How to choose and integrate tech stack components: A guide for commerce media networks

Getting your commerce media tech stack right takes time. Building partnerships and integrating workflows likely won’t happen all at once, so businesses should shop the market for the right partnerships, implement with care, and make sure to evaluate and reevaluate your operations as you scale.

Here are steps businesses should keep in mind.

1. Assess friction points

Determine what issues advertisers face when working with a given platform and isolate issues to solve for. Examples of potential pain points include unclear analytics, poor user experience, challenges with integration across areas of business, limited ROI, or lack of ad options.

2. Define business objectives

Establish what a platform should be improving within the business so you can compare tech options and know what to evaluate after implementation. Potential business objectives include improving revenues, boosting advertiser value, or promoting scalability.

3. Evaluate current capacities

Evaluate how your current data collection tools and tech infrastructure may contribute to pain points and prevent business objectives from being realized. Commerce media sites should make sure they have sufficient first-party data, robust ad inventory (or partnerships that make inventory available), and a cohesive tech infrastructure. Any missing pieces may indicate a need for a tech solution.

4. Determine requirements

Commerce media networks need solutions that can fill each of the following roles: demand-side platform (DSP), supply-side platform (SSP), data management platform (DMP) or customer data platform (CDP), ad server, and analytics tools. Some tech options may fulfill multiple needs.

5. Evaluate tech options

Choose platforms based on:

• Compatibility: How well do they integrate with existing systems?
• Scalability: Can they handle increasing data volumes and ad placements?
• Flexibility: Do they support multiple formats (e.g., native, video, shoppable)?
• Compliance: Are they built for privacy regulations like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)?
• Support: Do they have robust onboarding, training, and support?

6. Prioritize integration

Tech platforms need to work seamlessly with existing infrastructure. Make sure APIs are connecting disparate tools and ensure first-party data flows between the DMP, ad server, and campaign management tools.

7. Pilot and scale

Start with a small pilot to test integrations, measure performance, and gather feedback. If tech solutions are fulfilling original business objectives, scale the solutions. If they are not, reevaluate with platforms or with other organizations.

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