Exploring the Landscape of Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising is one of the many ways to promote your business and services online. Depending on your goals, you can use programmatics to either market to a broader audience, or choose a specific target audience that is more inclined to be interested in your products and services. But what makes programmatic advertising such a good marketing strategy especially vs. the traditional marketing methods? What are the types of programmatic ads you can utilise for your strategy, and how can you integrate them smoothly into your campaigns? 

To learn just how effective programmatic can be, let’s look at the basics of programmatic advertising.  

What is programmatic advertising? 

Programmatic advertising is known as the process of buying and selling digital ad space through technologies that are automated and algorithm-based. Whereas the traditional method involves coordinating with multiple buyers and platforms to get your ad on display, programmatic advertising helps streamline the process and saves a lot of time and effort. Advertisers can specify their preferred target demographics, locations, interests, and behaviours. Then, the automated process can find the best way to market to the right people with these target specifications in mind. 

Here’s how it works in simpler terms: 

• Through supply-side platforms (SSP), publishers sell and make their ad space up for grabs for various advertisers. 
• Advertisers then use demand-side platforms (DSP) to buy their preferred ad spaces based on their specifications. The DSP engages in real-time bidding (RTB) to bid on these ad spaces. 
• Ad exchanges are used by DSPs and SSPs in the transaction process of buying and selling ad space. 
• An ad server then places the ad on the publisher’s platform after a successful transaction. 
• Once an ad is up and running, a data management platform (DMP) collects audience data to optimise ad campaigns and improve targeting. 

Programmatic advertising allows for streamlined, data-driven ad targeting, making it a convenient and effective digital marketing channel. You can use programmatic for various campaigns, from awareness projects to lead generation. 

What are the different types of programmatic ads? 

 There are several types of programmatic ads you can utilise for your digital marketing projects. Here are some of the most popular: 

• Display ads – These ads are scattered around webpages and apps and take the form of header, footer, and sidebar ads. Google, Snapchat, and Microsoft have their display networks of websites and apps where your ads can appear. 
• Video ads – These are in video format and can play before, during, or after an actual video on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. 
• Social ads – Ads on various social media platforms such as Facebook, X, Instagram, etc. 
• Native ads – These are subtler versions of display ads that feel natural to the platform. These look like ads for different web pages that appear when you’re reading content online. These ads look like regular featured article links and aren’t as obvious as regular display ads. 
• Audio ads – Audio-form ads, which you can usually hear during podcasts and on free music streaming sites. 

Depending on your specifications, DSPs can bid on ad spaces that best suit your target audience. For example, if you’re promoting an upcoming video game through video ads, your DSP may bid on the ad spaces of videos of gaming channels. Different types of programmatic ads serve different audiences and actions, it’s simply about finding the best ones that suit your goals and target audience. 

 Why utilise programmatic ads for your campaigns? 

The benefits of programmatic advertising help drive your business forward; from building brand awareness to advertising specific products or services, programmatic advertising offers incredible benefits to your marketing strategy. Some of the notable positives of programmatic advertising include: 

• Specific audience targeting – Aside from audience demographic and geotargeting, programmatic advertising also offers contextual, behavioural, and interest targeting options. This means you can show ads based on the websites relevant to your product, your audience’s online behaviour, and their interests. This helps create a strategy to target the right people in the right places, rather than just showing your ads to a generic audience. 
• Data-driven real-time reporting – Programmatic advertising offers accurate and real-time reporting from the moment ads have been set up. This allows you to optimise your ads as you go and improve their performance in real time, rather than waiting for the campaign to be over to make changes. 

• Smart budgeting for ads – Programmatic allows you to spend money on guaranteed audiences; as it is automated based on your specifications, the budget for your ads goes specifically to the people you want to target. Therefore, you’re not paying for impressions from broader audiences, but you will be able to target people more likely to support your brand based on your chosen targeting. This helps you to make the most of your budget, and not over-spend with no guaranteed return.  

Whilst automation is a great function, businesses still cannot choose publishers by hand. This means that your ad might occasionally appear on a website, app, or platform that you wouldn’t necessarily choose. However, the targeting provided by programmatic advertising is much more in-depth, and it’s a recommended channel to implement into your marketing strategy. 

Knowing the basics of programmatic advertising can take you one step closer to more effectively managing your digital marketing efforts. However, if you’re unsure where to start, outsourcing your programmatic advertising services to an agency like No Standing may be the best course of action.  

We offer a wide range of technical insights around programmatic campaigns, and our team of experts are knowledgeable about all the current trends in programmatic advertising to help take your business to the next level. Have a chat with us and let’s discover how we can make programmatic work for your business!