Datorama, the Salesforce marketing analytics platform, launched an app marketplace Thursday where companies can list new automated data products.
AT&T’s Xandr ad unit has one app in the marketplace at launch, which pulls data from the AppNexus demand-side platform (DSP) into Datorama, so it can be analyzed alongside other DSP or ad platform campaign data, said Alex Chatfield, VP of DSP sales.
Many brands use three or more DSPs, and the new Datorama marketplace automatically rationalizes which DSP served the ad that prompted a conversion.
“Brands with strong attribution programs were doing that before but it required implementation work and a lot of manual spreadsheet work in between,” Chatfield said.
Most of the apps available at launch were developed by Datorama and the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Those apps include automated tools that plug into the API-based search and social platforms (YouTube, Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, Bing and LinkedIn) as well as apps that connect directly to Salesforce email and lead generation products.
Moving forward, more apps will be developed by third parties, like the AppNexus app for reconciling the DSP and ad server data, said Jay Wilder, Datorama’s head of product marketing.
For now, the apps are free to use and have no paid or premium features. For the 80 or so shared customers between Datorama and Xandr, the AppNexus marketplace app costs nothing to use.
Wilder hopes Datorama marketplace will help marketers trim expensive or agencies or measurement services.
GlaxoSmithKline piloted the Datorama app marketplace. The British pharmaceutical giant wants to transfer more campaign measurement data and control to internal marketers, who operate media channels like search, email or programmatic, said its digital analytics manager Phil Jackson.
He said brand managers who aren’t pros on data tech products like Tableau or Excel can digest data more easily in an app dashboard “without having to use other outside services.”
Jackson, formerly a Havas agency exec, said one priority since joining GSK last year is to develop internal tools and expertise so that third-party services handled by agencies or measurement firms can be more efficiently taken in-house.
Marketers are also inundated with busy-work that can be automated on a daily or weekly basis, he said. For instance, the CEO or CFO might want weekly reports on certain marketing figures and expenditures, which have to be assembled on request. A Datorama app could be set up to do that without the time and hassle of a marketer parsing out specifics required for each chief.
“That simplification of the time and process shows a real appreciation for what data-driven marketers are actually dealing with and looking for from their tech stack,” he said.
Salesforce isn’t ready to discuss potential revenue lines from the app marketplace, Wilder said. For now, the focus is on saving time and resources for brands.
