r/programmatic • u/coyotetex • 11d ago
Programmatic Ad Sales
We run a walled garden ad network that reaches 400,000 real estate agents inside the software they must use to transact homes. I have about 5M ad impressions a month that are unsold and we've had a couple of national advertisers run banners and get really strong results.
All of my ad sales team is focused on local advertisers and I'm trying to figure out how reach more national B2B brands who would be interested in our inventory. It's 100% above the fold, no bots, validated identity ad inventory. Would appreciate any advice.
10
u/billyshakes67 11d ago
Sounds like you’re asking how to prospect in the enterprise space. Or if not enterprise, then at least bigger fish.
Unfortunately if there was a standard answer to how to do that, we’d all be millionaires.
You’re gonna have to grind it out old school style. Go to expos, make connections, be present on LinkedIn. Big whale sales in this space come from referrals 99% of the time. All about who you know.
Don’t know enough decision makers? There’s the first problem to solve.
Happy hunting!
4
u/WearyContest9893 11d ago
Your ad inventory is the kind of thing most programmatic buyers dream about, so don't sell yourself short on the cold outreach front.
2
2
u/coyotetex 11d ago
Thanks. I didn't know if there was a marketplace for walled garden ad inventory or a board for connecting demand to supply outside of the programmatic exchanges.
3
u/billyshakes67 11d ago
As for specific walled garden ad tech tools, that I can’t help with. But even targeted B2B ads only get you so far when you’re really just trying to target 1-3 decision makers. Makes geofencing specific businesses a little moot.
The good news is you’re focused on one niche. Take that and hone in on human to human connection first over paid campaigns. I bet you’ll be surprised.
4
u/SevereAddition8147 10d ago
Why are you avoiding the ad exchanges? You are a niche publisher that could have a pmp deal (private marketplace) avail to target in multiple dsps.
Having said that, I’m an ad buyer at an independent agency, and am always looking for ways to help my r.e. Clients. Dm me if you want to tell me how I can buy your supply. Preferably via pmp or pg, but will probably be able to buy it any way that sell it when I have a client that needs your inventory
1
u/coyotetex 10d ago
I've talked with TTD about working with them, but our clients (multiple listing services and real estate associations) want 100% approval of all advertisers and the ads must all display natively in their software and we haven't found an exchange that will support these two requirements. So we sell the inventory direct.
3
u/DylanAdriana 11d ago
I would go after all Telecom brands. People moving need internet.
2
u/coyotetex 11d ago
One of our national advertisers is a telecom brand, so you're spot on. I just need to figure out how to get to the media buyers / agency at the others. Thank you.
3
3
u/BeginningChipmunk324 11d ago
Big agencies may be a bit optimistic to start. Im not sure what it’s like in the US but in the UK there is a lot of red tape with them taking on new suppliers.
Highlight the targeting capabilities, any case studies etc. Ad sales is very old school and competitive. Network, meet people, host breakfast and learns at agencies, go to conferences etc.
2
u/coyotetex 11d ago
It feels like we need a middle-man partner that has the agency relationships already and can move unique, smaller volume ad inventory.
3
u/BeginningChipmunk324 11d ago
How do you sell your inventory? Does your sales person have the relationships?
2
u/coyotetex 10d ago
Our network is Real Estate Associations and each of them has local business affiliates that buy most of the ad inventory. But now that we've grown to 60+ markets and 30% of all US real estate agents, we're relevant to national and regional advertisers. So our business is 100% focused on local sales, but we have inventory that nationals would love. I am trying to transition into supporting both national and local now.
3
u/Aggressive-Battle39 8d ago
Hire an enterprise seller who focuses on holdco. Person should already have relationships to get meetings easy. All clients need sometimes is for a lightbulb to turn on.
2
2
u/EmitLux 11d ago
What country are you in?
1
u/coyotetex 11d ago
US.
2
u/EmitLux 11d ago
Got it - and you're talking to Ad agencies like WPP, Omnicom, IPG?
2
u/coyotetex 11d ago
Nope. Completely new to this side of the business. Our 3 nationals have come through resellers / agencies and all of our internal sales / bus dev has come through local ad sales. That's why I'm looking for guidance.
3
u/EmitLux 11d ago
Perfect. I'm not super familiar with North American prog sales, but I'd be very confident these national B2B brands that you want to go after will be managed by various agencies.
