What is Biddable Media & How Does it Fit into Your Digital Marketing Strategy?

Biddable media has become one of the biggest players in the advertising game, and although biddable media has been around for many years, there is still quite a lot of confusion around exactly what it is and how to implement it effectively into a marketing strategy. It’s definitely not something you want to rush into or dive into without any thought or information, so. I wanted to address this by writing up a short overview and introduction to biddable media and some guidelines around how to approach implementing it into a wider digital marketing strategy.

What is Biddable Media?

Biddable Media, simplified, works like an auction in which people buy advertising space by bidding against each other in real-time bidding for impressions and leads. Essentially a company will offer their media, and businesses can bid for the advertising space. The most popular spaces will naturally cost more, for example, the top spot on a popular Google Search Engine Results Page will definitely attract very high bids.

Essentially, media that is bought through real time bidding on a platform provided by third party falls under “Biddable Media”.

Biddable Media Channels

The first and biggest biddable platform was provided by Google where advertisers bid for Paid Search Text ads and also contextual ads in display network. But with time, new display platforms emerged, completely changing Digital Media and Marketing strategy.

Here is a brief summary of the most prominent online biddable media channels.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing

PPC marketing is probably the most well-known method of paid marketing. Every time you search on Google you will come across PPC ads. The results at the top of the search results with the “AD” tag next to them are all PPC ads, that businesses will have bid for. Businesses will have specifically based their ads around hyper-targeted and relevant keywords that their ideal audience is searching for. Every time a user clicks through to these ads, the advertising company will pay a fee to Google (they literally pay per click).

As you might have guessed, this can get very expensive, especially if you don’t convert any of the leads. This is why it’s so important to thoroughly research and select which keywords and search terms you want to bid for so that you can optimise spending and return on investment (ROI).

Social Media Advertising

Similar to PPC, different social media platforms have their own biddable media spaces to help businesses reach their target audience. For example, LinkedIn can sell space which targets users by location and job title/ industry. They often display within your feed or down the side and are often punchy bits of copy accompanied by creative imagery or video to increase engagement and interactions.

Again, this can become expensive which is why it is important to carefully research and plan your strategy to ensure you are targeted high-quality leads who are most likely to convert.

Paid Video and YouTube Marketing

YouTube is the second largest search engine with over 1bn hours’ worth of videos watched every day! YouTube works on a cost-per-view model (rather that cost-per-click), and you can tier these so that if someone bails on your video in the first 30 seconds, you won’t have to pay. Similar to PPC and social media, the more popular the search term you are bidding on, the higher price you will pay.

How do I Implement Biddable Media Into my Digital Marketing Strategy?

The first steps should be to define your objective and define your target audience. This involves lots of research. You need to have a deep knowledge and full understanding of your target customers, which channels they are most active on and what they are searching for. You also need to set budgets and look at the current paid search market to accurately estimate cost. Failure to do so could lead to poorly executed campaigns, which generate low converting leads, meaning that costs become high, and ROI remains low.

It’s important to define your target audience so that it is not too broad, and not too narrow. Too broad an audience could lead to high costs and low ROI but having a target that is too narrow might exclude potential customers. It’s important to really plan and define who you are targeting with this in mind.

You must also carefully establish the narrative of your campaigns, and what this will look / sound like. This will very much depend on your pre-defined objectives, goals, and target audience. Then once you have got everything set up going, you must continue to track, analyse and test. Things are constantly changing, and you need to keep up with this to ensure your paid strategy is constantly optimised and relevant. This will also help you find what works for your business so you can focus on scaling that.

Top Tips for Implementing Biddable Media

·????????Align your paid strategy to your overall marketing strategy, targets, and goals

·????????Research is critical. Spend time on this and don’t rush it.

·????????Always be relevant to your customers and ensure you consider the full customer journey (e.g., when they have landed on your webpage, what is there next action?)

·????????Constantly test and measure campaigns to identify what works and what doesn’t. Be flexible!

Need help with your Biddable Media Strategy?

If you’re ready to step into the world of biddable media as you start to expand your digital marketing strategy but are missing the right skillset in your current team, get in touch today. Maxwell bond are the tech and digital recruitment partner of choice across the UK and Germany, specialising in digital marketing and UX. Our people-centric approach to recruitment ensures we match great companies with great people, whilst saving time and money.

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Find out how we can support your growth and project delivery through exceptional hiring by dropping me a message to [email protected].