Ekta Jha

Help me understand more about your background by giving a brief introduction of yourself. Okay. Um, so, uh, my recent role was of a senior manager with ShareChat. And, uh, over there, uh, I used to work I used to lead the teams. I used to lead 2 teams. Initially, I was a part of client servicing team who were responsible for being the face of the client once the sale had closed the plan, and then they just hand it over to the client servicing team. And The client service team was responsible for the end to end execution of the campaign to ensure everything goes smoothly by liaising with multiple teams. And later on, I was moved to product team who just make sure that, you know, who understand the strategy, who understand what has to be done to a campaign. And then They set up the campaign on the platform. And they set up the campaign on the platform. And later, They monitor the campaign, and they also, um, like, uh, I mean, report or troubleshoot in case if any issues arises. And they used to share the reports and share the insights. So this was my recent role with ShareChat. Uh, prior to that, I was working, uh, with as a strategic partnerships manager, wherein I was, uh, I used to onboard potential partners for the platform. And, also, it was more like client retention and maintenance was the role. Prior to that, I was working with Baidan's, which and the role was similar to that of share chat. Um, now, uh, my, uh, like, uh, I mean, my background with programmatic Has stayed, you know, from the start of my career while I was working with. And then well, I moved on to do exe And, uh, while I was working with Zaxis, so I was responsible for setting up the programmatic campaigns, d v three sixty. And I have also had that exposure of working with Amazon DSP and Adobe platform. So negotiation with the deals And, you know, setting up multiple deals, working, like, um, running the campaign across multiple platforms for Indian markets such as, Um, for, like, huge clients, like your FMCG brands, like Pepsi, Coke, and for and, obviously, there were, like, multiple accounts that I was handling. And, uh, like, I used to run campaigns in YouTube, in multiple OTTs, in Google Display Network. So that is how the entire background has been. And, also, uh, so I hold around a decade of experience in digital marketing And, uh, wherein I have done team wherein I have led the team, I've done campaign management. I have done account management. I've also been a part of influencer marketing. And, uh, so this is how my entire journey has been. And I have managed campaign end to end and also to an extent wherein, uh, we have also, you know, closed The billing process also. So that is how my entire journey has been.

Okay. Um, so I have usually used Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint to to press I mean, Microsoft PowerPoint is obviously to present the data. And for analysis, I use Microsoft Excel. So whenever we have to, um, analyze how a company has performed or you have to We have to, like, share any data. I use Microsoft Excel. And then, like, obviously, we use formulas with respect to the metric that we have for advertising. And once we have all the data collated and the analysis part is done with respect to Microsoft Excel, Uh, we, uh, I mean, present it or we I mean, create a good format which is presentable enough, And we add that in a PowerPoint and present it to the

Describe your approach to a b testing creators. Okay. Uh, so with respect to a b testing of creatives and a programmatic campaign. So while I was working on d v three sixty platform, um, there have been many a times that, you know, the campaign isn't performing as well as we expected it to so while I used to run display network and on while I were used to run YouTube campaigns, um, over there, what used to happen is, like, obviously, we then have to just check if, uh, like, you know, what is performing and what is not performing with respect to what is the key objective of the campaign, like, if suppose the campaign key objective of the campaign is clicks and CDR is very important. So then I like I mean so, basically, uh, in terms of, you know, testing, what is going well, what is not going well, that is something that I believe is more like, uh, you know, process of analysis and elimination and narrowing it down on what went well and continue running that. So, obviously, with respect to that, we do check if, I mean, the targeted markets, what are the what other targeted markets which are working well, what are not working well, which audience? Uh, I mean, since d v three sixty has, like, multiple audience segments, like your, uh, in market audience, your affinity audience, so you do check which buckets are performing well, which are not. And with respect to creatives, obviously, since in display, you have multiple sizes creative, like your 300 cross 250, 728 cross 90 I mean, obviously, your billboard, your, uh, you know, mobile creatives. So you do check which is going well, which is not going well. Obviously, for mobile creatives, it is very important. Everything that has to you know, that stays below the fold because, uh, not below the fold, like, in the lower half of the mobile screen because, any, you know, anyone I mean, obviously, the tendency to click on that creator is higher because of the way we hold our mobile phones as compared to any creative on the upper screen of the mobile phone, uh