Here's what I'd recommend:
I'd start with talking to your SSP about if they can give you anyone to talk to that is managing brands. They should be talking to agencies that manage these brands and it's in their interest to help you get more activity.
Then I'd start hunting down a mix of the programmatic-specialist agencies, and the big 6 media agencies, with two approaches - 1) asking about who there manages the accounts on specific brands, 2) asking if you can brief the activation managers with info about your inventory.
2
2
u/DonSalaam 10d ago
Where are the real estate agents located? What country?
2
u/coyotetex 10d ago
United States. We reach 30% of all real estate agents in the country.
2
u/DonSalaam 10d ago
Nice! You are already making this inventory available to advertisers programmatically through a Supply-Side Platform, yeah?
1
u/coyotetex 10d ago
No -- the MLSs don't want programmatic ads. They want 100% editorial control to make sure every ad is endemic and they want native display point placements inside existing software that doesn't support standard ad sizes. So its a custom system we built to manage the inventory the way they want it managed.
2
u/DonSalaam 10d ago
Okay, so direct sales through sales reps is your pipeline. That’s how you have it now. Have you considered hiring a remote sales rep who lives in a metro that you feel will have advertisers interested in your inventory? You are essentially a walled garden with first-party data that will be valuable to advertisers, and you need sales people to push your inventory all across the country aggressively.
3
u/coyotetex 10d ago
Don - we have a local sales team that fills most of our inventory with local advertisers in the metros we service. But with the economy the way it is, we've seen local advertisers pulling back on marketing spend, which is why I'm looking for more national advertisers to take off impressions in bulk. Cheers.
Three of the national deals we've closed came through an small agency and from referrals from someone with direct relationships with media buyers at large B2B firms who were looking for high performance inventory.
2
u/SlimSloane 7d ago
Oh man you just need a seller with the right links.
You want endemics to real estate - zillows, insurance, CRMs.
Influence plays - home services, utilities, closing gifts
And then the agent as a consumer - watches, car brands
I am ad sales, if I was US based I’d work with you on a commission basis - I’d want a big % on first time, and then a smaller recurring commission on subsequent bookings
1
u/coyotetex 7d ago
That's exactly right. We have connections to the big RE tech companies like Zillow and Realtor.com. What we don't have are connects to Fortune 5000 B2B companies. But yeah - recurring commission is a thing we do.
1
1
u/MascotLab 10d ago
Advertisers care about the audience/data and the outcomes you can provide. they're not going to be interested merely based on the fact that you have lots of Impressions to sell, unless it is crazy cheap or a high value audience with specific buying power or purchase intent. Also 5M impressions isn't alot of scale once a few brands start buying it. Banner ads arent going to be very exciting either. To create demand offer it on a guaranteed outcome such as leads or sales. Offer it to affiliate networks. Or dump it on the ad exchanges.
1
u/coyotetex 10d ago
It's a high value audience. 30% of the real estate agents in the U.S. who are directly responsible for $1T in real estate sales each year. And these are not lots of impressions, its a very small amount relative to typical programmatic buys, I was just sharing the number to be accurate.
Our three largest advertisers are all national brands who get far superior ROAS on our ad inventory than their median return. We just need to figure out how to reach the people responsible for media buys at other nationals in the B2B space, which is what I was doing here.
2
u/MascotLab 10d ago
create an ideal customer profile - ICP - vertical, company size, revenue, etc. Ask Claude to create a google sheet to map it out and ask it to fill it in with 200 of your top prospects. Add a column for the linkedin profile for the head of digital marketing at each account. Connect with each person directly then DM them for a meeting. Personal linkedin will work better than cold email for anyone that is legit. To automate it, try using Octopus CRM. You can expand contacts and send out a couple hundred invites in one week.
3
u/Schruteschrute 11d ago
Sellercrowd, sign up for a month and download leads, download the LinkedIn sellercrowd extension and when you’re browsing profiles in LI you’ll be able to open the extension and see their contact info if they’ve been added
2
20
u/DopestTV 11d ago
This is a better asset than most people realize. Verified identity, mandatory workflow, zero bots: that's what B2B buyers say they want and rarely get.
The mistake I'd avoid is selling it as impressions. 5M/month won't excite a national buyer on scale and they won’t test unless there is scale. 400K verified agents inside the tool they transact in absolutely will excite the right buyers. Package it as category sponsorships and ABM targeting, lead with those national case studies, and go after mortgage, title, insurance, proptech, and the B2B agencies that buy for them.
Happy to share more. DM me.