What Defines a Data-Driven
Programmatic Advertising Agency?

The founders of PrograMetrix saw the programmatic industry growing from the ground up, before programmatic became yet another marketing buzzword and was simply referred to as display advertising.  To set the stage, let’s rewind the clock back a decade to 2008. Phil Parrish and Chris Shreeve were working for a promising startup in Seattle by the name of AdReady.

A demand-side SaaS platform, AdReady developed the first self-serve ad building tool for advertisers and launched the first API into the market leading ad exchange Right Media. After raising capital from the established VC firms of Madrona, Bain, and Khosla, AdReady hired an impressive ex-Microsoft management team and successfully landed new clients including ESPN, AMEX, and Alaska Airlines.

See also: How to Choose the Right Programmatic Ad Agency

By 2009 and 2010, competition exploded in the display advertising industry, with new DSP technologies entering the marketplace every month. Despite the fast-moving and rapid growth of display advertising, Phil and Chris never lost sight of where the industry started, and where it was supposed to go.

As we fast forward to the Fall of 2013, Phil and Chris were leading Sales and Marketing for AdReady and helped accelerate the growth of the company, which eventually attracted attention from potential buyers in the industry. They were instrumental in the M&A process when AdReady was acquired by Digital Remedy (formerly CPXi), a global media company headquartered in New York. At this time, they gained more exposure working with holding group ad agencies in the biggest markets across the U.S.

They began to recognize and understand the differences in the business models between ad tech firms and ad agencies. On one hand, ad tech firms invested heavily in sales, preached about the power of their algorithms, and hoped to onboard clients quickly while transitioning them to a self-serve model. After 30 days, these firms provided little to no customer support.

See also: What to Expect From Working With a Programmatic Advertising Agency

On the flip side, advertising agencies were focused on providing hands-on support, thereby investing more in client services than sales to retain clients for long-term engagements. Though they wanted to provide excellent service, agencies lacked the technical knowledge to manage multiple ad tech platforms.

This left brand marketers between a rock and a hard place. Do I work with an ad tech firm directly and try to manage this in house? Separately, do I hire an ad agency to manage the technology vendors? If I do, what “middleman” fees will I be paying, and will I have any access to the platforms running my campaigns? 

Unfortunately, the same challenges that brand marketers faced 10 years ago still pervade the programmatic industry today. This is the reason that PrograMetrix was formed—to transform the way programmatic advertising campaigns are managed through transparent, long-term relationships that go beyond the metrics.

As a data-driven programmatic advertising agency, PrograMetrix combines the best of both worlds; turn-key management of industry leading ad tech platforms coupled with streamlined agency processes, proprietary campaign optimization techniques, and unrivaled operational efficiency that leads to a unique agency experience. By managing all campaigns in house and negotiating favorable self-serve rates with our vendors, we save our clients time and money. With a forward-thinking culture and incredibly efficient operations, we provide the strategy and execution of larger firms paired with the care and agility of a boutique agency.

See also: PrograMetrix Announces Formation of Advisory Board

So what defines a data-driven programmatic ad agency, and how is our firm different from thousands of other digital agencies across the globe?

To start, we created the name PrograMetrix to fuse the terms that matter most to our clients—programmatic and metrics. We specialize in programmatic advertising by managing campaigns across Display, Mobile, Video, Digital Audio, Connected TV, Social, Native, and Paid Search channels. We aren’t trying to fool anyone – we focus on what we’re great at, what our clients’ value most, and we don’t stray from our strengths. Most agencies offer every digital solution under the sun, but how confident can you be with an agency that lacks a clear specialization?

The following service offerings provide a glimpse into how we differentiate from other digital agencies in the industry:

• A data-driven focus: All decisions we make and insights we provide are backed by data that we make transparent to our clients
• Ad tech insiders: Our team of experts have managed campaigns in virtually all digital advertising platforms, which gives us the skills needed to integrate the best technology to drive higher returns for our clients
• Unrivaled service & efficiency: We build long-term partnerships, stay connected to the details, and provide the most efficient campaign management services in the industry
• Proprietary campaign optimization: We analyze click and conversion metrics alongside post-impression engagement measurements to optimize campaigns at a more granular level than other agencies
• Brand safety guaranteed: All our campaigns are managed with a brand safety guarantee backed by our proprietary whitelists, blocklists, and implementation of the best brand safety tools in the industry

Now that we have a common understanding of what a data-driven programmatic advertising agency encompasses, it’s important for you to know what matters most to us as an organization. Our two main core values are “Nothing Less than Customer Success” and “Trust Through Transparency.”

Our business is rooted in our customers’ success. We believe in building real relationships and working with our clients to help them drive better results. We believe in developing long-term partnerships and earn our customers trust through honest, transparent, and accountable business practices. We truly manage our clients’ brands as if they are our own.

We hope that you can relate to the challenges we have surfaced in the programmatic industry, and what is needed to create more value for brand marketers who continue to invest more in the ad tech and service side of the marketplace. If you would like to learn more about our organization, management team, and board of advisors, please visit our About Us page.