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Basis DSP

Basis DSP
Formerly Centro DSP

Overview

What is Basis DSP?

Basis from Basis Global Technologies (formerly Centro) is a programmatic ad buying platform supporting digital advertising buying and placement across varying channels. Since the acquisition of SiteScout the platform also contains technology from the SiteScout AdServer.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Basis DSP has proven to be a valuable tool for user acquisition teams looking to acquire new users and expand their app install campaigns …
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Basis in the B2B Space

8 out of 10
November 02, 2021
Incentivized
We use Basis as our internal DSP within the media department to activate programmatic buys. Originally it was being used for our online …
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A good beginner DSP

4 out of 10
October 17, 2018
Incentivized
We used Basis for our programmatic offering where we sold audience extension campaigns to our advertising clients as part of our digital …
Continue reading
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Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Product Demos

#OptionsTrading - Basis Web Demo || Quantsapp Web tutorial (Hindi)

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DEMO FINGERPRINT BASIS WEB

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SAP BASIS Demo- A short Presentation

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SAP BASIS DEMO SESSION BY +916305587970

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How to do Choice Filling in JEE Mains Counselling? |

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SAP Basis Training video DEMO 2012.wmv

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Product Details

What is Basis DSP?

Basis DSP Video

Introducing Basis Assistant

Basis DSP Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Basis from Basis Global Technologies (formerly Centro) is a programmatic ad buying platform supporting digital advertising buying and placement across varying channels. Since the acquisition of SiteScout the platform also contains technology from the SiteScout AdServer.

Adobe Advertising Cloud, Google Marketing Platform, and OpenX are common alternatives for Basis DSP.

The most common users of Basis DSP are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(24)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Basis DSP has proven to be a valuable tool for user acquisition teams looking to acquire new users and expand their app install campaigns with minimal effort. Its easy-to-use interface and excellent customer support make it a go-to choice for businesses that want to run highly successful programmatic campaigns with high ROI and reasonable CPM. The platform's superior targeting methodologies enable precise ad targeting, including hyperlocal, in-app display advertising, retargeting, and geofencing for event marketing. Furthermore, Basis DSP eliminates the need for purchasing additional tools like DMP and Ad Fraud Protection, making it a cost-effective solution compared to other platforms. With its ability to bid on major mobile exchanges simultaneously and deliver excellent coverage in the North American market, Basis DSP positions itself as a leader in the digital communications arena.

Comprehensive Coverage: Many users have praised Basis DSP for its comprehensive coverage in the USA, allowing them to reach a wide audience and acquire users at low CPAs and CPMs. This indicates that the platform effectively delivers cost-effective results by reaching a diverse range of potential customers.

Robust Anti-Fraud Controls: Several reviewers have appreciated the robust anti-fraud controls on Basis DSP, considering them to be very good. This highlights the platform's commitment to ensuring the quality and authenticity of ad inventory, providing advertisers with peace of mind and saving them from investing in additional fraud prevention tools.

Wide Range of Data User Segments: Users have found Basis DSP's access to a wide range of data user segments valuable in targeting specific audiences effectively. The ability to upload network audiences further enhances targeting capabilities, giving advertisers more control over their campaigns and enabling them to reach their desired audience with precision.

Low Viewability Scores: Several users have reported experiencing low viewability scores for impressions served on the Basis DSP platform. This has raised concerns about the need for better performance solutions and product development in terms of retargeting and conversion.

Lack of Cookie Matching Technology: Users have expressed frustration over the lack of cookie matching technology on Basis DSP, leading to low match rates between desktop and mobile platforms. This limitation hinders their ability to effectively target audiences across different devices.

Delayed Ad Approvals: The ad approval process on Basis DSP often experiences delays, causing campaigns to lag behind and negatively impacting performance metrics. Some users have mentioned the need for quicker approvals to ensure timely campaign execution.

