If you’ve read any of our blogs, you know that the world of digital marketing is always changing. However, this constant evolution of technology has many people wondering what’s new and what’s old? In this blog post, we’ll take a look into the future… the future of online advertising.

Let discuss traditional advertising for a moment. The use of billboards, TV commercials, and radio commercials have been fading. Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” and the popularity of radio broadcasting is a distant memory recalled only by this world’s more seasoned generations and television commercials can easily be bypassed by recordings and online streaming.

Ever since businesses realized that the traditional forms of advertising were failing to reach customers, they began searching for new places they could send their ads. Where did they go? They took to the internet. In herds, businesses created ads of all shapes and sizes to fit different websites. This practice has been going on for years and is still being done today. What people don’t realize is how far this practice has evolved since the introduction of the internet.

As an example – the first digital banner ad was created in 1993. The same year the original Jurassic Park film was released. In the 22 years since the creation of website advertisements, business have found new and innovative ways to get their products seen by their customers. And, for businesses that advertise using a 22 year old strategy, they’ll soon join radio broadcasting, television commercials, and Jurassic Park as classic novelties.

What Does the Future Look Like?

In a word – Programmatic. The ability to target specific audiences and tailor advertisements to relevant customers is the latest technology in online marketing. Today, businesses are developing Programmatic strategies that put them ahead of their competition.

Programmatic Breakdown

As we discussed before, the world is going digital. Today’s global community is more connected to online services than ever before. These services allow them access to everything from videos, the ability to control their garage doors and appliances, to being able to purchase products online and have them delivered to their doorstep the same day. More importantly, this online connection produces data. With this data, business can identify which customers are looking for their product and then place ads in designated websites to catch the attention of those customers.

In the past, businesses would buy ad space on websites in the same way they bought newspaper space – select a publisher based on its content and hope their customer would see it. An example would be an automotive dealer placing ads in sites such as ESPN (because men buy cars). The business would then wait for customers to visit ESPN.com and see their ads. While this strategy was successful at some level, customers were missing businesses’ advertisements because they were looking elsewhere. Programmatic Advertising is the answer to this problem.

Programmatic Advertising is able to specifically target customers based on their unique data. With Programmatic Advertising, businesses have the ability to set criteria to target customers who are most likely to engage with the advertisements. The criteria can be almost anything…

  • Male/Female
  • Family Status
  • Specific Age Ranges
  • Behavior
  • Geographic Locations
  • First Time Home buyer
  • Seeking Continuing Education
  • Frequent International Travel
  • Automotive Interests
  • Small Business Owner

An example of a target customer for an automotive dealer could be a Male – interested in mid-size pickups – specifically Ford brand – with an annual yearly income of $50,000 – and lives in Tyler, Texas.

When this man is surfing the web watching mud racing videos on YouTube and checking the local sports scores on tylerpaper.com, he will receive ads which include mid-size Ford pickups.

The Bidding Process

Let’s breakdown the step-by-step process that Programmatic Advertising goes through each time a website is loaded.

  1. A business contracts a company to display ads to multiple different websites when they match the audience profile.
  2. The business sets criteria for the target audience (i.e. Moms – With Grade School Aged Children – living in St. Louis, MO).
  3. A potential customer matching the criteria opens a website. This website instantly tells the network about the potential customer.
  4. The website holds an auction to see which business will be able to advertise.
  5. The network recognizes that this customer is a mom living in St. Louis, MO and fits our business’ criteria.
  6. The network bids on the website’s ad space and calculates how much to spend.
  7. Once the space is won, our customer will receive the ad of our business that directly relates to the data collected from this customer. All within a fraction of a second.

Understanding the Change

The buying strategy behind Programmatic Advertising is extremely complex and technical. Often, businesses believe that they don’t have the time to educate themselves or the ability to allocate money toward Programmatic Advertising. And while companies like Nike can spend tens of thousands of dollars a month using programmatic technology. Programmatic Advertising can be utilized by businesses of any size.

KeyMedia Solutions’ Programmatic Advertising requires NO monthly minimums. You can start today by moving from traditional advertising services and investing in the latest and most effective form of ad marketing.

If you would like more information on Programmatic Advertising, check out these blog posts by the KeyMedia Solutions Operations Manager Paul Cesar. Also, sign up for our monthly newsletter below; this month’s edition will highlight new targeting capabilities for the automotive sales and the tourism industry.

Related Posts: The Power of Programmatic Advertising

How Does Audience Targeting Work?

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