I’ve been writing a series for my client Singular on adtech consolidation, which we’ve seen more of in the last year than perhaps the previous five. In my first post, I talked about what’s driving it, and how we were seeing emerging “titans of adtech” who were consolidating adtech empires to challenge Facebook and Google.
Now I ask a simple question: is this consolidation good or bad for marketers?
From my post on Singular’s blog:
All other things being equal, the best number of ad partners you can have is one.
One partner to manage, one dashboard to review, one set of campaigns to manage, one ML model for your ad budget to train up into the highest possible peaks of efficiency, one bill to pay, one set of numbers to inject into your CAC and LTV calculations, and only one thing to occupy perhaps the most precious resource of all: your mental desktop.
But, of course … not all other things are equal.
One ad network does video better. Another offers influencers. Another captures high-intent customers near the point of purchase. Another shares your name, logo, brand, and story to the 95% of people who are not actively looking for what you offer, but will need it in the future. Yet another hits a particular geo stronger, or a demographic that you can’t efficiently access elsewhere. One or two are obvious choices, but create a single point of failure and make your business entirely dependent on them.
So what is the right number?
And, is adtech consolidation good for you? Is the ongoing flood of acquisition in mobile adtech good for marketers?