MarTech360 Interview with Piero Pavone, Founder and CEO at Preciso

Talk to the right people in the industry, understand what they need and what they are looking for

 

Piero, can you tell us about what you do and how Preciso differentiates itself from other companies in the same space?

I have been in the industry for over 30 years now, and I founded Preciso back in 2020, right at the start of the global pandemic. It was a challenging time for the industry, and launching a business then was both risky and rewarding.

Preciso is a Smart-Bid technology platform designed to deliver client campaigns in just a few clicks, and I would say it is the strongest technology I’ve worked with yet. Our RTB technology helps advertisers around the world increase win rates and boost ROAS. We use the power of consumer journey data to generate highly relevant ads across multiple channels and our platform is fully integrated with the biggest ecommerce solutions. 

But aside from the brilliant technology, what really differentiates us from our competitors is our support-first ethos, where we place clients and their success at the centre of everything we do.

Your time at MainAd gave you a front-row seat to the early days of programmatic. What lessons from that period directly shaped how you built Preciso?

At MainAd, we were the first company to sign a contract with AppNexus which, at the time, was one of the most important DSPs in the world. My ten years there gave me everything I needed to understand programmatic technology, DSPs and advertising. You can’t successfully build a new technology without first understanding the space inside and out.

Preciso was founded on the idea of giving smaller businesses the same programmatic firepower as big brands. How do you keep that challenger spirit alive as the company scales?

Preciso has always been about providing support for brands that need it. In our industry, it takes years to make it big in the market, and starting from scratch is hard and highly competitive. Our mission is to empower small and mid-size companies where a small investment can help a company grow with our support. No matter how much we grow, there will always be a smaller business looking for a helping hand. 

Also Read: MarTech360 Interview with Rishi Rana, Chief Executive Officer at Cyara

Every company faces defining moments. What has been the single biggest challenge for Preciso, and how did overcoming it shape the company’s identity?

Preciso was born during the pandemic, when ecommerce was accelerating rapidly and the travel industry was coming to a complete standstill. Since then, we’ve grown from a team of 35 to over 70 talented individuals working across six countries, and we’re now a leading RTB platform in Europe for small businesses, with a strong presence in China as well.

The ecommerce boom was the most defining and complex moment for Preciso, as it set us up to ensure every single impression we deliver is as effective as possible for our clients. 

What core industry problem led to the creation of your native advertising platform? With consumers engaging 53% more with native ads than traditional display ads, how does Ultima help clients capitalise on that trend?

Traditional display ads are no longer performing in the same way they once were. Native advertising, on the other hand, is proving the best way to attract and maintain meaningful user interaction. Consumers look at native ads 53% more than traditional display ads, and respond with an 18% increase in purchase intent. Our own data regularly shows engagement rates of above 70%, whereas previously, advertisers would often see a bounce rate of 70% from the display ad format. 

Our Ultima solution transforms native campaign management by using machine learning technology to create personalised campaign creatives and automatically embed them within web pages to combat banner blindness and drive meaningful engagement at scale. It also deploys AI bid-smart technology to optimise the bidding and buying process in real time, ensuring only the most relevant ad placements are secured – minimising ad wastage and associated carbon emissions.

With the industry shifting towards a ‘cookieless’ future, how is Ultima adapting to maintain effective targeting and attribution? How does Preciso plan to thrive with first-party data and contextual advertising?

Preciso is already prepared for a world without cookies, despite Google’s back and forth on when they’ll be diminishing them for good. We work exclusively with first-party data and have the capabilities we need in place for contextual advertising. Browsers like Firefox have already moved on so our system is designed to adapt and thrive with these changes. 

How does Ultima leverage real-time consumer journey data to optimise ad placements and maximise ROI for clients?

Ultima bids in the auction and in 100 milliseconds can understand a full consumer profile – who they are, what they like, when they like to shop. That means we are already delivering higher CTRs and dwell time for our advertisers, while significantly driving down CPMs and site abandonment. Beyond clicks, we’re seeing genuine sustained engagement from what we’re putting in front of consumers.

Looking ahead, what is the next frontier for Preciso? Where do you see the company and Ultima in the next few years?

As we continue to scale, we’re continuously changing our programmatic model to evolve with the technology. One area that we’re especially excited to be stepping into next is opening our technology up to the publishers. In the next few years, we’re aiming to integrate our technology directly into publisher platforms.

What key advice would you give to new entrepreneurs aiming to build and scale tech-driven businesses in highly competitive markets?

You have to spend time and energy understanding what is missing from this industry and how you can provide something to help fill those gaps, which is no easy task. My best advice for someone starting out would be to meet clients, talk to the right people in the industry, understand what they need and what they are looking for. That’s exactly how I built Preciso, and although it can take years of dedication, the payoff is always worth it. 

Thanks Piero!