The Truth about Programmatic Advertising

The term ‘Programmatic Advertising’ refers to buying and selling ad inventory using an automated, data-driven procedure. This includes video, mobile, native and display ads. As programmatic advertising gains momentum among marketers, it is important to separate the truth from the myths. Here is a look.

Programmatic Buying (PB) and Real Time Bidding (RTB) – Different Animal?

In the world of digital media buying, programmatic buying refers to automated ad buying while real-time bidding is a specific mechanism for automatically bidding and buying using an auction format. So, RTB is a part of Programmatic Buying. Automated bids are placed by advertisers for an impression or ad space. The highest bidder wins the auction and ad space or impression on a particular web page (which is then loaded immediately).

RTB – Low-quality?

There have been cases of suspect publishers supplying the RTB ecosystem with questionable inventory. However, most quality SSPs and DSPs actively work to remove such inventory since it wouldn’t benefit anyone in the long run.

Initially, RTB was a way of earning from unsold inventory. But not anymore. In today’s landscape, virtually every impression is potentially available through RTB. For example, Header bidding allows advertisers to choose impressions at the highest priority and increase their revenue by taking the best price available for any given impression.

Programmatic is a ‘Black Box’?

The lack of transparency in the value chain, inconsistent measurement, ad fraud and brand safety were initial concerns with programmatic advertising. But that was mainly due to the business models offered by companies that offered programmatic buying services.

And that is changing.

With ad platforms, such as Trade desk, announcing AI tools to give marketers clarity on where their programmatic dollars go, the Programmatic Black Box is turning more transparent.

These tools simplify the programmatic buying process and enable advertisers to predict who they can reach, ahead of each campaign. Simplified buying becomes more scalable too as buyers understand how to better allocate spend and assign value.

To learn more about Programmatic Advertising and how you can benefit from it, get in touch with OgreLogic, the best digital marketing agency in Austin, Texas. Call OgreLogic at +1 (512) 861-8471 for digital marketing services that generate revenue in the most cost-effective manner possible.