Uh, with respect to third party ad tag, I mean, usually, like, a third party ad tag is Okay. So a third party ad tag, if I would, uh, I mean, clarify that so, I mean, obviously, uh, you have you have uploaded the creative in the advertiser ad server, and then you have provided the tag to run-in the programmatic advertising. So in this way, the data is being tracked in both the ad servers, uh, because of which even so, obviously, initially, like, the publisher used to I mean, obviously, the advertiser did not have much clarity and they were, or you know, they were completely reliable on the publisher data and they had to trust it. So since, uh, the advert advertiser also wanted to track, uh, things are there, and that's how the advertiser server came into picture. And that's when, you know, multiple ad servers came into picture. Like, we have our c m three sixty. We have our ad class. So, yeah, usually, advertiser upload ad tag. Like, you know, creatives on the advertiser server, that's how the ad tags get generated, and that's how the creatives are trafficked in the publisher ad server or into your d v three sixty or any, you know, DSPs. So the entire functionality just belongs to for everybody to be able to track the campaign and track the functionality and the performance of the creative.

Explain how do you maintain effective communication. Okay. I mean, since it's been a while since we all have been working remotely, um, and many of us Like, comfortable working remotely. Few of us are not working remotely. I mean and they're not comfortable working remotely because, Uh, since we have always been in that routine, uh, cycle of, you know, working from office, finishing the office at work, and then coming back home. But wherein you know, there are there is a few other said wherein, you know, they are just comfortable working from home, and they just manage their work within the timelines by reducing the commute time. So effective communication can be maintained by keeping a regular catch up, uh, wherein, um, like, you know, you can I mean, obviously, we have been following it, wherein I mean, as a lead, what I do is I keep regular catch up with my team? I used to, like, uh, I mean, Receive regular updates from my team so that even, uh, I mean, an entire I mean, obviously, a very good effective communication is being maintained and so that we are coordinated and we are all updated and we are all aware of what is going around and what is going with the campaigns with the work that is happening. And, also, it is kind of helpful in building a good, um, what do you say, a good channel and a good flow of communication with the team because Because it is very important for them to and, I mean, obviously, if there is no interaction going on, obviously, I mean, people would stop reaching out to others, and they would not know whom to reach out to and what to do if they get stuck with work, which is a very generic thing that happens at work usually. So, obviously, I do keep a regular catch up call, uh, in case if there are any escalations or if in case if there are The team is stuck somewhere. I believe in keeping a regular call because, um, I think, uh, I mean, rather than Written form of communication, which sometimes is being perceived in another manner. Uh, keeping a call keeps our life simpler. So a very small huddle always works and that it does make the life

Analyze weekly, monthly. Okay. Uh, so analysis of All the 3 data, obviously, is being I mean, the approach is similar on how well the campaign has performed Weekly, how has it performed monthly, and then how it has performed quarterly. But then, Obviously, I mean, the data I mean, obviously, you know, analysis with respect to the time frame is very important. So, um, any campaign I mean, suppose if a campaign is running for around 3 months, Then, obviously, monitoring the campaign every I mean, obviously, we would, um, I mean, basically, how do we monitor a campaign? Um, the required goal I mean, if suppose if it is a CPM based campaign and, uh, it has, like, 1,000,000 impressions to serve, So 1,000,000 divided by if it has to run for around 90 days divided by 90, uh, then we get how much, you know, how much is the impression that has to serve each day versus you, you know, you decide on how How it has performed every day, how much is the goal target that it has to meet every day versus How is it performing? Is it underperforming? Is it overperforming? And, likewise, you do, you know, optimize the campaign Accordingly, by either adding up things or by either eliminating things that are not working for the campaign. And, Obviously, if something has gone well, we do add that, like, you know, if some audience bucket has gone I mean, it's Obviously, worked well for the campaign. Or if some targeting is working well for the campaign and then promoting, obviously, sharing that insight advertiser is very important because that's how they know where their key audience lies and what are their key markets that they should approach to for, you know, For adding more campaigns, like, for add for, you know, running a lower funnel campaign wherein there can be more conversions. So, obviously, running a brand awareness campaign, I mean, sharing the insights and then, you know, running a retargeting campaign, helping an advertiser to convert the potential users that they have. So, yeah, analysis, obviously, is different, but then, You know, sharing the insight is very important. So, I mean, that would be I mean, the approach is gonna be in this way.

