Our CMO, Julianne Martin was part of an “Ask Me Anything” event on Slack with Sharehouse. Here are the questions asked by business owners and marketers about programmatic advertising.
What are the common mistakes marketers and brands are making with programmatic advertising?
- Use the same KPIs for every type of strategy, or old KPIs. It’s not about dipping your foot in the water and “trying” programmatic. It needs to be a strategic piece of the funnel that has a purpose and a goal. Not every type of strategy can be tied to direct revenue, there should be goals for engagement, website traffic, overall growth
- Separate programmatic into a separate silo. Programmatic is amazing at increasing the overall conversion rate for users but being a strategic touchpoint in a user journey. It is not going to have the same performance as a PPC campaign, but it will send more users to google to search for a brand. Marketing channels work together and it’s important to look at overall growth and strategy
- Provide value to your customers in return. Not every programmatic ad (display, native, audio, video) should just be about the product and selling. Diversify ads with value – use native ads to share articles on uses of a product, for example
How does an e-commerce brand get started with programmatic advertising?
Programmatic is another strategy that works great alongside organic, PPC and Social, which most companies are pretty familiar with. When we meet with a client they usually know they want to reach more new potential customers, and try new ad formats like video pre-roll or connected TV.
We go through a process of laying out their current marketing strategies and how they are reaching and communicating with their customer personas.
We usually see that they are VERY focused on the very lowest funnel with paid ads, like PPC and site retargeting, and aren’t really doing anything with true growth strategies.
So yes 1) having a good idea of the customer persona and 2) a goal you want to reach. Then we take that and build a custom media plan that makes it really easy to see how programmatic will help them diversify their marketing but still be super targeted
What does your process look like for building a target audience?
- Start with the Target Customer Persona
- First we start out with learning from a client what they already know about their customer based on their location, demographics and behavior. Also we want to know if you have any first party data to utilize, like a list of addresses of current customers or target customers/business to target. Also it should be clear who is NOT a good potential customer.
- Map out the Funnel and Strategies for Each Stage
- Before I really start building it in the DSP for targeting we map out opportunities to build a full funnel plan based on what makes sense for targeting. We want to have 1-2 strategies at least to align with the customer journey. For a more broad upper funnel strategy we might do data segments or a geo-fence of a target area, then 1-2 for a consideration strategy (behavior, what are they reading or searching for online), then low funnel (are they visiting or site or competitors) and using a CRM list of people that have bought before
- For example, We use the clients customer persona to build out the best programmatic strategy. For example, if the client is looking for users who have 4 car garages, we can target that segment of users and show the clients ads to VERY specific users with 4 car garages.
What are the benefits of programmatic advertising?
- Large-Scale Audience Reach
- Utilizing First And Third-Party Data
- Cross-Device Campaign Strategy
- Omni-Channel Lift –
- One of our clients saw a 25% lift in their brand PPC terms while we running an awareness strategy with video and display. People see the video then go to Google and look for the company name.
How do you know if you’re ready for Programmatic?
Programmatic can start with one campaign and build out from there. If you’re at a point that you can invest in any type of advertising, you can launch some type of programmatic strategy. You could start with testing a new audience and then do a retargeting campaign.
As long as you have a website to drive users to, we have helped companies that are just starting with advertising. We’ve also worked with large companies that have put all their marketing dollars into PPC and Facebook ads and just really aren’t getting top line growth and want to test new ad formats and strategies with video, audio or tv ads.
It does help if you are doing some PPC and have done some SEO first. Because programmatic campaigns aren’t going to drive a ton of direct traffic through the ads, users will be influenced to find you in other ways, and if they go to Google to look for you by name, it helps if you are there too
What media-type seems to work best throughout the funnel? Video, display, HTML5?
We’ve seen that CTV mixed with video + display (targeting users who have completed a streaming TV/connected TV ad with video pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll ads and display ads – static and HTML5) performs really well.
We see such amazing results when we’re able to do a mix of a few things. Even something like a Native ad that features an article with great tips and advice for users in a consideration stage, and then retargeting with display or video ads once they’ve come to the site
What industries have you seen that really benefit the most from this strategy? Have you seen if there’s a B2B angle there?
Our leadership team and account managers have worked with every type of company imaginable over our combined 50+ years doing programmatic. If you have a target customer and a website it works great for any strategy.
We have a lot of B2B clients now and we can help them institute targeting that are really not available elsewhere. Here is an infographic of data of trends from 390,000 campaigns in 2021
We’ve even helped brand new startups run marketing from square one and drive revenue from day 1 (with a minimum viable product), show a V in revenue for investors and helped them find investors.
How can you use Programmatic advertising to gear up for the holidays?
Paid media is crucial for driving increased product awareness, consideration, and sales during the holiday shopping season. Programmatic is awesome to add into the mix with innovative ad formats, specialty targeting tactics, and advanced measurement capabilities. And we can do some awesome targeting even towards propensity to buy during cyber week.
Keyword Search: Target users searching for keywords or phrases related to your product
Purchase History: Data segments are available based on previous purchases and third-party shopper data
Geo-fencing: Target users who are visiting competitor stores or based on other actions based on their location
Contextual keyword: Position ads alongside content related to your product or holiday shopping to reach consumers in a shopping state of mind
What types of ad formats are available with Programmatic advertising?
Programmatic ad platforms enable you to create campaigns using traditional banner displays, video, native, and/or in-app ads. Each method allows you to reach customers in a slightly different way, and you’ll want to choose the method or combination of methods best aligned with your specific goals.
What is the difference between Affinity and In-Market Audiences?
Affinity would be that they are likely to buy something because they share similar interests or hobbies to your product – like pet lovers, sports fans or avid investors.
In-Market Audiences means they are actively looking to buy a product right now – this could be based on what they are searching for online (on any site with a search box) and if they are in data segments like applying for mortgages (in-market for a home).
What are next steps? Can you give us an idea of a media plan?
If anyone is even a little curious about if programmatic advertising would work for you now, or how it could work for you in the future, we are available to do a quick call. You tell us who your customer is and what your growth goals are and we’ll build a custom media plan that you can have in your back pocket, or roll it out now! Contact Us and we’re on LinkedIN, Facebook, IG and Tiktok @programmaticads!