According to eMarketer, over 80 percent of all digital display ads in the U.S. will be purchased this year through programmatic or automated channels. Programmatic ads are exploding because they take advertising far beyond the basics banner ad and create ads that reach specific targets and use Design Side Programs (DSP) and Real Time Bidding (RTB) to deliver ads to the targets that are converting. These targets can be tracked by location, time of day, receipt of email from a specified domain, any Dun and Bradstreet criteria and numerous other traits. The Bottom Line Is Programmatic ads are automated using audience data and technology to achieve the right marketing to the right person, at the right time, in a relevant context.
A focused ad targeting strategy can help small and medium-sized businesses to be more targeted in their digital ad spend and when managed correctly, deliver a higher engagement and conversion rate than other forms of online ads. Programmatic ads can also help advertisers to develop insights into the behaviors of their targeted audience. Having these insights can help to optimize other campaigns and develop future online marketing strategies. Below are some insights that an advertiser can hope to gain from a well designed programmatic advertising campaign.
Reach A Defined Target Audience
Programmatic allows advertisers to find their target audiences across the internet, wherever those audiences are located. Anyone who has researched autos for sale online or looked for a mortgage quote can tell you that programmatic ads will follow you around online for 30-90 days after the search. This targeting is managed anonymously, without marketers learning any identity information about their target market.
Establish Your Brand
Programmatic advertising is mainly used to target audiences and increase conversions. But companies who are developing their brand can experiment with by trying different advertising approaches to test their branding message.
The most popular approach is a “top-down” programmatic ad campaign that targets the core target audience, the most engaged online users for their products. A popular method for this is to target visitors to the sites of their closest and most popular competitors.
A “bottom-up” campaign approach involves targeting a smaller audience with potential to become engaged online users. The target numbers are smaller, and the budget is larger because a higher frequency of ads is required to establish the brand. Popular targets for this would be complimentary industries like a tire and custom wheel shop targeting an audience shopping for high performance off road vehicles or sports cars.
As recently as 2-3 years ago, Programmatic advertising was available only to the “big budget” advertisers. These days, we are seeing small to medium sized businesses with budgets as low as $1,000 to $1,500 per month use programmatic platforms to target new customers. Google Display can be used in a complimentary role to help to increase the range of these campaigns and reach a target audience.
Eric Van Cleave is the Digital Director for Zenergy Works, A Santa Rosa California online marketing and SEO firm.