Users commonly recommend the following about Basis:

  1. Take advantage of customer service and support: Users highly recommend utilizing the customer service and support offered by Basis. They suggest reaching out to support teams, including customer success managers, for technical issues or confusion. Users find the customer service to be top-notch and appreciate the professionalism and people-oriented approach of the Basis team. They also suggest getting trained on Basis through Centro Certified courses and attending conferences/webinars to receive additional training and determine if Basis is a suitable platform.

  2. Use the platform's optimization and reporting elements: Users recommend using Basis for its optimization and reporting elements. They suggest paying attention to alerts and making optimizations to improve campaign performance. Users appreciate Basis for its targeting capabilities, optimization options, and campaign transparency and effectiveness. They advise understanding how to optimize campaigns properly for better performance.

  3. Consider specific company/agency needs and resources: Users recommend considering specific company or agency needs when implementing Basis. They advise evaluating internal resources available for managing the platform effectively or seeking help from a preferred partner agency if necessary. Users also emphasize the importance of dedicating enough manpower to manage the platform efficiently. Additionally, they suggest spending time setting up organization/campaign structure for scalability and making adjustments based on specific needs.

Overall, users find Basis to be a reliable tool with excellent customer support, targeting capabilities, optimization options, and transparency in reporting. They believe it is a valuable investment for agencies, especially small to medium-sized ones, as it helps increase margins and client success. However, users also note that Basis requires a significant budget and a strong understanding of digital advertising.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-14 of 14)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
December 29, 2023

Basis is GREAT

Darrell Canty | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Basis addresses business problems related to programmatic advertising by offering a comprehensive platform for planning, executing, and optimizing digital ad campaigns. It helps us reach our target audience more effectively, manage budgets efficiently, and make data-driven decisions for better campaign performance.
  • Ease of use
  • detailed reporting
  • easy optimizations
  • Better reporting
  • a detailed guide on how to run the platform
  • better user support
You want to streamline and automate your programmatic advertising efforts. Basis DSP is designed to simplify the process of buying and managing digital ad inventory programmatically, making it well-suited for organizations seeking efficiency in their advertising workflows.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Basis, by Centro, has been a Godsend to our team! My team and I are in the HEC restrictions within Google Display, and retargeting for us what a nightmare. But with Basis, we are able to retarget exactly how we want to and get great inventory doing it! Our Basis representative is always super helpful and always willing to help our agency.
  • Data Analytics
  • Partnership
  • Inventory
  • UX Experience
  • More Details in Certification Trainings
Basis is able to give us a larger group of inventory than our previous software partners. Basis is a good tool, specifically for any company that is in the housing, credit, or employment industry.
November 02, 2021

