Goodway Group’s performance soared after it fed log-level data from PubMatic’s exchange into its DSP algorithm.
By connecting to the supply-side platform, the agency’s algorithm could analyze more granular data, like why a client lost an ad auction and the price of the winning bid. And when it won an auction, the exchange shared information about the second-highest bid .
When Goodway Group tested the improved algorithm with a client that manufactures heavy equipment, it reduced CPA by 28%, CPMs by 46% and helped the client purchase 111% more impressions.
“This client was having trouble scaling and finding the audience it needed,” said Andrea Kwiatek, the strategic partnerships manager for Goodway Group. “This allowed us to have more reach on impressions, find more audience and have more success.”
Now, all Goodway Group clients are buying using the improved algorithm and seeing similar results, Kwiatek said.
It took significant legwork to incorporate the new data, requiring an in-house data science team that spent months analyzing the log-level data before finally buying with the better algorithm in Q3 2020.
“We didn’t want to just look at the data,” Kwiatek said – the agency wanted to see tangible results, like a better ROI on programmatic.
Log-level data contains dozens of details about an individual bid, so the agency’s data science team honed in on factors that actually moved the needle, like clearing price and second-highest bid. Adding that data into the DSP’s algorithm (via an API connection to the DSP) made it win more bids at lower prices. The agency also wasted less of the DSP’s infrastructure by bidding on inventory it couldn’t win.
While log-level data is typically used to audit supply chain transparency, bringing it into a DSP algo gave it a new use: driving performance.
“Buyers can be most effective when they activate across their supply chain,” said Kyle Dozeman, Americas CRO for PubMatic. “SSPs bring data and insight to bear that can make programmatic more effective.”
Goodway Group used the data to figure out where they were underbidding and where they were overbidding or could bid lower. And it also ensured they weren’t wasting bids, Dozeman said.
After realizing this extra efficiency via the PubMatic exchange, Goodway Group wants to extend these results elsewhere. If more exchanges share log-level data in a standardized way, Goodway Group can ensure better performance for clients.
“I would love to see continued transparency in log files, and have standardization so we can replicate this with other exchanges and have a holistic approach in our bidding,” Kwiatek said, Especially as we get into CTV.”
