What Is Programmatic Advertising

What Is Programmatic Advertising?
by Demarcus O’Dell - July 31st 2021

As the attention spans of todays consumers decrease; target marketing tactics are used by advertisers to make data driven decisions about paid ads placed among the right people at the right time. With so many different channels and platforms to advertise on; making the right decision about placement of advertisements by ones self can be incredibly difficult. 

 The solution is Programmatic Advertising, which is; the automated buying and selling of online advertisements. Programmatic Advertising is a technology, and as it’s platforms grow in inventory and database it is able to access any channel or format including mobile phones and tablets, desktops, audio devices, televisions. With smart TV’s, smartphones, and audio devices and technologies such as Alexa, Siri, etc., collection of data programmatically has become fuel for Programmatic Advertising platforms. 

Programmatic Advertising platforms use real time data to discover the optimal online audience for a company’s campaigns. Again, using refined data these platforms buy digital ad inventory (ad space) through auctions. These auctions are for ad space within channels throughout multiple devices and the goal is to precisely place ads where the target online audience cares about and is paying attention to. 

Heres an example of the process; advertiser “Fight Gear” wants to sell more boxing gloves, they signup with a Programmatic Advertising platform that is able to pin point an online audience by attributes such as; Demographics (male /female /18-45), Geography (7 miles from a mixed martial arts dojo or boxing dojo), Interests (fitness, self-defense, UFC), Behaviors (watch fighting technique tutorials in the lunch hour), Time Frame (2pm-6pm), Device (smartphones). Advertisements are curated specifically for interest and behaviors. 

Based from an article in MarTech Advisor; the “Top 5 Programmatic Advertisement Platforms for 2020 and Beyond,” are SmartyAds, TubeMogul, Simple.fi, MediaMath and PubMatic. Research points before choosing may be; What is the pricing structure, what are onboarding fees, monthly retainer, percentages of ad spend, and are prices negotiable per business volume? Also what is offered, how is technical support and how elite and technologically advanced is the platform?  Check back here for more!