The “content velocity” triggered by the rise of programmatic advertising, along with increasingly varied consumption patterns across devices and platforms by consumers, has led Adobe to introduce more advertiser-friendly features into its Marketing Cloud.
Announced at the European version of its Adobe Summit last week, the company said it would integrate Dynamic Content Optimization, a feature from its Media Optimizer product, into Adobe Marketing Cloud. That means brands and their agencies will be better able to adjust creative and campaigns in real time depending on a consumer’s usage patterns.
“One of the biggest challenges in the world of programmatic is all this data and segmentation,” explained Tim Waddell, director of product marketing, advertising solutions at Adobe in Salt Lake City. “The time and cost needed to develop specific ad units around that is very cumbersome.”
A retailer might see segments of abandoned shopping cart users who had looked at a Sony TV but didn’t buy it for some reason, he offered by way of example. The changes to Adobe Marketing Cloud would allow companies to use a feed of dynamic ad templates and offer the right image with a corresponding offer and header when those users move elsewhere on the Web.
“In the past, a customer might have had two or three segments and didn’t have to create a massive volume of units,” Waddell said. “The move towards the programmatic platforms means there’s so much more data available and as a result there’s a need to have more granular.”
Dynamic Content Optimization was added to Media Optimizer following Adobe’s purchase last year of an ad tech firm called Tumri, but its integration shows how the firm is trying to bring more benefits from its Audience Manager product to its customers.
Whereas Media Optimizer was primarily used for handling video ads on Facebook, meanwhile, Adobe said the product could now be used for purchasing and optimizing any standard video ad across the Web..
“The need there is to allow our customers to run video wherever the sources might be. That ensures we can help optimize the most efficient mix between Facebook and whatever comes in the future,” he said.
Other major changes include the ability to adjust search results in Media Optimizer based on location information, concentrating both social and display ads on the areas with the highest percentage of potential customers. Waddell gave the example of a golf club retailer who might increase or decrease a bid based on the time of year, or if the consumer might be buying in a place close to golf courses.
“It just allows us to have more insight and make tweaks to make more efficient campaigns,” he said. “You need a lot of data to lead that, but up until now, it was a case of, ‘Do I have enough information to adjust the algorithm?’”
In its most recent “Magic Quadrant,” where it offers a detailed evaluation for competing products in the same segment, Stamford, Conn.-based research firm Gartner Inc. named Adobe in the “leaders” area for its Marketing Cloud, though it suggested those investing in it should be prepared to keep their wallets open.
“The modular nature of Adobe’s marketing cloud, while lowering barriers to selective, customized adoption, also appears designed to optimize upsell and cross- sell opportunities, and some users complain of key features that require upgrades to higher-end versions or neighboring products,” its report said. “Adobe tends to attract implementations requiring high levels of customization and support, which, despite standard bundled consulting services and a growing community of professional services partnerships, can lead to difficulties planning budgets and forecasting ongoing support costs.”
Waddell suggested those budgets and forecasts will be easier given that marketers are still working closely with agencies who understand the most common needs of their clients.
“We’re not replacing them, we’re giving them better tools to make things more efficient,” he said. “Agencies are really interested in time savings, and to give (their clients) greater insights. There is a trend towards customers wanting more transparency, how their campaigns are delivering. This is giving them that.”
Adobe made a slew of other announcements at the Adobe EMEA Summit, including mobile audience acquisition in Media Optimizer, and data science capabilities such as smarter allocation in visitor traffic for Adobe Target.
