The Basics of Programmatic Advertising

Being able to buy and sell digital ad space in real-time by using automated bidding and placement platforms is called programmatic advertising. Most digital marketers already understand how important programmatic advertising is for a business. Not all understand how to use it correctly.

This type of advertising allows businesses to create very targeted ad campaigns and make great use of their marketing budgets to reach as many people as possible that are going to be interested in that product or service. While the specifics of the platforms can vary, the fundamentals of programmatic advertising are always the same.

First, the advertiser will create a campaign with a set budget coding specific goals and targets and then use KPIs to measure how well the campaign is meeting all those goals and targets. The platform uses an algorithm that automates the entire process of selecting the right ads for the right platforms when they become available, and create an auction to determine which advertising company is going to get which ad placement.

This process takes place in the time from when a user tries to open a web page to the time when the website opens on their screen.

This type of advertising allows businesses to target very specific groups over the Internet in the same campaign. It means that the right ad is going to reach the right people no matter where or when they are online. For example, if the algorithm determines that the most effective way to reach a particular customer is on Facebook, then they are going to run the ad on that platform.

This is not the type of algorithm or automation tactic that businesses can set up and then forget about. It has to be constantly monitored and tweaked, so that businesses can get the best performance for their campaigns. This is precisely what most companies are doing wrong with programmatic advertising right now, and why these campaigns aren’t as successful as they can be.

To achieve that success, businesses should choose their programmatic advertising platform carefully, and ask a lot of questions before they make a decision, so they understand the platform’s reach and features.

When starting a campaign, it’s best to target it as generally as possible and then tweak it when the performance data becomes available. This is a process that should be repeated often while companies try to gradually narrow down the target audience for that campaign. After a while, companies will have gathered a lot of information to be able to target their campaigns to the right audiences.

After choosing all the appropriate channels as carefully and as detailed as possible, businesses should try to experiment whenever they get the chance with programmatic advertising. For example, there can always be a limited run for the campaign on a certain channel that doesn’t seem like a good fit for the campaign. This decision should be made with a good amount of analytics and data obtained beforehand.

Ronn Torossian is CEO of 5wpr, a leading adtech PR agency.