This morning, Caroline Geijer from Exposive Media gave us (in the Ideon Marketing, Comms Network), an eye-opening session on programmatic advertising; what it is, how it works, and why it is reshaping digital marketing.
At its core, programmatic advertising is about using data and automation to buy and optimize ads in real time; to reach the right audience, at the right moment, with the right message.
Why use it?
There are a few reasons why programmatic advertising has become such a powerful tool in modern marketing:
It is precise.
Programmatic Advertising lets you target audiences based on real data; demographics, interests, behaviors, location, even device type. Instead of buying broad ad space, you reach (more or less) exactly the people most likely to care about your message.
It is optimized in real time.
Since everything happens in real time, the system automatically learns and adjusts. It re-allocates your budget toward the best-performing ads and audiences. This means that you get more value for every krona spent.
It is fast and efficient.
Programmatic eliminates a lot of manual work in buying and placing ads. What used to take days or weeks (negotiating, booking, trafficking) now happens in milliseconds. This efficiency frees up marketers to focus on strategy and creativity rather than logistics.
The ROI (Return on Investment) is good.
With automated bidding and targeting, you spend money only where it counts. The constant testing and optimization make your campaigns smarter over time, improving results without necessarily increasing spending.
It works across multiple channels:
Display, video, mobile, audio, connected TV, and more. It helps you create a consistent message across platforms, following your audience wherever they are.
You get data-driven insights.
Impressions, clicks, and conversions are tracked. That means you get insights into how your audience behaves as well as how good your campaign is.
By using code scripts and implementing these on to your site, you can create multiple audiences to set target to different audiences that has engaged earlier with you brand.
This is cost effective, since you set target towards an audience that is more likely to convert.
It is scalable.
Programmatic scales to your goals. You can start small, test, and expand quickly as you see what works.
When It Can Be a Good Choice for a Startup
Programmatic advertising works well if you already have:
- A clear target audience: you know who you want to reach and can define that in data terms (e.g. interests, demographics, behaviors).
- Some budget. Programmatic platforms often require minimum spends (sometimes $5k–$10k/month) to make the optimization meaningful.
- Conversion tracking set up. So you can measure ROI and feed data back into the DSP.
- A solid brand or offer. You have validated your product/service enough to justify broad scaling.
