The Future of Programmatic Advertising: How AI is Changing the Game

Hey, hi everyone. Now, welcome to your show, E-Coffee with Experts. This is your host, Ranmay here. And today we have Stefanie, who is a seasoned digital media expert with over 17 years of experience, and she’s the founder and CEO of SMB Media Consulting. Hey, Stefanie, how is it going?

Hi, thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Great. Stefanie, before you move any forward, let’s get the human behind the mic. Why don’t you talk us through your journey thus far and also more about SMB Media Consulting or agency, What are you guys specializing in? What are your core competencies? And we take it off from there.

Yeah, definitely. Thank you so much. So SMB Media Consulting is a full-service digital media consultancy. We act more like an agency because we are hands-on fee board. But really what we pride ourselves on is being a performance-based agency, working with our clients, brands, and agencies to help them achieve their revenue goals through digital advertising. We offer services through paid search, social, programmatic, SEO, AdOps, digital, email, data, analytics, and really anything in between. Anything on a digital screen, we can really help you with. We do the same for our agency clients, but on a white-labeled solution. We help them with their clients and under staff teams. We really look to immerse ourselves in our client’s difference to understand their goals, their assets, their needs, their wants to really ensure that we’re putting forth the best possible outline, strategy, and media plan. One thing that differentiates us is that all of our staff is senior, so everybody has held a direct level or above position before working with me. We have one expert that would be assigned to your business based off of the media that you’re looking for. That person would be responsible for everything from building out a strategy, media planning, execution, point of management, optimization, and all of that.

We’re fully invested from the beginning to the end of the campaign. That’s what really drive efficiencies. We’re cost-effective with a lot of our clients, and we really drive performance. We have a 90 renewal rate for a second term and a 95% renewal rate for a third term. So we must be doing something right.

Yeah, absolutely. I’m sure. So Stefanie, in 2016, you decided to break free from the traditional 9:00 to 5:00 stuff. So what are the biggest challenges and learnings during that initial shift?

It was hard. I was a new mom. I wanted more flexibility. And I felt like I was missing a lot of things at home, but I really still wanted to work. I had gotten let go for my last job, and I took some time off and was like, You know what? I want to be remote two days a week, and I work full-time, but once a day to be promoted. I couldn’t sign that. I interviewed for a year. This was in ’22 before COVID, before everybody was home, and nobody would hire me that way. I turned down three jobs, and I decided to consult in the meantime, and I really enjoyed the impact I was having on these businesses. When one project ended, another project began. In the beginning, it was just me. My background is in programmatic, and I had one ad-hoc person. My client started asking for other services and other I started to onboard other people that had those expertise and SMV was naturally born, and then we naturally grow. All of the services that we have been brought on because of what our clients’ needs and wants are. Now we have a holistic service offering that allows us to be a part of the business in any aspect of digital media and in any part of it.

If a client only needs strategy work or only needs media planning or only talking management, that’s fine, too. We can come in really anywhere. One of the things that I’ve learned is that there’s a lot of levels of management, and it was really refreshing to be able to work directly to the client and get back to what really matters. But starting with this is hard, and there’s so many lessons that you learn. One of the biggest things that I learned is to nurture your network. You’re not really where people are going to end up or when you’re going to need them again. My background, I started off at an agency, went to a digital agency, I worked at an ad server. I was at MediaMath, which is a DSP for four years. I was at Homatic, which was an SSP for two years. And along But all the way, you feel like, Okay, I’m at an ad server, so I’m not going to be working with these people anymore. Oh, I’m not going to be at a VMP, so I’m not going to be working with those types of people anymore. As big as advertising is, it is as small as the industry is.

Those relationships is really important. A lot of my business and my success has been through those partnerships and relationships, past clients, past car relief, and so on and so forth.

Absolutely. Starting an agency is one thing. I’m not saying it’s easy. It’s quite an achievement in itself. But keeping it up there is, again, a mammoth task there. Give us more about landing your first big client under the SMB umbrella. How did the look like? How chaotic was it? Landing your first big client as a new agency is not easy, right? Give us more on that.

