Programmatic is a massive sphere, within which many elements co-exist. However, due to the large number of complex terms and technical nuances, it is quite difficult to immediately understand the processes of advertising automation.
In this article, we’ll respond to frequently asked questions (FAQ) about programmatic, from what the technology is and how it works to what benefits it brings to everyone involved. At the end of the article, BYYD experts share their predictions for the future.
We’ll try to explain everything in an accessible form and give practical advice that will be equally useful to beginners and experienced professionals.
How Programmatic Works
What is Programmatic?
The term Programmatic means buying and selling advertisements. The process of buying ads through programmatic is fully automated and takes place within special platforms.
The automation of ad buying and diversity of target audience data within programmatic increases the effectiveness of all advertising campaigns.
What is programmatic media buying?
Programmatic media buyingis the purchase of advertising spots on various communication channels. Platforms automatically find the right users and show them ads.
The advertiser can set up a campaign so that ads are shown only to certain audiences.
Channels of communication are the ways of transferring information between the sender and the receiver. They include various types of technology: Internet, telephony, radio, television and others.
What advertising channels are available in Programmatic?
Programmatic works with media advertising channels. These include banner, social, mobile, text, text-graphic and video advertising.
Each channel has its own characteristics, which depend on the purposes of the advertising campaign. For example, banner formats are often used in display advertising and serve to achieve image goals.
How publishers buy advertising through Programmatic
A publisher is the owner of a website, application or other communication channel where ads are placed. The advertiser can buy advertisements from the publisher through Programmatic, if the publisher is connected to the specific platforms.
Connecting to the platforms allows automatically selling advertising space and getting money for each ad.
How to run a programmatic advertisement: step by step guide
Define the goal Before starting an advertising campaign, it is important to define the goal that needs to be achieved. For example – to increase brand awareness or attract traffic to the site.
Select the platform Choose a platform that will automatically buy ads during the campaign. There are many options on the market, such as Google, BYYD and others.
Set a budget The budget sets the possibilities of promotion. It determines what the placement formats will be, how long the campaign will last, and which bids should be submitted to advertising platforms.
Choose a spot for advertising The format of placement should coincide with the location of the target audience. These days, advertising within mobile apps is popular.
Adjust targeting Proper targeting will allow to reach the target audience faster. The main targeting parameters are geographic location, age group, and interests.
Creation of advertising material Promotional material must fit the format and goals of the advertising campaign. It can be an image, a video or just text.
Launching the campaign Once the campaign is launched, it’s important not to forget about optimization and regular monitoring of the results. At BYYD, this task is performed by qualified mobile specialists.
How Programmatic solves image problems
Image objectives are aimed at forming a positive image of the company and increasing brand prestige.
The format of Programmatic advertising is aimed primarily at solving brand image problems. It has a gentle effect on users by regularly repeating the advertising message – this helps to attract the target audience and increases sales.
Programmatic ecosystem
DSP
DSP (Demand-Side Platform) is a technological platform that allows an advertiser to automate the process of buying advertising spots.
With the help of the DSP platform the advertiser can determine the parameters of its target audience, select advertising formats and place advertising only on those sites that meet the specified criteria.
At the end of an advertising campaign, the DSP provides efficiency reports.
SSP
SSP (Supply-Side Platform) is the platform through which web site publishers sell their advertising inventory.
Ad inventory is the entire amount of free space that is available on the publisher’s resource.
The SSP’s integration with the DSP platform allows advertising space to be sold at auction automatically in real time.
DMP
DMP (Data Management Platform) – a platform for data management. It allows collecting, storing and analyzing information about users’ online behavior.
DMP is used to optimize advertising campaigns because knowledge of the target audience improves the effectiveness of the placement.
AD EXCHANGE
Ad Exchange is a place where advertising inventory is bought and sold.
The interaction is based on the auction principle: publishers offer advertising inventory and advertisers bid to buy that inventory.
