If you think of adverts, your immediate thoughts will probably go to tv commercials coming in during a cliffhanging scene or multiple adverts in YouTube videos. The fact is that adverts have grown alongside technology to become smarter and more targeted.
Programmatic advertising refers to the process of software-driven technology that enables real-time buying and selling of ads via an automated bidding system. In other words, your ad will compete with others targeting your specified audience, all via a clever and efficient system.
This type of advertising has grown in recent years due to two main drivers. The first is ad buying efficiency, you can be the best in the business, but you still won’t be able to buy/sell ads at the speed and scale the tech can do. The second is targeting relevancy, you can now plug in mass amounts of data from multiple sources to hit your target audience, regardless of demographic, buying behaviour, browsing history etc.
Programmatic advertising has now become the dominant digital ad, Google AdWords and Facebook Ads are just 2 popular examples. When done correctly, it is a truly formidable weapon in a digital marketer’s arsenal.
By: Matthew Lin
