Why DTC Brands Should Expand Their Social Playbook to Programmatic Display

If you’re a direct-to-consumer company, most likely you’ve been following the standard strategy of heavily investing in Facebook and Instagram. From beds to suitcases to shoes, we see you all over our feeds. With the skyrocketing costs of user acquisition on social, you’ve got to wonder if there’s a better way to reach audiences while still remaining effective.

Enter Programmatic Display. DTC companies should not sleep on programmatic display. If used correctly it’s the perfect way to reach audiences efficiently. We get it, old habits die hard so we’ve answered some common questions.

Q1: My social budget has blown up. I want to be smarter about my media spend but I’m wary if programmatic will actually make an impact once I open it up to the open web

Sure Gen Zers and Millennials spend a lot of time on social media but you’ll probably benefit from advertising outside of social channels since one study showed a 48% increase in the median cost-per-click cost for Facebook News Feed Ads. Less competition to drive up high cost CPMs and you’ll increase your visibility to prospects since you’re expanding your reach outside of social.

[icon name=”bell” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] Pro tip: 33Across has formats that can help you reach your campaign goals whether it’s converting shoppers, growing awareness, or creating an efficient retargeting program.

 

Q2: I’ve had a lot of success reaching my target audience on social media. I don’t want to just spray and pray with programmatic.

Great! Now you can take your learnings from social media and apply it to programmatic for a razor sharp approach. Programmatic actually allows you to get even more granular with targeting since you can dive into metrics like time-in-view, viewability, and engagement. The key is to make sure you test to find your sweet spot so you don’t limit scale.

[icon name=”bell” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] Pro tip: Bring your own data insights or apply one of 33Across audiences built from intent and social signals.

 

Q3: But will I get the same engagement that I get from social?

Sure, users spend an average of 27 minutes on Instagram and 38 minutes on Facebook a day according to a recent eMarketer report. While this may seem like a lot of time, users scroll an average of 300 feet daily and have an incredibly short attention span when it comes to image recollection. When targeting content on the open web, marketers have more flexibility to optimize to ad creative, audience, and environment. Getting your ads seen by your target audience seems obvious but you’d be surprised how often this gets overlooked. Look for ads that have a high impact and are easy to scale.

[icon name=”bell” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] Pro tip: Power your campaigns with a combination of high viewability + relevant audiences. 33Across Impact Ads have a 25-second time-in-view average. By placing your ads on sites where people spend more intentional time, results in higher engagement. Bonus- you can bring your own data or leverage one of our 500 audience segments.

25 seconds Looking to convert shoppers? Check out 33Across’ time-in-view bidding. Easy to scale and an efficient conversion tactic. Take a look at this ecommerce case study for more information.

Just as smart retailers aren’t going to ignore their brick-and-mortar-channel, DTC companies need to find the right way to blend their social and programmatic channels. If you need more help on how to get started, contact our sales team for expert advice.

Contact Us to Learn More