The Online Billboard: Why are brands choosing programmatic?

When a discussion starts on “branding campaigns”, I bet there is at least one standout commercial that immediately pops into your mind. And I’d be sure to double my money if I guessed it featured most prominently on a traditional channel.

It seems natural to associate excellent branding with the offline world and at the moment, memorable creative campaigns that struck us on desktop (or even mobile) are few and far between. With smartphones continuing to reign supreme as consumer preferred device, the fact that there is an urgency to excel in these new channels is nothing new.

When we look behind the scenes, though, it becomes obvious that brands aren’t free of challenges in shifting from traditional to online. There are a range of models and channels out there that help companies tailor, control and direct mobile campaigns for the specific individuals they want to reach. So what works best for brands wanting to impress and win digital audiences?

Programmatic as a brand tool

In mobile advertising, branding is most “effective” when done programmatically. Using a process whereby digital ads are bought automatically using machines and algorithms, brands can make their mobile advertising process more accurate, appealing, and cost-effective. Here’s how:

The cost model is efficient

Both programmatic and branding revolve around impressions. The key metric here is CPM (Cost Per Mille), meaning advertisers pay for 1000 impressions. This gives brands the opportunity to control the amount of views their ads get. An online billboard if you will.

The data points for individual targeting are there

Although the term billboard may indicate throwing ads at everyone who passes by, we shouldn’t forget the term “online” preceding it. With programmatic, advertisers are able to target specific audiences according to demographics, age and gender. When enquiring about available ad space, publishers send over information about the particular user and advertisers can then react by bidding for it (an auction that takes place in the blink of an eye).

Brand safety with programmatic?

Brands are becoming concerned about where their ads are being placed. They want to guarantee they are shown on premium, relevant channels, as displaying their ads in the wrong places can damage their image and reputation. The big misconception in the industry is that programmatic is indicative for that problem. But what if this is just the outcome of a job half-way done? It should be stressed that when done the right way, programmatic will get ads in exactly the right places. Let’s take a closer look at how:

Quality inventory:
Brands should work with mobile partners that have an in-house SSP (Supply Side Platform), consisting of approved publishers that meet certain standards. At Glispa, we are selecting our publishers according to CR, CTIT and overall quality as well as MMP rejection level checks.

Transparent pathways:
Brands should define and see which sites and apps ads are placed on.

The direct approach:
With programmatic direct, advertisers can bypass this bidding process and buy a guaranteed number of impressions from a specific publisher, in advance. This can be useful for securing premium spots with major publishers.

On our phones, we’re still easy to impress

All that being said, it’s clear that the programmatic landscape has advanced to a mature level where advertisers know how to make their ads work. Right now, it is a mobile web and in-app environment of multiple incentives such as discounts, rewards, and calls to action. The consequence:

The performance space often fails to wow its audiences with stunning creatives – an art no-one can master better than brands.

The programmatic space still longs for great experiences, and what’s exciting is that the infrastructure to enable this is already there. Brands can, and will start to, seize popular ad formats that can be served through programmatic, such as native and video. These two formats, in particular, which can host content, tell stories and leverage tech, offer unique opportunities for brands to create beautiful and engaging experiences.

The time has come to change the way advertising is done on mobile. Brands are catching onto this and are shaking up the space by implementing effective and remarkable programmatic strategies.

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