Optimize Your Ad Tech Stack

If you’re familiar with the LUMAscape, you know that a publisher could be employing over a dozen different software solutions at any given time, and there could be several options within each business function. Knowing which solutions to look for, which companies to work with, and how to manage those relationships can be a full time job. Here are some things to keep in mind as you navigate your ad tech stack.

Make sure you’re periodically doing a cost comparison. Just about every sector is highly competitive, and you can leverage this competition to get a better deal. Also, keep in mind that SaaS businesses are scalable and their operating costs typically aren’t proportional to the size of their clients. For example, a company might charge one client ten times more than another simply because they know they can. If you’ve done your homework and you keep your vendors honest, you may be able to negotiate a precipitous drop in price.

Think carefully about contract duration. A long-term contract can cut both ways, and you want to make sure that a vendor will hold their end of the bargain, especially when it could take several months to find an alternative. However, it’s important to stay nimble. You never know when something like a pandemic is going to completely change your business, and you don’t want to be stuck paying for a system that you no longer need. A year-long contract with the option to renew is reasonable for just about any enterprise software solution, and if you do want a longer contract, you, as the publisher, should be dictating those terms.

Conduct periodic usage audits. You don’t want to be paying for a system that no longer delivers value, and it can be easy to set something on auto-pilot and forget about it. Check in with your team and ask if a given platform is something they absolutely can’t live without. If they’re indifferent, it’s probably time to cut that vendor loose.

Conduct periodic feature audits. It’s common for software companies to have a product suite that addresses different business functions. You might be working with a company for one service and not realize that it can meet a need somewhere else. When you’re working with multiple companies that offer similar services, it’s worth considering a consolidation strategy that could yield some cost savings.

Get the right tool for the job. While consolidating platforms can be a smart move when there’s little differentiation between vendors, you ultimately want the solution that’s going to produce the best results. Just about all modern systems are interoperable, and a sophisticated operation is going to employ a systems architecture that has the best of breed in each category.

It’s easy to “set it and forget it,” but if you’re not actively evaluating your ad tech stack, you could be missing an opportunity.