. Lookalikes allow you to expand beyond your reach but still target people with highly specific profiles, by creating audiences that look like your own targets.

If you have neither a list nor a big enough Facebook following, you can still create a Lookalike Audience using a tracking pixel to create a Website Custom Audience to mirror.

Layered Targeting Options

The really powerful thing about Facebook ads is in your ability to layer targeting options on top of one another, gradually making your audience more and more specific. 

Segmentation strategies
Demographic: Marketing segmentation strategy where the audience (potential customers) is divided into externally measurable characteristics.
Behavioral: A more focused form of market segmentation, which groups consumers based on specific consumption patterns they display.

• Past purchasing history
• Browsing history

Dayparting: Targeting users that are active at a particular time of day or day of week.
Designated Market Area: A segment Nielsen uses to standardize geographic areas for the purposes of targeting and measurement.
Retargeting: Targeting past visitors of your site.
Product-related: Segmenting the audience based on usage of a product (such as heavy vs. light).

Do's & Dont's
Don’t over-specify. Avoid making your strategy so specific that you end up with a reduced pool of potential customers. Piling a variety of schemes on top of each other is called hypertargeting, and is likely to hinder your campaign's performance by reducing your audience.

Target appropriately across media. Don't address your audience purely from one front; you may be reaching a different audience with your mobile and social strategy, and consumers interacting with your message through these channels may behave differently than they would through other channels.

Think strategically before tactically. You know your clients and their objectives. The objectives for targeting on a local scale are very different than targeting at a global scale, just as the objectives for a CPG advertiser with a short conversion cycle versus a longer term cycle.

Use past campaign analysis to revise your targeting strategy. It may sound obvious, but careful tracking of pacing and performance across past campaigns will tell you how well your message resonates with your target audience. If your message is underperforming, it may be the creative – or it may be that the audience you have set doesn't mesh with a particular medium, or perhaps you've defined your target audience too narrowly.

Frequency cap. Bombarding your audience over and over tends to lead to decreased engagement with an ad, and at worst, overexposure can lead to a negative association with your brand. Industry best practices place the frequency cap at 3.

A/B test. This is best practice for all types of advertising, and will help you better measure your campaign's success and plan for future retargeting campaigns.

Burn pixel. Just as consumers don't want to see the same retargeted ad 50 times, they don't want to continue seeing ads after they have converted, such as making a purchase. An easy solution is to use a burn pixel, which untags viewers as recipients of your ad once they have made a purchase.

Ad Networks vs Ad Exchanges: 

Ad Networks

Ad networks formed in response to the explosion of publisher inventory during the Internet revolution.

In short, ad networks collect inventory from a range of publisher sites and sell it to advertisers at a price.

Advertisers generally don’t have time to sort through all the available inventory out there. Ad networks will do this for them, and present advertisers with select groupings of inventory that have been curated according to specific parameters the ad network chooses (or chooses on behalf of the advertiser).

Some ad networks offer specific audience segments (i.e. demographics, interests, behavior, etc.), while others will focus on pricing or scale.

Ad Exchanges

Ad exchanges are technology platforms that position ad inventory in an open digital marketplace for advertisers to peruse at their leisure.

Ad exchanges enable advertisers to gauge prices for ad impressions across multiple sites and purchase those that are most cost-effective.

Because ad exchanges integrate with other tools, such as a DSP, much of this ad buying is done instantaneously by automated computers. In this way, ad exchanges can provide transparency without sacrificing efficiency.

Ad Networks vs. Ad Exchanges

The most common metaphor used to compare ad networks to ad exchanges is the stock exchange, and I think it serves the purpose well.

In that scenario, ad networks are the private actors – or stock brokers – who offer select groupings of ad inventory that will satisfy a specific need. In contrast, ad exchanges act like the stock exchange itself, facilitating the buying and selling of inventory in an automated fashion on an open market.

