While traditional methods of advertising include tenders, proposals, quotes and human negotiations, programmatic advertising includes the use of machines and algorithms to buy digital ad spaces. Simply put, programmatic ad buying is the use of software to purchase digital ads. The growing demand for transparency and the need to combat increasing ad fraud has given a rise to programmatic, a fast-growing form of ad technology that has helped marketers like you gain control of their media spend. 

According to eMarketer, in 2021, programmatic advertising will account for about 86.5% of all digital ad spend in the United States. The ad spend areas that will drive growth are social media, mobile and video [1]. So, if you’re a business looking to up your digital marketing game, below are 10 reasons you should adapt programmatic advertising:

1. Pay less intermediary fee, buy more ad impressions

Traditional ad buying involves multiple mediators like ad exchanges, publishers, agencies, demand-side platforms (DSP) and supply-side platforms (SSP). Programmatic ad platforms provide you with complete transparency to the cost chain along with helping you unlock at least 20% of the wasted budget. This is possible as it is 100% transparent with regards to showing the exact fees that’s associated with each and every intermediary in the supply chain. The money saved can now be used to buy more ad inventory or even reduce your overall CPM (cost per thousand impressions).

2. Avoid bots and other fraudulent means

A huge chunk of your display ad budget is wasted on invalid traffic that includes fraudulent means, like bots, that are deployed to misuse your budget. According to research by Hubspot, over 9% of display ads and 22% of video spends was wasted on bot traffic [2]. Programmatic advertising platforms give you complete control of the publishers you want to use to target audiences. Moreover, these platforms have built-in features that block bot traffic and other types of fraud to reduce wastage of your ad spend.

3. Ads are delivered in an environment that’s brand safe

Verizon Media surveyed about 304 advertising decision makers in the United States asking them questions about their thoughts on brand safety. The survey found that 99% marketers and advertisers feel worried about the content beside which their brand ads are being displayed. 45% of those surveyed feel that media partners do a poor job of creating and ensuring a brand safe environment [3]. For marketers, brand safety is a top concern. As brand custodians, marketers must be wary of their ads showing up alongside offensive or objectionable content such as hate speech, adult and racist content. Programmatic platforms minimize the possibility of your advertisements being run in unsafe or objectionable environments. This is made possible as these platforms have designated media quality teams that screen their inventory and remove the unsafe or problematic websites.

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4. Contextual, relevant and privacy-abiding ads

Several times, consumers are shown ads and offers on products they’ve already purchased, airline ticket offers after they’ve booked and hotel room ads after they’re back from their vacation. This is wasteful digital advertising and what’s worse is that because of this, consumers think that the brands implementing such ads are clueless, or even foolish. Programmatic ad buying platforms help in avoiding such disconnected ad experiences by harnessing the most relevant consumer and prospect consumer data from several relevant and up-to-date sources stitched together. Programmatic can also use customer relationship management platforms and loyalty data in order to suppress certain ads or advertise the most relevant offers to a certain group of consumers.

5. Adapt to the constant changes in adtech

In the programmatic space, there are 2 types of technology advances that are at play. First, the core programmatic tech stack which revolves around machine learning. ML can equip marketers using programmatic with predictive spend recommendation and forecasting ad campaign performance. The second type happens at the channel level. There are certain newer forms of digital channels that only programmatic advertising can tap into. One such emerging technology is Programmatic TV which has become an easy way for marketers to buy TV spots just like they’d buy ad space on a website. Not just programmatic TV, programmatic platforms help advertisers adapt to changes in the digital world real quick.

6. Enhance overall campaign performance

Programmatic advertising gives you access to real and tangible benefits associated with overall campaign performance. It helps you understand your audience and know where to find them. Once you build your buyer personas, programmatic advertising helps you understand which markets to target and which ad inventory will be the most useful. Moreover, programmatic advertising will show your ads to people who are most-likely to show interest and interact with your brand. Such data-driven advertising is proven to be much more successful than any traditional digital strategy.

7. Real-time ad campaign optimization

When digital advertising was a newer concept, you could only see and analyze the results of your campaign once it was completed. You would create an ad, send it out in the world and set  a fixed budget or a fixed time for it. Once the ad was out, you had no other option to wait patiently for the campaign to end to see how it performed. Only when the campaign ended, you could see what you did wrong, learn from it and make the necessary alterations to the next batch of ads. In programmatic advertising, you do not have to wait. Campaigns can now be analyzed in real time, thanks to the constant and regular streams of data as well as audience analysis. Additionally, using programmatic advertising, you can adapt and make changes in your ads according to the insights. Once you begin optimizing your campaigns as they’re running according to the data, or let the algorithms do it for you, you will notice small changes having significant effects on your ad’s overall performance.

SEE ALSO: What is Clickfunnels and What are Its Benefits?

8. Automation

Leveraging the power of programmatic advertsing’s automation, any kind of error humans tend to make can be easily avoided. Moreover, the need for spending time endlessly for negotiating with publishers or even filling out forms to purchase ad spaces manually be eliminated. This time can be utilized in searching for relevant data, strategizing and creating effective campaigns.

9. Increased targeting options & capabilities

All the customer data you, as a marketer, have been gathering for years, including website traffic, purchase history and newsletter signups, can be put to work in your programmatic strategy. This technology allows you to reach your target audience at the right time as it provides you with in-depth insights making targeting incredibly precise and sophisticated. As compared to traditional advertising forms, the level of granularity offered by programmatic and its audience targeting capabilities is unmatched.

10. Advanced tracking capabilities

Programmatic advertising provides you with advanced tracking capabilities that let you see not just the number of conversions but also the value and category of every individual conversion. It also provides you with valuable data about your ad campaign that you can use to improve overall performance. Additionally, the leads you get from programmatic are high quality leads that actually get you business. 

Programmatic ad buying is an advanced technology trend that allows automated buying and selling of impressions. The reasons listed above tell you as to what make programmatic advertising so great and valuable. A Research and Markets report forecasted programmatic advertising to reach $33.7 billion by the year 2027 that is expected to grow at a CAGR of 30.7%. Leading brands and digital marketing firms have already started to see the value of programmatic. Those who have not yet considered including it in their digital strategy should understand its power and consider it as an option so as to make use of every penny they spend as media money, protect their ad against bots and fraud and enable data-driven automation.

SEE ALSO: What is People-Based Marketing and What are its Benefits?

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Sources

[1] eMarketer (2020) “US Programmatic Digital Display Ad Spending Will Grow Despite Pandemic-Related Recession” [Online] Available from: https://www.emarketer.com/content/us-programmatic-digital-display-ad-spending-will-grow-despite-pandemic-related-recession [Accessed February 2021]

[2] Hubspot (2017) “Bot Baseline 2016-2017” [Online] Available from: https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3400937/White%20Papers/ANA_WO_BotBaseline2016-2017.pdf?t=1536781555813 [Accessed February 2021]

[3] Verizon Media “Advertisers take action on brand safety” [Online] Available from: https://www.verizonmedia.com/insights/advertisers-take-action-on-brand-safety [Accessed February 2021]

[4] Research and Markets (2020_ “Programmatic Advertising Platform – Global Market Trajectory & Analytics” [Online] Available from: https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5030354/programmatic-advertising-platform-global-market [Accessed February 21]