Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, programmatic advertising takes guessing out of the equation and creates a smarter (automated) path to ad purchasing. Businesses everywhere are taking advantage; in fact, eMarketer estimates that programmatic display spending will hit roughly $33 billion in 2017. 

But, to truly create a successful ad campaign, it takes more than winning the bid for ad space. Agile ad strategies are informed by real-time performance data, as compared to previous campaigns and your competitors. 

Luckily, there are ad intelligence tools available to help you do just that (without the hours and hours of manual data pull).

That’s where Pathmatics comes in.

Pathmatics provides unique insights that deliver a proven competitive edge to brands, agencies, adtech companies, and publishers. If you’re new to Pathmatics, below we’ve included an inside look at key features of the platform.

A Tour of Pathmatics Features

Your Dashboard

When you login, “My Dashboard” will be your primary view. Your Dashboard is 100% personalized based on the advertisers, websites, and ad networks you choose to follow. Simply click the “Follow” button next to any advertiser, website, or publisher profile, and it will be automatically added to your Dashboard.

Once you have a collection of brands you follow, the Dashboard will present real-time data and insights whenever you login—from impression spikes, new creatives, new creative alerts, direct and indirect buying opportunities, and more.

For a more in-depth look at setting up your Dashboard, read 3 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Pathmatics Dashboard.

Top Advertisers

Next, navigate to Top Advertisers from the main toolbar. 

The Top Advertisers feature provides a full breakdown of direct and indirect brand spend across all industries. You can get more granular with your data by taking advantage of the following filters: 

• Device and format (e.g. desktop display, mobile display, mobile video, etc.)
• Direct vs. indirect advertisers
• Date range
• Region

Scroll down the page to compare industry advertising activity by relative frequency (see image below) and top purchase channels. 

Advertiser Categories

Zero in on your industry with the Advertiser Categories tab. You can choose a category (e.g. Advertising and Marketing, as pictured below) and browse top advertisers in that select vertical—segmented by date range and device type.

Taking it a step further, the Advertiser Categories section also showcases top creatives by trade, as well as top sites, spend, and impression share. You could potentially uncover missed advertising opportunities or discover new networks to leverage for more impressions using this data.

Advertiser Comparison

Already know who your top competitors are? Using Pathmatics, you can spy on competitor strategy and create a side-by-side comparison of brand advertising efforts. Discover how your brand stacks up in the following areas during a specific time period: 

• Overview: Overall spend and impression volume, alongside total number of creatives.
• Historical Comparison: A timeline of daily spend and impressions to uncover traffic spikes and long-term trends.
• Top Sites Running Creatives for [BRAND]: Full listing of sites (indirect and direct) running creatives for your competitor as compared to yours.
• Top Sites NOT Running Creatives for [BRAND]: Full list of sites that are not running creatives for your competitor.
• Purchase Channel Breakdown: Spend and impression share broken down by network (direct, DSP, ad network, or unknown).

Below is an example overview comparing fitness brands Nike and Adidas. To further strategize with Pathmatics, read How to Become an Ad Spy.

Site Comparison

Site Comparison lets you conduct a side-by-side analysis of select websites. This tool is a game-changer when deciding between two third-party outlets for spend share. Compare two sites to answer questions like:

• Who are compared sites selling impressions to?
• What other brands are advertising on these sites?
• Which brands have chosen not to advertise on these sites?

In the following example, we’ve compared Time.com and CNN.com.

AdMocker

Using AdMocker, see how your ad would look on select sites. It’s easy: enter a desired URL where you plan to allocate ad spend. Then, upload or select a sample ad, then drag and drop your ad on the page.

In the example below, we’ve mocked up how an Apple “Carpool Karaoke” ad might look on Buzzfeed.com.

Chrome Extension

To get real-time ad information while you browse industry website, download the Pathmatics AdRoutes extension for free. Once installed, you can access brand advertising data without leaving your browser.

We’ve developed the Pathmatics platforms so that it’s intuitive, easy to navigate, and able to power your ad strategy. Want to learn more? Take Pathmatics for a test drive.