5 Best Practices for Programmatic Advertising

Marketers are always on the lookout for more effective ways to reach their target audiences. Enter programmatic advertising, which harnesses the power of machine learning to improve efficiency, scalability, and flexibility — all with the potential for massive reach.

While the benefits of programmatic advertising are extraordinary, navigating the topic can be challenging — especially for newcomers. In order to hit the ground running, be sure to utilize the following five best practices for programmatic advertising.

1. Know (and Segment) Your Target Audience

Programmatic advertising is an advantageous tool for everything from raising awareness to driving conversions. However, making the most of it relies on successful segmentation.

You’ve got many segmentation models to consider, including demographics, geographics, psychographics, technographic, behavioral, needs-based, and values-based. The deeper and more strategically you drill down with target market segmentation, the more you’ll understand what your target audience wants and be able to give it to them with content tailored directly to their interests and needs.

The result? More personalized programmatic campaigns across the complete buyer’s journey. 

2. Define Your Goals

Because of the ability to hyper-target your audience, programmatic advertising gives marketers ultimate control in terms of your programmatic ad buys. This starts with the question: What are you hoping to achieve with programmatic advertising?

Just because programmatic advertising can help you reach your target audience at the right time doesn’t mean it will. Key performance indicators (KPIs) aren’t mere numbers; rather, they’re driven by actual consumer behavior. Defining your goals allows you to set parameters to identify and reach the highest-value opportunities. It’s also what will help you make the most of your data in order to serve up the most relevant ads to your target audience.

3. Catch Their Attention

All the strategic planning in the world won’t make up for the lack of creative content. Simply put: Your ads need to cut through the noise.

While personalization in targeted ads is invaluable, so is content that resonates with your target audience, captures their attention, and inspires them to act. Compelling copy, alluring (and consistent) brand visuals, and clearly communicated value propositions are messaging must-haves.

4. Don’t Overlook Human Oversight

Programmatic advertising uses technology to support optimal efficiency. It can help you stretch your ad spend while also improving campaign performance.

However, programmatic advertising is ultimately a tool for humans to use — not a substitute for human involvement. Without human oversight of data and adjustment of settings, a campaign can go askew, leading to diminished returns across everything from sales to consumer trust.

Additionally, the onus of protecting the brands they represent ultimately lies with marketers. In a market fraught with fraud, human oversight can ensure that your ads will be exposed to actual consumers.

5. Use In-Flight Optimization

If you’ve ever been served up the same ad over and over again while binge-watching content, you know how annoying and frustrating that can be. That’s where frequency capping comes in. This tactic prevents over-saturation by limiting the number of times your ads appear to the same person during a given time period.

Alongside dayparting and retargeting exclusions, frequency capping is one of several campaign flight options that you can set up to streamline your ad spend while improving audience experiences.

In the constantly evolving marketing landscape, success relies on much more than keeping up with the status quo. When integrated with organic and paid search, programmatic advertising can give your eCommerce campaign a powerful boost — especially when you utilize these five best practices for programmatic advertising success.