Today’s digital landscape is nothing like what we have seen before. Have you observed how consumers find a brand these days? How do they research their options? The current digital ecosystem plays a major role in influencing their decisions. Consumer behavior is changing rapidly and to our surprise, in large numbers.
Around 75% of consumers in the U.S. have experimented with a new brand or a store. Many consumers have also changed the way they shop after the novel coronavirus was detected in the country. These numbers show that brands need to go above and beyond to ensure their consumers do not leave them.
What are brands doing to ensure their customers stay loyal? While social media has emerged as a tempting alternative to stay connected with consumers and enhance brand awareness, there are other options. One option is programmatic advertising.
That being said, few businesses understand the need for adding programmatic media to their marketing strategy. They are not alone. Around two-thirds of chief marketing officers (CMOs) do not know about the existence of programmatic advertising companies. Let alone, how they can use programmatic services to enhance their marketing campaigns.
We understand that programmatic advertising appears intimidating. It is easy to lose your way while understanding all the jargon, acronyms, and hype around new technologies However, once you recognize the benefits of programmatic advertising, there is no turning back.
Many programmatic advertising companies help brands scale new heights. How does programmatic advertising benefit them? Continue reading to find out.
Before we examine the benefits of programmatic media, let’s understand what it is exactly. Without further ado, let’s begin.
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What is programmatic advertising?
Programmatic advertising is also referred to as programmatic marketing.
It is an automated data-based method of buying and selling ad space online in real-time. Two primary parties are involved; publishers who sell digital ad space and buyers who want to advertise their products or services.
An advanced algorithm determines the placement of ads based on multiple factors including demographics, industry, and more. This process takes just a few seconds, and a majority of the time, buyers find a relevant ad space instantly. One of the best platforms for programmatic advertising is Google Ads.
What are the benefits of programmatic advertising?
There are plenty of benefits linked with programmatic advertising. Let’s examine them.
1. Systematic and flexible spending
Since programmatic ads are scalable in terms of how much money we spend on ad campaigns, it is suitable for many businesses. Small businesses can put a cap on their ad campaigns to ensure they are not overspending and running beyond their budget.
Google Ads is a revered programmatic advertising platform worldwide, and for valid reasons. It enables advertisers to define daily budgets for ad campaigns and also helps you understand the best possible way to use your budget daily. Therefore, companies can not only spend more effectively but also scale their ad campaigns thanks to programmatic advertising.
2. Reaching a wider audience
Turning to programmatic advertising services has other advantages as well. One of them is, the ability to reach a wider audience. Programmatic advertising offers tremendous reach to marketers as the marketplace for ad publishers is humongous, and global.
With millions of ad spaces and websites being sold, programmatic advertising provides a safe passage to reach a broader and more diverse audience, based on the needs of the buyer.
This gives programmatic advertising services an edge over other forms of advertising.
3. Transparency
Programmatic advertising provides great transparency to marketers. It allows them to stay on top of all their campaigns with no confusion.
Marketers clearly understand where their ad campaigns are used, the type of audience that views the ads, and the total return of investment (ROI). These metrics help marketers determine the success of their campaigns. Besides, this information also allows them to tweak their campaign strategy to attain better results. This is another reason businesses should reach out to programmatic advertising companies to kick-start their programmatic advertising campaigns.
4. Relevant and accurate targeting
Again, when we speak about reaching the right audience at the right time through advertising, other forms of advertising are no match; programmatic advertising is better in all aspects.
The level of targeting you can achieve with programmatic advertising is parallel to none. Programmatic facilitates seamless segregation of different parameters based on the needs of the marketer.
We have explained different targeting techniques below.
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Location-based targeting
Location-based or geo-targeting ensures location-specific ads are displayed to the relevant audience in that location.
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Contextual
Contextual targeting shows the optimized use of information to ensure that a specific ad is displayed on a relevant site.
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Behavioral
Behavioral targeting plays leverages shopping interests and habits to show ads. A person looking who is searching for sports shoes will be shown ads related to sports shoes and possibly other sports accessories. In addition, when users add items to the cart and do not complete the purchase, that information is used to display ads about products they have shown interest in before.
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Devices
Programmatic services allow marketers to reach their audience across different devices.
5. Real-time information
It is essential to understand that real-time data fuels programmatic advertising. Since marketers have access to real-time information, they can adjust campaigns and take informed decisions on the go. This level of flexibility coupled with real-time management is another main reason programmatic services outperform other forms of advertising.
6. Create ads using stylish formats
We have marched past an era where click-focussed ads were primarily used in the programmatic space. Things have changed drastically as brands are focussing on using creative assets to engage with their audience.
Brands have a host of ways to engage with their audience. They can use maps to direct their audience to their store or use a stylish web takeover format. Guess what? You can purchase these web takeover formats on an individual user basis in real-time.
7. Programmatic services-digital out-of-home billboards (DOOH) sync
Let’s explore a scenario. Imagine you are driving home from work, and it’s almost dinnertime. You drive past a billboard with a picture of a delicious-looking pizza on it. When you are waiting for the signal, you look at your phone, and you see a push notification that mentions pizza again.
You give in and order a pizza for dinner. So what exactly influenced your decision here? We call it a programmatic-DOOH sync. This is how it works. When you are close to a brand’s out-of-home advertising, ads are re-targeted to your smartphone.
This is one of the most effective ways to reach your audience, and therefore programmatic advertising services are handy.
8. Make the most of different weather
You can not only get in touch with the right person at the right time in the right place, but you can also get in connect with them in the right weather. Weather indicators are an effective way to contextualize your brand’s advertising and are guaranteed to do well for your targeted audience.
These triggers may be as basic as “sales increase when it rains” and may be based on brand insight. When desirable weather circumstances occur, the budget can automatically be unweighted in the programmatic buying platform, or the messaging can adapt to become more topical.
Programmatic advertising services: frequently asked questions
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Where can I see programmatic ads?
If you browse the internet or simply look around, you will find programmatic ads everywhere. Right from website banners, newspapers, and billboards, to magazines and social media, most ads are delivered using programmatic advertising.
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How much does programmatic advertising cost?
There is no formula to deduct this. Let’s understand the pricing. Typically, programmatic ads are charged per thousand impressions. The charges range from $0.5 to $2. The costs increase if the industry is rife with competition. Other factors that influence pricing include placement and target audience.
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What are the best practices used by top programmatic advertising companies?
The best practices deployed by some of the best programmatic advertising companies include a better understanding of the target audience, building an omnichannel marketing strategy, monitoring results, and defending campaign goals.
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How do I get started with programmatic advertising?
A major chunk of work related to programmatic advertising involves looking for the right programmatic advertising platform. This is where you will need the expertise of a programmatic advertising company. These companies know exactly how they can help brands grow and reach a wider audience.
Bottom line
In the current day and age, marketers are pushing to create data-based campaigns to ensure their efforts reap the right results. With data at its heart, programmatic advertising has emerged as one of the most effective forms of advertising in recent years.
Right from the ability to target the desired audience to view real-time data to track performance, programmatic advertising has all the ingredients to ensure brands grow.
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Read the latest ongoings in the programmatic advertising space on iTMunch!
Feature Image Source: Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
Image 1 Source: Photo by henry perks on Unsplash
Image 2 Source: Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash
Source:
[1] Segel. H (2020) “The consumer sector in 2020 and beyond” McKinsey [online] Available from: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/the-consumer-sector-in-2020-and-beyond [accessed August 2022]