The Ad Exchange platform is fully automated. In the process, it accepts bids from DSPs, selects the most favorable offer, and announces the winner.
TRADING DESK
A Trading Desk – is a company or department that buys advertising inventory in real time. This process occurs through Ad Exchange and other platforms.
The Trading desk uses data from the DMP. This allows optimized ad buying and gets the best results for the ROI.
All about advertising creatives in Programmatic
What advertising formats are available in Programmatic
There are three features to consider when designing creativity in a programmatic system:
placement channel;
placement method;
type of ad message.
Main placement channels:
websites;
mobile apps;
social networks.
Placement methods:
video: pre-roll (before the start of the video), mid-roll (in the middle), post-roll (at the end), in-display (displayed in search results or recommended videos);
social ads: advertising in social networks;
audio ads (in podcasts and streaming music services);
native ads adapted to the design of the site or mobile app;
digital out-of-home: digital outdoor advertising;
display ads: ads in the header, footer or sidebar;
mobile ads: ads in mobile apps.
The BYYD platform specializes in mobile advertising. This popular way of promotion is becoming more and more popular every year.
According to Global Review, 64.4% of the world’s population has access to the Internet. The advantage of mobile advertising is that it finds interested users among all the participants of the global network and shows them the advertising message.
Thanks to finely tuned targeting parameters, competent content and creative development, we are able to convey the message of brands to their target audience, improving business awareness, thereby strengthening user loyalty and raising sales.
Types of advertising messages:
Banner Ads – an image or set of images placed on a website or app.
Video Ads – a video file used to convey a message.
Interactive ads – ads that allow users to interact with the ad, such as clicking on items or filling out forms.
Multimedia ads – these ads use different types of multimedia elements, such as images, video, sound, and text.
Popular advertising formats in 2023
There are currently 3 popular advertising formats on the programmatic market:
Rich media
Rich Media Banner – an interactive banner that is created using the latest HTML hypertext markup. This technology helps in structuring and presenting online content.
Rich media uses multimedia – high-quality graphics, animation, video, audio and links – to grab the viewer’s attention. Interactivity, storytelling and omnichannel perception of this format helps to create a convincing and memorable ad.
Fullscreen
FullScreen – is a full screen banner that is displayed after the page loads.
Such a banner consists of two parts – a wrapper and a container with advertising content. The wrapper occupies 100% of the width and height of the window, and the advertising content is located in the center of the screen. This format is considered classic and fulfills all its functions. Namely, it attracts the attention of the audience and promotes memorization of the advertising message.
Video
Video advertising is markedly different from other formats, as it actively affects the visual and auditory channels of information assimilation.
Such advertising provides a wide level of engagement and more easily evokes an emotional response from viewers.
Requirements for an advertising message in Programmatic
Format: Advertising messages can be presented in a variety of formats – banner, video, audio, and more. The main thing is to use the ones that are supported by the selected DSP.
Size: Advertising messages should match the sizes that are predetermined by the technical requirements of the system. For example, the Fullscreen format at BYYD includes different dimensions: 320×480, 768×1024, 320×50 and others.
Content: Advertising messages should not contain offensive or discriminatory expressions or any material that violates laws or codes of conduct. It is also important to ensure that the advertising content is relevant to the product being advertised.
Targeting in Programmatic
Targeting and its role in Programmatic
Targeting – a mechanism which allows to reach the right audience with the help of ads. Properly set up targeting identifies groups of interested users and shows ads precisely to them.
Showing ads only to interested audiences helps to effectively allocate the budget and minimize the cost of unproductive impressions.
Setting up targeting is based on the following parameters: geographic location, age, gender, interests, online behavior and others. These parameters are determined by data from users and other sources ( for example, Trading Desks).
Properly configured targeting helps in achieving the goals of the advertising campaign. It affects increasing brand awareness, attracting new customers and others.
Types of targeting parameters in Programmatic and their role in an advertising campaign
There are many targeting parameters in Programmatic advertising, which allows to adjust the campaign to the target audience and achieve maximum effectiveness.
