An essential guide to starting off with advertising on modern digital advertising systems.

What is Programmatic Advertising?

The Definition of Programmatic Ad Buying

Programmatic advertising or Programmatic ad buying refers to the use of a SAAS to purchase digital ad placements across digital assets (websites, apps, etc…).

This is opposed to the old process which involves RFPs, face-to-face negotiations and manual insertion orders.

The Importance of Programmatic Ad Buying

Programmatic ad buying brings into play the art of data intelligence and agile optimization into digital advertising campaigns. It makes it easier for you to automatically optimize your campaigns through “programmed” algorithms which will uplift your digital performance.

Will this replace our human advertising jobs?

Of course, not, people are still involved. However, Marketing agencies and large businesses often dedicate entire teams to the management of programmatic buying, tweaking the targeting and optimization of buys as well as overseeing any parts of the process that aren’t completely automated, which are actually many. Like with any new advanced technology, programmatic ad buying can’t do everything on its own (so don’t worry, this isn’t a case of jobs being entirely replaced by robots); it still needs monitoring by highly skilled people who understand marketing data and trends and can nudge the technology in the right direction when needed.

Is Programmatic Buying the Same as Facebook and Google Ads?

No it’s not. Programmatic advertising allows you to advertise on inventories available on multiple DSPs which unlocks a range of targeting options for your campaigns. A DSP is a demand-side platform used by advertisers to buy mobile, search, and video ads from a marketplace on which digital content publishers (bloggers, etc…) list online.

Is Programmatic Advertising the Future?

Oh yes. This sort of advertising is definitely on the rise. 80% of online advertising in the US is already programmatic. Today, it’s mainly online ads that are traded programmatically, but soon media agencies are exploring ways to sell offline media this way, including TV spots and out-of-home ads.