Connect with us

MARKETING

What is Programmatic Buying For PPC?

Published

on

what is programmatic buying for ppc

Advancements in the advertising industry have led to data-driven methods to promote and market your business.

One relevant example is programmatic advertising.

A study found programmatic ad spend will top $59.45 billion in 2019. By 2021, $81 billion of digital display ad spend will be conducted programmatically.

How can programmatic buying benefit your business? What does it even mean? This guide will share everything you need to know about this latest marketing trend and how to leverage it for your business.

What Is Programmatic Buying?

Previously, buying ads was a long and arduous process.

Advertisers were required to purchase impressions from publishers, negotiate terms for ad inventory, and send proposal requests to get their ads out into the world.

Advertisement

This meant a lot of back and forth and follow-ups across multiple parties. It was costly in most cases and, worse, inefficient.

The rise of programmatic advertising has sped up the process. Advertisers can now leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to automate the ad buying process in real-time.

This graphic from PubMatic shows the difference between the different types of ad buying:

programmatic buying definition

So, how does programmatic buying work? Here’s an example to help you understand the process.

Let’s say you sell tech products, like an iPhone.

You opt for a PPC campaign to promote your products on Google. Your goal is to bid on advertising inventory to get your promotional content featured on Facebook, Google, or in a 30-second pre-roll video on YouTube.

In the programmatic buying process, cookies or anonymous data are sent to a demand-side platform where the ad-buying occurs. Data can help identify users who have visited your website, live in your geographic location, or are existing customers.

Advertisement

This data could help you identify people who resemble your ideal target audience. In this case, it could be users who have read an article about the latest iPhone, visited the Apple website, or searched for iPhone reviews.

How to Get Your Ads Shown to High-Converting Users With These Attributes

Real-time bidding occurs between various advertisers who want to send an ad impression to the user. This entire process is automated and based on algorithms rather than human input—and it takes less than a few seconds.

The winner of the bid gets to show their ad to the website user.

Here’s to hoping website users will click the ad and convert!

In summary, programmatic buying lets advertisers identify their target market through behavioral insights rather than just keywords, bid on those users, and deliver the ad in the blink of an eye.

Advanced ad targeting capabilities means access to high-converting consumers who are more interested in the products or services you offer.

Advertisement

Why You Should Use Programmatic Buying in Your PPC Campaigns

Programmatic buying lets your ads reach your ideal target audience at affordable price points.

Here are some statistics on the results of programmatic buying:

  • Programmatic advertising generated an astounding $129.1 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach 155 billion in 2021.
  • The data-driven characteristics of programmatic advertising have led buy-side decision-makers to choose this option. Nearly half (48 percent) believe data is the driving force behind their programmatic investments and strategies.
  • Fifty-two percent of publishers state they have sold more than 81 percent of their ads inventory.
  • Video is a leading driver in programmatic advertising. Fifty-four percent of agencies purchased more than 41 percent of their video inventory through programmatic advertising, compared to only 50 percent in 2019.
  • Sixty-eight percent of marketers have stated paid ads are “very important” to their marketing strategy.

These statistics prove programmatic advertising can bring a load of benefits! Here are a few more benefits to leveraging this ad-buying strategy.

Increase Reach

Programmatic buying is supported on numerous ad networks and marketing channels. It lets marketers access private marketplaces or get ad space from thousands of websites with the click of a button.

Since the entire process is automated, advertisers can scale their PPC campaigns with minimum effort while staying within their budget.

More Transparency

Publishers and advertisers can receive real-time information about ad placements and activity. More transparency guarantees every penny is well-spent while simultaneously improving ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).

Target Beyond CTR

A PPC campaign can lead to thousands of impressions and clicks. Yet, these numbers don’t matter if you aren’t generating conversions and increasing sales.

Advertisement

With programmatic advertising, marketers can use advanced ad targeting features. Leveraging website behavior or demographic data lets advertisers reach their intended audience at scale.

Access to Data and Results

Programmatic exchanges provide real-time information on your ad performance. Once you get the insights, you can maximize results by investing in high-performing ads.

If you have subpar ads, then consider modifying them based on data from past campaigns. As long as you know what works and what doesn’t, you can optimize your campaigns and scale fast.

When Should I Use Programmatic Buying in PPC Campaigns?

Programmatic advertising looks promising, but it may not work for everyone. In this section, I’ll discuss when programmatic buying is a good fit.

How to Use Programmatic Buying in PPC Campaigns

  1. Move Beyond the Google Display Network

    If you’re a PPC marketer, you’ve probably used the Google Display Ad Network (GDN) to reach website users. Programmatic buying can help you make the most of it.

    Programmatic buying lets advertisers connect with 80+ additional inventory sources and get placements in sites that were previously inaccessible.

    Advertisement

    On top of this, you can reach premium inventory previously considered too small to warrant placement in the GDB or too expensive for direct buys. An example would be ad placements in popular websites like The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Bloomberg, or Entrepreneur.

  2. Access to First-Party Data

    Marketing strategies often rely on big data to be effective.

    With modern analytical tools, we can easily monitor results and gather information about our customer base.

    Demand-side platforms (where ad buying takes place) can integrate first-party data. This includes data from your customers or audience.

    First-party data can include CRM, social, behavioral, and subscription data.

    As a result, advertisers can launch highly personalized and targeted campaigns. Similar to Facebook campaigns, they can build lookalike audiences that match the profiles of their existing target audience.

