How to Choose a DMP (Data Management Platform)

HOW TO CHOOSE A DATA
MANAGEMENT PLATFORM
FOR YOUR COMPANY
10 questions to ask every vendor on your
“short-list”
by Matt Anthony
VP Data Science and Analytics

INTRODUCTION
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So you’ve decided you need a DMP. Congratulations on making a
really smart decision – to put data and customers at the center of
your strategy and programs! Now the key challenge is to choose
the right platform for your business. You have a number of choices
in DMPs – each with its own unique sets of strengths and features.
As with all platform decisions, making the right choice will have
a big effect on the amount of value you ultimately derive from a
DMP.
Because a DMP is a complex piece of technology, it can feel
daunting for a marketer to thoughtfully evaluate alternatives. That’s
why we’ve created this paper – to help simplify and streamline
the process. This short list of questions gets to the heart of what
matters strategically in a DMP so that you can make your decision
with a focused yet sufficient set of information.
The questions in this document fall into five broad categories,
each one of the core capabilities necessary for a robust DMP.
Each capability area contains just two questions to help you focus
on the most important discussions with your potential partner:
COLLECT: Data collection and ingestion
ORGANIZE: Data management and profile development
ANALYZE: Ability to examine, transform and export insights and audiences
ACTION: How the platform integrates with your of partners and platforms
SERVICE: Critical component of any enterprise technology offering
The balance of this document reviews the questions and the rationale for each. While this
list of questions is no substitute for a thorough technological examination of your options
by your IT team, these key queries can help you ensure that the broad strategic needs of
your company can be fulfilled with the platform you choose.
Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved worldwide. | www.apsalar.com
See the top of the next column
for the list of broad topics.

3Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved worldwide. | www.apsalar.com
Can the platform collect or ingest ALL of the
first party data types you wish to unite, including
mobile app, mobile web, PC web, website
interactions, estore activity and purchases and
email CRM interactions?
QUESTIONS
THE
COLLECT
Your DMP is supposed to be the source of record for all of your data
and customer intelligence. That means it needs to be able to collect
or ingest all key first party data sets, including mobile app, mobile
web, pc web, CRM interactions, site analytics, estore data and any
other key data sets you might have. Most DMPs find mobile app
data very hard to collect, process and associate with anonymized
customer profiles. And given that mobile apps represent more than
half of connected customer time, that’s a big issue.
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Can the DMP work with all of the data
collection partners you currently use, including
your web analytics solution, ad server, email
solution provider, estore platform, and mobile
app attribution platform?
Your data platform should conform to you and your brand, not the
other way around. Make sure that your DMP can ingest data from all
of your preferred partners, so you keep implementation as simple as
is practicable.

How does the offering unify and standardize all of
the disparate datasets into anonymized profiles?
What partner are they leveraging for device
matching, and how accurate is the matching?
ORGANIZE
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Perhaps the most critical task of a DMP is creating 360 profiles that
encompass data from all sources. It’s important to ask questions about how
each vendor does that. There are two big things to consider here – their
adherence to digital privacy principles and practices, and the methodology
with which they connect cookie data to other types of data. It probably
makes sense to involve a tech expert in this part of the evaluation. There
are a variety of companies in the business of device mapping today, and
they vary with regard to the scale of matches they can provide, coupled
with the accuracy of those matches. Ask about both. Make sure you are
satisfied with the quality of their answers. And if you already have a partner
of choice in this area, ask if they will work with them.
Can it offer additional contextual or 3rd party
data as an enhancement to the first-party data
that you bring to the platform?
First party data can help you understand customers and predict their
needs better than any other type of data, but it can also be very beneficial
to enhance your customer profiles with third party data including
demographics, lifestyle and life stage, psychographics, and more. A good
DMP will have preexisting relationships with leading third party data
companies to make the process of enhancing your profiles in this manner
easier.

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Does the platform allow for data to be transformed and exported to
external platforms, including as audiences?
ANALYZE
Data is as data does, meaning that your objective in having a DMP isn’t just
collecting and organizing information but actually putting it to good use. The DMP
you choose should make it easy to analyze your data, create cohorts and audiences,
and make them available to your other platforms and partners for use in improving
your marketing effectiveness. Most DMPs do fine on this score, but make sure and
ask. Audiences are also valuable inputs for lookalike modeling, a tactic that media
companies use to find more people “like” your best responders.
What kinds of packaged/out-of-the box analytics does the platform
offer? Will technical experts be able to explain how they chose
the methods of analysis, and why they’re appropriate? Does
the platform enable custom analytics so that additional types of
analysis beyond the out-of-the-box methods can be quickly and
efficiently conducted?
The power of a DMP is in doing more than creating audiences, although that is a very
important task. If you think about a DMP as a living organism for a moment, imagine
that audience export is like a reflex action. Absolutely critical to survive and thrive. It is
analogous to the question – what happens when I do X. But strategic marketing leaders
are at least as interested in the whys? as they are in the “whats.” For what reasons do
these sorts of customers act in these ways? What are the drivers of my business? Are
there ways to innovate to power even more rapid growth? Many DMPs have built-in
reports and analyses, which can be useful in getting value from your platform quickly,
but it’s important to understand the basis of these analyses – is the methodology
sound?

