Marketing first, in the context of optimizing traffic acquisition and customer retention. Commercial secondly, in the context of monetizing Avito's advertising inventory, in addition to premium campaigns.

A DUAL FUNCTION

Programmatics plays a particularly interesting role at Avito, since it has a dual function. Marketing first, in the context of optimizing trafic acquisition and customer retention. Commercial second, in the context of monetizing Avito's advertising inventory, in addition to premium campaigns.

"From a marketing perspective, programmatic is used for user acquisition and retention issues. It is used for both performance and branding issues. From a monetization point of view, programmatic allows for the monetization of advertising inventory and brings additional value to the monetization strategy." BADR BOUSLIKHANE Sales director - Avito.

 

 AS AN ADVERTISER

To begin with, as an advertiser, Avito's objective at the time of its launch was to make itself known as a brand and a platform, by focusing on the top of mind. So naturally, the classic marketing channels were privileged: TV and out of home. However, given the substantial budget required to activate such campaigns, this is a device that the pure player could not activate permanently. Programmatic advertising was therefore positioned as an alternative, allowing it to maintain high levels of trafic and audience, on which the platform is able to capitalize. Thus, to date, 95% of Avito's marketing budget is devoted to digital.

Once top of mind was gained, Avito then switched to retention topics. Thus, while in 2017 the marketplace's strategy was centered around a pure trafic acquisition objective, in 2018 a radical change in strategy was made, and a switch was made to transaction generation. Avito has therefore moved from a CPC optimization strategy, to a CPA optimization strategy; this strategy having been adopted on all channels and activated platforms: programmatic, Facebook, Google.

AS A PUBLISHER

As a publisher, even if Avito has, since its creation, bet on the diversification of revenue sources, the media and advertising component remains an important axis of its activity and business growth.

Indeed, six million people connect to Avito every month, i.e. one Moroccan Internet user out of three, consulting a total of 400 million pages per month, and generating a monthly inventory of 1.2 billion impressions. This is certainly a very large volume, but one that is finally quickly consumed especially since the pure player has positioned itself as a performance player by selling devices by the click, by the lead, and even by the transaction.

Despite this, of the 1.2 billion impressions available, only a portion will be sold by the marketplace's sales force, the rest being put on sale as part of the programmatic device. The American players, initially perceived as competitors by Avito, will be partners in this area. Google Ad Manager (Google's SSP) will take over from Avito's sales force to market unsold inventory, offering two advantages: stable revenues and short payment terms.

AN ESSENTIAL SEQUENCING

Inventory optimization, in other words Yield management, can then start for Avito, as long as a sequencing logic follows.

In fact, Avito always favors direct campaigns coming from its partners and using special formats, bypassing ad blockers or ensuring high visibility, for example.

Programmatic then comes into play, firstly through direct programmatic, in other words deals negotiated between Avito and the tradings desks of certain advertisers, such as Netflix, often based abroad, but frequently buying Moroccan inventory. Then come the private auctions, namely the PMPs set up with heavy spenders, ready to offer interesting CPM levels, like retargeters. These are grouped together and put into competition by the pure player, within what could be described as a "lounge".

This is when the first look comes in, which allows advertisers to pay a little more to have exclusive access to the open auction part, before all the other players. Finally, the remaining inventory is marketed on the open exchange.

WHAT BENEFITS?

So what is the advantage for Avito to use programmatic guaranteed rather than direct sales? First of all, unlike preferred deals, this type of agreement guarantees a volume, and therefore a level of expenditure. In addition, no administrative maneuvering (order form, email exchange, online report, screenshots, etc.) is necessary since the trading desk has control over the entire campaign: modification of creatives, generation of reports, real-time statistics, etc.

All of these elements make this activity extremely profitable and relatively time-efficient for a publisher. At Avito, only two people manage the programmatic part, which represents 8 to 9% of the platform's overall revenues (several million dirhams), or around 15% of Avito's digital advertising revenues.

"Programmatic advertising is rather timid today in Morocco, due to local advertisers who are not yet into programmatic, and also international advertisers who do not necessarily target our audience. On the other hand, premium sites are not yet involved in programmatic, so the offer is not wide enough in terms of investment opportunities. LARBI ALAOUI CEO – Jumia

"Programmatic buying represents the future of digital advertising, because it allows us to effectively meet two major objectives: relevance (the right ad delivered at the right time and to the right person, thanks to the Data), GILLES SINDILA CEO - Mediamatic