With the resurgence of direct advertising, self-service models now focus on empowering the advertiser/publisher relationship instead of replacing them.
The Return of Direct Sales
Relationships are the key to direct advertising, and with the increased focus on first-party data, publishers and media groups are refocusing on their direct revenue. The percentage of total revenue made up by direct advertising is now a key health metric for publishers, with 80% often being the target mark.
However, with such a focus on direct revenue, selling is also expensive. Advertisers need to pick up the phone, and you need to invest in your agency relationships like never before. This means that you need to find marginal gains, automation, and data enablement across the direct sales workflow to ensure that you deliver an optimized client management process. For this, there is ADvendio ONE.
But there is also another golden goose: self-service. The success of Meta, TikTok, Amazon, and so many other tech giants today is founded on their self-service offerings. What if publishers could replicate this?
The Risk of Relationships.
Well, here is the kicker. If you rely on relationships, you lose your USP when you look to move your advertisers to transact via a self-service methodology.
Automating the relationship creates an inevitable risk: In order to compete with the tech giants, you need to have an incredibly unique and engaged audience.
Therefore, the conversation around self-service has to be more nuanced than in the past. It can’t just be about automatic transactions. It has to be focused on:
- Not replacing but empowering the direct sales process.
- Enabling marginal gains in the client experience.
- Empowering advertisers and agencies.
It must be done with an approach that doesn’t involve an attempt to out-build the industry’s bigger-budgeted, more technical giants.
The Opportunity in Traditional Self-Service Models
The two main opportunities with self-service traditionally have been:
- Reduce the cost of serving your smaller clients.
- Empower your larger clients to do more.
Enabling smaller advertisers to transact online frees up sales time for your direct team to focus on the larger revenue-generating clients.
Meanwhile, larger clients can access information and data that will help them upsell, make requests, and better plan their campaigns moving forward.
These models have generated revenue, but it is difficult for publishers to really understand the bottom-line benefit. Have they converted revenue they otherwise wouldn’t have? Or have publishers made it easier for clients to choose Meta and Amazon?
The Future of Self-Service Models
Reducing the Cost to Serve:
Reducing the cost to serve remains a core component. Smaller advertisers can benefit from streamlined buying processes, and the ability to quickly purchase pre-defined packages or products without a high requirement for media literacy is an automatic win.
The compatibility of this workflow with UI unlocks an extra level. When we look at traditional classified ads or other formats where media literacy is typically low, the role of a guided language-driven AI to support the buying process unlocks a host of new opportunities.
AI can unlock a more personalized, more supported buying experience for small spenders and can even unlock products, formats, and targeting typically reserved for the more media-literate buyer. The result is a more unique client experience, larger deal values, and a greater ability for the publisher to max out inventory sales.
Omnichannel
Self-service has been reserved for digital media for far too long. The reality is that there is no reason for this.
It should be just as easy to enable the sale of print, sponsorship, digital out-of-home, events, point of sale, socials, creative design, and many more products via self-service as it is with traditional digital CPM inventory.
The key to enabling this is having an omnichannel-compatible OMS, such as ADvendio ONE, which allows you to plug many channels into a single process.
The Metas of this world are limited in their self-service capability. With the sole opportunity to sell digital media, the modern self-service offering from a media group will unlock all of its inventory. This creates a very persuasive and technologically empowered offering based on the products that make that media group unique rather than trying to beat Meta at its own game.
Supporting the Direct Sales Process
While smaller clients can now self-serve, there is also a win with the larger revenue client base. Previously, an agency or advertiser needed to pick up the phone to understand their campaign’s performance or to submit a brief. However, with a self-service that works with direct sales teams, instead of replacing sales teams, you unlock the best of both worlds.
A Media Group’s Self-Service can Benefit their NPS Score by:
- Being able to submit briefings online via a portal.
- Submit and request creatives.
- Leverage campaign history for recommended campaign plans.
- Enable real-time campaign performance visibility.
- Request campaign changes and inflight optimizations.
- Approve or reject upsell/optimization suggestions.
- Open and manage cases.
- See and pay invoices.
- View all types of reports for current and historical campaigns.
All of the above has the power to be enhanced again by AI. This data can then be used to empower sales teams to work better and more efficiently while delivering a truly unique and enterprise-ready client experience.
Conclusion
In summary, self-service advertising presents a significant opportunity for media groups to streamline workflows, reduce costs, and enhance client experiences. However, its success depends on a nuanced approach that acknowledges the importance of relationships for media groups and complements rather than replaces direct sales.
By focusing on empowering advertisers through automation, AI-driven personalization, and omnichannel compatibility, publishers can unlock new revenue streams while maintaining their unique value propositions. When executed strategically, self-service models not only support smaller advertisers but also enhance the capabilities of larger clients, driving efficiency and fostering deeper client engagement.
Are you looking for a self-service solution for your ad sales? Talk to our team today.