Basis in the B2B Space

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Basis as our internal DSP within the media department to activate programmatic buys. Originally it was being used for our online video placements, but we have since included display. Learning recently about the integration with Contobox, we will be looking to leverage some unique and new ad unit opportunities.
  • PMP Deals
  • Reporting
  • Ad Unit Flexibility
  • Reporting Customizations
  • Defining Viewable and Unique Impressions within reports
  • Include more opportunities to target B2B audience segments
Basis does a great job at reaching target audiences efficiently. The control the DSP gives allows for quick optimizations and flexibility in approach towards achieving our client's campaign objectives. It's been a bit of a struggle reaching business to business decision-makers, in the sense that although we receive clicks - the performance within Google Analytics does not translate. I would like to see Basis get more targeting capabilities against key decision-makers in the foodservice space.
Seth Mariscal | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it as our primary self-serve DSP for all the programmatic campaigns that we currently running for our clients. It allows us to run highly successful programmatic campaigns that generate high ROI while maintaining reasonable CPM. It is mostly managed by one team but the broader agency is aware that they are the partner we are using.
  • The platform is very easy to learn
  • Access to great inventory
  • Very competitive pricing
  • Managed service is a little pricey and tends to have slightly lower performance
  • interface is very 90's, could use a real facelift purely from an aesthetic perspective
  • Reports are continually being updated but could use some refinement in output for client-facing reports
Basis is actually very versatile and scalable. As long as you are spending about $10,000 a month on programmatic, I have found it to be equally easy to use on small campaigns as well as large. If you aren't running enough programmatic campaigns to justify the cost of basis, then it would be hard to make the recommendation to learn the platform and implement it. But if you are, they have amazing training materials and the support we got is outstanding.
Kimberly Smith | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Basis [DSP] is used by the user acquisition team on our company to acquire new users. We do not use it for retargeting as other DSPs have more complete solutions with cookie matching technology and Basis lags on those features.
Basis [DSP] helps us get more users into the funnel and also for app install campaigns with minimal effort and good coverage on the North American market.
  • Great coverage in the USA. You can acquire users at very cheap CPAs with low CPMs as well
  • Not enough supply on Tier2 countries. If you want to target european users, I would use other DSPs
  • Very good anti fraud controls on the platfrom
  • Impressions served on the platfrom usually have low viewability scores.
  • No cookie matching technology so match rates bewteen desktop and mobile is low on the platform
  • Needs better performance solutions, retargeting and conversion product development
I would recommend Basis [DSP] for specific clients. Boutique agencies that do not require very complex programmatic solutions are the best fit. It is not very well suited for very big clients that want to run multicountries campaigns with objectives that are very much performance focused.
Their dashboard is very good and the platform is easy to use so new entrants to programmatic will find it very useful.
October 04, 2019

