Programmatic Is The Path to Consumers' Mind

Programmatic advertising is an increasingly popular option for digital marketers who want to make the most of their advertising budget.

A report by Zenith estimated that a full 67 percent of advertising spending in 2019 would be for programmatic ads, up from 59 percent in 2017. This equates to $84.9 billion in ad spend, which is up from $57.5 billion in 2017 and represents an average growth rate of 21 percent per year.

The trend toward embracing the programmatic ecosystem is growing stronger each year, with some estimates suggesting that programmatic advertising may eventually become the default for digital media advertising. To leverage this trend, it is essential that you understand both what programmatic advertising is and how it works to influence consumers in the moment.

WHAT IS PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING?

Traditionally, digital marketing has been fairly straightforward.

You locate the platform or website that you wish to advertise on and then you either buy ad space or set a price that you’re willing to pay and then spend up to that amount on performance-based ads. Your campaign success or failure depends on who sees the ad and what mindset they’re in when they see it; the best that you can do is try to target demographics that are more likely to want the products or services that you’re advertising.

Programmatic advertising is different. Instead of simply targeting a demographic and hoping that those who see the ads are interested, programmatic uses sophisticated algorithms to fine-tune your ad targeting. This not only increases the likelihood of your ads going up in front of people who are actually interested, but it also makes it much more likely that the ads will appear when the viewer is ready to purchase your goods or sign up for a service that you’re offering.

CAPTURING THE MICRO-MOMENTS

The programmatic ecosystem is built around the concept of micro-moments, those brief instances when an individual is most likely to be influenced by an ad.

There may be hundreds or even thousands of these moments sprinkled throughout the average consumer’s day. Programmatic advertising attempts to place targeted influential ads in front of consumers at these crucial moments before a decision or purchase is made. This allows the consumer to see your product or service at just the right time to leave them thinking: “Now that is exactly what I was looking for.”

Because its targeting algorithms are able to more effectively capture micro-moments based on a user’s activities and interests, programmatic advertising has a much stronger influence on consumer decision-making than other forms of digital advertising. This is why so many marketers and agencies working in the digital space are shifting more and more of their ad spend toward programmatic solutions and will continue to do so into the future.

HOW PROGRAMMATIC CAN HELP YOU

The programmatic ecosystem is still growing and expanding.

Taking advantage of programmatic advertising and capitalizing on micro-moments now can give you and your company a solid advantage over competitors who are slower to adopt new advertising paradigms. There is a very limited window in which you can take advantage of this; within a few years, non-programmatic ads will be in the minority. As more and more marketers adopt programmatic, there will be less opportunity to be on the earlier adopter end of things.

It’s likely that the popularity of programmatic ads will have a significant impact on how digital advertising is approached over the next few years. If you want to ensure campaign success and make the most out of the rise of programmatic advertising, now is the time to act and learn what you can about this revolution in digital advertising.

If you don’t take advantage of this opportunity, at least some of your competitors surely will.