Programmatic advertising platforms have become increasingly popular, especially after the pandemic. If you do not believe us, here is an interesting stat. Nearly 66% of the US display ad spending is programmatic [1]. A Statista report says that programmatic ad spending glided past the $80 billion figure in 2021, a significant boost from $63 billion in 2020 in the US [2]. As more and more brands recognize the benefits of programmatic advertising, the demand for online advertising platforms continues to grow each year.
The best programmatic advertising platforms solve some real problems for advertisers as well as publishers. In this article, we will take a look at some of the top programmatic advertising platforms in 2022. Read along to uncover what exactly are programmatic advertising platforms and why there is so much buzz around them.
SEE ALSO: 4 hot programmatic advertising trends in 2022
Programmatic advertising platforms explained
Think of programmatic advertising platforms as a fish market, wherein fresh seafood is auctioned each day. Buyers bid for the fish of their choice and the sellers sell their catch if the price offered is satisfactory. Programmatic advertising marketplaces serve the purpose of a fish market on the internet, where buying and selling of ad space take place in real-time on the internet.
These platforms help millions of online marketers to find a suitable ad space on the internet. Wondering how this happens?
Step 1: Knock knock, a visitor has arrived on a website
Step 2: Publishers now capture important data and impressions on the website visitor.
Step 3: Advertisers get on with the action by bidding on an impression.
Step 4: The highest bidder comes out as the winner and places their ad on the website.
However, to ensure this process is smooth, cutting-edge tools and software solutions do the heavy lifting in the background. This is exactly where programmatic platforms step in and do their magic. Programmatic platforms can be segmented into four main categories including supply-side platforms, demand-side platforms, data management platforms, and ad exchanges.
The publishers are interested in the supply-side platforms as they can easily gather data and deliver it to ad exchanges. Now, the ad exchanges offer this data to demand-side platforms which essentially work on behalf of advertisers, accepting bids for every single ad impression.
Publishers relish the idea of data collection as it enables them to sell ad space to the most suitable or highest bidder. This is an ideal scenario for advertisers as it allows them to be extremely targeted with their advertising. Besides, this has been the formula for success for players dwelling in the programmatic sector in which, ad spending is surpassing $155 billion each year at the global level [3].
By now, we have a better idea of how online advertising platforms work. Let’s take a look at some of the top programmatic advertising platforms in 2022.
Best programmatic advertising platforms
1. Adform
Adform is a Danish demand-side platform that is designed for modern marketing. The platform leverages enterprise-grade tech Adform flow along with its modular, scalable, and open architecture, paving the way for seamless campaign cycle management.
The underlying technology of the platform aims to improve machine/human collaboration while offering augmented intelligence to boost business results for clients.
2. Display and Video 360
Display and Video 360, also known as DV 360 is a demand-side tech platform developed by Google that allows buying and selling of ad spaces. With DV 360, advertisers can easily connect with a host of publishers to improve their reach and be visible to the right audience at the right cost.
DV 360, just like a real estate agent, offers multiple ad spaces to publishers on Googel Ad Exchange and other ad exchanges with which it has direct connections. Some of the most notable features of DV 360 include audience targeting, end-to-end campaign management, and scalability.
3. The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk is one of the most popular media buying platforms designed for the open internet. The platform enables your brand to grow anywhere in the world by utilizing data.
The open internet allows you to use data to widen your audience across a plethora of podcasts, applications, websites, and other types of online real estate. Since The Trade Desk deals with the open internet, it has made the platform more data-driven and extremely robust.
4. Xandr
Xandr is a data-enabled technology platform and a marketplace developed for premium advertising. Xandr claims to be an innovator and at the intersection of TV and digital advertising. In addition, the platform provides improved efficiency, exceptional buying strategies to advertisers, greater access to supply, access to demand, tailored services to publishers, and more.
The Xandr marketplace has a reach of 6.7 billion daily impressions, is used by more than 193,000+ brands, and 1550+ direct publishers, and has more than 45 partnerships with global data providers.
5. Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe needs no introduction and is a heavyweight in the media world. Adobe Advertising Cloud on which media and programming shake hands. It is arguably the only independent ad platform that has managed to unify and automate screens, media, data, and creativity at scale.
6. PubMatic
PubMatic is a supply-side platform that offers high customer value by offering digital advertising’s future supply chain. The platform’s customer-centric solution uses cutting-edge infrastructure to offer flexible and scalable innovation.
The tool is unbiased and offers data, insights, and inventory information to facilitate results and also provide control while simultaneously building solutions that address the industry’s critical requirements.
Wrap up
The ad world saw a massive change when the Marlboro Man first appeared, and it has never looked back since then. Technology continues to evolve at lightning speed, resulting in the influx of many innovations. Business leaders are finding and deploying new ways to market their products, and with the advent of the programmatic platforms mentioned in the article, new opportunities and avenues have opened up.
These tech-driven ad platforms are powered by AI and machine learning algorithms, providing flawless and convenient buying and selling of ad spaces. Businesses are using these platforms to grow their business and improve visibility.
We hope you enjoyed reading this article. We would love it if you share it with your friends and colleagues.
SEE ALSO: The Most Exciting Digital Marketing Trends for 2022
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Feature Image Source: Image by Epic Top 10 used under the license Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
Image 1 Source: Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images
Sources:
[1] Saleh. K (2018) “US Programmatic Ad Spending – Statistics and Trends [Infographic]” Invespcro [online] Available from: https://www.invespcro.com/blog/us-programmatic-ad-spending/ [accessed June 2022]
[2] (2022) “Programmatic digital display advertising spending in the United States from 2019 to 2023” Statista [online] Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/278727/programmatic-display-ad-spend-in-the-us/ [accessed June 2022]
[3] (2022) “Global programmatic advertising spending from 2017 to 2026” Statista [online] Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/275806/programmatic-spending-worldwide/ [accessed June 2022]
