Programmatic advertising is one of the most indispensable marketing tools that has conquered a significant share of every brand’s digital marketing strategy.
It might be mind-boggling to know that marketers contribute more than 50% of their media budget to programmatic advertising. According to research published by Statista, the global programmatic ad spend is estimated to reach USD 724.84 by 2026.
If you want to run your ad live in the existing advertising landscape and buy display ad space, programmatic advertising has become the number way. Several programmatic advertising companies can offer you complete guidance and support. For more clarity on this segment of the digital workspace, read this blog.
What Is Programmatic Advertising?
Suppose you have paused and scrolled down to this section. In that case, it’s because you find programmatic advertising a complex topic or you have it implemented in your business model but are looking for the best possible ROAS from your programmatic media campaigns. So let’s understand this terminology.
When put into layperson’s terms, programmatic advertising is the use of Artificial Intelligence to help you buy the most relevant ad placements. It’s the process of purchasing an ad space on a publisher’s website through automated bidding between the advertisers, publishers, and data providers.
In this case, hiring Google Ads experts can be helpful to you in providing valuable insights and recommendations for improving your ad copy, targeting, and bidding strategies. With their expertise, they can also help you with winning bids and securing ad space to reach your desired audience.
In the programmatic ecosystem of buying and selling digital ad space, the 3 leading players are:
Supply-side platforms (SSPs)
Publishers use these sell-side platforms to list, manage, and sell their ad inventory on several ad exchanges simultaneously. Frequently used SSPs include Google Ad Manager, Xandr, Amazon Publisher Services, and OpenX.
Demand-side platforms (DSPs)
These advertiser-friendly platforms are used to set up and manage programmatic campaigns on several ad exchanges. Some extensively used DSPs are Google Display, Video 360, Amazon Advertising, Roku, Adform, etc.
Ad exchanges
These are the final point of contact between publishers and advertisers in buying and selling an ad inventory. Some popularly available digital marketplaces are Google Ad Exchange, Rubicon Project, OpenX, and Xandr.
How Does Programmatic Advertising Operate?
Real-time bidding is a highly preferred mode of buying ad spaces, and programmatic advertising is most often associated with it. Ad exchanges have replaced middlemen in selling ad inventories in this kind of media campaign. All these terms might sound jargon to you if you are a newbie, but trust me; it’s quite simple and effective.
The real-time bidding is a 3-step process:
- It begins with an advertiser inputting the details of the type of target audience using DSP. Consequently, the publisher uses an SSP to convey ad inventory availability to distinct ad exchanges.
- As the visitor enters the website, the ad exchanges receive information about the user. If this matches the specifications of the targeted segment, you automatically become eligible to enter the auction with other advertisers.
- Finally, the advertiser with the highest bid gets his ad automatically displayed on the web page within milliseconds.
To understand this process better, please refer to the below image for clarity:
Now that you are acquainted with the concept and its functioning, it’s time to explore the benefits of this digital marketing tactic that has resulted in its stardom.
Why Is Programmatic Advertising A Good Choice
Several reasons make programmatic advertising a leading choice in the marketing realm:
- Compared to traditional buying ad space via human negotiations, programmatic advertising travels at lightning speed. It enhances the efficiency of your marketing efforts two-fold by helping advertisers save time and resources.
- There is higher scalability as advertisers can easily manage multiple campaigns and benefit from the cross-platform inventory.
- Advertisers make informed decisions about targeting, measuring, and optimizing based on the data insights.
- Ads can be personalized to meet the distinct requirements of the target audience.
- Real-Time Bidding makes the media buying process agile and efficient for the demand and supply side.
- It eliminates the need to appoint personnel to manage ad campaigns along with improved targeting options. As a result, it’s cost-effective, and you don’t need a hefty budget to yield higher ROI with programmatic advertising.
To avail these top-rated benefits of programmatic media campaigns, you must be mindful of certain tips and tricks. Let’s look at some such tips suggested by prominent programmatic advertising companies.
Top 5 Programmatic Marketing Tips From The Industry Leaders
To make the entire process more efficient and excel in programmatic advertising, value these 5 tips:
Emphasize brand safety and reputation management
Be very careful of the websites with which you associate your brand name. Degrading content can adversely ruin your brand reputation. Therefore, always have a list of the URLs that you would want to avoid getting featured in.
Always opt for Programmatic Private Marketplace (PPM) over the open marketplaces for placing your ads on prime-time websites.
Interpret the customer journey for profitable bidding
You must always step in the user’s shoes and be an active part of their customer journey to understand your target audience’s needs better. When you have clarity on this vertical, you can focus on making better display ads and multiply your conversion rate. Understanding your user is the key to successful marketing.
State your objective clearly
Before commencing with programmatic advertising, you must have clarity on the objective of your campaign. Only then can you lead it in the right direction to better allocate the budget on premium inventories?
Keep the target audience and your end goal in mind when you choose your DSP. For instance, you must be clear about whether you want to drive conversions or is your consumer yet in the brand awareness stage.
Use attractive and rich media after A/B testing
To get an optimal return on your hard-earned pennies, it’s always suggested to run split testing and not be solely blindfolded by data insights and assumptions. Invest little in the private marketplace and open exchanges to analyze which yields better ROI in real-time.
You must choose rich media to get more clicks in the digitally competitive sphere. For instance, images, audio, video, and other captivating graphics can engage your users and drive conversions.
Integrate CRM data
You can put CRM data into valuable applications in two ways. Firstly, it can help you create a look-a like audience base based on your existing clientele. This way, you can look outside your existing database to find an audience similar to your customer persona.
Recognizing and retaining your customers is the ultimate purpose of every marketing effort. CRM data integration can thus help you to attain this by categorizing your customers for your new services with competitive offers and discounts.
When you follow these tips from the top programmatic advertising companies, you can take a step ahead in your campaigns and leverage the most out of them for maximizing ROI.
Bottom Line
To create appealing ad campaigns, programmatic advertising is the best bet. Invest your efforts in this fragment of the marketing industry for noticeable returns. Regardless of your budget or company size, this strategy can bring great results.
Henceforth, automate and streamline your digital ad buying process with programmatic advertising to receive data-driven insights to help you allocate your marketing spend better.
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