By Christian Jones, SVP, Marketing & Client Development, Hawthorne Advertising
As digital marketers continue to look for ways to maximize ROI, programmatic buying – and its expanding ecosystem – remains a frontrunner in driving value. If you’ve thought about shifting more media dollars into the granular and highly-targeted audiences that programmatic has to offer, consider this:
Programmatic Is NOT Just Display
The past few years have seen a massive expansion of the channels and ad units available through programmatic buying. Connected TV (CTV), online video, steaming audio and digital out of home are just a few of the channels that can be activated programmatically, in addition to display. In particular, CTV and mobile in-app video have been growing and taking share from social spend, part of a greater trend of display advertising pivoting to video.
eRetail DSPs Are Exploding
The giants of retail and ecommerce have been busy standing up their own DSPs as well. The bounty of targetable shopper data available in eRetail DSPs from Kroger, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Wayfair and Amazon is a treasure trove of data for the development of both broad and niche audiences that you want to reach. Not everyone has access to these DSPs yet, so getting in before your competitors do might give you an unfair advantage! : )
The Adaptability of Programmatic
While the death of the third-party cookie has been a topic of conversation (with attendant handwringing) for years, programmatic is well positioned to make the adjustment. Much of the aforementioned eRetail data, in conjunction with solutions like UiD2.0, will provide a path forward for advanced targetability. Additionally, smart brand marketers have made more sophisticated moves to incentivize consumers to opt-in to first party data collection and willingly share zero-party data to build out in-depth customer profiles for greater personalization.
Great for Retail – And Many Other Categories
In July 2022, retail accounted for 24.7% of US display ad spend, followed by Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) at 14.7%, Financial Services at 12.4%, and Consumer Electronics at 9.9%. While these verticals (predictably) rely on programmatic display, there’s nothing holding any vertical back from success if the right strategy is deployed with your buy.
If you’re in the process of planning your next campaign, now is the time to consider allocating more of your media budget towards the rich ecosystem of channels, audiences and ad units that programmatic has birthed. With its ability to target highly specific audiences, achieve provable ROI, and grow engagement, it’s a stellar option for maximizing the impact of your spend.
