Ask a Marketer: What Is Programmatic Advertising?

What Is programmatic advertising? We explore the topic in this Ask a Marketer.

We use our expertise to answer this question.

Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of digital ads through real-time-bidding (RTB), as opposed to traditional (often manual) methods of placing digital ads.

While this sounds complex, it’s very similar to platforms you’re probably already familiar with, such as Google’s Display Network (GDN) and YouTube Ads. In fact, some of GDN’s placements are available through other programmatic platforms and could show the exact same ads.

So, what’s the hype behind programmatic? Many times, demand-side platforms (DSPs) outside of GDN have access to more publishers with better rates and targeting, including purchase data, B2B data providers, vehicle registration data, and much more.

Navigating the programmatic advertising journey: from publisher to SSP to ad exchange, then from merchant to DSP, and back to the ad exchange.

Programmatic advertising might be a good option for your brand if:

  • You want to scale, but you’re hitting diminishing returns on search and/or paid social
  • You have a large budget and you’re looking to diversify your spend
  • You want to increase brand awareness and drive qualified traffic
  • You need to target specific audiences based on demographics, interests, and behaviors
  • You want the option to optimize your campaigns in real time

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