Introduction
Launching a self-serve advertising platform involves more than just financial investment—it also requires commitment of resources and operational alignment. Through discussions with media owners globally, we’ve identified several recurring concerns. Here we address those concerns to help inform and guide your decision-making.
Concern 1: Pricing and Low Demand
Setting the wrong pricing or failing to attract enough advertisers can result in underperformance. To ensure a success, media operators should actively manage advertiser acquisition and continually optimise both pricing and inventory positioning. Since self-serve platforms make pricing visible, it’s essential to align pricing strategy with other sales channels to maintain consistency and avoid confusion
Concern 2: Channel Conflict with Direct Sales
Self-serve platforms may be perceived as competing with traditional direct sales teams, potentially leading to revenue cannibalisation. Clear boundaries between self-serve and managed sales is essential. For example, setting a minimum spend threshold for direct sales ensures smaller campaigns are automatically directed to the self-serve platform—allowing both channels to work in tandem without conflict.
Concern 3: Platform Maintenance and Support
Self-serve platforms require ongoing updates, monitoring, and advertiser support—particularly for less tech-savvy users. This can increase the burden on internal teams. Viztrade simplifies this by managing all hosting, maintenance, and technical support, allowing media owners to focus on promoting the platform and driving advertiser demand.
Concern 4: Advertiser Acquisition and Retention
Attracting and retaining advertisers requires compelling inventory, competitive pricing, and solid customer support. While agency spend is significant, SMEs represent a much larger share of the market. With the right marketing and a strong brand, self-serve platforms can generate substantial incremental revenue. This is a volume-driven model—get the formula right, and the results can be transformative.
Conclusion
Every new sales channel comes with initial challenges. By anticipating these hurdles early, you can develop strategies that mitigate risk and set your self-serve platform up for long-term success.