So, uh, I mean, obviously, in many DSPs, you do have that option of adding every of of, you know, goal of each day. Uh, so, obviously, I mean, you can, you know, add I mean, you can obviously maintain an Excel, but I believe the dashboard in itself is very self explanatory and is very helpful. And, uh, I mean, you can easily check-in there how well your campaign is performing because many of the dashboards like, for example, if I'm working at 360, it is way more advanced and you get more clarity. So that is, like, quite helpful in, you know, monitoring your campaign and, obviously, checking if the campaign is evenly pacing or not. So if the campaign budget is a100, it has to run for 10 days. So, obviously, the budget per day is gonna be 10, And you will have to keep monitoring if we have been able to achieve so many impressions in that much budget or so many views in that budget. So yeah. I mean, that is how you'll have to check

So viewability is, I mean, is a very important factor when it comes to running a campaign because, um, I mean, obviously, initially, because there was a lot of discrepancy with respect to the advertiser ad, you know, ad server report versus the DSP report or the publisher ad report. So that's how wherein and, obviously, the call that goes to the ad server and the measurement across multiple platforms are different. And so that's how I mean, you know, there are, like, multiple metrics that used to that came up, like viewability and brand safety. So, uh, viewability is, uh, I mean, obviously, it is very important because for any campaign and for any advertiser because that's how we know that the ad was actually viewed on the screen. So at least if the 50% of Any display camp you know, any display creative or of any video ad, if 50% of the area is visible, for 1 second for display ads and for 2 seconds while the video was running for Video ads. Uh, that means the ad that means the ad was actually viewable. And advertisers do rely on this metric because that's how they know that how you know, how has their campaign performed and how successful their campaign was, What are the, you know, uh, nonmeasurable impressions where you know, how many how many I mean, obviously, in terms of d v three sixty, you have metrics like your measure measurable impressions, your active view measurable impressions, And, uh, then your viewability you know, how your what is your, um, I mean, what is the viewability percentage that you receive? So all of which is calculated based on this. And it is very important for a campaign because it is very important for an advertiser to know if, you know, if his ad was shown on the platform. So that's how I mean and that is how I mean, and, obviously, the viability percentage defines how successfully the campaign was. And, I mean, with respect to DevReliefs, you also get to know, you know, if there was any invalid traffic. So that's how they do calculate if there was any bot traffic, and they do, you know, eliminate it if that budget if that specific budget was spent on invalid think they do refund it so that you can, you know, further utilize it in your campaign in running your campaign.

Okay. Some, uh, I mean, with respect to optimization techniques, honestly, I mean, there is Brand safety feature. That is very important and that is, uh, and which can be implemented. Um, you can obviously make sure that you add I mean, you can add the viewability factor. You can, Um, obviously, since, uh, I mean, since iPhone I mean, obviously, uh, there has been a lot that we have heard around Um, cookie less tracking. So with respect to cookie less tracking, obviously, there are, like, many new publishers. I mean, many people have gone for cook less tracking because we're not comfortable adding you know, showing, uh, I mean, getting tracked as a user. And that's how the first party data is has become a very important factor while we are running any campaign. And, uh, so many publishers, what they have done is they have, um, like your I mean, if you go to any website, uh, either you get that pop up of, you know, like, these are the cookies that are gonna get tracked. What I mean, do you only want to prefer for the necessary cookies, or are you open, you know, for all the necessary cookies that For all the, you know, cookies that can be tracked for advertisement purpose and everything? And if not, uh, would you like to sign up? Because that's how now Publishers have come up with that approach of getting users signed up so that they can store the 1st party data. And that's how users are being bucketed. Um, they are really interested in the content. And more than interest based targeting, now there is Contextual targeting, which is a more advanced version of interest targeting, which has come up. And, I mean, it just it completely depends, uh, on clients. Uh, I mean, depends on how complex the client is Because, uh, I mean, that's how the entire plan is being, uh, you know, strategized based on the reach That the client wants to attain. Um, so yeah. I mean, these are the things that Um, I feel have are the latest things that I've read about. And, also, additionally, uh, not about optimization, but, Um, obviously, recently, uh, since even connected TV connected TV is now in boom, so many publishers Um, like, you know, lies in with the connect like, even very big players are there. Like, you know, Samsung TV is there. Our new, uh, I mean, obviously, very newly, LG TV has also come up, and then we have YouTube connected TV. So many people so many advertisers now prefer connected TV because The screen is very huge, and, obviously, the exposure to it is it can be to a single audience or to multiple users. And since it's a I mean, obviously, it's as good as a billboard ad house. So, yeah, I mean, the exposure is really good, and that Um, in YouTube, you do have non skippable ads. So