Solid Agency DSP

Gabriela Band | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using Basis a DSP to run campaigns for our clients. It's an easy to use DSP, which is great for agencies that lack deep programmatic knowledge. Our programmatic trading team and account management teams are using it and it helps us scale our programmatic campaigns to make sure we are able to fulfill our client's budgets and deliver the results they need.
  • It's very easy to use.
  • Easy to AB test multiple creatives.
  • All creative types supported (video, native, display, audio).
  • Notification system should be improved.
  • Reporting should be more granular and more dimensions.
  • They should build an API to check costs on an hourly basis.
Basis strength relies on their great customer service and their ability to run almost any campaign and be able to test and optimize. However, the results on the end are not that good. In general, the CTRs are a bit low compared to the standard we get on other DSPs. It's not clear if the issue lies in their technology or their pool of inventory, but the issue is still there.
Brendan McInerney | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Basis DSP only in the media department. We use Basis DSP to run media for non-profit, financial, insurance, and B2B clients. Basis cuts out the need for us to purchase a DMP, Ad Fraud Protection, and superior targeting methodologies. Basis has been more cost-effective than running with DV360. Though we still need to utilize DCM, Basis offers a workaround by trafficking ads directly through the platform.
  • Customer Service and Support is fantastic. Always willing to educate our team and help us get the most value out of the platform.
  • The ad fraud features are great. Through DV360 we need to use a third-party which comes with additional costs.
  • Easy to use platform.
  • Can not self manage lookalike campaigns.
  • Performance view is somewhat odd to get to. I would prefer to have the Overview and Analytics tabs be combined.
It is the least suited for lookalike campaigns. If you prefer to manage all your campaigns you can not do so with Basis. But everything is fantastic. I really enjoy the ad fraud capabilities and the potential to purchase audience data.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Basis DSP has changed the game for my company. We are now positioned to be a leader in the digital communications arena for years to come with the addition of the platform to our capabilities. Basis is easy to use, easy to understand, and is a leader in their field. The innovations and new features they roll out on a regular basis helps my firm provide the best of traditional and new programmatic campaigns to our clients on a consistent basis. We are always excited to be able to tell our clients about new ways to promote their businesses and interests by using programmatic advertising, and specifically Basis DSP. Basis also offers excellent customer support and service. Our customer success manager is one of the best I've ever worked with in any industry. I highly recommend Basis DSP to any business looking at using their products.
  • Basis DSP does a great job of keeping their clients informed of new and upcoming features on their platform. They regularly host webinars to help keep their clients informed of what's up and coming and how to use new features.
  • Client relations with Basis is incredible. They're available on a regular, consistent basis. In addition, they check in throughout the on boarding process and beyond to help their clients understand they system.
  • The analytics tracking capabilities built into Basis DSP is fantastic. They provide many different options on how to pull and organize reports for clients.
  • The additional training offered through Centro Institute is fantastic, especially for beginners. Going to Chicago and training at the headquarters for a couple of days has helped with my company's success in building a programmatic advertising clientele list and building successful campaigns.
  • If someone has never used a DSP before, they're going to need a lot of hands on training. As with any system, it's important that those who decide to use Basis commit to training and using the system as much as possible.
  • One thing I would like to see more of is planning capabilities. I'd like to be able to look at the data I need specific to my geographic locations, rather than at the national level.
Basis DSP is well suited to every type of campaign imaginable. My firm specializes in outreach and education campaigns and we use Basis DSP in order to turn people out to events and to take specific actions. Basis has changed how we do business for the better. The hyperlocal campaigns, native campaigns, and audio campaigns have all added excellent additional capabilities to our tool box and have allowed us to complete very compelling campaigns for our clients.
Cody Wright | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Basis DSP to reach members of our advertising network across other relevant mobile apps that they're using. It is used exclusively by the ad operations department, but is part of every client campaign that we deploy. Basis helps us reach grocery list app users while they're engaged with other apps they use, such as games, weather, and news apps, due to its ability to bid on the major mobile exchanges simultaneously.
  • Provides access to lots of data/user segments in addition to the ability to upload network audiences. User and interest level targeting is easy and powerful
  • API integrations with Basis DSP make it easy for publishers who are using bespoke and/or plug-and-play DMPs, CRMs, or other DSPs to manage campaigns without living in yet another interface.
  • Ad tag integration with DART/DFA ensures that trafficking ads with third-party impression tags/pixels is easy and only needs to be done once.
  • More detail on how and when the exchanges review submitted ad tags would help us set better expectations for our clients and client success teams during launch. Often a delay in ad approvals can result in lagging campaign metrics that must be made up later, often at the cost of performance.
  • More predictive tools / the ability to stop a campaign from bidding when a certain impression threshold is reached (in addition to the dayparting and budget rules that are currently in place and used for every campaign).
  • For some reports, such a geolocation reports, being able to visualize it on a map of some kind would make the data export more meaningful and less manual for our operations and client success teams seeking to explain to clients where their campaign was exposed.
Basis is well-suited for platforms or advertisers seeking to locate a subset of users across a larger app ecosystem. The platform is well-suited for campaigns that are constrained by location/geotargeting parameters. While we use the platform exclusively to locate mobile app users in mobile apps, it would be difficult to say how other vendors seeking to acquire inventory in other environments would perform, we find that it is great for the purposes of in-app advertising. For campaigns with strict impression goals and minimums, a platform with different bid-stop technology may be more appropriate.
Christopher Penn | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Basis is a DSP we've used for hyperlocal, in-app display advertising and retargeting. It's got relatively low minimums and excellent advanced targeting. One of its core features is the ability to bring up a map and geofence around very precise areas to show ads just within that space - useful for any kind of event marketing.
  • Geofencing/hyperlocal ads
  • In-app advertising
  • In-app retargeting
  • Hyperlocal retargeting
  • Pricing is somewhat opaque, especially ad network costs
  • The creative approval process is S.L.O.W. - plan for up to 72 hours before approval (no same-day campaigns)
  • Interface is clunky
If you're doing any kind of local advertising, Basis DSP is a great choice. If you're doing retargeting, it's a great choice.

Nationally/big regions it can get very costly, very quickly.

Be prepared for a learning curve if you have non-technical staff - the interface requires quite a bit of training.

