The manner in which programmatic platforms price inventory has undergone a sizable shift. In March of 2018, 338 billion ad impressions across 39 US supply-side platforms were analyzed by Getintent. Their findings revealed that 43.3% of these impressions were sold through first-price auctions, meaning that the highest bid wins an impression. Just last December (2017) the figure was significantly lower, when only 5.8% of the 171 billion impressions analyzed were sold in the same manner.
But is programmatic STILL the best way to get results? Mark Twain once said, “The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” Looking at programmatic’s performance in just the last four years, we see a steady year-over-year increase in the percentage of advertising budget it captures. Emarketer predicts programmatic will capture 84% of each marketing dollar in 2019, up a whopping 49% from 2014. Why is programmatic capturing a larger share of advertising dollars each year? Digital marketers invest their money where they see results, and programmatic advertising is driving billions in revenue. As is usually the case, “the proof is in the pudding.”
Programmatic is a comprehensive, self-learning platform that creates a resource-efficient, hyper-effective ad campaign. It’s defined by digital experts as “automated advertising buying coupled with artificial intelligence.” It sifts through volumes of historical trends, human behavior algorithms, and demographic data, producing the work of an entire marketing department in a matter of milliseconds. Programmatic allows web marketers to optimize spending, match relevant ad campaigns to target audiences and pinpoint locations to best position ads.
Optimize Spending:
With all of that data crunching, programmatic optimization capabilities continue to get smarter and smarter. To help insure you won’t waste resources on ad space that may or may not reach your target audience, the system actually learns and forecasts which ad campaigns offer the best ROI.
Match Relevant Ad Campaigns to your Audience Needs:
Say goodbye to “one size fits all” or “spray and pray” advertising. programmatic provides granular personalization by matching relevant ad campaigns to audience’s needs. It provides an experience for the customer that aligns with their specific needs and preferences. Say, for example, you are selling snowmobiles online. Programmatic advertising filters through your customer’s historical data and reveals the majority of site visitors are male between 25 and 40 years old – live in the midwestern states – are browsing in the evening – and have read Outdoor Life magazine online. Programmatic now knows the who, what, where, and when of your target audience. This is a win-win for both you and the consumer, as this data allows you to reach the consumer with the highest propensity to buy. In addition, the consumer is shown ads for a product they are actually interested in and may already be shopping for. With programmatic advertising, you can now see, with an astonishing degree of detail, exactly who your audience is, and what they are looking for.
Pinpoint Geographic Location:
Location-based advertising and direct-mail campaigns have been around for years. Today, geo-targeted and GPS-enabled mobile devices have made it much easier for marketers to zero-in on their customers, and deliver the right message at the right time in the right location. Programmatic uses GPS data in its number-crunching, data-sorting process to pinpoint your target audience. It also directs ads to your most profitable geographic location.
With all this talk of automation, machine learning and data crunching, it’s easy to believe the machines do all the work; this is what some call “set it and forget it” automation. At Genius Monkey, we are not in the business of monkeying around with your valuable resources by being over-dependent on AI. We know digital campaigns see the best results when managed with human oversight. That’s why in addition to our amazing algorithms, our team of programmatic-marketing monkeys fully manage every campaign. We do it to take programmatic over-the-top and insure game-changing results.