While programmatic advertising has been the eye of all marketers for several years now, many of them are still not taking advantage of the opportunities it offers. And this, for lack of knowing what is really hidden behind these so-called “intelligent” advertisements.
Programmatic advertising is based on the use of different technologies, in this case artificial intelligence and machine learning, in order to buy and sell digital advertising space (online, on mobile, social networks, etc.), via a real-time auction system. This ultimately makes it possible to deliver more effective advertisements to the right audiences based on various data, in particular the buying habits of Internet users.
Advertising space is thus sold via a real-time bidding system (RTB) on automated online platforms. Thanks to this system, which takes user data into account, advertisers can define which ads they want to broadcast in priority, to which audience, when and where. Which obviously allows them to reach their targets effectively.
This technique mixes “big data” and “algorithms” for maximum efficiency. What is not possible with the other processes which require individual tariff negotiations with the operators of Web sites. A manual process that requires a lot of time and does not allow for precise targeting.
Programmatic advertising is of major interest today for all companies that want to invest in online advertising (desktop or mobile) and for media agencies, which manage the online marketing of their clients. As it is now possible to define precise targeting criteria and determine which ad the user will view, when and where, the impact of this intelligent and personalized advertising is much greater than with d other methods.
What are the targeting methods?
Programmatic advertising exploits, in fact, different methods of targeting advertisers. Here are the main ones:
This is to serve ads based on the semantic context of a website. Thus, business service providers may decide to publish their advertisements only on IT media sites. Same thing for a clothing brand that can choose not to be visible on the website of a fashion magazine, for example.
This time it’s about serving ads based on specific keywords. For example, an online store of accessories and spare parts for smartphones can provide a list of keywords corresponding to this theme. This list is then matched against site content to provide the best possible correlation for ad delivery.
- Behavioral targeting
This is about serving ads, not based on context or a list of keywords, but based on user cookies. Thus, if a user has already visited the smartphone spare parts store, he may receive an advertisement, even if he reads an article on a site dealing with sports news. All user behavioral data is aggregated through cookies.
- Targeting by geolocation
This is about reaching users based on their geographic location. A technique that can be very interesting for local businesses, because their ads therefore only appear among users present in a given geographical area (city, region, etc.). It can also be useful for international brands or certain online services, to display specific ads in a language and adapted to audiences in a certain country.
For what advantages and what ROI?
The main challenge for e-merchants today lies in the complexity of the purchasing process for Internet users, who arrive on their site via a multitude of channels (search engines, display, social networks, etc.) and that they then leave, only to return later using another terminal (smartphone, tablet, etc.) or never return. Programmatic advertising makes it possible to reduce distribution losses and constitutes a response to the volatility of Internet users, since it allows the user to broadcast personalized advertising on the site he is consulting, whatever the channel it uses. In terms of ROI, it has several major advantages, as it makes it possible to refine targeting thanks to the data collected on the various distribution channels and to increase the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, while reducing costs compared to traditional methods. .
What future prospects?
The enthusiasm of marketers for programmatic advertising and the growth forecasts for this market prove it: automation is the solution to better target your audience and transform it massively. The fact remains that the years to come should be marked by new regulatory challenges, in particular the Digital Service Act (DSA) proposed by the European Commission which will not be without impacting targeted advertising and will certainly impose a reinterpretation of the existing texts (the GDPR and the e-Privacy Directive in particular). To this should also be added new national texts which could affect advertising investments, in particular those of advertisers in certain sectors already very involved in digital.