6 Steps for an Awesome Programmatic Advertising Strategy

Transcript: 

Not sure how to create a programmatic advertising strategy? Don’t worry. We’ll give you some pointers in this video.

6 steps to create a stellar programmatic advertising strategy

1. Outline your budget and goals

The first thing we always say when planning a campaign is know what you want to accomplish. That includes the goals you want to hit and the metrics you’ll track. This information will serve as a guide for everything else in your campaign.

Don’t forget to figure out your budget. You should know how much you want to spend from the start so you can figure out how much you’ll bid to reach your audience.

Once those are sorted out, you can get moving on your strategy.

2. Choose a programmatic platform

Maybe the most important thing you need when planning your strategy is a platform to buy ad space and launch your ads. I think it’s safe to assume that you’re an advertiser, so you’ll need a tool with DSP capabilities to get your strategy off the ground.

There are plenty out there — Choozle, MediaMath, Adobe Advertising Cloud, and Xandr are just a few. You could also partner with an agency like WebFX to manage your ads for you. Our AdTechFX service can provide a big performance lift to your programmatic ads. Not to be too self-promotional or anything.

Each platform may have its own unique features, and the cost will vary, so you’ll want to research and get in touch with the teams from each tool before making a final decision. Many of the best programmatic advertising companies offer advanced targeting, real-time analytics, and expert support to help you maximize your ad spend.

3. Determine your target audience

Along with your goals, your target audience will shape the messaging of your programmatic advertising strategy. So, it’s crucial that you know the people your campaign will reach.

You don’t want to lump everyone together in one big group and target them with the same ad. You’ll want to separate — or segment — people based on similar characteristics.

Maybe you manufacture kitchen equipment, and you make stuff for both personal and commercial use. These customers have very different needs. So, the way you advertise to people in commercial environments will be completely different from how you reach people who just really like to cook at home.

Even if you only make commercial equipment, you may want to segment your audience based on things like their location, their history with your business, or the industry they’re in.

You can choose either first-party or third-party data sources to reach your audience. 

First-party data is what customers provide to you when they interact with your business. Examples of this include a list of your previous or current customers, current email subscribers, users completing lead form or ebook downloads, or IP addresses of people who visited your site.

This data is super valuable since it comes from people who have already shown interest in your business. They may be more receptive to your ads since they’re familiar with you.

Third-party data comes from sources not owned by you, such as data from a programmatic advertising platform’s database, or information from a data management platform (DMP). Again, you’ll likely have access to less and less third-party data with the Internet’s general shift to more user privacy, so you don’t want to rely too heavily on third-party data.

4. Select an ad format

A programmatic campaign can take many forms. Just remember to make sure your ad platform can handle the format you choose.

• You can launch a display ad campaign, which appears in blocks on sites across the web.
• You can create a connected TV (CTV) ad that plays as a commercial on your favorite video streaming services.
• You can choose an audio-only format that plays while your audience listens to their favorite music streaming service.

Those are just a few of the options you have when thinking about your ad format. Once you know the format you want, it’s time to plan your creative.

5. Produce your ad creative

Whether you’re creating a video or designing eye-catching graphics, keep your audience and your goal in mind at all times.

Think about what language will resonate best with your audience, and what messaging will help you accomplish your goals.

Maybe you’re that kitchen equipment maker from earlier, and you’ve decided you want to do two display campaigns, both aimed at staying top of mind with your audience. One is for people who have previously purchased from you and the other is for people who haven’t.

Maybe the campaign for previous customers uses language like, “We miss you” or something else aimed at getting them back. You can’t tell a potential customer that you miss them! They haven’t given you anything to miss, yet.

The campaign for people who haven’t made a purchase may focus on communicating the benefits of your products, or just getting your name out there in general.

So, while the campaigns reach two different audiences, they are equally personalized to their needs. No matter which format you’re using, match your messaging with your audience and your goals.

6. Monitor your ad performance

After you’ve finalized your programmatic advertising strategy and launched your campaigns, keep an eye on their performance.

If you notice your campaigns aren’t hitting your goals, dive into the analytics to figure out what’s not working. You may be able to adjust your bid, your targeting, or even your ad creative, so spend some time narrowing down what went wrong.

There’s nothing wrong with learning from your mistakes. What matters is how you adapt to this new knowledge you’ve gained. And don’t make the same mistake twice.

And that’s the last step in creating an effective programmatic advertising  strategy. If you want to learn more about programmatic SEO and everything else digital marketing, take a second to subscribe to our channel and our email newsletter, Revenue Weekly.

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Thanks for tuning in. Best of luck with your campaigns!

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