Programmatic advertising is growing quickly in scope, investment, variety and reach. However, in a busy marketing environment with a lot going on, many marketers haven’t been able to keep up with this quickly growing trend. If you’re just now getting on the programmatic train, here’s what every marketer needs to know to get started:
It’s Overwhelming for Newcomers
The number of programmatic platforms, capabilities and tools available has exploded in recent years, and the terminology can make a marketer’s head spin. RTB, SSP, DSP, DMP–the list goes on and on. That makes beginning a career in programmatic advertising staffing incredibly difficult.
Although it’s a relatively young advertising tactic, the programmatic discipline is already saturated with enough jargon and acronyms to make anyone’s head spin. You’d practically need a dedicated programmatic dictionary to make sense of it all if you’re just now getting your feet wet. Given this complexity, it’s not surprising that less than one in four marketers understood programmatic buying last year. Even a year later, more than half of marketers still rate their programmatic knowledge as “very poor, poor or average.”
While many in advertising staffing are working to get up to speed, the pace of change and innovation means marketers should never assume that they have programmatic completely figured out. For example, with programmatic increasingly being used to buy and sell video inventory, marketers are being challenged to learn the nuances between buying display inventory and video inventory.
Effective Analytics Will Make or Break It
If programmatic is a vehicle for your advertising, then data is the fuel that powers it. Having enough quality data from a variety of sources can make or break a marketer’s programmatic efforts.
As with all marketing efforts, second and third-party data can be very useful. But for many working in digital marketing staffing, collecting and putting to good use first party data–the data you can gather from your own websites and digital platforms–is absolutely critical to taking full advantage of the programmatic opportunity.
Because of the importance of data, DMPs (data management platforms–see, I told you those acronyms are tricky) are taking on an increasingly prominent role in the programmatic space as well over half of marketers believe DMPs are key to future of programmatic marketing. Programmatic staffing has to work hand in hand with marketing analytics teams to secure a competitive advantage.
Programmatic Media Options are Growing
In the early days of programmatic, most of the media inventory exchanged was remnant display inventory. That’s no longer the case. Today’s programmatic advertising staffing can choose from a buffet of media options, from TV to video to print and more. And through a growing number of private exchanges, select marketers can programmatically purchase publishers’ best inventory.
Check it Out: Everything You Need To Know About Programmatic Video Advertising
video from The Drum
For marketers, this means one thing: it’s more and more difficult to ignore programmatic because so much inventory, and so many different kinds of inventory, are available through programmatic sources. Soon it’s likely that nearly every kind of ad space will be buyable via programmatic, and anyone in digital advertising staffing that isn’t keeping up could be loosing out on the best media available.
It’s Not Cheap (Yet)
Marketers expect programmatic to deliver greater efficiency and reduce costs, at least in the long run.
Image from Econsultancy
But as AdAge’s Alexandra Bruell recently discussed, there are a number of hidden and upfront costs frequently associated with programmatic that can eat away at some of the savings marketers can realize on programmatic inventory itself.
These costs include labor, agency and platform fees, R&D and errant ad buys. Depending on the marketer and agencies or platforms used, programmatic can, according to Bruell, be “more expensive than ordering print ad pages or TV commercials through insertion orders and other routine methods.”
Obviously, this doesn’t mean that programmatic isn’t worth additional cost in some areas. But as marketers get more sophisticated and realize that programmatic is not a panacea, they should be looking to ensure that unnecessary costs are minimized or eliminated altogether to maximize ROI.
It’s Not Going Anywhere
Tens of billions of dollars of ad inventory are already bought and sold every year through programmatic platforms globally. It’s virtually impossible to find a major publisher, ad tech firm or agency that doesn’t have some programmatic product or service on offer.
Image from Altitude Digital
Clearly, programmatic is already a very important part of the modern-day online ad market, and arguably it still has a long way to go before it realizes its full potential. But that doesn’t mean that programmatic is everything. A market for traditional buying and advertising models will endure for some time. While programmatic will likely shrink the size of that market over time, it’s still going to be large enough that marketers will continue looking beyond programmatic to be successful online.
Article Source: Econsultancy
Related Reading for Programmatic Advertising Staffing
Programmatic Advertising Gaining B2B Marketers’ Support
Programmatic is gaining in popularity. The majority of B2B marketers said they plan on investing more money in programmatic advertising in 2016, per a Dun & Bradstreet survey. Nearly two-thirds (65%) are set to spend more money on programmatic advertising in 2016. The survey also found that 78% of B2B marketers will spend up to 50% of their budgets on programmatic in 2016. More
A More Honest Future for Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic advertising – we all know that it’s ‘kind of a big deal’. But despite all the industry and media hype, there’s a big chance that you’re still in the dark about it. More