There is a strong case to go the programmatic ad way instead of just sticking with AdWords and organic SEO.
Do you want immediate results? Programmatic delivers.
65% of marketers are using programmatic, whose market value is over $ 60 billion in the US alone. Automation will be the key in the future with estimates touching $ 81 billion for the US digital display ad market. Programmatic encompasses audio-video, display, animation and may even include plain text deployed in a variety of ways with plenty of options. It is for you to know about the programmatic way of working and leverage its features to get the best value.
The Way Programmatic Works
Boil it down to the simplest way of explaining how the programmatic ad works and it comes down to the automatic system displaying contextual ads on a website even as a visitor is loading the page through a real-time bidding process.
The assumption is that if a visitor opens a page containing specific content and if he sees a relevant ad connected to the content he is more likely to click through and even buy. This is a good thing that advertisers do not have to conduct research and pick targets based on various parameters.
Programmatic tracks visitors to websites and pushes ads supposedly of interest to them. That bad thing is that not all visitors to websites have the intent to buy. They may simply be looking for information. In this case, your ad spend comes to naught. The bid for the space on the publisher’s web page is automated, through a real-time bidding process that can even see advertisers bidding against themselves and paying higher unless they fine-tune parameters of ad placement.
Target’s Intent
A target’s journey is tracked through cookies that help programmatic systems deliver ads. Ads can launch even when the visitor has no intent to buy in which case your ad money goes down the drain. It is better to refine parameters to deliver ads only when the target is at a point where a purchase decision is about to be made. However, this does not mean you should not deploy programmatic ads. On the contrary. You can develop ads relevant to each stage of the journey with the ad reinforcing web page content and the other way around.
Choosing The Right Channel
Creating ads according to stages of the customer journey is a good thing. It becomes even better when you target ads relevant not only to the topic but also to the channel.
For instance, if your ads appear on social media then you can create ads that carry promotional messages subtly overlaid with a patina of socially relevant concept. It is best to choose B2B sites if you are in the B2B segment if you want better results from your programmatic ad spends.
Improve Tracking
Data and user tracking can play a crucial role in improving ad spend returns. For instance, a customer may start on a social media page. Where does he go from there? Does the customer jump to an eCommerce page or does he jump to a search engine? The former gives you data that the customer is on the point of buying. The latter tells you that customers are in search of more information.
The point is to improve user tracking to derive information on stages of the journey to be able to deliver meaningful ads that get noticed and responded to. It is a challenge given that data can arrive via different streams so you will have to spend time learning about it and refining selection or engage an expert in programmatic to do it for you.
Creatives
Compared to plain vanilla text in PPC, programmatic gives you options to display attractive and colorful creative ads. You can use a plain image, an animation or even a brief video to get across the message in just a few seconds. This means you will need to engage an expert for the creative side and then go a step further in dynamic content optimization by choosing the right platform. It will deliver the right creative based on algorithms and improve the chances of returns.
Header
Header bidding occupies a special position in programmatic since it has perceived value for publishers as well as advertisers. Learn about header bidding and you will be able to select from a multiple of inventories to place your ad where it is likely to generate conversions.
Pricing Models
You cannot just jump into programmatic without knowing in detail about the cost per action (CPA) or cost per conversion; CPM or cost per thousand impression rate structure and cost per install or CPI models.
At the same time, you must know where your ad is likely to be shown – on desktop or mobile. Know which model works best for your product so you do not spend wholesale only to see diminishing returns. Choose the cost per action if the conversion is important. If you just wish to broadcast messages to familiarize people with your site and message then go the CPM way. If you choose apps as a way to get responses then CPI will be the preferred model. Your programmatic ad expert should be able to study your situation and recommend the best model.
Choosing the right platform and white label software and ad server is also part of the process of improving value from your programmatic ad spends.
