Programmatic advertising

Definition, benefits, examples, and how it works

Programmatic advertising refers to the practice of automating media buying and creating digital ads with the use of marketing technology. For an effective programmatic advertising strategy, use an automated workflow to effectively deliver ads to your audience.

What is programmatic advertising?

Programmatic advertising is the use of advertising technology to buy and sell digital ads. Programmatic advertising serves up relevant ad impressions to audiences through automated steps, in less than a second.

Programmatic advertising uses an automated process, within advertiser-defined parameters, to purchase digital ad inventory across the web, mobile, apps, video, and social media. Programmatic advertising uses workflow automation and machine learning algorithms to deliver the most effective ads to audiences based on a variety of signals, like shopping patterns.

Programmatic ad buying takes place when consumers click on a publisher’s website, and the publisher puts the ad impression up for auction through header bidding and one or more SSPs. Then, the DSP bids on behalf of the advertiser for that impression based on campaign’s strategies, budget, creative sizes, and other factors. The publisher automatically assigns impressions to the winning bidder—the advertiser/DSP offering the highest CPM (cost per mille, or the cost per one thousand advertising impressions). The ad is instantly served on the website.

What is programmatic media buying?

Programmatic media buying uses an automated process to buy digital space for ads. Programmatic media buying also cuts down on wasted ad impressions by serving ads to relevant audiences and minimizing ad fraud risk—making it cost-efficient, as well.

Why is programmatic advertising important?

Programmatic advertising is important because it can save time in the creation of your ads and campaigns. Not only does it automate the process, it  analyzes your campaign performance to help you optimize for success.

What is the difference between programmatic advertising and display ads?

Display ads could be a type of programmatic ad. While display ads are the ads themselves, programmatic advertising is the process of distributing these ads. Display advertising is also a type of digital advertising, but it does not necessarily need to be programmatic.

What are the benefits of programmatic advertising?

Programmatic advertising offers many benefits. Advertisers may achieve greater efficiency, more targeted marketing reach, transparency, and real-time measurement and optimization.

1. Efficiency

Traditional advertising requires time to develop requests for proposals (RFPs) and quotes, conduct negotiations, and create insertion orders. With programmatic, the process is more streamlined. Advertisers can buy and place ads quickly through Real-Time Bidding (more on that later).

2. Reach

Programmatic allows advertisers to reach audiences based on different marketing signals, such as shopping and browsing activity across devices.

3. Transparency

With traditional media buying, ads are purchased in bulk and advertisers have little control over the inventory and placement. With programmatic advertising, advertisers know where their ads will appear and can have greater confidence that they’ll show up in relevant brand environments.

4. Measurement

Programmatic offers real-time measurement and optimization to drive maximum results.

What are the challenges of programmatic advertising?

Potential challenges with programmatic advertisng include commoditization, transparency, and a steep learning curve. Despite the potential challenges, brands that don’t adopt to programmatic advertising strategies may be missing out on the benefits of efficiency, reach, transparency, and accountability.

1. Commoditization

As with other forms of media, programmatic is commoditized. Everyone is playing in the same space and some types of ad supply may be scarce. With the growing popularity of Programmatic Guaranteed, an increasing amount of non-commoditized inventory is becoming available to advertisers programmatically.

2. Transparency

While programmatic provides advertisers with greater control over viewability and where their ads appear, brand safety and transparency remain top-of-mind for advertisers. Amazon Ads and many third-party solutions address these concerns to help preserve brand trust.

3. Learning curve

Programmatic requires a learning curve that may initially feel overwhelming. Working with partners, agencies, or Amazon Ads directly can help advertisers to ease their foray into programmatic.

What is a demand-side platform?

A demand-side platform (DSP) is programmatic software for advertisers. A DSP helps facilitate media buying from numerous publishers through SSPs, ad exchanges, ad networks, and direct integrations. DSPs help brands and agencies (the demand side) determine which impressions to buy and at what price (the supply side). Advertisers can select audiences based on demographics, shopping patterns, browsing behavior, and many other signals.

What is a supply-side platform?

A supply-side platform (SSP) is programmatic software for publishers to facilitate sales of advertising impressions via ad exchanges. By connecting publishers with multiple ad exchanges, demand-side platforms, and networks at once, SSPs let suppliers sell impressions to a greater pool of potential buyers, and allows suppliers to set the bidding range to maximize their revenue.

