With the rise of mobile devices, it’s no surprise that consumer online behavior has been trending towards mobile for several years. In fact, the average consumer now spends approximately 4 hours a day on their mobile device, with almost all of that time (93%) being spent in apps. This shift towards mobile usage is largely driven by younger audiences, with nearly 80% of Gen Z and Millennials now shopping on mobile more often today than just two years ago, according to a recent report. Additionally, over 45% of shoppers in the US prefer to buy on mobile than on desktop, and almost 70% of US shoppers of all ages use their mobiles to research products while shopping in-store.
This mobile-centric behavior presents a powerful opportunity for advertisers to understand consumer interests, habits, and preferences, and to reach younger audiences. But with so many consumers using mobile devices, it can be challenging to gain access to the best first-party mobile data from the vast pool of consumers. This is where curation comes in.
What is curation?
Curation is the process of pairing data to inventory in order to drive effective results for advertisers. Traditional programmatic media buying uses basic targeted audience across app inventory, whereas curation develops supply portfolios that match data to inventory. This enables advertisers and media buyers to target audiences more accurately across mobile apps via pre-packaged (‘curated’) supply that can be activated quickly and efficiently.
By screening premium data and media, packaging it together, and making it available for activation much earlier in the media supply chain, curation removes the complexity created by too many supply chain intermediaries. Middle layers obscure transparency, delay the process, and wear away efficiency. Curation connects ad inventory and audience data on the supply side, removing many of the inefficient layers and creating a smooth digital supply path. By applying a curation strategy, brands can more precisely target consumers at key points in their buyer journey and drive the most value for their media dollar at scale.
Why curation?
One of the reasons curation has become more important in recent times is the changes to advertising IDs such as Apple’s IDFA and Google’s advertising ID. These changes have a direct impact on the ability to deliver in-app advertising performance at scale. Moreover, the depreciation of other third-party identifiers has already had a major influence on the ecosystem. Brands across industries have valuable, first-party data that allows them to tap into the curation plans that combine audience with app inventory and make an impact on their growth strategies.
Curation brings unique value to buyers in the programmatic supply chain, combining vast and rich first-party mobile data with premium in-app inventory that is brand safe. With curation, agencies are assured of supply transparency, as curation is not reliant on multiple paths to the same supply, allowing better transparency to advertisers. It also offers operational efficiency, as agencies can centralize their efforts instead of chasing specific premium supply or data segments across multiple platforms and supply pathways. This makes tracking spend and investment commitments throughout the supply chain much easier and more efficient for advertisers.
Start curating with Start.io
At Start.io, we’re already helping advertisers and media buyers leverage best-in-class, first-party mobile data based on 20+ signals, including app ownership, language, and location, to reach the right audience. Now, we’re excited to enter a new era by offering curated supply for programmatic buyers in the mobile ecosystem. Similar to publishers and brands with close consumer relationships, those with strong first-party data assets are well positioned for the future. By curating these assets with premium media, they become even more desirable to ad buyers.
Start.io’s curation provides media buyers and advertisers with numerous benefits that enhance their advertising campaigns.
- Start.io’s curation makes targeting and supply easier as it offers a single partner for supply and audience targeting, reducing the operational workload for programmatic traders.
- The programmatic traders retain all their buy-side optimization tools while the Start.io team optimizes from the sell-side, a win-win situation for traders.
- The activation of Start.io’s curated supply is fast and easy via PMPs across all major DSPs, providing advertisers with the agility to maximize their campaign potential.
- Advertisers can access global first-party audiences and scalable and accurate targeting with unique data signals, including app ownership, location, language/keyboard language, device make/model, carrier, and more.
With Start.io’s proprietary AI-powered technology, advertisers can reach their target consumers within premium inventory while gaining operational efficiencies and driving superior results.
Check out our Programmatic Curation Guide for Advertisers & Publishers to learn how Machine Learning drive personalization and better campaign performance.
Reach out to marketing@start.io to find out how to get started.
