Programmatic Advertising For Small Businesses: What, Why, And How?

Organizations of all sizes and industries can learn about and explore the world of programmatic advertising.

But for those who may have more limited resources (and time), knowing where to start can be challenging.

Read on to learn how to adopt and begin building your programmatic advertising business strategy.

What is programmatic advertising?

Programmatic advertising uses algorithmic technology to buy and sell ad space. term to me Refers to how ad space is bought and sold.

This does not mean that the entire ad buying process is automated; You’ll still need to enter details about targeting, budgets, and desired results to enable the program to buy the right ad space based on your business goals.

Automated ad buying provides mass distribution for advertisers looking to reach a broader online audience.

For small businesses, it’s worth noting that automated ad buying is Not Free auction platform (eg Google Display Network – see next section!). To access available inventory (websites), you must source for a Software Advertising (SaaS) platform.

What is the difference between “machine” and the Google Display Network?

If you are reading this post, you are probably familiar with the Google Display Network (GDN).

The Google Display Network is only a small part of the total available inventory (ad space) for online display ads – and as such, it’s more affordable for small businesses just starting to run.

However, the Google Display Network is just one ad exchange, and most automated platforms allow access to multiple ad exchanges on the same platform.

Image created by the author, August 2022

Remember, the Google Display Network is just one ad exchange.

An automated platform opens up a variety of warehouses, which means more space for your ads to run.

Automated platforms also enable a variety of ad formats that are not available on the Google Display Network, such as audio, connected TV, and video ads.

Why invest in software?

Programmatic ads platform costs are typically only a small percentage of ad spend and can generate much larger returns for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and global brands, so don’t ignore automated ads just because you’re a small business.

Here are some of the reasons why programmatic ads are worth considering as an alternative to the Google Display Network for your business:

1. Variety of ad formats

One of the basic tenets of advertising is that companies should invest in brand building activity (think highly visual ad formats like TV, audio, and display) along with immediate sales activation (think bottom funnel activity like paid search).

Brand building can help drive the biggest increase in sales in the long run for any business, while sales promotion type ads often have less long term impact on the brand and can be turned on and off, like clicks.

Photo by the author, August 2022

Automated display ad formats can support brand building activity due to their visual nature.

The variety of ad formats available through automated platforms lend themselves to brand building ads.

This includes but is not limited to:

• original ad – Hype.
• an offer Static and interactive.
• Video – Within the platform and CTV (connected TV).
• My voice – In-platform (eg Spotify), podcast ads.

The CPM model means that you pay for impressions and not participation in automated programs, which is why it lends itself better to brand-focused activity (focuses on reach/impressions) versus direct response campaigns.

2. Premium inventory

The main question I’m usually asked by small businesses considering bots is about the benefits over GDN.

The answer is the quality and variety of posts you can access outside of Google.

For example, on most automated platforms, you can access direct deals with premium publishers that Google simply won’t provide in a GDN.

This means reaching first-class posts in your industry that aren’t available through placement targeting in the Google Display Network.

It should be noted that automated ads and Google share inventory for ad purchases.

For example, sites like weather.com are available on automated platforms and through the Google Display Network.

3. Targetability and efficiency

Programmatic advertising is designed for efficiency.

Depending on your business goals, the algorithm will determine where your money is best spent.

Similar to most advertising platforms, you will still need to enter details about your target audience, campaign goals, and desired CPM targets, but the platform will do the heavy lifting.

Instead of bidding on inventory through multiple ad exchanges, automated ad platforms allow advertisers to streamline management into a single platform, increasing the simplicity and efficiency of managing your advertising activity.

4. Reach and scale

Automated platforms provide greater reach and reach by leveraging algorithmic ad buying technology across various ad exchanges.

This means a shift from 1:1 ad buying to a 1:1 ad buying model.

Indeed, program spending in 2021 was impressive $105 billion It is expected to increase in 2022 to $ 123 billion, which is more than 90% of all spending on digital advertising.

This clearly shows that automated technology is rapidly taking over how ads are bought and sold.

Are your competitors already investing in automated bidding?

If you’re interested in seeing if your competitors are already investing in programmatic advertising, there are a few options, depending on your budget.

You can use paid tools like similarweb To assess competitor spending across different ad networks.

A similar website is more expensive than tools like smrash And Ahrefsbut it has more accurate data on site traffic, in my experience.

If you’re on a budget, you can use the free MOAT tool to check what actual creatives your competitors are running and when they’re running across different ad inventory.

Image created by the author, August 2022

How to find a robotic partner for your small business

As you may have realized, getting started with programmatic advertising is more expensive due to platform costs (usually calculated on a percentage of the spend model). However, the various benefits will certainly outweigh the additional costs.

There are many different platforms out there, but I would suggest going directly to an agency or partner with the software and expertise to buy programmatic ads through an existing partnership with platforms like Centro or stacadapt.

More resources:

• The Complete Guide to Mastering B2B Programmatic Advertising
• Top 10 advertising campaigns and why they work
• PPC 101: A Complete Guide to the Fundamentals of Pay-Per-Click Marketing

Featured image: ArtemisDiana/Shutterstock