What is Real Time Bidding (RTB)?

Real-time bidding (RTB) is a way to buy ads programmatically. With RTB, advertisers can participate in an auction when an impression becomes available. If their bid wins the auction, their ad is displayed instantly on the publisher’s site. RTB is not only efficient, but it helps advertisers focus on the most relevant inventory.

What is header bidding?

Header bidding is a technology that allows publishers to simultaneously request bids from multiple demand sources and send the bids to their ad server to conduct an auction. The ad server determines the winning bid and renders the ad on the site. Allowing multiple bidders to bid on the same inventory at the same time increases competition, but offers advertisers the opportunity to access premium inventory with these publishers.

What is an ad exchange?

In programmatic advertising, an ad exchange is an online marketplace where advertisers, agencies, demand-side platforms, publishers, and supply-side platforms can bid on advertising inventory from various publishers using RTB. Advertisers determine the price by participating in the bidding process. Additionally, with an ad exchange, advertisers gain visibility regarding where their ads will appear.

How do I run programmatic ads?

Once you’ve established your campaign goals, such as driving new product discovery or increasing sales; defined your ad types, such as display, video ads, or in-app ads; and have set up the DSP, you’re ready to get started.

To maximize your impact at the lowest cost, think about the various components of your campaign setup, such as duration and audience size, as this will help determine the CPMs you need to win your bid. At this stage, you can estimate the budget you need for the campaign and develop a bidding strategy.

CPM bid levels vary by media types and creative units. Generally, display demands the lowest CPMs whereas video demands the highest CPMs.

With programmatic advertising, you have the opportunity to evaluate campaign and creative effectiveness mid-campaign through reporting on metrics such as CTR, CPC, overall spend, and conversions. You can then optimize your campaign based on these insights.

How much does programmatic advertising cost?

The cost of programmatic advertising varies and is generally based on CPM. CPMs range in price based on who you’re trying to reach, supply settings, advertising budget, and the amount of time the campaign has to run. Adjusting these factors will change the end price for the campaign.

For example, holding everything else constant, when you’re reaching a broad audience, the CPM is typically less than when you are trying to reach a more niche audience. Targeting and ad group variables impact the CPMs required to secure inventory. With programmatic, advertisers are charged prices through RTB.

How do I measure programmatic advertising?

Impressions, clicks, and actions are three main ways to measure your programmatic advertising campaign, but they are just starting points. You can also measure key performance indicators (KPIs) that map back to your business objectives. Below is a helpful guide; utilize the metrics and OKRs most relevant to your objective:

Goal	KPIs
Branding and awareness – What is x?	Reach/unique reach, average frequency, share of voice, brand lift, views
Interest and consideration – I want to know more about x.	Completed views, clicks/site visits, detail page views, engagements, leads/cost per acquisition
Purchase – I am going to buy x.	Return on ad spend (ROAS), return on investment (ROI), sales, subscriptions, advertising cost of sales (ACOS)

Types of programmatic advertising

1. Open marketplaces

Open marketplaces are also known as RTB. This is a type of programmatic advertising where bids are placed for ad space and impressions.

2. Private marketplaces

Private marketplaces are by invitation only. Advertisers can place their ads after receiving placement options from publishers.

3. Preferred deals

Preferred deals are given priority placement. This type of advertising is a joint collaboration between ad sellers and publishers on the placement or impressions.

4. Programmatic guaranteed

Programmatic guaranteed advertising promises a certain amount of impressions for your ads. This is decided manually, without bidding.

Examples of programmatic advertising

Case Studies

How Bajaj Finserv reached more customers for their Insta EMI card with Amazon DSP

Bajaj Finserv and their media agency, Arm Worldwide, worked with Amazon Ads to identify relevant audiences for their Insta EMI card. Once they were ready, they created a campaign with display ads from Amazon DSP, which would direct consumers to an Insta EMI application webpage where they could learn more.

Case Studies

Inside Lenovo’s quest to engage with the gamer community in the UAE

Lenovo worked with Amazon Ads on strategic campaigns and high-impact placements to help them connect with the growing gaming community in the UAE. They used Amazon DSP video, display banners, and more to showcase their cutting-edge laptop devices.

Case Studies

Amazon DSP helps French manufacturer Groupe SEB increase sales in Belgium for their appliance brands

Groupe SEB, a manufacturer of domestic appliances and cookware, used Amazon DSP campaigns across both Amazon-owned and third-party supply networks. This helped them to engage audiences and bring them relevant products, while also driving ROAS.

