If you’re a business owner, you must have some kind of online advertising strategy set up already. There are many ways you can approach online advertising, and programmatic ads are one of them.
Unlike traditional advertising techniques, programmatic advertising is based on traffic data, ensuring that your ads reach the right people every time.
Programmatic ads are a true game-changer when it comes to running online ad campaigns because it offers incredible accuracy and increases your overall reach, as well as conversion rates. This article will explain why this type of advertising is the best choice you can make.
Programmatic Advertising Explained
Programmatic advertising is software designed to help you buy digital ad space. Traditionally, the process required you to make requests for proposals, negotiate prices, compete in tenders, etc. Programmatic buying does most of the work automatically using advanced algorithms that buy and sell ad space.
The software uses traffic data and online display targeting to increase the number of impressions to the point where you get a higher ROI for all marketing efforts. The method works great for businesses of all sizes, even local ones.
Traditional methods require your marketeers to spend a lot of time inserting tags, orders, and other details. On the other hand, this type of advertising does all of this automatically, allowing your marketers to focus on different campaigns and marketing details.
Why Is Programmatic Advertising A Good Idea?
More and more businesses abandon their traditional advertising methods and adopt the process of buying advertising space and the use of automated technology for media buying.
This new approach is efficient, more accurate, and easily scalable. As a result, the market share for programmatic ads is expected to grow to $133 billion in 2023, from $61 billion to today.
The new advertising approach became available only in the past few years as artificial intelligence solutions appeared across different industries and business processes.
In addition, AI is much more efficient at managing time and resources, so it’s no surprise it’s finding an application in online marketing as well.
In short, programmatic ads are a good idea because they use accurate data to find the best way to spend your ad budget. Once you provide the platform with details such as campaign goals, targeted audience, and KPIs, the software will do all of the hard work for you. It will launch and monitor ad campaigns, identify areas that need improvement, and help you streamline your online marketing efforts. It’s the best way to optimize your advertising spending, increase ROI, and grow your company in the future.
Setting Up Your Programmatic Ad Campaigns
To experience all of the benefits this type of advertising offers, you have to do some prep work first. Here’s a quick overview of the process to help you set up your campaigns in no time.
Know Your Market
Before getting started with ad campaigns, you must do your research first. You will see many terms and technical details you must master first if you’re new to online advertising. However, once you’re clear with the basics, you will better understand which KPIs matter the most. For example, you’ll know how to differentiate your SSP and your DPS.
Set Clear Goals
Once you know the game’s rules, it’s time to set up clear goals you want the campaign to achieve. The best approach is to use the data at your disposal and figure out what types of ads you need.
Then, build your strategy around what you find, and the available information will give you a better idea of what you can expect in the future. Of course, this is not a one-time deal, so you should monitor ad performance and ensure that the software is doing what it’s supposed to do.
Involve Humans Into The Process
Although programmatic ads are designed to do most heavy lifting automatically, they still require human guidance. Some platforms are fully automatic.
Others offer half-managed processes. Therefore, you first have to choose the type of software for your needs and use it as a base on which you can build your ad campaigns.
After you’ve got the basics in order, you have to find marketers who have the skills and experience in optimizing programmatic ad buying. Your ad campaigns will become much more efficient if you find the right people and the right software.
With that said, you should never put all of your trust in an algorithm if you want to get the best results. No matter how versatile these software solutions might be, they can never replace the human experience.
Update and Monitor Your Ads Regularly
Even if you’ve got everything set up and the software is doing a great job, you still have to monitor all ads to ensure that they don’t appear where they are not supposed to. For example, your ad campaigns won’t perform well if your ads display on fake news websites and similar platforms.
That’s why it’s essential that you keep updating and monitoring ad placement on inappropriate websites. The good news is that some platforms allow you to exclude the categories you want to avoid.
Furthermore, if your products are sensitive in some way, you should use a whitelist to gain access to a list of approved websites. Of course, that will harm your reach and make ad campaigns more expensive, but at least you’ll know that your ads are free of offensive materials and fake websites.
Keep Your Eyes Open For Programmatic Ad Fraud
Current estimations say that advertisers lose anywhere between $6.5 and $19 billion on fake ads every year. Sadly, there’s always a risk of fraud, so you must research software providers before spending your money.
Also, don’t focus only on platforms that promise a ton of leads for an affordable price because most of them use bots to increase traffic.
If it’s too good to be true, the old saying probably is and applies to programmatic advertising as well. Trafic quality is much more important than outreach to avoid fake traffic.
Lastly, when adopting programmatic ad software, ensure that it’s compliant with privacy laws and other regulations. The software must have a firm privacy policy that keeps your brand’s reputation safe. Get this part wrong, and you might face considerable problems in the future.
Conclusion
Programmatic advertising is on the rise, becoming even more popular soon. It’s a rising trend that can give your business an edge over your competitors. Platforms like these work for smaller brands, and the sooner you adopt one, the more success your ads will have in the future. Programmatic ads can also help you minimize marketing costs and set up successful campaigns in minutes.