Programmatic ad-buying platforms allow users to automate the digital media buying process. This eliminates much of the manual work typically required when buying media using traditional means. Of course, saving time offers increased efficiency, so many outdoor recreation and attraction brands are incorporating programmatic ad buying into their marketing strategies.
But how much more effective is programmatic advertising compared to traditional or direct media buying?
“Using programmatic transactions can reduce the time spent on these tasks by 30% to 60%”
– Think with Google
Direct vs. Programmatic Advertising
Direct advertising involves manually negotiating placements with publishers, giving brands control over where ads appear and maintaining brand safety but limiting scale and reach. In contrast, programmatic advertising automates ad placements across multiple platforms in real-time, using Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) and data-driven targeting for efficient, broad reach across demographics. While direct buys prioritize specific publisher relationships and predictability, programmatic offers enhanced flexibility, real-time tracking, and cost-effective scalability through auctions. Ultimately, the choice depends on campaign goals, with direct buys suiting targeted, controlled placements, and programmatic excelling in efficiency, audience targeting, and adaptability.
Save Time & Automate Your Advertising
Programmatic advertising differs from traditional or direct media buying methods due to its use of automation and algorithms. Before this method, digital ads were bought and sold by human ad buyers and salespeople, leaving room for error, and using more of one of our most valuable commodities, time.
Programmatic eliminates hours of manual bidding, trading, and negotiating. It works through an automated algorithm that uses advanced analytics to publish your ad placements in front of your ideal audience based on unique criteria that you define in the platform.
Your ads are placed using an auction system we call Real Time Bidding (RTB) that manages the relationship between the website or app and the advertiser, controlling bids for display ad placements in real time.
The advantage? Speed and Efficiency.
Within seconds of uploading your ad inventory, the ad spaces are presented for real-time bidding. The programmatic system will then monitor your ad and continuously look for areas of improvement during the duration of your campaign. With your tasks automated, you now have the ability to serve consumers the most relevant purchase opportunities, resulting in more sales.
Minimize Redundancy and Waste
Businesses considering taking a programmatic approach should also consider that programmatic advertising allows more frequency control over the inventory where ads are placed. Compared to a traditional media approach, which risks reaching the same person more times than is necessary, programmatic advertising can be fine-tuned to eliminate a significant volume of wasted reach. The Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) used in programmatic advertising also allow outdoor brand and attractions to reduce overlap and redundancy throughout cross-platform ad campaigns.
Reduce Costs and Gain Reach
Programmatic is one of the most cost-effective types of advertising due to the size of the marketplace, giving you the ability to expand your reach beyond traditional means. Rather than dealing with a single seller, the algorithm is using millions of websites and their unique ad spaces, giving your business the opportunity to be seen by a broad and diverse audience. After all, if you want to grow your business, reaching new clients and customers is crucial.
The broad range of ad placements available helps consumers to recognize your brand when searching for your services/ products online, reaching user segments that are most likely to convert. Based on the history of those user segments, the algorithms match your customer criteria to relevant audiences.
Reach the Right Audience
Reaching a large audience is one thing, but how can you make sure the ad placements are connecting with the right consumers? One of the largest benefits of programmatic advertising is the ability to grow and scale your audience. As an advertiser, you can reach your ideal audiences based on unique signals, such as browsing or shopping activity, that you define based on your goals.
Following are some examples of targeting capabilities available with programmatic media for you to reach your desired audience:
- Audience targeting age gender, household income, etc.
- Behavioral targeting: website browsing habits history, product interests, or purchase history.
- Contextual targeting: relevancy of the ad to the search
- Geotargeting: location based- zip code, city, IP address
- Retargeting: those who have shown previous interest in your brand
- Cross Device targeting: personal laptop, cell phone
Upon the creation of your campaign, you will select the features you wish to target. The programmatic platform then manages the process of sending your ads to people who most closely match your specifications i.e. those most likely to convert into customers. Because the platform is using an algorithm to place your ads, you have the ability to reach audiences across multiple spaces at all times
Gain Total Transparency of your Advertising
As a business, you want to make sure everything is tracked, and you have the necessary data to assess your ad performance. According to research, 62% of the world’s population is actively online giving you a potential consumer reach of millions. But you might be wondering how you would know.
Programmatic advertising will allow you to see exactly what websites your ads are being used on and the audiences they reach. The second a display ad is seen, your analytics will know how many impressions it received, who looked at it, and where it was seen online. With the insight from your data, you can make sure the placement of your ads is valuable and relevant. Seeing your data in real time gives you the opportunity to adjust your campaigns as needed. Here is an example of how programmatic media gives you a holistic view of multiple channels/campaigns.
Conclusion
Programmatic advertising is a holistic approach to media buying that offers many advantages over traditional methods. The automation and algorithms used in programmatic advertising save time, increase efficiency, and minimize redundancy and waste. This results in reduced costs and expanded reach for businesses, allowing them to connect with the right audience through targeted advertising. The transparency provided by programmatic advertising also allows businesses to track and assess their ad performance in real time, enabling them to adjust their campaigns as needed. Overall, programmatic advertising is a powerful tool for outdoor recreation and attraction brands to reach and convert more customers.
