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DMPs: Fact vs. Fiction

Today we are going to debunk the myths and misconceptions surrounding a DMP, and learn about what they really can do for you. Everyone agrees that the key to effective audience segmentation and targeting is a DMP (Data Management Platform), but there are also questions regarding how one actually works. Is it useful? Is my first-party data safe? In this post, we aim to cover some frequently asked questions about DMPs to get to the bottom of what’s real and what’s not.

Fiction: A DMP is just a database

Fact: If you are just touching the surface of a DMP, yes, it is type a database. It can house and manage information on your consumers and prospective customers, but DMPs provide so much more.

With a DMP, publishers, marketers, and agencies also build targetable audiences, provide actionable insights, and drive improved performance across all your marketing efforts. Most DMPs collect your consumers’ interests and affinities across digital properties – supported by cookies and mobile IDs – but the best DMPs, like Lotame, surpass the digital ecosystem by ingesting data from various other sources, as well. With a DMP like Lotame, customers can ingest data from CRM platforms, television, email, and more and marry with other data points to create a complete, unified view of your consumers, both on and offline.

DMPs have a lot more functionality than just housing data in one place. So no, a DMP is not just a database. It is so much more than that, especially when supported by a world class Customer Support team, like the folks at Lotame.

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Fiction: A DMP is only useful in the world of advertising

Fact: DMPs are, of course, really useful in the world of advertising. A good DMP can support your advertising efforts from soup to nuts: including campaign planning and insights, audience creation, and dozens of integrations to reach your audience across the web. But what is sometimes forgotten are the many functions or use cases of a DMP that apply outside the world of advertising.

More advanced DMPs, like Lotame, include other great capabilities, too. They vary from user optimization and predictive analytics, connected device user identification, semantic analysis and classification, data monetization and second-party data opportunities, content recommendation and personalization and solutions to power proprietary tools for enterprise-level clients. The strongest players in the DMP space are always evolving and figuring out new ways to be ahead at the game. These advancements sit at the intersection of  Advertising Technology and Marketing Technology, and the use cases are almost unlimited!

Fiction: DMPs are the same as DSPs

Fact: Many people get confused between Data Management Platforms (DMPs) and Demand Side Platforms (DSPs), based on the acronyms alone. While the line between the two is beginning to become a bit hazy, DMPs gather, sort, analyze, and export data, while DSPs are used by marketers and agencies to purchase media and advertising.

DMPs and DSPs have always been co-dependent with one another. Data (in the form of  audiences) is usually fed from the DMP to a DSP to help inform campaign decisions.  While more DSPs claim to offer some DMP capabilities, true DMPs go well beyond the simple creation of audiences for targeted advertising.

Having a standalone, media-agnostic DMP allows for your data to become so much more portable than if it was offered alongside a DSP. A true DMP is highly integrated with dozens of activation channels (ad servers, DSPs, SSPs, exchanges, etc), and serves as the pipes for users to send their data to any channel they desire. Having one source for your data (a single DMP) makes it easier to feed your data into a wide range of DSP’s, thereby allowing the scope and range of your messages to hit more people.

Fiction: Do DMPs really MANAGE your data?

Fact: Yes. By managing your data, a DMP not only collects and automatically categorizes your data, but it finds audiences and segments that may look like or act like the audiences that you have already identified. You define your target audience based on first-, second-, and/or third-party data – all of which should be easily available within your DMP – then the DMP finds those lookalikes by synching cookies from different places to help find exactly the right group of anonymous cookies to buy ads against. It is pretty genius…A DMP manages the collection, categorization, and analyzation of your data, but it is up to the user to manage where it goes from there, by building specific audiences to increase the success of your ad campaigns.  We ingest it, and lay it out so it is easy for you to understand. Then YOU can manage it by building specific audiences to increase the success of your ad campaigns.

Fiction: DMPs can only manage first-party data.

Fact: A true DMP can ingest and manage any type of data – first, second, or third-party data.  First party data is the data that comes from your site or properties – it is the data you own. People come and visit your site and perform certain actions (behaviors), and that is main type of first-party data that is ingested into the DMP. The actions that your audiences perform are managed in the DMP, which you can then use to build your desired prospecting audience to further your campaign strategy. However, first-party data can also come from offline, CRM, mobile web/app, and many other places above and beyond your website.

Next you have third-party data, which is the data that is generated on other platforms and often aggregated from other websites. There are many companies out there that sell third-party data, and it is accessible through many different avenues, including inside platforms like Lotame. That data may be someone else’s first party data, but it is third party to you.

Lastly, we have second-party data, which is the data that you share directly with another company. You can trade with one another, or purchase from them, creating your own buy and sell relationship within the DMP. Second-party data is becoming much more popular because it has a reputation for being safer or higher-quality than third-party data. By choosing the partners you would like to sell your data with, you have full control and transparency of what is happening.

Market-leading DMPs like Lotame do not limit the types of data you can ingest and manage in the platform. Whether it is first, second, or third-party data, DMPs can handle it all!

Fiction: My data is at risk by using a DMP.

Fact: When working with any vendor who may have access to your company’s information, you should fully understand the preventative measures that company employs to secure your data.  At Lotame, the security and privacy of our customers data is our number one priority, and we implement a number of physical and virtual safeguards to ensure that your data is fully secured. Lotame has our clients best interest at heart and would never put their data at risk.

Fiction: I need to be a data wizard to be able to use a Data Management Platform?

Fact: Absolutely not. Of course, we want to train you to one day be able to fully understand your data’s capabilities, but we don’t expect you to excel in the platform right away. The cool thing about Lotame is that we understand that starting off, you probably have no idea what you are doing. We take you through a nurturing phase, where we send you weekly how-to documents to guide you through the learning process. At any time, you can go to the MyLotame Knowledge Base to learn more about the platform, and if anything isn’t making sense to you, your Client Success partner will be moving along with you every step of the way.

DMPs, especially Lotame, always has your best interest at heart. We are here to help you understand your data, optimize your campaign efforts, and improve your marketing KPI’s, while housing your data in a safe, transparent way.

Want to learn more or see a demo? Contact us today, we’d love to chat!

by Haley Adam, Marketing Coordinator

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