– A Recap

1. Ad networks offer specificity. Ad exchanges offer variety.
2. Ad networks are companies. Ad exchanges are technology platforms.
3. Ad networks keep pricing static. Ad exchanges base pricing on auctions.
4. Ad networks take time to optimize campaigns. Ad exchanges allow campaign optimization on the fly.

Glossary

Ad Exchange

An ad exchange is a technology platform that functions primarily as a digital marketplace. It allows advertisers and publishers to buy and sell online ad space from various ad networks through real-time auctions. The payoff is efficiency and transparency. Ad exchanges enable advertisers to gauge prices for ad impressions across multiple sites and purchase those that are most cost-effective. All of this is done simultaneously, eliminating any lengthy ad-buying negotiations.

Ad Network

Ad networks are companies that gather ad space supply from publishers and sell it to advertisers, typically at a marked up price. In short, they act as middlemen who connect companies that create ads with websites with the space to display those ads.

Ad Server

An ad server is a web server that publishers use to store, manage, and deliver their ads to website visitors. Ad servers often employ advanced analytical tools, allowing publishers to use data to better understand and optimize their advertising model. For example, ad servers can count and track users, generating data-fueled reports for advertisers on the number of impressions their ads receive.

Ad Tag

An ad tag is code publishers place on websites in order to sell ad space. It consists of two parts: 1) a URL and 2) a piece of HTML or JavaScript code. Working together, these two parts first request content (ads or other ad tags) from the URL and then instruct the browser how to display the content.

API

An application programming interface (API) is a language format, written in code, which allows programs and applications to communicate with each other and their respective operating systems. The language creates a standard of rules and protocols which programmers use to develop software that doesn’t conflict. In the mobile ad tech sector, API-powered mobile devices offer greater visibility into a user’s lifestyle, delivering data that can create marketing opportunities and inform strategic decisions.

App
An app is simply an application. The term is specifically used to differentiate an application on a mobile device, such as a mobile game, from programs on a traditional desktop computer.
Attribution

Attribution is the process by which user interactions are identified and measured. It’s a way in which marketers garner a better understanding of how certain events lead users to a desired outcome, referred to as a conversion. Attribution quantifies an ad’s ability to influence a consumer’s purchasing decisions, providing marketers with a way to compare the effectiveness of various marketing campaigns.

Banner

A banner is any type of advertisement that acts as a “banner” displayed usually at the top or bottom or the webpage or app. Banner ads are still very popular today, and feature both text and graphics. 

Creative

Creative, specifically ad creative, is a file that houses the digitally formatted design and artwork for an advertisement. This file is rendered as a display ad on the publisher’s medium and can take the following formats: Image (GIF, PNG, JPEG), Flash File (SWF), HTML or JavaScript.

CPA

Cost-per-Action (sometimes known as Pay Per Action or PPA; also Cost Per Conversion) is an online and mobile advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for each specified action. For example, an action after an initial impression and click, like an install, form submit (e.g., contact request, newsletter sign up, registration etc.), double opt-in or in-app sale. Formula: CPA = Cost/Number of Actions

CPC

Cost-per-Click (CPC) is the price the advertiser pays a publisher every time a consumer clicks on the ad. The price is set by the advertiser. Formula: CPC = Cost/Number of Clicks

CPI

Specific to mobile applications, Cost-per-Install (CPI) is the price an advertiser pays whenever the consumer installs the advertised application. Formula: CPI = Cost/Number of Installs

CPM

Cost-per-Mille (CPM) is a pay structure designed to generate brand awareness. The advertiser pays the publisher for every 1000 times the advertisement is displayed to a consumer. Formula: CPM = Cost X 1000/Impressions

CTR

Click-through rate (CTR) is the ratio of clicks to ad impressions. This is the most commonly used metric to determine the success of an ad campaign. Formula: CTR = Number of Clicks/Impressions

DMP

A Data Management Platform (DMP) is a centralized digital warehouse where marketers, publishers, and other businesses can effectively store, manage and analyze large quantities of data.  DMPs are incredibly useful in marketing campaigns, enabling optimization through more effective ad targeting. 

