How Does Digital Media Buying Work?
Digital Media Buying leverages automated technology to purchase advertising space, replacing traditional manual methods. Even the most compelling ad will not achieve its potential if it isn’t placed effectively or targeted at the right audience. Therefore, securing the best ad space at an optimal price while ensuring it reaches the right audience is crucial.
The digital advertising market operates through ad exchanges that facilitate automated auctions, connecting two primary parties:
1. Advertisers – Businesses looking to purchase ad space on digital platforms.
2. Publishers – Website owners and digital platforms selling advertising space.
Digital Media Buying utilizes advanced algorithms to automate the sale and placement of digital ad impressions via ad exchange platforms. This process occurs within fractions of a second and ensures more precise, scalable, and efficient targeting, leading to better return on investment (ROI).
The Digital Media Buying Flow
A user visits a website.
The website owner lists the ad impression for auction via a Supply-Side Platform (SSP).
Advertisers place bids for the impression using a Demand-Side Platform (DSP).
The highest bidder wins the auction.
The ad is displayed to the user on the website.
The user interacts with the ad, potentially leading to a conversion.
Despite multiple steps, this entire process happens in real time. Mortar AI, along with its partners, ensures advertisers receive premium ad placements to optimize campaign performance.
Creating Your Digital Media Campaign
Prospect Targeting
Prospect targeting is a focused marketing approach that identifies and engages potential customers who are most likely to be interested in a product or service. This method analyzes user behaviors, characteristics, and intent signals to determine the best audience for conversion.
📌 Note: Initially, only Prospect Targeting Campaigns can be created.
Campaign Creation Process
Step 1: Start Your Campaign
Navigate to Digital Media Buying > Create New Campaign.
Alternatively, click the "Create Digital Media Campaign" button.
By default, the Prospect Targeting Campaign option will be selected.
Accept the terms by checking the "I agree..." checkbox.
Click “Start Creating Your Campaign.”
The system will redirect you to the Campaign Settings Page.
Campaign Settings
Campaign Name
Choosing a clear, unique campaign name is essential, especially when managing multiple concurrent campaigns.
Time Zone Selection
Selecting the correct time zone ensures that ads are displayed when the target audience is most active.
Daily Budget (USD)
The minimum daily budget for an effective campaign is $25.
Campaign Start and End Dates
Define the start and end dates considering your campaign objectives, budget, and audience behavior trends.
Campaign Objective
Identify the primary goal of the campaign, such as brand awareness, engagement, lead generation, or sales.
Choose the most suitable algorithm based on your advertising strategy.
Branding and Bidding Strategies
Dynamic CPM (Cost Per Mille)
Dynamic CPM is a pricing model where the cost per 1,000 ad impressions adjusts dynamically based on real-time factors such as:
User behavior (engagement patterns and intent signals)
Ad placement quality (premium vs. standard inventory)
Real-time bidding activity (competition for impressions)
📌Important: Ensure the Dynamic CPM value is greater than 0 for proper campaign execution.
Max Viewability Rate
Max Viewability Rate ensures that ads are displayed in placements with the highest probability of being seen by users. This metric optimizes ad performance by prioritizing viewable impressions rather than just served impressions.
Minimum Viewable CPM
Minimum Viewable CPM is the lowest bid price required for an ad to be served in a viewable position. It ensures that advertisers are not paying for impressions that fail to meet industry-standard viewability benchmarks.
Flat Bidding
Flat bidding is a fixed bid pricing model where advertisers specify a constant maximum bid for each impression, independent of real-time auction fluctuations.
This method provides cost predictability and budget control.
Unlike Dynamic CPM, bids do not adjust based on competition or placement value.
📌Important: Ensure the Flat Bid value is greater than 0.
Ad Frequency Management
Frequency Capping
Frequency capping limits how often a specific user sees an ad within a defined time frame. This prevents ad fatigue, user annoyance, and wasted impressions.
• Impression Capping Type – Restricts the number of times a user is exposed to an ad.
• Duration – Defines capping on a daily, hourly, or campaign-wide basis.
Brand Safety
Brand safety refers to the measures taken to ensure that ads do not appear in inappropriate, harmful, or non-brand-aligned environments. This prevents:
Placement on controversial, low-quality, or harmful websites.
Association with fake news, explicit content, or extremist material.
Negative brand perception due to misaligned ad context.
Mortar AI employs strict brand safety protocols by using:
Blacklists (blocking undesirable websites).
Whitelists (approving premium, high-quality inventory).
Contextual analysis (ensuring ads appear in brand-appropriate content).
Audience Targeting
Demographic Targeting
Users can select locations and languages to refine the campaign reach.
📌 Note: Reporting timestamps may vary due to global time zones.
Contextual Targeting
This method aligns ads with the content of the webpage where they are displayed, ensuring better relevance and engagement.
Third-Party Data Targeting
Uses external data sources to define audience segments based on demographics, interests, financial status, and purchasing power.
First-Party Data Targeting
Leverages Mortar AI’s proprietary customer data for audience targeting.
📌 Steps to activate:
1. Fill in the Mortar First-Party Data Activation form.
2. Click Submit.
Ad Network Selection
Option 1: Let AI automatically select the best-performing ad networks.
Option 2: Manually choose preferred networks from a list.
Creative Assets
Landing Page URL
Defines where users are directed after clicking the ad for higher conversion rates.
Ad Creative Specifications
Allowed file formats: JPG, JPEG, PNG.
Ensure creatives adhere to platform-specific guidelines.
📌 Final Step: Agree to the terms and conditions to activate the campaign.
Finally, your campaign is up and running!