It’s very exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. Honestly, one of our first clients under the SMB umbrella when my company was actually established after freelancing, so to speak, was a company called Blue Mess. They are a home decor, sustainable brand, have really beautiful items. We were looking to help drive awareness for this new brand and sales. They were a direct to consumer brand. They was very new. They didn’t really have any marketing or advertising. It was really amazing because I started working with them, and right away they were like, Okay, we want problematics, so it’s social. And that was where I started to be like, Okay, I need to extend and bring something else on in order to make this work. And clients want a holistic media plan where all of their media is cohesive, all the messaging is cohesive, the creative is alike, and we’re hitting people in different formats at different points of the day in different mindsets. And we were really able to hone in on that and drive performance. We were very successful for them. We didn’t wind up parting ways a while back. The company is actually looking for sales.

I’m still really good friend with, and I have a monthly meeting with the owner of the business because he’s looking to do other things and wants to bring us on for stuff like that. But it was a little chaotic not really knowing exactly what to do in terms of How do I hire these people? How do I bring these people on? What is their expertise? Are they going to meet up to my expectations? It’s just going to be coquille. It really worked out well. A lot of my staff has been with me for years, and all of our clients really love working with my team. I have clients that come back with a product-based thing or clients that move to a new company and they come and they’re like, Hey, I want so and so. Are they available? That makes you feel good.

Absolutely. That is a brilliant experience, I tell you. Apart from the moolah coming in, but you’re sure that you must have done some good work to get the reference when they move along in their journey and then remind you that, You know what? I had worked with this agency, which did some good stuff for me. That is like a pat on the back, right?

Yeah, it is. From there, a lot of it was through cold calling or networking or a lot of your whole business, which is always the best business. When somebody is like, Hey, I worked with this person, and they’re great, people are more likely to give you a chance as well.

Absolutely. You had some experiences before starting your own agency. Your experience at MediaMath and Pubmatic, How did it actually help shape your approach to a digital strategy when you started your own agency SMB Media Consulting?

So one thing that I wanted to do was have a remote and be able to give working adults flexibility, whether they were parents or taking care of parents or just really leading the flexibility for whatever reason. But past experiences really shaped what I do today and how I construct my company. By what I enjoy doing, their feedback from my client, and what I didn’t see or other set-ups for the way things were done. When I moved, my first job was at a traditional agency. I wanted to work in magazine, print. Good thing I didn’t take that path, but I did want to do that. I took a digital role as an intern while I was still in college as a traditional agency. They hired me afterwards, and I quickly learned that digital was where to go. I moved to a digitally focused agency, and that’s where I really learned client services and customer service and what customer success really meant. I learned how to be reporting, how to manage a person, how to conduct a client call, how to put together an agenda, how to build a strategy. And then from there, I brought all of those lessons with me.

And then everything that I learned, I just took as a little piece of knowledge nugget and moved forward with them. And then what I heard a few back from my clients at Palmatic and the agency even a media map, I listened. From there, I was like, Okay, this is how we’re going to do things differently. This is how I’m going to construct my business. This is how we’re going to plan things out. This is how we’re going to price things to try to remedy some of those headaches for the client so that when they come to work with us, they’re like, This is refreshing. This is in a black box. There’s transparency. We’re learning. We feel empowered. Stefanie and her team know their stuff.

Absolutely. And then with over 17 plus 6 years of experience in programmatic media buying, what are some of the biggest changes that you’ve witnessed in the industry so far? Give us that one truly significant change that you might have gone through or the industry would have gone through rather.

I think it was interesting because I remember being at MediaMath, and we had an all-hand meeting to talk about programmatic. And I was like, I don’t understand. What do you mean? Isn’t this just what we do? Now they’re the name for it. You know what I mean? Yeah. It’s programmatic. It’s really, I know with RxB, and then what was the difference, and all of that. I think the way that programmatic is shifting is really interesting in the terms of AI. A lot of people are nervous about AI, but it’s always been there in programmatic. It’s always been part of the algorithm, the natural language processing, all of the reporting, all of the algorithms that we use to determine what to add to show or how to run reporting and things like that. I think now it’s just at our fingertips, so it could be a little bit more dangerous. But I think the usage of AI today can be very efficient for a lot of businesses and really help them automate some everyday tasks and just make things easier for their teams, especially when things are so expensive and teams are so stressed for tasks.