Case Studies

Reckitt drives customer loyalty in Brazil with a Subscribe & Save campaign

Reckitt, a producer of health, hygiene, and home products, worked with Amazon Ads and their local agency Cadastra to create campaigns for in-market and lifestyle audiences. By using Amazon DSP, they were able to remarket to prior customers.

Programmatic Advertising 101: What is a DSP?

You need to get started using programmatic buying tools, but you’ve never done it before, and you don’t know where to begin. Join the club. We get it. It’s the same reason we haven’t learned to cook for ourselves yet.

Here’s the good news: We’ve got experts at Basis Technologies who know the ins and outs of programmatic advertising. All you have to do is ask the right questions. Lucky for you, we’ve asked the basic questions and we’ve come equipped with answers (and, lucky for us, everyone assures us there is no such thing as a dumb question).

Understanding Programmatic Ad Buying

To start: Programmatic is a very broad term. Simply put, it’s technology that automates digital media buying. This can include automating anything from rate negotiation and campaign set up to optimizations and actualizations. One of the primary buying tools you have at your disposal is a DSP.

If there really are no dumb questions, then can I ask: What is a DSP?

A demand side platform (DSP) is an automated ad buying platform, where advertisers and agencies go to purchase digital ad inventory. Examples of ad inventory include banner ads on websites, mobile ads on apps and the mobile web, and in-stream video. DSPs are integrated into multiple ad exchanges.

I’ve heard of a SSP. Is that the same acronym and I’ve been typing it wrong into Google this whole time?

Nope, it’s not the same thing, but it is similar in concept. Supply-side platforms, or sell-side platforms (SSPs), facilitate the sale of publisher inventory through an ad exchange. SSPs offer services such as minimum bid requirements in order for the publisher to maximize how much their ad space sells for. The difference is that DSPs are for marketers and SSPs are for publishers. SSPs (like DSPs) are plugged into multiple ad exchanges.

You keep mentioning ad exchanges. What are those? And why do DSPs and SSPs both need to be connected to ad exchanges?

Think of the ad exchange as the “go-between” in the automated buying world. An ad exchange is a digital marketplace that enables advertisers and publishers to buy and sell advertising space via real-time bidding (RTB). Meaning the ad exchange announces each impression—with the inventory flowing through DSPs and SSPs—in real time and asks buyers if they are interested in buying said impression and at which price.

All of this makes sense now, but I still don’t understand why I should use a DSP!

In order to understand why DSPs matter, it’s important to remember where the need came from and how the ad industry operated before automated buying. Traditionally, if you were a media buyer at an ad agency, the buying process was facilitated through human beings—it was you (the advertisers), the publishers (website where ad will appear), an audience (the viewer of the ad), and a bunch of spreadsheets and emails going back and forth negotiating prices. This process was complicated, time-consuming, and often error-prone. DSPs allow advertisers and agencies to buy across a lot of sites at the same time—and all of this is done instantly and efficiently, usually before the webpage loads.

DSPs offer a host of other benefits as well, including audience targeting capabilities, brand safety and fraud prevention tools, a real-time view of campaign performance, optimizations toward a goal, multi-tactic approaches, and flexible budget shifting.

Selecting the Right DSP for Your Programmatic Ads

How do I know which Demand side platform is right for me?

There are many DSPs in the programmatic world to choose from. Choosing the right DSP for you depends on a number of factors, like what type of data you need (first-party or third-party) and how many ad exchanges the DSP is plugged into, because that can affect reach. DSPs like Basis DSP give you access to over 40 billion daily impressions across all devices and channels. Other things to consider include cost, how much training and hands-on support you prefer, and ease of use—many DSPs have multiple, clunky or confusing user interfaces, which require a lot of education.

Speaking of training, I’m glad you mentioned that. What if I sign up for a Demand Side Platform and find out I have no idea what I’m doing?

Some DSPs come with a full team of experts, offering you everything from full-service to self-service and everything in between. With Basis DSP, you’ll start with a three-month platform training program, offering you an overview of programmatic, a walk-through of the interface, and best practices for campaign creation and optimization. Ongoing support is available in the form of a customer success manager and resources to keep you informed—like new feature webinars, best practice guides, and new quarterly business reviews.