Pragmatic marketing needs programmatic advertising 

If you want to improve efficiencies, cut waste and drive growth from your marketing, then think programmatic advertising. Used by major brands, it's just as applicable to companies of any size.

Programmatic advertising uses automation technology to buy digital ads. It’s about eliminating manual, time-consuming processes and inefficient advertising to streamline your advertising so you can reach more of your target audience with more impactful and cost-effective campaigns.

While the idea’s simple, different technologies, metrics and providers bring complexity, so here are five ways to focus on getting the basics right.

1. Choose your partners wisely

Implementing programmatic advertising requires external support or in-house expertise. The quickest route is collaborating with a partner with access to a demand-side platform (DSP), which can buy, monitor and optimise your advertising to achieve your campaign goals rather than buying in the technology.

But do your homework. Make sure they can use your data (and other sources) to build audiences and plan campaigns while complying with data ownership and use regulations. Check they can support all elements of campaign management, from execution to reporting performance in real time and then optimise it. Also, ensure they can measure its impact while offering insights to improve future campaigns.

2. Activate your data 

Programmatic success relies on targeting, which means data. This includes your first-party data – information directly from customers, such as purchase data, site visitor information and customer relationship management platform data. It’s the bedrock of targeting, so look to build this up as much as possible. Partners can often supplement this with additional individual-level information that enhances your targeting by providing a more complete insight, such as their demographics or online browsing behaviours. They can then put this to work so your precise audience can be built, identified, and targeted online.

But just as for your partners, ensure your data collection approach doesn’t infringe on user privacy and complies with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

3. Measure what matters

Have clear campaign objectives and choose metrics that reflect these goals. Some, like click-through rate, are easy to measure but have little value. Instead, report on tangible outcomes: Did my campaign increase visitors to my store? Did I see growth in newsletter sign-ups? Am I making more incremental sales?

Focus on whether the campaign is making a difference. This is why a metric like Return on Ad Spend – how much money you’re making for each pound spent on advertising – is so valuable.

4. Focus on quality, not just cost

Just because you can access cheap advertising opportunities doesn’t mean you should. With so many websites, it’s easy to end up in unsuitable and unsafe environments that compromise your values and brand. This can even put off your buyers, as most consumers look less favourably on brands appearing near inappropriate contexts. What’s at stake is your reputation and revenue.

Prioritise buying quality impressions and work with partners offering transparency so you can see where your ads run and your budget’s reaching your audience. And it pays to do this as quality ads can deliver a 2.5x higher conversion rate.

5. Adopt a multichannel approach

Don’t limit your campaign to standard display ads. Instead, take advantage of what programmatic offers to develop a multichannel approach.

Consider video to reach your audience in a more engaging manner that tells your brand story. And explore digital out-of-home. Advertising hoardings are being replaced with screens in many environments, such as shopping centres, bus stops, and train stations. This means you can target your message locally or in high-footfall areas. And as more people embrace streaming services, Connected TV allows you to reach your audiences programmatically at a fraction of the cost of traditional TV.  

Embracing programmatic advertising means more agile, timely, and efficient campaigns that reach your target audience at the right time and in their key environments. The result? Better campaign outcomes, which build better businesses.