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Can the platform automate the process of connecting audiences and
profiles to my marketing platforms and partners of choice, or does it
require manual integrations?
ACTION
Most marketers have (or have heard) tales of platform integration
challenges. A recent survey of leading retailers showed that they were
working with an average of 27 platforms and media partners, which
perhaps explains why integration is both important and challenging. Your
DMP should simplify this process, with pre-developed integrations that
your brand can literally plug into.
Can the platform ingest actions and export data in real-time to drive
individualized marketing experiences?
The best DMPs combine an ability to deliver data to other platforms periodically
(in batches) or in real-time. Real-time data sharing is increasingly valued by
marketers because it enables a brand to capitalize on perfect moments of
opportunity. Brands can take action immediately when consumers take “trigger”
actions. Perhaps the easiest to understand example here is the cart abandon.
If a customer uses your app or estore and places items in a cart, and then fails
to make a purchase, real-time data sharing would enable you to use marketing
automation to send a push notification or email to incent the customer to finish
their transaction. Studies show that the sooner after an abandon that you can
reach the customer, the more likely they are to take the desired action.

Does the platform offer custom analytics services to support my
internal marketing and analytics teams?
SERVICE
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It’s probably no secret to you or your organization that experienced big data
analysts and statisticians are in short supply these days. As more and more
companies have embraced the importance of data-driven marketing, the
demand for data experts has increased far more quickly than the supply. It is
very valuable to have a data management partner with experienced staff to
help make up for any resource shortfalls you may have as an organization.
Does the provider offer enterprise-grade service and support during
both implementation and on an ongoing basis?
Your DMP should empower you and your team, and having smart and
knowledgeable platform experts available to assist you is important. You’ll
need a strong implementation team, excellent training resources, thorough
documentation, and ongoing enterprise-grade account management sup-
port to get the most from your platform. Ask for specifics here, so there are
no surprises after you sign the contract.

Choosing a DMP is a decision of profound
importance – one that requires that we take a
methodical and informed approach. I hope that this
short list of questions helps make your process
simpler and more effective.
As with many things in life, the key to taking the
right action is not in having the answers so much
as it is in asking the right questions. While it makes
sense for you to have tech experts involved in your
decision-making, thoughtful queries from strategic
marketing generalists can also play a valuable role
in driving the best choice.
CONCLUSION

ABOUT APSALAR
Apsalar, the leader in mobile data management, helps direct marketing
brands get better marketing effectiveness by providing a mobile data
management platform that delivers a true understanding of customer
behavior in apps and across other marketing channels. The Apsalar
Mobile DMP enables brands to measure marketing effectiveness,
enhance, manage, enrich and segment profiles to build audiences, and
easily and safely connect to other marketing partners so brands can
confidently share their data and audiences. San Francisco-based Apsalar
is privately held, with more than $17Million backing from leading venture
capital firms including Thomvest Ventures, DCM, Battery Ventures and
DN Capital. For more information, visit www.apsalar.com.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matt Anthony is VP of Data Science and Analytics at Apsalar, where he is
responsible for the global data strategy as well as the analytics practice
of the company. Prior to Apsalar, he was Senior Director of Analytics
at Mediaplex, the technology & analytics arm of Conversant, where he
developed and led the analytics service line of the company. Before
Conversant, he served as the Director of Analytics for the eCommerce
division of leading US retailer, The Sports Authority. Matt also served as
Director, R&D at Datalogix where he oversaw algorithm & technological
research supporting their full product line. He holds an M.S. in Statistics
from Harvard University and a B.S., magna cum laude, in Mathematical
Social Science from Dartmouth College.

Can the platform collect or ingest ALL of the first party data types you wish to unite, including mobile app, mobile
web, PC web, website interactions, estore activity and purchases and email CRM interactions
Specifically, can the DMP work with all of the data collection partners you currently use, including your web
analytics solution, ad server, email solution provider, estore platform, and mobile app attribution platform?
COLLECT
ORGANIZE
ANALYZE
ACTION
SERVICE
How does the offering unify and standardize all of the disparate datasets into anonymized profiles? What
partner are they leveraging for device matching, and how accurate is the matching?
Can it offer additional contextual or 3rd party data as an enhancement to the first-party data that you bring to the
platform?
Does the platform allow for data to be transformed and exported to external platforms, including as audiences?
What kinds of packaged/out-of-the box analytics does the platform offer? Will technical experts be able to explain
how they chose the methods of analysis, and why they’re appropriate? Does the platform enable custom analytics
so that additional types of analysis beyond the out-of-the-box methods can be quickly and efficiently conducted?
Can the platform automate the process of connecting my audiences and profiles to my marketing platforms and
partners of choice, or does it require manual integration?
Can the platform ingest actions and export data in real-time to drive individualized marketing experiences?
Does the platform offer custom analytics services to support my internal marketing and analytics teams?
Does the provider offer enterprise-grade service and support during both implementation and on an ongoing basis?
THE TEN QUESTIONS TO ASK POTENTIAL DMP PROVIDERS
SUMMARY:
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