The CMO’s Guide to Programmatic Buying

Programmatic buying sounds complicated, but it isn’t. Here’s what every CMO needs to know.

Source: adage.com

Ever heard of programmatic advertising? Ever wonder what the heck it is? Programmatic advertising does sound complicated, but it really isn’t. Google Display network is programmatic. YouTube is programmatic. Programmatic just means that computer algorithms are choosing where to place your ad, instead of humans doing the media buying.

If you purchase 1 million impressions on the Wall Street Journal homepage to be served to whomever visits the page, this is NOT programmatic. It is a media buy executed by humans.

If you purchase 1 million ads on the Google Display Network, and serve it only to males 18-29, that’s programmatic. The ad can be served across millions of sites, and it is served up based on a real time auction executed by computer algorithms.

Basically, “programmatic” means that the media buy is executed by computer programs. It’s a simple concept, but for some reason it’s hard to not make it sound complicated!

If you want to read more, this article from Advertising Age lays out 9 things every advertiser should know about programmatic buying.

See on Scoop.itDigital Marketing News

Posted in Marketing.

Brent Baltzer is a digital marketing expert & is the founder of Baltzer Marketing - a digital marketing agency for law firms.

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