Programmatic Advertising: A Growing Trend in Digital Marketing to Watch in 2019

With the continuous growth of digital media technologies and smartphones, online advertising has become more customized and engagement oriented. The trend in digital marketing network has transformed radically. And with the entry of exponential technologies such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality, this space is getting more innovative and competitive. One such dynamic change can be seen in the field of digital advertising after the introduction of marketing automation. Programmatic advertising is one such automated process (programmed using machines and algorithms) for buying ad space in real time.

While it has been around for some time, it is surely going to upswing as the next in-thing in digital marketing strategy in 2019. Here is how programmatic ad spending will shape the digital advertising industry in coming years.

As reported by emarketer.com, “programmatic advertising—defined as the use of automation in the buying, selling or fulfilment of digital display advertising—now accounts for the majority of digital display spending in France, Germany and the UK, following the trend that we’ve seen in the US”. Further, statista.com reports that “In the Digital Advertising market, 46% of the display revenue will be generated through programmatic advertising in 2023”. For India, it is predicted that programmatic advertising will contribute to more than one-fourth of all digital media ad transactions and is likely to grow in coming years.

What Is Programmatic Advertising And Why Has It Become So Significant In Recent Times?

Advertising under the traditional mode until a few years ago involved tedious manual intervention for booking ad space. The process entailed painstaking rounds of meetings and negotiations.  With the proliferation of publishers after the advent of digital marketing, it became difficult for advertisers to manage the demand-supply chain. Automation under current circumstances helped in taking control of the whole workflow.

Programmatic advertising is based on specific targeting across demographics of gender, age, social status, location etc. Under this mode, you can also set the specific time of the day for showing ads along with publishers and monitor the frequency. By doing this, you only have to pay for the ads that generate desired results. It gives the flexibility of freeing yourself from any contractual agreement for running and paying for the ads that are not so effective.

Programmatic advertising is software based. Hence the whole process of buying, placing the ad and optimizing the media inventory is automated.

Programmatic advertising has helped advertisers move towards a standpoint that is more customer-centric and works in real time. It has made advertising more need-based by using targeted campaigns. It also gives advertisers a better return on advertising revenue.

Programmatic advertising is enabling brands by giving clear insights into what their audience wants. Although programmatic advertising is at an early stage in the country, the trend is giving clear signs of growth in the ad-tech space.

Unlike TV or print advertising, programmatic advertising makes your marketing budget more efficient and effective. It allows your brand to have meaningful engagement with the right set of audience.

In programmatic, the publisher displays ads to the end user by showing them the relevant ads as per the advertiser’s budget. The conversion rate in this mechanism is more as the ads are based on user interest and aren’t generalized. The campaigns and budget can also be tweaked in programmatic buying. Since programmatic involves bidding, you can increase or decrease your advertisement impressions in real time.

The evolution of smart devices, from desktops to mobiles and now smart speakers, has changed how people use ‘search’ online. While the product discovery journey may have changed, the purchase intent is strong as ever. Brands have seen conversions rising using programmatic ad buying at much lower spending. Programmatic ads are based on demand-supply publishing since the value of inventory is determined in real time.

How Programmatic Buying Works?

Programmatic buying is based on real-time bidding process using per impression pricing model. It enables single window processing to monitor campaigns on different sources. Most importantly, it helps optimize campaign performance in real time based on the audience reaction, unlike regular media advertising.

The programmatic ad is best suited for educational institutions since they have conservative cash flows. This means that their publishing channels should be very focused and targeted to relevant groups. Through programmatic advertising, the digital media inventory buying process on multiple ad networks has been automated.

Programmatic ad typically works on Internet-enabled platforms wherein the content is frequently tweaked as per the user experience with the ad variant.

Adoption of programmatic advertising in the Indian market is fast. With its growing use in digital marketing space, publishers and advertisers are keen on understanding the technology to drive business. Going ahead, programmatic ads will help businesses evolve to a level where content will be linked to context for reaching the right audience.

How Programmatic Advertising Helps To Target The Right Audience?

For advertisements to achieve its end objective, it must reach the right audience at the right time and at the right place. Companies small or big are constantly evaluating how their targeting can be made more precise and effective through digital media advertising. They are in search of advertising mechanisms that will enable them to do so. Since audience preferences vary widely across the content consumption spectrum, programmatic advertising helps companies dive deeper into marketing insights by better audience profiling to achieve the end objective.

An essential component of programmatic advertising is the localization of content. The addition of programmatic advertising in digital marketing has been a very efficient and effective way for brands to run customized campaigns that suit the interest of the local market. It has proved to be cost effective for companies that operate in multi-locations.

Localization of messaging is important for catering to the needs and buying preferences of your target audience that vary from place to place.

What Advantages Does Programmatic Advertising Offer To Academia?

Generally, educational institutes have conservative marketing budgets and tight admission deadlines. Therefore, the challenge for them is how to make their advertising expenses more accountable.

The main advantage of programmatic advertising for educational institutes is that it allows them to save time and cost. With the advent of programmatic advertising platforms, academic institutions can capitalize on more effective advertising operations and better advertising revenue management.

Another advantage of institutes is the effective monetization of their marketing inventory through real-time bidding in programmatic advertising. In addition, programmatic advertising enables academic entities to run more localized and personalized ad campaigns which improve content engagement results.

As a result of programmatic campaigning, institutes are able to get more value from their digital inventory and reach out the right prospects they want to.

How Does 2019 Look For Programmatic Buying?

The growth of programmatic advertising will continue to reshape the use of data and technology in digital marketing in 2019. As academia will gain more understanding of programmatic buying, it will set way for new insights and trends that will bring progressive changes in digital advertising for educational entities.