Take the test: what type of programmatic buyer are you?

Today, there are more options than ever. From broad appeal billboards to hyper-personalized ads delivered directly to customers’ mobile phones, marketers have more ways than ever to reach their target audiences–and measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. With so many options available, how do you determine the best way to reach your target audience?

Two options have emerged as the preferred choices for conducting ad buys: managed services and self-service buying (also called programmatic buying). Let’s see how they compare. Managed services provide expertise in campaign development, ad buying, and monitoring of results. The benefit: working with a managed services firm gives you access to expert knowledge and campaign management skills.

In self-service or programmatic buying, you identify customer segments and utilize ad buying software to optimize the chances of reaching your target audience. The benefit: with self-service, you have control of all the details of your campaign.

So which is right for you? We’ve devised this handy quiz to help suss out what kind of ad buyer you are:
1. What is your budget for programmatic buying?

1. Money is not a problem. We are either an established company with a secure budget or a startup with deep pockets and a waiting list of venture capitalist investors.
2. We have a budget for a few different campaigns and a little wiggle room to make them great.
3. Our budget is limited and we need to show results ASAP.
4. My company does not have a budget for advertising, it will need to come from another line item.
5. Ummm… we’re a startup running lean, let me check the available balance on our credit card.

2. What is the level of in-house expertise with programmatic buying?

1. My manager saw an article about programmatic buying this morning but didn’t click through.
2. My team and I understand what it is but haven’t tried it yet.
3. We are currently using some programmatic buying but don’t know how to make it better.
4. We’ve used programmatic buying for over a year and it is taking more time than we expected.
5. Programmatic buying is a core competency and a competitive advantage over our industry peers.

3. What data analytics skills do you have in-house?

1. We once had a math major as an intern.
2. We know how to use Excel to calculate the average cost per lead.
3. We have a rough idea of who we want to target but aren’t sure how to measure our return on ad investment.
4. We routinely build regression models to make predictions about campaign results.
5. Our subject matter experts can teach this stuff.

4. What is your level of social media expertise?

1. Social media is the one on the computer, right?
2. Sure, I know social media. Friend me on Facebook.
3. We are actively using social media but we want to optimize our spend.
4. We’ve nailed our first social platform and are looking to expand to a second channel.
5. We’re killing it. We optimize across social media platforms and physical advertising.

5. How familiar are you with geolocation services?

1. I use a map app to find my way home from work.
2. I haven’t thought much about geography since high school social studies class.
3. I understand it is important for my marketing campaigns but don’t know how to use it.
4. I am familiar with the basics and have done some geocoding in the past.
5. We already optimize ad placements based using geolocation services.

6. Do you link digital and physical world advertising?

1. Like… with magic?
2. Whoa, whoa. Let’s handle one thing at a time before we start merging worlds.
3. We’re using both but they’re not yet linked.
4. We have some preliminary links but the procedures are ad hoc and manual.
5. Of course, it’s already part of our omnichannel platform.

7. How well do you understand your market segments?

1. We’re aiming for people who use the internet.
2. We’ve taken the first steps to understand our segments and have decided to target people who make purchases online.
3. We have several course-grained market segments and are advertising to them now.
4. We are using fine-grained segments categorized by over 20 variables.
5. We use the most detailed demographics available to create personalized ads.

Ok, now for the scoring:

Give yourself:

• 0 points for each time you answered with a 1
• 1 point for each time you answered with a 2
• 2 points for each time you answered with a 3
• 3 points for each time you answered with a 4
• 4 points for each time you answered with a 5

The Results:

If you scored below 5… Hold my hand. I’m ready to learn!

It’s time to learn more about the power of data and programmatic advertising. Foursquare to the rescue! We help customers and clients get up-to-speed on all things location data and build creative, effective campaigns via Foursquare’s Managed Service offering. Let us help you get your first campaign up and running within 48 hours. Connect with a Foursquare location specialist today.

If you scored between 6-18… Prodigy in training.

Nice work! You have a good understanding of media buying, advertising, and campaigns. You can benefit from learning more about programmatic and how location, specifically, can change your business. For folks like yourself, we recommend using Foursquare’s Managed Service offering – at first. Once you get the hang of location data and a bit more knowledge under your belt, you’ll be ready to try our self-service option.

If you scored above 21… It’s cool. I got this.

Whoa. We’re impressed. You could probably run your own programmatic consultancy. If you’re looking for a competitive edge right now, your expertise means you’re able to derive deep value out of Foursquare’s Analytics product. With our unrivaled accuracy and proprietary technology, Foursquare can surface opportunities for business growth and give you a 360-degree view of your customers based on the places they go. Not bad, right?

Ready for the next step?

Connect with us to learn more about how you can leverage data-driven media planning, activation, and measurement with Foursquare.