Programmatic Advertising Services Built for a Full-Funnel Strategy
Introduction
Programmatic advertising is an effective way to reach specific audiences across the digital environments where they spend their time. By using automated technology and audience data, businesses can deliver advertising across websites, apps, streaming platforms, and other digital environments while continually optimizing campaign performance.
At Sky Digital, programmatic advertising is one part of a larger digital marketing strategy. From display and video to streaming TV, native, mobile, and audio, it gives businesses multiple ways to connect with potential customers throughout their buyer journey.
We start by understanding your audience, goals, and existing marketing efforts before determining which combination of digital channels and tactics makes the most sense for your business. This strategy-first approach helps ensure your advertising budget is being used where it can make the greatest impact.
What is programmatic advertising?
Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of digital advertising space. Instead of manually negotiating individual placements with websites or publishers, advertisers use technology to identify available advertising opportunities based on factors such as audience, location, behavior, and campaign goals.
Programmatic media buying allows advertisers to reach specific audiences across a wide range of digital environments while using campaign data to continually refine performance.
The process begins with understanding the audience and campaign objective. From there, advertisers can determine the right targeting, channels, creative, and budget for reaching potential customers.
Once a campaign is live, performance data provides insight into what is working, where opportunities exist, and how audiences are responding. Campaigns can then be adjusted to improve performance and make the media investment more effective.
How does programmatic advertising reach target audiences?
Effective programmatic advertising starts with understanding the people who matter most to your business. Audience research can identify potential customers based on factors such as demographics, interests, behaviors, location, and previous interactions with your brand.
The right targeting strategy depends on the campaign objective. A business looking to build awareness among new customers may need a different approach than one focused on generating leads or reconnecting with existing prospects.
Programmatic advertising can then reach these audiences across websites, apps, streaming platforms, and other digital environments. This allows businesses to extend their reach beyond people who are actively searching for their products or services.
What are the different types of programmatic advertising?
Programmatic advertising extends well beyond traditional banner ads. Depending on your audience, budget and campaign objectives, programmatic can connect your brand with potential customers through multiple formats and digital environments.
Display ads are image-based advertisements that can appear across websites and apps. They can be used to introduce your brand, promote a product or service, drive website traffic, or encourage someone to take action.
Video advertising gives brands an opportunity to communicate through motion, sound and visual storytelling. Programmatic video can support pre-roll, in-stream, and other placements while helping brands reach audiences across digital video environments.
OTT (Over-the-Top) and CTV (Connected TV )advertising bring digital audience targeting into the streaming television environment. These formats can help brands build awareness and reach defined audiences while combining the impact of video with digital targeting and measurement.
Native advertising allows brands to reach audiences through ads designed to fit naturally within the surrounding content environment. Native ads provide another way to engage potential customers while expanding the mix of formats available within a digital media strategy.
Mobile advertising can help reach audiences across the devices they use throughout the day. Depending on the campaign, targeting can incorporate factors such as location, demographics, and behavior.
Streaming audio gives brands another way to reach audiences when they’re listening to music, podcasts or digital radio. Targeting can incorporate factors such as demographics, behavior, geography, and time, with companion display advertising providing another opportunity to engage.
Not everyone who encounters your brand is ready to take action. Retargeting ads are designed to reconnect with people who have already visited your website or interacted with your brand, keeping your business top-of-mind as they continue through the decision-making process.
How does programmatic advertising support the customer journey?
Programmatic advertising can play different roles depending on where someone is in the customer journey. The objective determines the role the channel should play.
Display, video, streaming TV, and audio can introduce your brand to audiences who may not yet be familiar with your business. Reaching people earlier in the customer journey can build familiarity before they are actively searching for what you offer.
Once someone knows your brand, targeted advertising can provide more information, reinforce your message, and give interested audiences a reason to learn more.
Video, native, and display formats can help communicate the value of your product or service while keeping your brand visible as potential customers evaluate their options.
Programmatic advertising can support traffic, lead generation, and conversions by reaching audiences with messaging designed around a specific action. Creative, targeting, and landing pages all contribute to turning an impression into meaningful engagement.
Retargeting can bring your brand back into the conversation with people who have already visited your website or engaged with your marketing. This creates another opportunity to move interested audiences further toward a decision.
How do I measure the success of a programmatic advertising campaign?
Programmatic advertising provides ongoing performance data that can be used to evaluate and improve a campaign. Depending on the objective and available tracking, that can include impressions, reach, clicks, website conversions, qualified leads, conversion rate, and other business outcomes. For location-based campaigns, measurement may also include in-person visitation when the campaign and attribution methodology support it.
Performance data can inform decisions about targeting, placements, creative, frequency, and budget throughout the campaign. This allows advertisers to make adjustments based on what is actually happening rather than relying on assumptions made before launch.
At Sky Digital Media, we use data and reporting to understand what campaigns are accomplishing, how audiences are responding, and where there are opportunities to improve. The goal is to connect media performance back to the action the campaign was designed to drive – not simply report on impressions and clicks.
What does a programmatic advertising campaign include?
A strong programmatic strategy brings planning, audience targeting, media buying, creative, optimization, and measurement together around a clear business objective. At Sky Digital Media, that includes:
Audience Strategy and Targeting
A successful campaign starts with identifying the audiences most relevant to your business. Sky Digital Media develops targeting strategies around your goals, customer behavior, and place in the buyer journey.
Programmatic Media Buying
Programmatic media buying uses automated technology to reach relevant audiences across digital environments. The appropriate mix of display, video, native, mobile, audio, and streaming TV depends on your audience, campaign objectives, and budget.
Campaign Management and Optimization
Launching a campaign is only the beginning. Sky Digital Media monitors performance, analyzes the data and makes adjustments to targeting, placements, and creative as the campaign runs.
Creative
Effective targeting needs effective creative. Sky Digital Media’s creative team develops campaign-ready assets designed around the audience, channel, and campaign objective.
This can include display ads, video, copywriting, landing pages, and other digital assets. Bringing creative and paid media together allows messaging and targeting to work from the same strategy.
Measurement and Reporting
Sky Digital Media looks beyond surface-level metrics to understand what your campaigns are accomplishing and where there are opportunities to improve.
Performance data can inform decisions about audiences, channels, creative, and budget throughout the campaign. The goal is to connect marketing activity to meaningful business results, not simply generate impressions.
Pro Tip: When you’re looking for a programmatic advertising agency, look for a company that understands more than the technology behind programmatic media buying. A successful campaign starts with understanding your business goals, audience, and marketing strategy, then determining which channels and tactics can best support those goals.
How does Sky Digital Media approach programmatic advertising?
At Sky Digital Media, strategy comes before spend. Every business has different goals, audiences, and challenges, which means there isn’t a predetermined channel or tactic that works for everyone.
We first look at your business, your audience, your goals, and your existing marketing. Audience and industry research then helps identify opportunities and inform a strategy built around the people you want to reach and what you want them to do. Only then do we determine the right mix of digital channels.
Programmatic may be part of that mix. Paid search can capture people actively looking for your product or service. Social can build awareness and engagement. Video can introduce your brand and tell its story. SEO can build long-term organic visibility.
The role of each channel is determined by the job it needs to do. When those channels work together, activity in one part of the funnel can inform decisions in another.
That’s the thinking behind Sky’s approach: understand the audience, define the objective, determine the right mix, and use the data to keep improving.