Here are some of the basic parameters:
Demographic targeting: age, gender, marital status, income and other basic characteristics.
Geographic targeting: country, city, region and other parameters that allow setting up a campaign for a specific geographic area.
Behavioral targeting: interests, online behavior, visited sites, buying habits and other characteristics that help determine which users are interested in a product or service.
Technological targeting: devices, browsers, operating systems, networks, device language and other technical parameters that are important for successful delivery of advertising content.
Social targeting: social networks, groups and communities that are associated with the advertised product or service.
Contextual targeting: keywords, context and topics of sites where ads are placed.
The role of each of these parameters depends on the goals and characteristics of the product or service. For example, demographic targeting may be important for baby food advertising, while super geo-targeting may be important for downtown coffee shop ads.
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“Programmatic” and “Contextual advertising” – the differences
Programmatic and context – terms that are often confused. Their main difference is that context is aimed at the already formed demand, and programmatic – at its formation.
For example, a person entered the phrase “buy hair dryer Dyson LA” in a search engine. Contextual advertising will analyze the keywords and offer ads with the right product.
Programmatic works differently. A hair dryer ad pops up for a user with certain interests. For example, a person uses “care,” “household,” and “beauty” apps, and there is information about their online behavior.
In terms of the sales funnel, programmatic is introduced first, and then context is connected.
What is the future of the programmatic market?
What’s in the future of the programmatic advertising market – opinion of the BYYD experts.
Tatiana Ozga, Mobile Group Head BYYD
Competition between advertisers for user attention has increased in recent years, with a large number of advertising creatives and campaigns being created every day. However, the volume and variety of offerings on the Internet makes audiences selective and thoughtful.
In order for a business not to lose out in the race for customer loyalty, it is necessary to ensure comfortable communication at all points of contact with the brand. A logical step would be to incorporate omnichannel into marketing strategies.
I want to emphasize that omnichannel means interaction with the user through several channels of communication. The “one person, one channel of communication” scheme used to work, but the situation on the market has changed.
Now marketers understand that the number of user-brand interactions is growing exponentially every day. And to increase efficiency, it is necessary to implement an omnichannel structure.
The BYYD platform is also part of the omnichannel structure: our platform allows buying mobile and desktop advertising inventory in real time. BYYD’s DSP ads are outreach tools and serve the upper stages of the funnel – introducing the brand to the user.
Anton Saprykin, Group Heap Production Group
Every day it becomes more and more difficult to interest audiences and attract their attention to advertising messages. The concept of “advertising fatigue” is becoming more common, and advertisers and marketers are looking for new ways to solve this problem. In this context, interactive formats of creatives are becoming increasingly important, as they allow not only to attract attention, but also to increase engagement and clickability.
At BYYD, we create and adapt a variety of formats, including interactive Rich Media. However, available traditional advertising methods cannot always solve the complex challenges faced by advertisers and marketers.
In this situation, creative formats that stand out are becoming a key success factor in advertising. In the near future, AI may be able to help create such creatives. It is possible that soon production staff will use AI in every task in order to get the most effective results.
The placement of programmatic comes in many forms. Of course, the programmatic uses banner formats, but there are also many others. It depends on the purpose of the placement, the budget and other parameters.
Programmatic = social media advertising
Targeted advertising within social networks is programmatic, but only a part of it. Programmatic includes a variety of channels and formats, including ads on mobile apps, TV and streaming platforms.
Programmatic = games only
Many people think that placing based on programmatic only means placing inside mobile games. This is not true – the list of programmatic channels includes various categories of apps, and mobile games are only a small part of it.
For example, completely excluding “Card Games” category apps from targeting would only reduce potential reach by 1.2%. While excluding sites in the “Utilities/Widgets” category would reduce the number of unique users by 22%.
At BYYD, we work with many categories of apps – sports, women’s health/feeding/pregnancy, finance, nutrition, entertainment, and more.
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