Benefits of using automated media buying software

Media buying is complicated. It’s a resource-heavy process where significant work hours are spent on repetitive manual processes, while many key decisions that need to be made regarding deployments also require extensive research and a good understanding of market behaviors. Even the best analyst will have a hard time creating a perfect picture in the increasingly fragmented media landscape of today. At the same time, imperfect sharing of information between advertisers, buyers, and TV broadcasters as well as human errors also leads to missed opportunities for maximizing your revenue.

These are the challenges automated media buying software seeks to resolve. Automated media buying software provides a plethora of advantages over ad buying without. In this article, we’ll introduce you to the advantages of automated media buying software and how it can simplify your life as a media buyer.

Benefits of media buying software

Below you can find the complete list of benefits from utilizing automated media buying software, grouped into the following topics: Automation, Optimization and Customer Satisfaction.

Automation

Reducing the Workload

A business's most important assets are its staff. The skill and expertise of the people within the company need to be utilized within areas where the uniquely human attributes of creative thinking and problem solving and/or interaction are paramount. Putting competent staff on performing repetitive, simple tasks and data analysis such as determining the most efficient ad spot placements is a waste of talent and is best shifted towards automated processes.
Less Risk of Human Error

Automated processes not only speed up the entire end-to-end workflow of media buying but also, as a byproduct, eliminates the risk of human error interfering with the chain.
Complete Control

That is not to say that the entire process is completely automated. An important attribute of any automation implementation is to allow the agency to remain in control and be able to perform changes when necessary. Output quality will be determined by the quality of the inputs, which is why technologies using configurable rules-based engines are so important to deploy. They allow the agency to assign a wide range of both simple and complex attributes to the media buying process to create a media buying workflow to match their situation and needs.
Rapid Scaling

Automation also allows for rapid scaling to meet demand. In periods of growth, automation is a powerful way to increase the throughput of work without having to worry about the extra expense and lag of having to provide extra resources to handle the new conditions.

Optimization

Continuous Improvements

Utilizing automated media buying software allows for continuous improvements during the whole duration of an ad campaign to drive new efficiencies and increase the potential for profits. It consists of several feedback loops between the different actors involved in the advertising workflow. Each media plan is measured, then followed up by feeding the measurements into the automation process. The future stages of the plan are refined based on changes such as inventory being unavailable, change of rates, programs moved or canceled, post rating arrival, change in rating forecasts, etc.
Optimization in Real-Time

The media buying optimization takes place as close to real-time as possible which allows the agency to consider all possible scenarios swiftly, thus, maximizing the campaign objectives of both itself and the advertiser. This real-time optimization enables companies to become faster and more agile, thus allowing them to respond more quickly to demands and speed up their time to market.
Model Different Scenarios

Utilizing the rule-based automated media buying software also allows for the modeling of several different scenarios to pick and choose from. It simulates different scenarios based on the attribute input, thus, giving you better visibility to make better business decisions and explore new business models and opportunities.

Customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is especially important for ad agencies since they act as the middle man between the advertiser and the TV broadcaster. Automated media buying software provides benefits in regards to customer satisfaction on several fronts.

Reaching Objectives Faster

Automated media buying software allows for faster and more efficient workflows a manual process can’t compare with, thus, allowing you to fulfill the campaign's KPIs at a faster rate.
Reaching Objectives at a Lower Cost

Fulfilling the KPIs quicker also means that fewer spot placements have to be booked overall. This lowers the cost on multiple levels including spot placement and agency time.
Securing the Best Spot Placements

Automated media buying software analyzes the market to identify and secure the most efficient spot placements and is almost instantaneously responsive to changes in market behaviors.
Enabling Handling of Ad Hoc Requests

Sudden ad hoc requests may arrive in an unstructured format. Automated media buying software can handle this by implementing structure in the ingest process, aligning requests to established preset rules and parameters.
Increased Agility and Faster Reaction Times

By ensuring the above-mentioned positive impacts on business systems, automated media buying software enables companies to react faster and increase their agility while at the same time significantly reduce costs and increase competitiveness.

Media Buying Made Easy with Vidispine

Despite increasing competition from a diversified media market and increasingly powerful social channels, linear television retains its power to offer high ROI for advertisers and the brand-safe medium still often dominates advertising budgets. The pivot towards digital advertising, however, has highlighted many of the shortfalls in the process and ways in which it has failed to maximize its use of current technology.

The solution? Our media buying automation and optimization solution.

The Vidispine media buying automation and optimization engine enable agencies to manage the increasingly complex requirements of both the advertiser and the TV broadcaster in one package. Contact Vidispine for a free demo and get started today.