DNT

Do Not Track (DNT) is specifically a HTTP header field that sends a signal to other websites, namely analytics companies, ad networks and social platforms, requesting them to disable any tracking of individual users. Despite the request, many sites still do not honor the DNT signal. There currently exists no standardized protocol for its enforcement.

DSP

A Demand Side Platform (DSP) is a centralized technology platform that enables automated ad buying from a range of publisher sites while simultaneously connecting with consumers through vertical and lateral targeting. It’s an all-in-one tool for advertisers, efficiently integrating the buying, delivering and tracking of ads through proper utilization of data. The result is campaign optimization. Marketers can manage and tailor both their bids and their data to more effectively reach their targeted audiences. There are a handful of good mobile DSPs out there. Ours is AdCast™.

eCPM

Effective Cost-per-Mille (eCPM) is a way to measure the value of a publisher’s inventory on a Cost-per-Mille (CPM) basis. eCPM is calculated by multiplying the number of clicks (CTR) by the CPC rate to  determine total revenue. That total is then divided by the number of blocks of 1,000 impressions delivered, giving the eCPM value. Formula: eCPM = (Total Spent/Impressions Delivered)X 1000

Fill Rate

The fill rate is the rate at which a publisher successfully displays an ad in relation to the number of times the ad was requested. Essentially, this rate evaluates the amount of wasted inventory space a publisher has.

GRP

Gross Rating Point (GRP) is a standard measure for the impact or exposure of an ad campaign. GRPs calculate reach multiplied by exposure frequency. For example, if an ad is exposed to 32% of a targeted audience and that exposure occurs a total of three times at the same 32% rate, then you have a GRP of 96. Because the GRP measures gross, it is therefore possible to have a number over 100.

Impression

An ad impression is the calculated instance of an ad being displayed to a human consumer. Impressions give marketers a broad understanding of how many people their brand is reaching.

Inventory

Ad inventory is the total amount of space a publisher has on their respective platform to display advertisements from advertisers. Ad inventory is sold to an advertiser at a price, often determined through an online bidding system. Specifically mobile ad inventory is often measured in impressions.

Mediation

Mobile ad mediation is a technology that allows publishers to maximize the revenue gained from selling impressions. The ad mediation platform ranks ad networks according to publisher priorities, enabling the publisher to quickly find and choose ad networks that provide the highest potential revenue for their inventory.

Programmatic Buying

Programmatic buying is automated ad buying. It allows advertisers and publishers to quickly buy and sell advertisements through computerized systems and without the need for human intervention.

ROI

Return on Investment (ROI) is a metric used to determine the benefits of an investment and compare that to the cost.

RTB

Real-time bidding (RTB) is the process by which ad inventory is bought and sold instantaneously through programmatic means. The auctions, which take place every time a web browser opens a website, sell ad space provided by publishers to the advertiser willing to pay the highest price. The entire process is facilitated by ad exchanges.

Rich Media

Rich media constitutes a kind of ad that will typically contain some form of video or user interaction engagement. Rich media allows advertisers to connect with and involve consumers on a deeper level, providing dynamic content and effects.

SDK

A software development kit (SDK) is a set of programming tools for developers and programmers to use for the creation of a wide range of applications for various software packages. In mobile tech, these tools are often made available to customers, offering an intuitive, easy-to-use programming kit to develop their own mobile apps. Once created, apps created from publishers and consumers alike can be published and sold over the popular app marketplaces.

SSP

A supply side platform (SSP) is a technology that allows publishers to maximize the revenue gained from selling their ad inventory. It’s an automated system that connects publishers to multiple ad networks and exchanges to facilitate the purchase of inventory. Publishers then can receive the best possible price as their inventory is exposed to the highest number of potential bidders possible.

Viewability

Was your ad seen by a human? If so, for how long? These are the tough questions that mobile viewability seeks to answer for advertisers and publishers alike.