A few days back, an article read, “Reducing your marketing budget is not going to save the company. “Some marketing leaders have taken this literally while crafting effective strategies to remain competitive.

And why not?  

We are in the middle of the digital revolution, where businesses are racing to stay on top. Therefore, they have allocated a significant part of their marketing budget to digital marketing activities. That’s what a survey from Gartner states- 72% of the marketing budget goes toward digital marketing. 

Given this statement, there is a prediction that the digital marketing industry will reach $807 billion by 2026.   

The reason? 

Digital advertisements, a subset of digital marketing, increase brand awareness by 80%, and you can’t afford to miss this chance. After all, your brand presence decides the survival of your business. And advertisements allow precise audience targeting, resulting in maximum conversions and increased ROI.  

However, these ads have a process. You must set it up, manage, run, and optimize to leverage its full potential for your goals. Here is where digital advertising operations (Ad Ops) come in. 

So, what is Ad Ops? 

The process of end-to-end ad management is Ad Ops. It is a platform to connect ad space sellers with potential buyers and help them leverage their full potential for revenue generation.  

There are two types of digital ads- Programmatic and non-programmatic.  

Non-programmatic ads are direct ads where the publisher receives an ad request from the advertiser and sets up the campaign in Ad Manager. Programmatic ads, on the other hand, are automated. They use real-time bidding to buy and sell ad spaces.  

Non-programmatic ad spending held a mere 16% share in 2023, whereas programmatic ads had 84%. Having said this, there is a requirement for ad ops professionals to configure and monitor these automated ad procedures. 

It means ad operations come with a lot of responsibilities. The online space is complex. For example, take the work of programmatic ads.  

When an advertiser wants to grab eyeballs toward his service or products and wants to sell them to potential buyers, they reach out to their programmatic ad agency. This agency utilizes a demand-side platform (DSP). A DSP is like a bidding platform that allows potential advertisers to bid for ad spaces across various channels from a wide range of ad inventory. The DSP ensures the ad delivery to the right audience through a data management platform (DMP). This DMP has all the audience data collected through various sources across the digital ecosystem.  

If a visitor from the audience segment from the advertiser’s target visits the publisher’s website, the website will send an ad request to the supply-side platform (SSP). A publisher uses SSP to maximise their revenue from each impression by running an auction among its buyers.  

Here, the DSP uses this received data to evaluate the ad and match it with the target parameters and their data, helping decide on a bidding price for the first impression. Once you sell the impression, the ad gets displayed on the publisher’s website. 

This process looks too daunting, but its execution takes a few milliseconds. The point is that your marketing team needs to deal with ad servers, DSPs, SSPs, DMPs, ad exchanges, and ad networks.  

That’s a bunch of responsibilities to handle! 

The Ad Ops team is responsible for: 

1. Schedule ads as per the target audience and the ad campaign nature. For example, campaigns revolving around the Black Friday sale may begin weeks before to create buzz and maximise exposure during the peak period.  
2. Optimise ads for campaign success. For example, if you notice low conversation rates, the Ad ops team will optimise the ads by refining the messaging, SEO, ad tags, and different ad formats. 
3. Manage the flow of ad traffic to SSPs (ad inventory) and the ad servers. For example, suppose you want to run an online ad campaign for a new product launch on various websites and mobile apps. The Ad Ops team feeds the creatives, landing page URLs, and targeted demographics to the ad server. Once the ad is published, they monitor its success and adjust as needed.  
4. Manage technical issues. For example, while running a campaign, one of your ad tags is not firing correctly, or there are some reporting issues, the ad ops team jumps in to address these technical glitches for a seamless ad delivery. 
5. Yield opportunities to generate revenue with the help of yield managers. For example, a publisher analyzes the website traffic, redesigns ad placements, negotiates pricing with advertisers, and monitors ad campaigns to ensure maximum returns.  

Ad ops comes with a lot of benefits for your business-

• Ads provide brand visibility to your target audience.  
• A driver for your brand-building 
• Perfectly matches a wide range of business goals and target markets. 
• Maximises the impact of online marketing to boost ROI.  
• Boosts cost efficiency through precise targeting.  
• Support for agile businesses and their marketing budget. 
• Support for businesses of all sizes competing for visibility without breaking the bank.  
• Amplify the benefits of online ads with advanced targeting and personalization. 
• Accurately track and monitor campaign performance and unlock the areas for improvement through feedback.

As we all know, agility is the secret ingredient for organisations to sustain and stay ahead in this rapidly evolving digital space; delivering excellence is no longer a choice.  

That’s what we at WaferWire do.  

We have a team with a digital mindset backed by innovation as a crucial transformation driver.  

Our comprehensive suite of services for ad ops helps organisations like yours with decision-making anytime, anywhere across functions, leading to hyper-productivity. 

Thanks to advanced data analytics and actionable insights, letting your data do the talking! 

Our deep domain knowledge will help you to own tailored digital marketing solutions for your business and help you drive value.  

So, why wait?  

The ball is in your court! Play it well. 

Top 5 FAQs in AdOps 

What is AdOps and how does it impact digital advertising strategies? 

AdOps includes managing end-to-end digital advertising campaigns to achieve marketing objectives. 

How do AdOps teams manage and optimize ad campaigns for maximum performance? 

To ensure the reach to the right audience and deliver desired outcomes, AdOps teams schedule, monitor, and optimize ad placements. 

What are the key tools and technologies used in AdOps operations? 

AdOps utilizes various tools and technologies in AdOps operations, such as ad servers, DSPs, SSPs, DMPs, and ad exchanges. 

What are common challenges faced by AdOps professionals, and how can they be overcome? 

Some common challenges in AdOps are technical issues, campaign optimization, and managing ad inventory. You can overcome these with proactive solutions and collaboration. 

How does AdOps contribute to improving ROI and overall marketing effectiveness? 

AdOps contribute to improving ROI by optimizing ad performance, targeting relevant audiences, and maximizing the impact of advertising budgets.