What Actually Is Programmatic Marketing And Programmatic Buying
Management Summary
Programmatic marketing refers to any online marketing measures that are controlled by rules and algorithms.
Note: Simply placing a campaign with targeting attributes and bidding (that would be classicRTB – Real Time Bidding) doesn’t fall into this category for me – but it’s often sold as such…
What is missing are the algorithms that either take more than the price into account during the bidding process, orOnline targetingbuild on insights from onsite analysis. In the case of the former, so-calledDMPs (Data Management Platforms)Additional data is obtained from data suppliers. For example, more detailed user demographic data comes into question.
The second aspect is particularly exciting: Using insights from the analysis of your own website visitors, you can define segments and target groups whose like-minded relatives (or statistical twins) are surfing around somewhere on the web and are just waiting to be addressed with the right message. Examples could be target groups that we already know are particularly interested in our offerings. Or on the contrary: users for whom we definitely want to expand our reach, even though they still don’t buy enough from us. In any case, booking moves away from placement towards classic media planning (platform, channel, positioning).dynamic targeting via AdExchanges and real-time bidding.
A short excursion into the technology of real-time advertising
This requires web analysis systems that allow us to identify our target groups and allow us to incorporate the goals into our DSP – demand side platforms. This is the page of the advertisers (our customers) and of course it is not done manually. The AdExchanges do not simply book cheap, free digital media inventory, but rather only address individual users who are of interest to us. However, the bidding price can be higher – especially if the optimization is not based on CPM or CPC, but on overall performance (e.g. CPO, ROI or even better: customer lifetime value).
Pitfalls and errors
There are a lot of misunderstandings floating around about the topic. There is a widespread assumption that purchases can now simply be made via RTB range using cheaper CPMs. As always in life, if you buy junk you will get scrap. (In exceptional cases this can make sense – but I have rarely seen such sophisticated strategies…)
The opposite is the case: For well-targeted and therefore valuable users, you will usually be willing to spend more money, which increases the CPMs. What’s difficult for old thinking (even in young minds!) is that we don’t need a lot of traffic, we need the right traffic. But as long as reach, impressions and clicks are primarily reported, this error will persist for a while.
What areas are there in programmatic marketing?
– Programmatic marketing viaReal-time Advertising (RTA): This is aboutProgrammatic buyingpurchased the correct display inventory.
– intelligent retargeting(Data driven, smart lists, …)
– On-site targeting: The display of content, offers and layout, tailored to each individual user. This area is ideal for getting started!
– Recommendation engines, which can do more than just “whoever bought this will also buy that”, but can also display the optimal offers depending on user attributes and purchase probabilities (keyword: “next best offer”).
– Trigger emails: A favorite topic of ours, even if email marketing is unfairly neglected by many. The possibilities here start with abandoned shopping carts and extend to emails when user attributes change. Email rocks – if it’s done seriously and correctly!
– Optimization ofEmail campaigns and newsletters: The range here ranges from the correct ordering of the articles, the insertion of individual offers or even the complete assembly of a mailing to a specific target group.
– Dynamic generation and adaptation of advertising materials: Yes, that’s part of it too. It is no longer enough to show the same banner to all 100,000 recipients. What we already know in a clumsy way from annoying remarketing campaigns (The red shoe follows me through the internet…) can and must be solved more intelligently: The advertising medium is dynamically made up of elements and messages that exactly suit the user in his current purchasing phase.
The basis: Solid, enriched data from web analysis
In order for us to form good segments and apply sensible rules, we need a basis for decision-making, i.e. data. The more comprehensively these are recorded, the better everything that is based on them will be. There are many articles on this blog that deal with the recording ofCustomer journeysdeal with (online and offline).
Who is the right partner for this?
Who can do all this – manage the complexity? Us of course :-)
Seriously: this requires know-how in the conception of tracking, an understanding of the advertiser’s value chains (from multi-channel strategies to customer lifetime values), expertise in generating insights and, last but not least, years of experience in real-time bidding and its optimization. So we do!
Of course, all large and small media agencies are also positioning themselves in this growing market. The question, however, is whether experts who have been trained for years to achieve completely different success parameters can change so quickly from one day to the next and catch up on the necessary know-how so quickly…
The prerequisites for successful programmatic marketing strategies and campaigns lie in technical, conceptual, organizational and, last but not least, personnel feasibility.
Here you will find further information about our servicesProgrammatic advertising!
