In today’s competitive landscape, maximizing the return on ad spend is paramount for brands. Video advertising offers immense potential, but navigating the complex array of media buying strategies can be overwhelming, and without a strategic approach, can be a costly gamble.

With countless platforms, formats, and targeting options available, selecting the right video media buying strategy is crucial for optimizing ad spend and driving ROI.

How do you decide which video media buying strategy is best for your brand’s advertising? How do you use these strategies to complement each other?

Here, we’ll explore the difference between direct and programmatic buying strategies and what each approach offers. We’ll analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each plan and explain how Ocean Media employs a comprehensive video advertising strategy for its clients.

Direct buys: Reach and frequency with a lower price tag

Direct buys involve purchasing ad inventory directly from publishers. This method allows the media buyer to guarantee impressions, ensuring that the ads will reach a specified audience.

There are plenty of reasons to like this approach.

Direct buys offer the assurance that ads will be served to the intended audience, providing a stable foundation for reach and frequency goals. This guaranteed impressions model ensures that advertisers can achieve their desired reach with confidence, contributing to more predictable campaign performance.

In addition to their reliability, direct buys are typically more cost-effective, often with lower CPM. This makes it an attractive option for campaigns aiming for broad reach. Although their targeting capabilities are more limited than programmatic buys, direct buys still allow for basic demographic targeting, such as age and gender, enabling advertisers to reach their desired audience segments.

One major drawback is the limited intelligence of this approach, which resembles a “spray and pray” method. Direct buys lack the granular targeting and optimization capabilities found in programmatic buys, resulting in less efficient ad placement and potentially lower returns on investment.

Programmatic buys: Capturing the right audience at the right time

Programmatic buys leverage advanced data and algorithms to target specific individuals across various platforms and devices. Brands and media buyers can utilize platforms like The Trade Desk to execute these buys, offering distinct advantages and challenges.

One of the primary benefits of programmatic buys is precision targeting. This approach allows for highly specific targeting based on a range of data points, such as household income, viewing behaviors, and in-market status. Such granularity ensures that ads reach the most relevant audiences, increasing the likelihood of engagement. Some DSP’s offer audience extension targeting to go beyond what the direct buys are reaching.

Another significant advantage is enhanced performance. The precision of programmatic targeting often results in better performance metrics, including higher conversion rates and more effective frequency management. In other words, not only are more people likely to engage with the ads, but they are also seeing them at optimal frequencies to maximize impact.

Flexibility and ongoing optimization are also key strengths of programmatic buying. The use of real-time data allows for continuous adjustments to campaigns, ensuring they remain efficient and impactful.

However, these benefits come with certain drawbacks. One of the main cons is the higher cost. The advanced targeting capabilities and enhanced performance are accompanied by a premium CPM which can be significantly higher than that of direct buys. This can make programmatic buys less accessible for smaller budgets.

Additionally, the complexity of programmatic buying is a notable challenge. Managing these campaigns requires advanced digital expertise, sophisticated tools, and a deep understanding of the programmatic landscape. This can be a barrier for some organizations, necessitating either in-house expertise or reliance on external partners to effectively manage programmatic buys.

Maximizing ad spend: Leveraging the best of both worlds

At Ocean Media, we believe in a hybrid approach to media buying, combining the precision of direct buying with the scale and efficiency of programmatic advertising. This strategic combination empowers us to deliver exceptional results for our clients.

Determining the best video advertising approach for your brand involves carefully considering your objectives and budget.

By leveraging both direct and programmatic channels, we can:

Expand Reach and Maximize Impact: Programmatic buying allows us to access a vast inventory of digital ad placements across various platforms and devices, ensuring your message reaches a wider audience. Simultaneously, direct buying enables us to secure premium ad placements on high-quality websites and apps, guaranteeing maximum visibility for your brand.

Refine Targeting for Optimal ROI: Our data-driven approach enables us to meticulously identify and target specific audience segments through programmatic buying. By combining this with the ability to negotiate custom packages through direct buying, we deliver highly targeted campaigns that resonate with your ideal customers and drive tangible results.

Negotiate Competitive Pricing: Our strong relationships with publishers, cultivated through direct buying, allow us to secure preferential rates and exclusive ad placements. By complementing this with programmatic buying, we can optimize ad spend across multiple channels, ensuring cost-efficiency without compromising on performance.

Measure, Optimize, and Succeed: We harness the power of advanced analytics to meticulously track the performance of your video campaigns across both direct and programmatic channels. By closely monitoring key metrics and identifying trends, we can make data-driven adjustments in real-time, maximizing the return on your investment.

A hybrid approach is more than just a strategy; it’s a commitment to delivering exceptional results for our clients. By combining the best of both worlds, we create highly effective campaigns that drive brand awareness, engagement, and conversions.

While many agencies might focus on one method over the other, Ocean Media’s strength lies in its ability to offer and optimize both, providing a comprehensive, data-driven approach to media buying. This holistic strategy not only maximizes reach and performance but also positions Ocean Media as a leader in the digital advertising space, ready to meet the evolving needs of its clients.

To learn more about Ocean Media’s capabilities, contact us here.