10 Key Features of a Programmatic Advertising Platform

Programmatic advertising helps advertisers reach multiple audiences with unique messaging simultaneously. Programmatic ad platforms enable advanced targeting and custom ad formats. They help automate ad campaigns and deliver personalized, large-scale experiences. 

But not all programmatic ad platforms are equal, which is why we’ve put together this guide with defining features to help you decide. Here are 10 key features you should know about! 

Creative Optimization

Because you can measure and react to your ad campaigns based on their performance across several channels, this allows you to optimize ad creative and tweak messaging across these channels.

For example, you might adjust ads seasonally, or A/B test small ad adjustments to determine the best-performing ad.

One way that programmatic ad platforms can help is that AdRoll offers creative services to its managed clients to deliver visually appealing ads.

This is a Cyber Weekend ad from M.A.C. that pulls dynamic product content.

Cross-Device Tracking

Cross-device tracking allows advertisers to identify and track users across multiple devices like phones, tablets, desktops, and connected TVs (CTVs). Knowing which platform influences your users the most enables you to allocate ad spend to the highest-converting campaigns and channels. 

Let’s say a user sees an ad for a product on their phone, then researches it further on a tablet, and eventually purchases it on their laptop. Without cross-device tracking, advertisers may think that the user came to the website directly and made the purchase when, in reality, they began the process on their phone. 

Cross-device tracking connects these touchpoints, allowing the advertiser to recognize that it's the same user throughout the journey. A lack of visibility into user activity across devices can skew the data needed for accurate attribution and campaign planning. 

That’s why last-click attribution can skew budget and resource allocation. Giving credit to the last touch doesn’t tell the full story.

Advanced Segmentation

Advanced segmentation divides a broad audience into highly specific sub-groups based on a wide range of data, such as shared interests, past purchases, and more complex data points like engagement patterns or psychographics. You’ve most likely heard of audience segmentation before, which might only consider one or two factors like age and location. Advanced segmentation uses a combination of multiple data sources and elaborate algorithms to create more detailed audience profiles.

With precise groups, marketers can tailor their messaging and campaigns to fit their interests and needs. 

Referencing the example we used earlier, if a travel agency segments its rural audience into those who like to frequently check for discounts, it can offer a city getaway that isn’t too far or expensive, along with a limited-time offer. 

Real-Time Bidding

Real-time bidding (RTB) is a cornerstone feature of programmatic platforms. It’s an automated process where publishers sell ad inventory, and advertisers place bids in real time and on a per-impression basis. 

The competitive auction process benefits both publishers and advertisers. Because of the increased competition, publishers are more likely to sell ad inventory at higher prices. At the same time, advertisers gain access to a wide range of publishers, allowing them to find optimal ad placements.

By using data from supply-side platforms (SSPs) and data management platforms (DMPs), advertisers can create more accurate visitor profiles, make informed bidding decisions, and help their ads reach the right people and the right time. RTB simplifies tracking and reporting by consolidating data across ad exchanges and networks, which helps both advertisers and publishers refine their strategies and improve overall campaign effectiveness.

Behavioral Data Integration

Behavioral data integration collects and combines user data across various touchpoints, such as website visits, app usage, social media engagement, email opens, etc. Advertisers get a deeper understanding of customer preferences, which allows them to predict future actions and improve targeting.

For instance, a company can use behavioral data to track which products users frequently view but haven’t purchased yet. The platform can use this data to send personalized reminders, offers, or recommendations. These nudge the user to complete a purchase.

Predictive Analytics

Marketers shouldn’t just rely on understanding past events to develop strategies; they should use predictive analytics to forecast what will happen next. Predictive analytics uses advanced algorithms and massive amounts of consumer data. It predicts how consumers will respond to changes and trends and even recommend custom actions for target groups. 

Predictive analytics are beneficial when determining the right timing for ad outreach. For example, it can recommend the optimal frequency and even the right time of day for email delivery and social posts based on the past responses of similar customers. Being one step ahead of your consumers is key to strategizing for marketing campaigns.

Campaign Optimization

As the name suggests, campaign optimization analyzes and adjusts campaigns to improve performance. This feature uses real-time data, A/B testing, and performance metrics to refine targeting, messaging, and creative elements.

Optimizing a campaign reduces costs and improves your ability to serve the right ads to the right users. If you’re running a digital ad campaign and using campaign optimization, you can identify which ad creatives and targeting settings yield the highest click-through and conversion rates. By reallocating the budget to the best-performing ads, you can achieve your marketing objectives and maximize the return on ad spend (ROAS). 

Customizable Ad Formats

Being able to customize your ad format is an essential programmatic platform feature. You can create ads in various styles and layouts to suit your campaigns across different platforms. This feature gives you flexibility in choosing images, videos, text, and CTAs. Customizing ad format keeps users engaged across multiple channels, and you can test different variations to see what works best.

This can be especially useful for a brand that’s just building awareness or launching a new product. They can test out interactive video ads for social media and static display ads for web banners to see what performs best and maximize its impact on each channel. 

Frequency Capping

One of the most useful features of programmatic platforms is limiting the number of times a specific ad is shown to the same user within a set timeframe. This feature helps keep the ad fresh while using your ad spend efficiently. 

Think about it: Have you seen an ad multiple times and wondered, “Why am I seeing this over and over again? It’s clearly not working on me.” You’ve experienced ad fatigue, where a repetitive ad loses its impact or even causes negative feelings about the brand. If you notice lower engagement, impressions, and click-through rates, your audience is most likely tired of your ad. 

Integration with Other Marketing Tools

Seamlessly integrating other marketing tools with your programmatic platform will make your life a lot easier. This way, you can share data across your entire marketing tech stack, whether it’s CRMs, email marketing, or content management tools. It allows for an accurate and holistic view of your audience to enhance targeting, personalization, and campaign performance.

For instance, AdRoll outlines many of its available integrations with CRMs, tag managers, reporting platforms, and so on.

Maximize Your Ad Performance 

Make sure you’re getting the most out of your programmatic platform—you don’t know which potential consumers you’re missing out on! At AdRoll, we analyze 1.2 billion digital user profiles and give you access to premium inventory across display, native, mobile, and video exchange. 

Explore what AdRoll can do for you today!

Last updated on September 23rd, 2024.