Before your campaign goes live, before you define the audience, and even before you set the budget, you need to make one key decision.
Do you take control of your ad campaign like a boss or pass the reins to digital ad experts?
With programmatic advertising, you can go full DIY with a self-serve DSP, setting up your own campaigns, selecting audiences, inventory, tweaking your campaign as you go, making adjustments, and learning from every decision.
On the other hand, you can take a step back and trust a team to handle the heavy lifting, letting you focus on other priorities while they fine-tune your campaign for the best results.
Both options have their benefits and drawbacks, but which one works best for your business? Let’s break it down!
DIY with a self-serve DSP
If you love dashboards more than your morning coffee (okay, maybe not that much), self-serve is for you. It lets you build your programmatic expertise and gives you the freedom to set up targeting, adjust bids, analyze performance, and more. Oh, and nothing beats the feeling of seeing your campaign work and delivering outcomes for your business.
Pros:
Total control, quick adjustments.
Typically needs much lower budgets.
No dependence on vendors, or agencies to a large extent.
Cons:
Needs some knowledge of digital advertising.
You’re on your own, flying solo.
Starts to get complex when you have lots of campaigns running.
Managed—For When You’d Rather Not Lose Your Hair
If you’ve ever had a “Why is this not working?” moment, managed services are like handing over your campaign to a group of seasoned pros who’ve got it all figured out. No stress, no mess—just results.
With managed services, your campaign is in the hands of a team of seasoned professionals who are experienced in optimizing programmatic ads for success. You get the benefit of their expertise, the convenience of their support, and the confidence that comes with knowing your campaigns are in good hands.
Pros:
Streamlined campaigns, specialized team.
Cons:
They’re pros, but they don’t come cheap.
Know When to DIY vs. Trust the Experts
If you’re the kind of player who loves to dive into your own campaigns, or your digital ad requirements are not too massive, DIY is your perfect game. But when your campaign turns into a 3-hour-long Catan session where you’re stuck waiting for that one elusive resource… it might be time to call in the pros to help you win.
Self-serve digital ad platforms work great for brands with in-house teams who have the time, skills, and bandwidth to execute and manage complex campaigns. They also work well for small and medium businesses running their first campaigns, or have a handful of campaigns they want to run.
But when you’re dealing with intricate targeting, big-budget campaigns, massive audiences, numerous platforms or simply lack the time, desire or expertise to tweak things constantly, managed services can provide the expertise that takes your campaign to the next level.
But Why Not Have the Best of Both Worlds?
Why choose one when you can have both? With the right platform, you can easily switch between self-serve and managed services, adapting to the needs of each individual campaign. Some days, you’re the hands-on driver—creating campaigns and making every tweak yourself. Other days, you might need an extra set of hands to ensure everything runs smoothly.
A flexible DSP platform gives you the freedom to run campaigns on your terms. If you’re confident in your abilities, go ahead and manage the campaign yourself. But if you need a helping hand to push things forward, ask for expert assistance.
Your Campaign, Your Choice
Some modern DSPs have evolved to be adaptable, allowing you to mix and match between self-serve and managed services.
Ultimately, your advertising campaigns should be as unique as your brand. You need to figure out the model that works best for your business, level of expertise, budgets and the time you have to spend on your campaigns.
We recommend that you try both models to see which one works best for you. A good way to do that is to find a self-serve DSP that also offers managed services, which will give you the chance to road-test both options.
Ultimately, what should matter is whether or not you’re getting the kind of campaign outcomes you need and if your ad budgets are delivering returns to your business.
