5 Essential Practices for a Successful Programmatic Ad Campaign

programmatic ad

Programmatic advertising enables you to display ads on the websites your target audience frequently visits. This type of advertising uses algorithms and machine learning to automate the buying and selling of ad inventory. Whether you want to set up a campaign for a new product or want to launch a retargeting campaign to address different consumer segments, programmatic advertising can help you achieve your overall business goals if you are aware of the practices essential for a successful ad campaign.

Know the Purpose of the Campaign:

In order to execute a successful programmatic campaign, you need to have clarity about its purpose. You will need to list all the campaign’s objectives, which will make it clear how to set up the programmatic activity. The objective can be to increase conversions, drive traffic to the site, and increase brand awareness regarding a product or service. Knowing what the objective is will help you allocate the budget accordingly. This will also help you pick the best programmatic advertising platforms for the campaign.

Create a Plan of Action:

A programmatic ad is designed to reach the right audience at the right time, and this is true for almost every digital advertising platform. These platforms work best when you clearly define the audiences for the programmatic. Since programmatic advertising can be used as a forecasting tool, you can get valuable insights into the campaign performance and scalability. With the forecast, you can define several parameters, such as the audience, budget, goal, geography, etc.. These valuable insights help you identify which actions will help improve the performance.

Use Multiple Channels:

Due to the vastness of the internet, consumers are able to interact with a brand in more than one way. This is why it is often recommended to adopt an advertising strategy that will help you reach the most number of users across various platforms, channels, and devices. Since programmatic advertising operates on multiple channels, you can target potential customers across all the available channels, including:

  • Video
  • Audio
  • Display
  • Native
  • In-game
  • Connected TV

The use of multiple channels in the strategy allows you to gain the attention of customers who are active on various platforms. It also helps you create a consistent message for them across every channel.

Target Relevant Audience:

As mentioned, the success of a programmatic ad campaign depends on which audience you target. There are several targeting options in programmatic that offer more control over the campaign. Here are some of the options:

Page Content AI (PCAI) Advertising:

This option uses artificial intelligence to contextually put your ads in the right place using keywords you provide. Let’s say you have provided a keyword named “turtleneck sweaters.” PCAI will scan the site for available placement options where the content is related to winterwear or turtleneck sweaters, to be specific.

Lookalike audiences:

This option allows you to create a list of users whose behaviors on the internet closely resemble the behavior of those who have previously visited the website. These lookalike audiences help the campaigns reach relevant users with behavioral patterns that align with your existing customers.

Deals:

Deals are personalized packages that target particular inventory based on device and audience targeting that other advertisers used previously. Since deals can be highly specific and have built-in forecasts, they offer a lot of options when it comes to targeting.

Optimize the Campaign Using Data:

As soon as your campaign goes live, you need to review its performance and see if the campaign can be optimized further. The data gathered from the programmatic ads is sorted in a data management system. You can analyze detailed third-party insights and find out the reach of their advertising campaigns as well as potential ROI.

You need to take note of your campaign’s key performance indicators (KPIs) and do a comparison with the current performance. This will help you identify which devices, audiences, or placements are performing way differently than the KPIs so that you can optimize the campaign accordingly. Also, you need to analyze your placement reports to understand the quality of the site where your ads appear and which sources are performing the best.

Conclusion

With proper planning and the right execution, programmatic ads can help your business reach new heights of success. So, understand the purpose of your campaign, plan accordingly, and follow the other tips for a successful campaign. Good luck.