DMP vs DSP in advertising technology: when to use both platforms

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital advertising, marketers are constantly seeking more efficient ways to connect with their target audiences through personalized and impactful messaging.

At the heart of this quest lie two crucial technologies that have reshaped the way marketing strategies are crafted and executed: Data Management Platforms (DMPs) and Demand Side Platforms (DSPs). These platforms, integral components of the programmatic advertising model, offer data-related services that enable marketers to refine their targeting campaigns and tailor their marketing messages with unprecedented precision with audience data.

What is a Data Management Platform (DMP)?

Data Management Platform (DMP) is a platform where the data is being collected, analyzed, managed and activated. DMP stores 1st-, 2nd, and 3rd party data which are processed and integrated. This makes possible to see a full customer view. DMP also allows segmenting the gathered data into target groups, such as heavy buyers or jazz music lovers.

Some of the DMPs offer connections with external sets of 3rd party data to find audience that hasn’t visited your website. You can choose from hundreds of segments, such as Music Lovers, Automotive Fans or Nike Followers to reach the right target groups. Moreover, DMP allows finding the new users, who have similar characteristics as the users from your target group. It can expand your customer network immediately.

DMP technology is a perfect solution for companies of all sizes who are focused on gathering all possible data about customers and gaining audience insights. Being experts in Big Data area, OnAudience DMP processes billions of user profiles and our data scientists’ team is ready to help your company in implementing and configuring the platform. Read more about what is DMP and 6 great benefits of using DMP.

What is a Demand-Side Platfrom (DSP)?

Demand Side Platform (DSP) is a part of Real-Time Bidding mechanism – one of the well known programmatic techniques for online media buying. DSP works on behalf of advertisers, marketers or advertising agencies during the real-time auction and aims to buy media for the lowest price. Based on the campaign data, DSP allows making a bid per user with an individual price and choosing the most relevant ad content for him. Check our blog article for more details about how Real-Time Bidding works.

DSP makes it possible to have a customizable profile. An account owner can configure the so-called, ‘frequency capping’ – a number of occurrences of the same ad for the same user.

DSP works closely with Supply Side Platform (SSP) which represents publishers (the sell side) during the real-time auction. 

DSP is a great tool for companies, which have enough own data for the online campaign or want to buy it from external resources. With DSP you have a constant look into the actual reports, so you can adjust your campaign in real-time, including even a budget. To check how to easily buy audience data on DSPs, check our blog post: How to buy audience data?

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DSP vs DMP: key differences

The main difference between DMP vs DSP is the data collected on the platforms. DMP stores all kinds of data for marketing purposes, while in DSP the data is stored on the campaign level only. 

We gathered 5 main differences between DSP and DMP:

DMP vs DSP in advertising

DMP collects users’ demographic data, interests and buying intentions out of their browser behavior. As a DMP account owner, you can apply certain segmentation rules to create a custom segment and have a view of the complete customer picture. This helps you to better understand your target audience and use this knowledge during campaign planning. 

DSP provides multiple options for setting conditions of ad inventory buying to advertisers or advertising agencies. The platform automates repeatable actions in the process of setting up the online campaign, eliminates human negotiations and saves time, reduces human error. 

DSP and DMP integration in programmatic ecosystem

Being cross-functionally connected, DSP and a DMP together with SSP and an ad exchange compose a programmatic ecosystem, where can be configurated and maintained the most tailored and profitable campaign. Being integrated with a DMP and SSP, DSP launches algorithms to pick the best pair of user and the ad. They all work simultaneously, so the process starts in a moment when the user comes into the website and lasts milliseconds.

Integrated systems altogether provide various options for receiving data from different sources and use collected data to reach your customers intelligently.

DMP and DSP integration helps you to reach your customers. Through DMP you can license segments that you had created to DSP platforms. So that, you can send personalized messages to users who, for example, visited specific web-page on your website or frequently buy shoes.

OnAudience DMP is integrated with the world’s top DSPs – see the list of DMP and DPS integration below:

• Adform DSP
• DV360 DSP
• The Trade Desk DSP
• Microsoft Advertising

Where to purchase audience data?

Using data, remember about its quality. Choose the data provider that delivers transparent and quality-assured data, as it has a big impact on final efficiency and budget saving.

OnAudience.com delivers high-quality information about users. Our data exceeded the Nielsen DAR benchmark levels by 19 to 48 percentage points. OnAudience.com data is available on DSP platforms such as Adform, DV360, The Trade Desk and Microsoft Advertising. To learn more about buying audience data, check our post: How to buy audience data?

Additionally, OnAudience offers 3rd-party data that is:

• GDPR-compliant
• Accurate & up-to-date (confirmed by Nielsen DAR)
• Made up of 1,200+ predefined segments and 27 billion user profiles

Check audience data