Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic Advertising. Everyone talks about it. But does everyone really understand it? With the idea of automation written into its name, it sounds easier to understand than it actually is. Knowing how programmatic differs from traditional media buying, when and where it works best, how to weave it into your digital advertising strategy are key to making the most of it. Below we provide a basic introduction.
Get with Programmatic
A little background
Programmatic brings tech and data together to connect brands, agencies and publishers. It automates everything from targeting audiences to transacting deals to optimizing campaigns, bringing new efficiencies to media selling and buying. It started primarily with digital display, but has grown to include DOOH, video, native, social, audio and connected TV placements.
Programmatic’s edge
Programmatic is the dominant force it is today because it delivers unrivaled:
Efficiency
Particularly around the buying and selling of ad inventory. Gone are the days of phone negotiations and IOs. Today’s ad exchanges unite publishers, advertisers and agencies in one place and give them the tools to sell, buy and launch in nanoseconds.
Accuracy
Prior to programmatic, targeting relevant audiences was largely guesswork based on generic data sets. With its ability to capture and analyze demographic, geographic and contextual data in real time, programmatic enables advertisers to reach just the people they want at the times and in the places where they’re most likely to engage.
Flexibility
Programmatic brings more flexibility to digital media buying. Advertisers can buy across an entire network of publishers, all at once, reducing administrative costs. They can procure slots without pre-negotiating a price, and therefore only pay for the relevant impressions. There’s also the option to set up buys to meet a minimum number of impressions or a budget.
Streamlined campaign management
Programmatic advertising can consolidate campaigns across devices and formats in one system. As the campaign progresses, AI and machine learning can make connections, generate insights and optimize performance seamlessly. This removes a lot of guesswork and legwork for advertisers.
How does it work?
Brand X is looking to run a digital advertising campaign to attract more customers.
Brand X turns to a programmatic advertising platform that enables them to identify online consumers by:
Demographic
Geography
Personal Interests
Behavior
Time of day
Device
The platform uses real-time data (from first and third-party sources) to identify the best online audience for the campaign.
Meanwhile, Consumer X opens a page on their favorite web publication.
The publisher “announces” via Supply Side Platform (SSP) the availability of an ad slot on the page Consumer X is viewing.
Brand X’s programmatic platform gets this new via a Demand Side Platform (DSP).
The programmatic platform books this slot, and serves up an ad personalized based on consumer preferences.
This whole transaction happens in the blink of an eye, and can coincide with any number of transactions for Brand X.
As the campaign progresses, AI and machine learning make connections between ads and actions, generating insights for optimizing performance.
Brand X likes the results so much, they start bringing more of their campaigns to the programmatic platform for ease of management.
Why Programmatic is the future of advertising
Programmatic ad spend increases every year, now accounting for 84% of the US digital display ad market in 2020, and expected to grow to $95 billion by 2022 (eMarketer). With its advantages in efficiency, targeting, buying/selling and optimization, plus the constant flow of innovations added to its capabilities, it’s only going to get bigger. Kargo is here to help you get started and take advantage of the best in programmatic advertising.
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