As the Internet has rapidly grown over the years, business minds have realized the importance of taking their brand online. Once the development is done & the web platforms get set up, it’s time to make people aware about your product. Without promotion, it’s nearly impossible for an online business to survive. Therefore, companies have started combining SEO with a PPC campaign to advertise their business.
But, with time, the online advertising landscape has changed drastically. New techniques pop-up frequently, and before you know it, your competitor moves ahead of you by making use of them. One such technique is- Programmatic Advertising/Marketing.
What is Programmatic Advertising?
When technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) get used for buying digital advertisements online through an automated system, it is known as Programmatic Advertising. It doesn’t involve pre-set prices or any human negotiation. Hence, the name- Programmatic.
Benefits of Programmatic Advertising
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⦁ Unparalleled Targeting
An advertising campaign aims to target the right audience. And Programmatic is undoubtedly the best when it comes to targeting a specific audience. The software getting used eliminates all the flaws of a traditional ad campaign. Once your ad gets seen, you can see how many impressions get made, who all looked at your ad, their locations, etc.
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⦁ Higher ROI
Through Programmatic, you can target based on a specific gender, location, interest, education, age, browsing behavior, etc. This specified targeting results in fewer wasted clicks.
A Google Ad displays your ad even to those who won’t give it a second glance. On the other hand, Programmatic ads are considerably cheaper, as publishers are also finding it hard to sell their ad space. Thus, the rates are usually low. Therefore, you can start a Programmatic campaign with a small budget and end up making a high ROI.
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⦁ Multichannel
One of the key issues with traditional advertising channels such as AdWords and Bing is that they have their network of sites where your ads are displayed. For instance, when you run a display campaign on AdWords, your ads will only get shown on Google’s partner websites. Fine enough. But what about other websites that are not part of Google Display Network? Similarly, if you run a video ad, even if your campaign is running with the world’s largest ad network, you’ll only be able to reach YouTube.
Programmatic advertising provides you access to a massive inventory of ad networks, publishers, and ad exchanges.
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⦁ Better Reporting & Tracking
Unlike traditional ad campaigns, an advertiser will not have to wait until the end to find out the results and drawbacks. Programmatic allows for real-time reporting. Therefore, you can judge the success of the campaign from the start.
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⦁ Total Automation
Programmatic gets widely recognized as a new-gen ad strategy as the software does the bulk of your work. It reduces the stress of advertisers as there are no negotiations with a human. Thus, advertisers can channel all their focus on developing the best content and strategies for their ads.
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⦁ Real-Time Bid Adjustments
Programmatic Advertising involves Real-Time Bidding (RTB), which is nothing but a real-time auction between advertisers. At a time, multiple advertisers can bid on an impression. Advertisers can determine their target their valuable audience and then adjust their bidding accordingly.
Working of Programmatic Display Advertising
Before understanding the working of Programmatic, it is crucial to learn about the terminologies used in this technique by advertisers and publishers:
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⦁ Real-Time Bidding (RTB):
Buying and selling of ad space online via real-time auctions that happen in milliseconds.
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⦁ Demand-Side Platform (DSP):
Software that is used by advertisers to buy ads automatically. It is more of technology rather than the software. Some of the leading DSP platforms include Turn, MediaMath, Invite Media and DataXu.
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⦁ Supply-Side Platform (SSP):
SSP is a technology platform used by publishers to sell advertising space automatically. It is the publisher’s equivalent of DSP. Some of the leading SSP platforms include Google, OpenX, Right Media, and PubMatic.
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⦁ Data Management Platform (DMP):
A data warehouse that’s essentially a software that holds information about consumers and customers, DMP collects information primarily through cookies that get used for advertiser targeting.
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⦁ Ad Exchange:
It is a digital marketplace where advertisers and publishers buy and sell ads. Leading ad exchange platforms for programmatic advertising include OpenX, The Rubicon Project, and Google.
So, how does the entire process work?
1. Publishers create ad space on their websites via SSP and connect their SSP with an ad exchange.
2. Advertisers set their target audience, cost, budget, and other necessary details with their DSP and attach it with an ad exchange.
3. A user visits a website. All the information about the user gets sent to the ad exchange.
4. If the user’s information matches an advertiser’s defined audience, he will enter the auction for RTB. If it’s programmatic direct, the ad will get served.
5. The advertiser with the highest bid will win the ad space for programmatic RTB, and his ad will get served.
6. The publisher will get paid for the ad.
Types of Programmatic Display Advertising
Depending on the advertiser’s requirement, there are two widely used Programmatic Ad techniques:
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⦁ Programmatic RTB
In RTB, a real-time auction is conducted between advertisers to see who comes out on top. For example, a user is playing a game. In between the levels, an ad is displayed in front of the users to entice them. Programmatic RTB decides which ad will get shown in between these levels. The highest bidder’s ad gets displayed.
There are two things that you can test and analyze with your RTB campaign: optimization and expansion.
Programmatic RTB can get used to generate CPM (Cost per Mille), CPC (Cost per Click), CTR, Leads, and can even be beneficial for testing purposes.
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⦁ Programmatic Direct (Automated Guaranteed / Programmatic Guaranteed)
What if you want to buy ad space for a week or 10k impressions on a highly relevant website? You cannot do it with GDN and programmatic RTB.
But you can do it with programmatic direct.
This method bypasses bidding and makes your ad guaranteed every time the page is loaded and successfully passes your set criterion for targeting.
Programmatic Direct gets suggested for companies looking for Engagement, Brand Awareness, and Website Visits.
Programmatic RTB Vs. Programmatic Direct
The first question that arises in an advertiser’s mind- What type of Programmatic Advertising should I invest in to gain maximum output?
For advertisers new to this technique, it gets highly recommended to run an RTB campaign because they typically have lower costs while providing you with enough data to optimize your campaign. Even Statistics show that programmatic RTB is 70% cheaper than programmatic direct.
But, if you own an established business looking for premium placements and brand safety, then you can go for programmatic direct.
In Conclusion, we’re regularly witnessing the powerful new examples of Programmatic getting paired with other marketing channels. Programmatic Marketing is on the rise – and there are competitors out there already implementing and reaping benefits from it.
If you are planning to venture into Programmatic or looking to combine it with your existing PPC and SEO campaigns, look no further than 6DegreesIT. With our high-quality Programmatic Marketing Services, we will develop an ROI-driven strategy for your ad campaign to deliver your desired outcome.
Contact us today!