Top Reasons Why a B2B DSP is Better than a B2C DSP

As Vice President of Advertising at Demandbase, prospects and clients often ask me about the differences between Demandbase’s advertising solution and that of our competitors, the difference between a B2B DSP and a B2C DSP. The short answer is that Demandbase has heavily invested in building a customized B2B demand-side platform (DSP). And it’s integrated end-to-end with the Demandbase ABM platform to support an organization’s overarching marketing strategy. Whereas mainstream DSPs typically used by other ABM providers are point solutions built primarily for less focused B2C outcomes.

I discuss the value of Demandbase’s B2B DSP –– named Piper –– in this brief (under 5-minute) video.

Here are some key takeaways:

What does a B2B DSP do that a B2C DSP can’t?

B2B DSPs, unlike B2C DSPs, harness data insights and optimized account profiles that are generated from the ABM platform. This data connectivity provides multiple benefits, as follows:

1. An ABM platform generates critical insights that help identify and target essential in-market accounts. Because B2C DSPs aren’t connected to ABM source data, they are less focused in their reach. If you’re committed to true end-to-end ABM execution, consider separating your programmatic ad spend from your more brand-oriented programs.
2. B2B DSPs provide more visibility into ad performance. B2C platforms lack visibility into key metrics that measure the success of ABM-related campaigns. With B2C DSPs, you aren’t able to identify if you’ve delivered the ads to your target accounts. Also, you’re not able to measure key metrics like lift and engagement nor confirm if bids were optimized for on- and off-site intent.
3. B2B DSP performance reports drill down to the engagement of key decision-makers in your target accounts. On the other hand, agency trading desks and mainstream DSPs like MediaMath and The Trade Desk –– though outstanding platforms for B2C programmatic campaigns ––just don’t have the depth or context of reporting necessary to create and optimize account-based advertising programs. They’ve been built to target individual users and lookalikes based on their prior actions, not to reach and engage buying committees. And they do so almost exclusively based on cookie retargeting.
4. With B2B DSPs, economies of scale are made possible by combining your SaaS license and your ad campaign spend under one end-to-end ABM partner.

Why are B2C platforms inefficient for account-based marketing?

Most Demandbase competitors partner with primarily B2C programmatic tech. So they’re bolting on a third-party point solution and then either layering on first-party ABM data exported from their platforms, buying Bombora tag-based sampled intent segments, or buying off-the-shelf segments from Oracle Data Cloud and other providers that are often built for B2C. We also know they eventually classify a user in every imaginable category because they use a sample-based probabilistic approach versus the firmographics, IP identification, and cookie-tracking deterministic methods Demandbase uses.

Although you can set certain targeting parameters in B2C DSPs and trading desks, you can’t optimize the algorithm at source. So B2C DSPs are always being reactive and over-optimizing to the few available ABM data points you’re layering on top of the core tech.

What’s so special about Demandbase’s advertising?

We pride ourselves on being truly end-to-end, versus being a point solution that layers third-party segments, often with unreliable and untargeted B2C data. We aren’t a media agency, nor do we want to compete with your agency. Rather, we partner with your agency to deliver on your ABM outcomes.

Also, we don’t bill impressions or report clicks from non-human sources regardless of their purpose, whether from malicious bots or creative validators. You can track all user activity to the account level.

With Demandbase’s B2B DSP Piper, all signals and optimizations from the platform to the bidder are focused on ABM outcomes. Piper is a seamless extension of our platform, built from the ground up to deliver on ABM execution.