Learnings from Programmatic I/O (SF, 2018): Part 1

As you may or may not know, I currently work in the advertising technology industry (ad tech for short) and have been for almost two years now. Earlier this month, I attended Programmatic I/O – a major industry conference - for the first time. It was stocked full of amazing content and truly amazing food.
 
I’ve developed a Recap that covers a bit of what I learned over two extremely educational days.
 
For the sake of digestibility, I’ve broken up my Recap into three parts. This first part will cover new terms and tech I was introduced to, the second part will cover major trends I noticed, and the third part part will cover session content.
 
Part 1: Terms and Tech
 
In most of the sessions I attended, I picked up on some new terms. Some of these were defined by the speakers and with others I did a bit of ad tech research to uncover the definitions. In two particular sessions, as you’ll see below, I learned more about “new tech” than “new terminology”.

​Let's jump in:

• Term: CPI -> Cost Per Install; Session: A Market Perspective on Apps
  • CPI is a key performance indicator used by app developers

 

• Term: Customer LTV -> Customer Lifetime Value; Session: Best Practices for Implementing a CDP (Customer Data Platform)
  • Customer LTV is an important metric used to measure and plan marketing strategies and also understand the value customers bring to a Brand.
  • Interestingly, there's a whole website dedicated to this metric: www.customerlifetimevalue.co/

 

• Term: Google UAC -> Google Universal App Campaigns; Session: Mobile Fraud
  • These campaigns are a good way for app developers to reach more users. Overview and implementation details are here: AdWords Help - About Universal App campaigns
  • Google offers a course on UAC and you can earn a course certificate after completion! More details here: Learn with Google - Introduction to Universal App Campaigns

 

• Tech: AWS Athena; Session: How to Build & Leverage a Unified Data Stack
  • The speaker that mentioned AWS Athena used it in a high-level/low-level comparison to Redshift.
  • Based on my research (Amazon Athena and When to Use Athena vs Other Big Data Services), it looks like Athena is the high-level option for running quick & easy queries compared to Redshift, the low-level, granular option for more complex querying.

 

• Term: GRP -> Gross Rating Point; Session:  Plenary Program, Digitization of TV
  • GRP is a measure of exposures based on a target market. It’s an important metric in the TV advertising space as it helps advertisers determine where to place their ads. Calculated GRPs can be used to both plan TV advertising campaigns and measure their reach.
  • Helpful Links:
    • Marketing Profs Definition
    • Digiday Definition and Discussion
    • Video Ad News Article on Nielsen bring GRP measurement to YouTube

 

• Term & Tech: Private Data Cloud; Session: How To Use Transparent Data to Reduce Programmatic Waste
  • With important topics like online privacy and data usage regulation rising in discussions lately, the focus on ensuring that your data cloud is secure is extremely heightened.

 
Are you also in the ad tech industry? Do you know of any new and emerging terms/tech? Feel free to share!!
 
Stay tuned for Part 2 – thanks for reading! :)
 
-Jewel Langevine