Attempting to stay on track with all of the latest innovations in online advertising can be a difficult task - even for the digital expert. As new tools, techniques, and tips are published each day - claiming that they can help you increase your ROI - how do you know which features you should expect as standard as part of your ad platform, and which are less important?

Digital advertising platforms help companies to utilize and make the most of the Internet for their advertising and marketing purposes. Through the use of these tools, it is possible for professionals to streamline the interactions that are conducted between advertisers and publishers, and ensure that ad creatives are distributed across all of the most effective platforms. Advertisers can benefit significantly from using digital ad platforms, as it can give them much needed access to their desired audience - no matter where they are on the web.

When looking for an amazing Ad Platform (like ExactDrive's :) ), there are a few features that you should keep your eyes open for:

1. Ad Unit Integration

Ad unit integration is a term that you'll typically hear used in connection with native advertising, a form of advertising that can often appeal more to the millennials of today, who are often unimpressed by advertisements that seem to be "too obvious". Native advertising matches the function and form of the platform on which it appears. For instance, an article could be written on a website specifically with the purpose of promoting a new product or service, but it would use the same form and tone as an article written by editorial staff. In terms of ad creative such as banners and buttons, native ad unit integration is all about marketing in a manner that is non-intrusive, using content that performs and looks like the other content around it. For the ad platform you use to be modern enough to keep up with techniques such as native advertising, it must allow ad unit integration, and provide customization options that allow advertisements to blend with their surroundings.

2. A Variety of Different Advertising Solutions

When conducting a digital advertising campaign, one of the most damaging things you can do for your business is rely upon using the same type of creative consistently. The right ad platform should allow you to access a wide range of different media and formats, from images and videos, to social media posts, editorial copy, and more. This will allow for greater creativity in the advertising schemes you present to users, and it will also give you plenty of room to test out different strategies and discover the ones that work best for your product and industry. Make sure that the ad platform you select offers a vast variety of ad display solutions, in popular sizes for both mobile and web formatting. From display banners and sliders, to direct links and video - versatility is everything.

3. Online Brand Security

In the World of modern advertising, few things are more important than protecting your online brand identity. When conducting an online advertising campaign, you need to make sure that your company is protected against everything from traffic diversion, to cybersquatting, and pay per click fraud. While there are a number of solutions for protecting your brand against online threats, it's good to know that some ad platforms are actually integrating their own security features into the platform itself (Note: ExactDrive has partnered with DoubleVerify to help protect brands and maintain the highest inventory quality.). Some platforms (like ExactDrive) offer features like:

• Impressive transparency control
• Prohibited Inventory Content
• Spam and malware blocking
• Category blocking
• Domain exclusion

4. Informative Audience Data

Finally, when running a successful online advertising campaign, it's crucial to collect as much data as possible to help you understand which strategies are more effective than others. Some of the best platforms available online today are now integrated with all of the major DMPs (data management platforms) and may even offer first party data to give advertisers deeper insights into the information they gather, and the audience that they want to reach (Note: ExactDrive has partnered with BlueKai/Oracle to offer such features and abilities).

Remember, the right data can be used to improve your advertising techniques and ensure that you are drawing in the most relevant visitors for your intended goal. What's more, data can also maximize techniques such as website and content customization, display advertising, retargeting, and even old-fashioned email marketing.