Programmatic ads are all around us (online, that is). Programmatic advertising is a data-driven approach that uses algorithms and software to show relevant ads to audiences in less than a second. It’s been a massive game-changer for advertisers and publishers, who no longer have to buy and sell ad placements manually. However, its algorithms and seemingly limitless options can be a beast to tackle. As a beginner, you start to wonder, how do you know if you’re doing everything right?
Leveraging programmatic ads effectively requires a strategic approach. In this blog, we cover some programmatic best practices to ensure you get the most out of your campaign budget.
The first crucial step to any advertising campaign is defining your objectives and making sure your marketing team and campaigns are aligned with these goals. Determine what you want to achieve with your programmatic ads, whether it's enhancing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or generating leads. This will help you measure your success and guide your next steps in budgeting, content creation, etc.
To know how well your programmatic ads are doing, you must establish KPIs aligned with your objectives. For example, some common KPIs for programmatic advertising include click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, cost-per-acquisition (CPA), and return on ad spend (ROAS). By taking a close look at these metrics, you’ll have a better idea of how successful your campaign really is.
Creating buyer personas is an excellent way to identify your target audience. These personas should include information about your audience’s demographics, behaviors, preferences, and pain points. When your ads are tailored to a persona’s specific needs and desires, they’re more likely to drive conversions, whether that means making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a free resource.
By understanding the specific needs and interests of different buyer personas, you can create personalized ads that are highly relevant to each group. The more you know about your audience, the better you can target them. From here, you can also see if there are customer segmentations that respond to different strategies, or are more valuable than others and narrow your focus on those for a higher return on your investment.
The main types of ads you can choose are display, native, video, audio, connected TV and digital out-of-home. Choosing the right ad can make a difference in your overall campaign performance. For example, if you’re advertising on social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok, videos will most likely have the highest engagement since they are viewed organically with other similar content. Meanwhile, native ads are probably best for websites since they display seamlessly with their layout, making them appear less intrusive.
Continuously testing different ad creatives, formats, and messages will help you determine what resonates best with your audience. A/B testing can reveal issues with ad creatives or targeting early in the campaign, allowing you to adjust before committing to a significant budget. Changing things as small as a different call-to-action or color theme can improve your ad’s performance. Plus, the more you test, the more you understand your target audience, which helps your future content creation and overall marketing strategy.
Not to be confused with multichannel marketing, omnichannel marketing connects various marketing tactics under a holistic strategy and aims to provide a seamless, integrated customer experience. If you really want to meet your specific goal, your advertising needs to reflect a unifying message so as not to confuse consumers. Programmatic advertising is incredibly useful for omnichannel marketing because it can reach consumers in a variety of ways to guide them to the end of the conversion funnel. You don’t want your target audience to receive competing messages from your own brand.
The great thing about programmatic advertising is that its platforms can use real-time data to optimize campaigns on the fly. You can adjust bids, change your targeting criteria, or change your ad creatives based on your campaign’s real-time performance. It also allows data-driven targeting to ensure your ads are relevant to your target audience, which can lead to higher engagement rates, increased website traffic, and more. Additionally, you can analyze your audience’s data for tailored targeting based on their activity, such as past purchases, browsing history, and engagement with similar products or services.
Programmatic advertising is not just about setting up campaigns and letting them run; it requires strategic planning and ongoing optimization. Implementing these best practices will give you a better understanding of your audience and how to effectively engage with them, improving your overall marketing success.
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Last updated on August 5th, 2024.