I think the cookies going back and forth has been a big play. Now not going away. I think it’s interesting to see what’s going to happen and how the industry is going to shift. But also, so many people are ready to take action. So many technologies will build that or where so many people are looking at first-party or zero-party data. I think there’s just natural evolution within the industry to always do more and be better and always be first. But I think you have to look and see what makes sense for you and your brand and what helps you stay true to what you’re looking to achieve. Then there’s the rise of the media networks and the retail networks and all of that. When you really think about it, it’s almost just like a cycle with a different view and maybe a minor take here or there. But I think what keeps programmatic starting and interesting is that it keeps changing. It keeps it confusing for the client, but it keeps it fun for us.

Absolutely. I loved it when you said that AI was always there while the ChatGPT actually exploded. Ai was always there. We have been using AI for quite some time now, even before ChatGPT was there, while automating and using machine learning to automate the results on our platform. Yeah, it was there. Just that ChatGPT exploded, nothing had before. So that’s there. And then talking about AI, Stefanie, what is the best use of AI that you guys are making at SMB or something that you’re really excited about in times to come?

I think the way that some of the technologies that we use are embracing is really exciting. We use it a little bit internally dabbling here and there and just helping with internal resources and things of that sort. We are still figuring out the best way for us to utilize it, but with a lot of the partners that we are working with or a lot of the technology partners that we bring on board for our clients, the way that they’re incorporating it into the technology, I find to be really fascinating in terms of allowing for more extensive reporting or other metrics or being able to drive creative or create different assets within an interface using AI and still being on brand and still being efficient and still helping things out. I find it so interesting the way that people are utilizing it as opposed to how scary it can actually be. I think the serious thing about it is just that it’s not necessarily regulated in any way right now. So you’re not really sure what the output is, where did that come from, how long ago was that analysis, things like that. And some people don’t necessarily do their homework and check on that. They just take it for face value and sometimes it isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Absolutely. And finally, Stef, while you are on my podcast tonight, what motivated you to launch your own podcast, the Digital Marketer? Talk us through it, and how do you see podcast as a marketing strategy as well? What are your thoughts on it?

That’s exactly why I started it. It was for a marketing strategy. Last year, one of our company goals was to have more thought leadership and more content and being able to try to give back to the industry in some way. The Digital Markets Here is a podcast that we started last year that really educates the industry on different technologies, different partners, different opportunities, bringing on other entrepreneurs, and really just honing in on what’s available in our industry. Why would we use it? How do we use it? And it’s like the best for me, looking to partner with different clients and may have different. Sometimes we’re looking for different types of partners or things like that. Sometimes you don’t want a million phone calls or six different emails because you sell a lot of form on a web page. I heard this, I heard about this, and I’m interested in it, but I want to learn more before where I reach out. I’m hoping that the digital market here is what provides that to people, giving them information, being relevant, educating them on what’s out there in the industry, as well as what it’s like to start your own business, what it’s like to grow a business, what it’s like to adopt a different technology, and what are the options out there.

It’s been very successful. We’ve had a lot of really great guests. We just launched our YouTube channel, so we have video out now, too. We’re booked through the rest of the year, and people are reaching out to us wanting to be on it. It’s just been a lot of fun, which I’m sure you understand having your own podcast. It’s one of the things that I enjoy doing on my day to day for sure.

Yeah, absolutely. Meeting new people, talking about different business models. It’s a great learning as well being in the space for so long. But everyone has their way of doing their own business. You get to talk about a lot of strategies. There’s a lot of learning there. I’m always eager and look forward to these sessions for sure. Good, Stefanie. For our listeners, if they want to reach out to you, Stefanie, how do they do that?

They could find me on my then, Stefanie Beach. It’s Stefanie with an F and Beach like the Beach, or our website at smbmediaconsulting. My email is Stefanie@smbmedia.com

Lovely. Thank you, Stefanie . This has been a brilliant conversation. I’m sure the audience will love it. Thank you so much once again for taking our time to do this with us. Really appreciate it.

Yeah, definitely. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure. I hope you have a great rest of your day and a good weekend.

You too. Thank you. Cheers.

Cheers.