A Beginner's Guide to Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising is one of the industry’s biggest buzzwords for a reason. More agencies and brands are turning from traditional to programmatic buying for their digital media needs. Not only is it faster and more efficient, but it also costs less than traditional.

Although you may have heard this buzzword being thrown around, you may not completely ‘get’ what it is, and why you should start looking into programmatic advertising for your digital strategy.

What is Programmatic Advertising?
Simply put, programmatic advertising is the automated process of purchasing digital media, also called real time bidding (RTB).

While there will always be humans to plan and optimize advertising, programmatic eliminates the need for ad buyers. With the software doing the menial tasks of buying, the humans can focus on planning, optimizing and targeting.

Thanks to sophisticated technology and endless data once an ad is purchased, programmatic advertising uses algorithms to evaluate user analytics including: online behavior, location, engagement, social engagement, and time per visit. This data is used to help serve the most relevant ad content to the user. The ad impressions are shown to users who are more likely to interact with the ad, which significantly increases your campaign’s efficiency.

Why should I use Programmatic Advertising?
There are many benefits to setting up and running programmatic advertising including: increased transparency and control, real time metrics and reporting, greater targeting, and increased reach. From smartphones, to tablets, desktops and even TVs, you have the ability to reach your audience, creating a truly omni-channel campaign. As an advertiser, you can send your message to your target on the right devices at the right time.

Programmatic Best Practices
If you’re just getting started with programmatic advertising, there are a few best practices to keep in mind.

• Understand your Marketplace- Make sure you understand the language. Check out this glossary from unruly to learn the language.

• Set your goals- Like any campaign, make sure you set your goals. Make sure you know why you are doing programmatic advertising and what you want to get out of it.

• Blacklist unwanted sites- While programmatic advertising is meant to be more efficient and get your ads in front of a relevant audience, make sure you are excluding low quality sites and blacklisting sites you do not want to appear on. You don’t want your ad to appear in the wrong place.

   

This brief post is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to programmatic advertising. The key takeaway is that you can utilize this strategy to create better opportunities with your ad spend. The automation and algorithms identify what resonates with each user and targets them on the sites they are most likely to engage with at the time they are most likely to engage.

Looking to get started with programmatic advertising? Contact Robineau Media today and we can put together a plan that achieves your goals.