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Don’t be left out! Hands on the latest Digital marketing trends and insights – Programmatic Advertising
“No matter how creative and distinctive your ad is, placement is the only way it’s going to be seen by the targeted audience. Hence, buying the right ad space at the best price and presenting it to the right audience, is what matters the most.”
Nowadays Marketers are allocating a greater portion of their advertising budgets to digital channels where digital advertising platforms offer more precise data allowing for effective customer reach.
If you’re a digital marketer, you can’t escape from the advertising mammoth that is programmatic. Today, programmatic display advertising is the fastest-growing segment of digital marketing and is the primary method for buying digital display ads. Programmatic advertising is the future of digital advertising; earlier in 2021 eMarketer estimated that 87.5% or $81 billion of all US digital display advertisements will be bought via automated channels.
What is programmatic advertising?
Unlike traditional advertising techniques, programmatic advertising takes the entire advertising process to a new level. It uses algorithmic software that automatically handles the sale and placement of digital ads/ impressions via ad exchange platforms in a fraction of a second. In a simpler manner, programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of online advertising space.
How does it work?
The market for digital advertising space operates through ad exchanges, programmatic advertising runs computerized auctions that bring both market participants together, advertisers and publishers.
- Advertisers: who want to buy ad space on the internet.
- Publishers: the website owners with digital space to sell.
Here is what happens when you run a programmatic advertising campaign
- A person clicks on a website
- The website owner puts the ad impression up for auction (SSP)
- Advertisers offer bids for the impression (DSP)
- The highest bidder wins the ad impression
- The ad is served on the website to the user
- The user (hopefully!) clicks on the ad and converts
Despite the many steps this entire process happens in an instant. Moreover, the competing bids are calculated by algorithms and analytics to automatically determine the most cost-effective bid.
For example, if the user who clicked on the website is a strong potential customer for your ad, based on their historical surfing data and online profile, the bid served for your ad impression will be higher.
What are the benefits?
Having the best of advertisements made isn’t enough because you cannot have the desired effect unless they appear at the right time and at the right place. That’s why you need programmatic advertising for better online targeting and more accurate, efficient and at scale ad impressions.
Below are some key advantages of programmatic advertising:
- Reach it gives advertisers access to ad space on thousands of websites at once.
- Transparency because all bids happen in real-time (RTB) allows for maximum transparency on ad placements and activity for both advertisers and publishers.
- Targeting supports advanced targeting like interest targeting and lookalikes to help advertisers reach high prospect audiences at scale.
- Deep Data insights and Reporting by providing access to real time data advertisers and publishers can optimize campaigns quickly and accurately at scale.
- Relevancy maximizes the relevancy of ads for specific targeted audiences.
- Cost effectiveness improves ROAS (return on ad spend) – Programmatic advertising works on a CPM (Cost Per Mille), or Cost Per Impression, model. CPM is the price per 1000 ad impressions that appear on a website. Programmatic ads CPM is usually believed to cost somewhere between $0.50 and $2. Certainly, programmatic CPM is far cheaper than other platforms, such as social media networks where CPM can go as high as an average of $6-$7.
When will Programmatic advertising optimally fit within your marketing mix?
Due to the high reach and precise targeting of programmatic advertising, it’s considered a very effective marketing tool for boosting brand awareness among high-volume audiences. If your ad campaign is focusing on the consideration/ awareness stage, you should definitely consider using programmatic to spread your message.
How to get started?
For newbies to programmatic advertising, the best way to start is by getting educated. Watch webinars, listen to podcasts, and network with field experts about best practices. Once you are ready, begin with developing your audience profile, advertising strategy, and KPIs. This will help you in your search for programmatic ad exchanges and ad networks that suit you best.
Eaton Business School offers an EMBA Course in Business Analytics.
