With a presence in five different continents, the notion of ever-changing regulations is no novelty for Silvia Almeida, the media buying lead that coordinates, controls, and defines the unequivocal pathway of circa 150 media buyers at Clever Advertising. But this does not mean that the performance media agency can rest on its laurels – as it places compliance at the front and centre of everything it does.

Giving us a rundown on some of the major challenges associated with traffic collecting, Almeida shines a light on the two-step system that Clever Advertising takes to make sure it is collecting the best possible results for its partners.

SBC: Can you begin by telling us a bit about how Clever Advertising goes about collecting traffic? Do you approach this in a certain way?

Clever Advertising is a performance media agency who prides itself on careful market research and a direct approach to the publishers, aiming for a long-term, transparent, and profitable partnership. We have a growing team that creates a robust network of publishers and allow us to deliver 10B+ unique visits from all around the world to our customers, allowing them to grow their acquisition numbers, confident that their brand is in good hands.

SBC: Obviously there are various demographics of people who bet. How do you decide what kind of traffic is best for your partners?

We follow a system based on 2 steps: the first step is the external strategy, and the second step is the internal framework.

The external strategy is the combination of the guidelines provided by our partners and the legal aspects of a particular market. Those guidelines inform the campaign goals -whether product, acquisition, or retention- and user behavior, because we do not collect end user data, we rely on our partners’ information; Then we combine it with the legal landscape of the required market to define the campaign traffic limitations.

The internal framework is the model we have in place that allow us to mesh the previous guidelines with Clever know-how, such as targeting over aged people with interests that somehow relate to online entertainment and sports, historic performance data, and market events.

SBC: Clever Advertising is operational in several different markets across the world – what are the key challenges posed by regulation when it comes to finding and collecting traffic?

Yes, we are present in all 5 continents, and it takes a very particular team to properly address the specificities of each country or each brand, especially in these days of constant evolution when it comes to regulations and compliance rules.

One of our major advantages is our ability to shift and point efforts on command. This means that in a very short span of time we can enter or leave a market, change strategies and targets, adapt to different circumstances, and need to fulfill any goals that our partners may have, or follow any regulation that may be imposed.

Clever dedicates a tremendous energy in creating the best framework and navigating through regulated markets is not a novelty for our teams.

From the Marketing team with their market studies and research, to the Legal team who guide us along the lines we can work with, we count with the IT team to provide us with the technical solutions that allow us to adapt to each market and keep the company cybersecurity to high standards, and with one of the most relevant teams, the Media Controllers team, who dedicate their time and effort to ensure that the traffic we deliver meets the highest standards of compliance.

SBC: How do you overcome these challenges? 

Our strategy is to work with selected partners in each market and having traffic compliance as our main standard. By creating and developing a structured traffic compliance process according to the market or the brand requisites and having a constant flow of information and continuous training of our media buyers, we surpass those challenges quite easily.

SBC: Why is it so important that operators remain compliant when it comes to traffic generation?

The industry is evolving, governments are exacting responsibility and compliance, people are more informed and demanding nowadays, as they should, I might add. It is essential that operators take the lead to set the highest possible standards to build trust, grow awareness and mature in a fast-changing environment.

This allows us, as media buyers, not only to work alongside the operators in this common ecosystem, but also to provide an even better service to our customers and partners.

I would say we have an above average traffic knowledge of regulated markets worldwide and, although compliance is never an easy subject, we are avid defenders of the matter.