Programmatic advertising offers many benefits beyond faster reporting times and real-time optimization. The total number of benefits provided by programmatic advertising is, often, what convinces marketers and advertisers to start buying their media this way. In fact, according to a recent figure by eMarketer…
By 2022, US digital display advertisers will invest nearly $96 billion in programmatic advertising.
The numbers speak for themselves, but let’s start at the top by explaining what is programmatic advertising before outlining the key benefits.
What is programmatic advertising?
Programmatic advertising, in short, is the automated process of buying digital media through a process called real-time bidding. Basically, it automates the buying and selling of media inventory so you don’t have to.
With traditional advertising, media inventory is bought and sold manually. In one example, ad networks buy digital impressions ahead of time from different websites and apps and repackage them to be sold with little transparency or control for the advertiser. This process involves salespeople, requests for proposals, and a whole lot of human error. Makes me tired just thinking about doing it this way. This process is inefficient, unreliable, and often frustrating.
Programmatic buying is faster, more efficient, and less expensive than other media buying options. MarketersAdvertisers also have a more granular look into their advertising campaigns by paying for impressions and using dashboards to manage campaigns strategically and holistically.
Below are the top five benefits of programmatic advertising that, we’re willing to bet, have had a significant influence on why so many agencies and brands are making the switch from traditional to programmatic digital media buying.
5 benefits of programmatic advertising
1. Increased transparency & control
Programmatic advertising offers a layer of transparency that marketers can’t get from traditional advertising. Through programmatic advertising, you can see the exact sites your advertisements are reaching, the type of customer looking at your ad, and any additional costs associated with the ad space in real-time. This way, optimizations can be made on the fly and can occur in a much more efficient and educated way.
2. Real-time measurement
Real-time reporting and data measurement is every marketer and advertiser’s dream, am I right? Programmatic advertising provides the ability to measure exactly how creatives, campaigns, or overall targeting performs as soon as the campaign is launched (although we wouldn’t recommend making any changes for a week or so). Unlike traditional advertising, such as billboards or print advertisements, you don’t have to wait until the end of the campaign to get results.
3. Greater efficiency
The overall efficiency of digital advertising has dramatically improved with the ability to measure a campaign throughout its entirety. Real-time measurement allows advertisers to track their campaigns while making adjustments and optimizations as needed. Optimizing ensures that each campaign runs efficiently, reaching only those ideal targeting customers while using the budget effectively.
4. Greater targeting capabilities
If you’ve heard anything about programmatic advertising, you’ve probably heard the term “targeting” in the same breath. With programmatic advertising’s increased flexibility, advertisers can directly reach their ideal consumers for any given goal. Some examples are IP targeting (zoning in on a specific IP address—typically used for targeting a specific business or event), geolocation targeting (east/west coast, state, city, zip code, etc.), contextual keyword, and the list goes on. Oh, and don’t forget about the all-important and widely used retargeting. Only two percent of consumers convert on the first visit to a website. With retargeting, marketers and advertisers can continue reaching the other 98 percent of consumers now that they’re aware of your brand and encourage them to convert.
5. Increased audience reach
The last significant benefit of programmatic advertising is the potential audience reach. At any given time, there are 3.5 billion people on the internet typically. That’s a potential targeted reach of millions of people. It’s always best to narrow that down to those ideal consumers, but nevertheless, this substantial potential reach is not only impressive but instantly trackable. As soon as a display advertisement is seen, advertisers know how many impressions it served, who looked at it, where they were online, and so much more.
These are just a few of the many benefits that come along with running programmatic advertising. Are you looking for transparency? Do you want to be able to measure the success of your digital marketing campaign as soon as it launches? Would you like more efficiency all around, better targeting capabilities, and a better reach? Are you looking for less stress and more control in your digital advertising strategies? If you answered yes to any of these questions, go ahead and make the switch to programmatic buying.