Be vigilant about content monitoring! Your ads can appear on sites you don't want your brand to be associated with.
October 17, 2018

A good beginner DSP

Score 4 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We used Basis for our programmatic offering where we sold audience extension campaigns to our advertising clients as part of our digital package. We offered display, mobile and video products in order to expand our digital inventory beyond what we could offer between our owned and operated sites.
  • Solid, simple real time bidding.
  • Excellent customer support.
  • Creative upload feature works well.
  • Groups campaigns in an easy to understand way.
  • Reporting. We have lots of issues with the amount of information available to us. We've had to make special requests to get reports for a campaign's lifetime because the system times out pulling large amounts of data. If you're a save-and-stitch kind of person it might be okay for you.
  • Transparency. Checking site lists and would get lots of generic site bundle names with no real idea where are impressions were actually being served.
Basis DSP would be well suited for smaller programmatic buyers with short campaign lengths and clients who are not super concerned with site transparency as well as people new to the programmatic space. Centro, owners of Basis, will also try to push you into selling campaigns their way (focusing on budget-based buying) so if you have existing campaign workflows you'll likely have issues trying to adopt their product to your existing workflow.
Megan Schutz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The digital marketing department of BRAINTRUST uses Basis DSP for our display advertising buys, including standard display as well as video display and connected TV. Using the platform allows us to self-manage our digital campaigns.
  • Offers great third-party targeting options
  • User-friendly platform
  • Easy to set up retargeting campaigns
  • Tracks revenue and conversions in platform
  • Conversion HTML pixels could be easier to set up revenue tracking on
  • No using existing customer lists in the platform
  • Doesn't accurately report in Google Analytics even with UTM codes
Basis DSP is a great platform for launching display campaigns, offering great third party targeting options. It is easy to optimize campaigns, set up remarketing and use the private marketplace. I wish it was easier to set up revenue tracking with the HTML Conversion Tag, but if you're using the image pixel, it is much easier (not all of our clients can use this option though). I'd also like if there wasn't an extra charge for using our own customer lists (email, device ID, etc).
October 17, 2018

Basis DSP Review

Dallas Keefe | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Basis DSP for our programmatic advertising for our agency and for our clients.
  • Native Advertising
  • Audience Prospecting and reach
  • Hyperlocal Targeting
  • Takes a bit to understand programmatic and to how campaigns are ran
  • Reporting could be sexier, it downloads into an Excel sheet, pretty basic
  • Insights into targeting demographics
Ability to reach people outside of Google and Facebook, you get to access over 12 exchanges.
New cross device capabilities
Native Advertising
Connected TV
Retargeting
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We began using SiteScout as one of many self-serve ad platforms to test the usability and cost of each. We serve display ads through the SiteScout platform, which allows us to upload our own creative and target websites by category. The platform offers a truly self-serve experience, with complete customization and full control over our ad performance and objectives.
  • Control over ads - We are able to completely customize our campaigns and targeting methods from start to finish. The platform is completely self-managed and no interaction with a rep is needed to get ads up and running.
  • Display network - The display network offered a wide variety of options, with thousands of available placements.
  • Low cost - Our cost was comparable to Google AdWords, which is very affordable on both a CPC and CPM basis.
  • Targeting - We were able to target based on behaviors and demographic information, which helped us ensure our budget was only being spent on a relevant audience.
  • User Interface - The user interface is very difficult to learn and use, despite frequent and necessary interaction with it on a daily basis. There are sparse training materials available, and there is a steep learning curve to understand the platform.
  • Reporting Function - There are really no built in reporting dashboard features, and I had to manually pull out all of the data I wanted and plug it into another dashboard. The interface could be improved significantly by adding more data analysis, with the ability to manipulate the data by campaign.
SiteScout definitely takes some dedicated time to learning the platform and keeping up with ad maintenance and optimizations, but the platform allows for seemingly endless options on targeting, campaign structure, budgeting and creative. Overall, the SiteScout platform is well-suited for an experienced PPC professional, who wants to experiment with a large display platform that offers a great deal of customization.
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