    Research-backed data also means you can create content more likely to resonate with your audience. You can also create effective campaigns to get new prospects down the sales funnel.

  3. Personalize Ads

    People are bombarded with ads 24/7 on their phones, in their email, while they watch television.

    Programmatic buying lets advertisers create ads using behavioral targeting and demographic data. Hence, they can connect with their target audience without being spammy or annoying.

    For example, the Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG), which owns hotel chains like Holiday Inn, used programmatic advertising to compete with Booking.com and Expedia.

    Advertisement

    According to their data, consumers opted for their competitor sites because of the myth that they offered better prices. In reality, customers were charged between 15 percent and 30 percent more than the original price.

    The campaign did well because targeted users were more aware of the cost of booking from third-party sites.
    programmatic buying IHG

5 Programmatic Buying Software Options

At this stage, you’re probably wondering how to start with programmatic buying. Let’s take a look at some of the top programmatic buying software options to consider.

Simpli.fi

programmatic buying simpli.fi

Simpli.fi’s programmatic platform lets users efficiently buy targeted impressions or ad inventory from real-time advertising exchanges.

What makes it unique is it lets marketers leverage unstructured data instead of pre-made audience segments. Users can create highly targeted custom audiences based on CRM data, browsing behavior, search history, and geographic location.

You can also use insights to understand audience behavior, and optimize audiences in real-time. This is advantageous for businesses with a huge customer base and tons of data.

For seamless analytics, it has 60+ pre-built reports which lets users easily organize data from campaign results. They also have visualization tools to help you better understand data through graphs, charts, heat maps, and tables.

Adobe Advertising Cloud

programmatic buying adobe experience cloud

Adobe Advertising Cloud offers an independent platform for programmatic buying.

The demand-side platform can plan, optimize, and manage your ad campaigns.

AI pulls audience data so advertisers can launch a paid media strategy that fosters brand awareness. Content creators can also streamline content and build meaningful user experiences.

Advertisement

Budget is a main concern when it comes to running PPC campaigns. With Adobe, users can use AI to analyze data and conduct performance optimization for cost-efficient spending.

AdRoll

programmatic buying adroll

AdRoll’s programmatic platform uses customer intelligence data to identify and target potential leads. It aggregates consumer purchasing behavior on your website so you can understand what works and predict audience reception.

With its powerful analytics capabilities, marketers can send relevant messages to prospects, leading to more engagement and conversions. You can also run omnichannel marketing campaigns and connect with your audience through email, social media, or web across multiple devices.

DoubleClick by Google

programmatic buying google marketing platform

DoubleClick is a programmatic ad platform that automates the ad buying process and effectively runs campaigns in real-time.

Here’s a look at some of its most notable features:

  • DoubleClick Digital Marketing Manager: Built-in intelligence to uncover significant marketing insights on trafficking and reporting. This lets advertisers make data-driven decisions and gain more control of their advertising spend.
  • DoubleClick Bid Manager: This tool helps agencies effectively purchase display media from different ad exchanges in a streamlined platform.
  • DoubleClick Search: Powerful search features provide real-time insights on KPIs and ad performance. Their Ad Data Hub leverages data from Google Ads or your own CRM system to improve your PPC campaigns. By diving into the details, you can make smart bidding decisions and run ads across multiple platforms.
  • DoubleClick Rich Media: Data dashboarding tools streamline information from Google Ads, Analytics, or spreadsheets. Their interactive dashboards also generate easy-to-understand reports so you can communicate results to teams and executives.
  • DoubleClick Studio: Workflow and production tools help marketing teams and media agencies create high-quality and compelling ads which delivers results.
  • Google Analytics: Google Analytics helps users aggregate data to create tailored lists, identify digital touchpoints, and create shareable reports. As you get more information about your company, you can better understand your target audience.

Rubicon Project

programmatic buying rubicon project

Rubicon Project has an automated advertising platform connecting media buyers and publishers from across the globe. Top brands use it to reach over a billion consumers.

The platform centralizes the traditional proposal process and deal negotiation. User-friendly tools and real-time performance analytics capabilities seamlessly consolidate the ad buying process.

Furthermore, insightful reports from their Prebid impression funnel data provide information on page load and impressions across websites and mobile apps.

Conclusion

Programmatic buying lets marketers leverage AI and big data to reach their target audience.

Advertisement

Not only can you identify high-intent consumers, but you can also present ads at the right time and place to maximize results. The automated bidding process speeds up the process, so you can access premium ad inventory with minimal effort.

While it has a lot of benefits, it may not be a good fit for everyone. We highly recommend this solution for advertisers who have maximized the Google Display Ad Network (GDN) or have access to first-party data.

If you want to try it out for yourself, there are multiple platforms that can help you get started in an instant.

How will you use programmatic buying to power up your marketing?

See How My Agency Can Drive Massive Amounts of Traffic to Your Website

  • SEO – unlock massive amounts of SEO traffic. See real results.
  • Content Marketing – our team creates epic content that will get shared, get links, and attract traffic.
  • Paid Media – effective paid strategies with clear ROI.

Book a Call

Neilpatel.com

Advertisement
Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address

MARKETING

How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

Published

on

A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

Advertisement

Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

Advertisement

Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

Advertisement

“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

Advertisement

Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

Advertisement

Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

Source link

Advertisement
Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

MARKETING

Trends in Content Localization – Moz

Published

on

Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

Source link

Advertisement
Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

MARKETING

How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

Published

on

How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

(more…)

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

Trending

Follow by Email
RSS