Marriage expert Hellen Chen recently asserted that 85% of relationships end in a break-up. Sometimes in life, you get to a point with someone or something, and you just have to say, “It’s not me, it’s you—we’re over” and join the 85%. That’s what marketers and advertisers should be saying to their traditional advertising. More than half of the advertisers in the U.S. have ended their relationship with traditional media buying and moved onto the new hunk in town, programmatic. Programmatic advertising just has so much more to offer. Why wouldn’t you want to begin that relationship for you digital advertising?
Here are the steps marketers and advertisers can take to start their new relationship with programmatic advertising:
1. Find the right platform
The first step an advertiser should take when making the transfer from traditional to programmatic is finding the right platform. To ensure a successful relationship with programmatic, finding the right platform that matches the overall goals of the marketer or advertiser is the most important move. Does the platform have reporting? Is it self-serve or managed by the vendor? What data and how much is collected? These are all questions an advertiser should ask before beginning a new relationship with a programmatic platform.
2. Get to know it
The second important step marketers and advertisers should take when starting their new relationship are to make sure they fully understand the programmatic platform then have chosen before running a campaign on it. This ensures that the campaign goes smoothly and in the way expected. The operator should understand how to launch a campaign, where they can find insights and other data from the campaign, how to gather reporting, and any other additional parts that may be important for the success of the digital advertising campaign.
3. Give it a test
Once the marketer or advertiser has gotten to the know the platform of choice, it’s time to test out a campaign. Through a test campaign, the advertiser will be able to see if the platform is able to do everything they thought and if the results of the campaign meet the overall goal. It’s at this point where the advertiser will be able to see if the relationship is going to work or not with the specific platform. With the number of tools and data offered by programmatic platforms, it’s important that marketers and advertisers are aware of each of those when they start running campaigns and reviewing the final results.
4. Reach out for support
Additionally, marketers and advertisers should have a support center they can reach out to during the initial stages of the relationship and throughout the duration of campaigns if there are any problems or questions that arise. A strong support center will keep the advertiser happy by ensuring their campaign is running as efficiently as possible.
5. Settle in
The last step in starting a new relationship with programmatic is to settle in with the platform. After running a test campaign, marketers and advertisers should have been able to tell whether the relationship with the platform is going to work. Then, it’s important to settle in with that platform, get to know it better, and become an expert in the platform. Settling in allows the operator to become even more efficient in running programmatic advertising campaigns and really understand this new form of digital advertising.
If you’re tired of all the meetings, delayed reporting times, and inefficiency of your relationship with traditional media buying follow the steps and start a new relationship, with programmatic advertising. It’s a no-brainer.
