What is actually ... DCO?

DCO stands for "Dynamic Creative Optimization" and is often also referred to as DCA ("Dynamic Creative Adoption"). DCO is mainly used in the programmatic online display environment and, in simple terms, stands for automatic decision-making to display the appropriate advertising material to the appropriate end user. Before an automated connection to the display advertising inventory was possible, the same goal was often pursued by means of A/B ad testing with a time delay.

In practice, various sections of a display area are divided into interchangeable text and/or image fields. Usually, only the product/company logo and, in certain cases, the design remain constant. Depending on the identified target group (via audience targeting and/or re-targeting), these sub-areas are individualized. Since this decision should be made in real time if possible - i.e. before the programmatic purchase of an ad impression - numerous technical requirements are necessary. These include know-how of data structures (RSS, JSON, XML, etc.), HTML5 coding, real-time data analysis, DSP/DMP configurations, copywriting and design. For this reason, only a few agencies and ad technology providers reliably offer such services to date.

DCO is often used for products with a wide range of offers or a high dependency of the situation. In the automotive sector, a differently designed advertisement can be displayed depending on the weather/temperature, example Harley-Davidson. The same applies to e-commerce advertisers, where a wide range of products for different target groups can lead to the same advertising goal, such as Zalando.

Term explained by: Vanessa Marr, VP Product & Operations at Adello.