Programmatic advertising is the automated process of purchasing and placing digital ads using software and algorithms. Instead of manual negotiations, this system uses data to make real-time decisions about which ads to show to which users. This ensures ads are strategically positioned where and when they will have the most impact.
This automated approach offers significant advantages over traditional methods. By leveraging technology, advertisers can enhance their campaigns' effectiveness and efficiency. The primary benefits include:
While powerful, programmatic advertising is not without its hurdles. Navigating the ecosystem requires vigilance to overcome significant obstacles and ensure campaign success.
While often used interchangeably, programmatic advertising and real-time bidding serve different functions within the automated ad buying landscape.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are set to redefine programmatic advertising. These technologies will drive hyper-personalization and predictive optimization. The shift away from third-party cookies will also accelerate the adoption of first-party data strategies.
The expansion into new channels like connected TV (CTV) and audio will continue to grow. This creates new opportunities for cross-device campaigns. Concurrently, the industry is pushing for greater supply chain transparency to combat fraud and improve brand safety.
To maximize your return on investment, adopt a strategic approach. This involves leveraging data-driven insights and continuously optimizing campaigns for performance.
How is brand safety managed in programmatic campaigns?
Brand safety is managed using tools like blocklists, allowlists, and contextual targeting to ensure ads appear alongside appropriate content. Working with reputable platforms is also crucial for maintaining control and protecting your brand's reputation.
Can programmatic advertising work without third-party cookies?
Yes. The industry is adapting by shifting to first-party data, contextual targeting, and other privacy-safe identifiers. These methods allow for effective audience targeting while respecting user privacy, ensuring campaigns can perform well in a cookieless future.
Is programmatic advertising only suitable for large companies?
Not at all. While powerful for large-scale campaigns, programmatic is accessible to businesses of all sizes. Self-serve platforms offer flexible budget options, allowing smaller companies to run highly targeted and cost-effective campaigns without a massive initial investment.
Customer centricity is a business approach that puts the customer at the heart of every decision, aiming to build loyalty and long-term value.
Pay-per-click (PPC) is an ad model where you pay a fee each time your ad is clicked. It's a method of buying targeted visits to your website.
Event tracking is the method of collecting data on specific user actions, or 'events,' on a website or app, such as clicks or downloads.
Database management is the process of organizing, storing, and maintaining data in a database to ensure its accuracy, security, and availability.
A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of something, like a webpage or email, to determine which one performs better with your audience.
Win/Loss Analysis is the process of systematically tracking and analyzing the reasons why you win or lose deals with prospective customers.
Email personalization uses subscriber data—like their name, interests, or past behavior—to create highly relevant and targeted email campaigns.
Outbound leads are potential customers a business proactively contacts through outreach like cold calls, emails, or social media.
Sales Operations KPIs are measurable metrics that track the efficiency and effectiveness of a sales team's operational processes.
A Data Management Platform (DMP) is a tech platform used to collect and manage data, mainly for digital marketing and advertising campaigns.
AI data enrichment uses artificial intelligence to automatically enhance and update raw data, making it more complete, accurate, and valuable.
A Marketing Qualified Opportunity (MQO) is a lead vetted by marketing as a genuine sales opportunity, ready for direct sales follow-up.
Functional testing verifies that software performs its intended functions as specified in the requirements, ensuring it works as users expect.
Predictive analytics uses historical data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning to identify the likelihood of future outcomes.
A sales call is a real-time conversation between a salesperson and a prospect, aiming to persuade them to purchase a product or service.
Solution selling is a sales approach focused on understanding a customer's pain points to offer a comprehensive solution, not just a product.
A qualified lead is a prospect vetted as a good fit for your product. They match your ideal customer profile and show genuine interest.
Product-market fit is when a product meets the needs of a strong market, leading to high demand, customer satisfaction, and organic growth.
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Feature flags let you remotely control features in your app without new code. This enables safe testing, gradual rollouts, and quick rollbacks.
A Content Management System (CMS) is software for creating, managing, and modifying website content without needing specialized technical skills.
Cold emailing is sending unsolicited emails to potential customers you haven't contacted before, aiming to start a business conversation.
OAuth is an open standard for access delegation. It lets you grant apps access to your data on other services without sharing your password.
A hybrid sales model blends traditional and digital sales methods to engage customers across multiple channels and buying preferences.
Customer segmentation is dividing customers into groups based on shared traits. This allows for more targeted and effective marketing efforts.
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A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is an action plan that outlines how a company will reach target customers and achieve a competitive advantage.
An Account Executive (AE) is a sales professional responsible for closing new business deals and managing existing client relationships to drive revenue.
Cost Per Impression (CPI) is the price an advertiser pays for each time their ad is displayed to a user, irrespective of clicks.
A decision-maker is an individual with the authority to make significant choices for a company, especially regarding purchases or strategy.
Data security protects digital information from unauthorized access, corruption, or theft throughout its entire lifecycle.
Marketing intelligence is gathering and analyzing data about your market, customers, and competitors to inform strategic marketing decisions.
Website visitor tracking collects and analyzes data on user behavior to understand their journey and improve the overall user experience.
Total Audience Measurement (TAM) provides a holistic view of content consumption, tracking viewership across all platforms and devices.
A persona map visually outlines a target customer, detailing their goals, behaviors, and pain points to help your team build genuine empathy.
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A sales presentation is a formal pitch by a salesperson to a prospective customer, showcasing a product or service to secure a sale.
Average Revenue per Account (ARPA) is the average revenue generated from each customer account, usually measured on a monthly or annual basis.
Scalability is a company's ability to handle increased workloads or market demands without a drop in performance or a spike in costs.
A sales pitch is a persuasive presentation of a product or service, aimed at convincing a potential customer to make a purchase.
ETL, short for Extract, Transform, Load, is a data integration process for moving raw data from various sources to a central data warehouse.
Revenue Operations (RevOps) is a business function that aligns a company's sales, marketing, and customer service teams to drive predictable revenue.
A version control system (VCS) tracks changes to files over time, allowing you to recall specific versions and collaborate without conflicts.
Marketing metrics are quantifiable values that marketing teams use to measure and track the performance of their campaigns and efforts.
A RESTful API is a web service interface that uses HTTP requests to access and use data, adhering to the constraints of REST architecture.
A Unique Selling Point (USP) is the distinct feature or benefit that sets your product, service, or brand apart from the competition.
Content syndication is the process of republishing your web content on third-party sites to reach a much wider audience.
Direct-to-consumer (D2C) is a sales strategy where a brand sells its products directly to end customers, bypassing any third-party retailers.
Nurture is the process of building relationships with potential customers, guiding them through the sales funnel with personalized communication.
A Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) API is a web service that uses XML to exchange structured information between different applications.
A stakeholder is any individual, group, or party that has an interest in an organization and the outcomes of its actions.
Churn, also known as customer attrition, is the rate at which customers stop doing business with a company over a given period.
Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) measures the mean annual growth of an investment over a specified period of time longer than one year.
Target Account Selling is a focused sales strategy where teams identify and pursue a specific list of high-value accounts.
A weighted sales pipeline forecasts revenue by assigning a closing probability to each deal, giving a more accurate picture of potential income.
Buying criteria are the specific requirements and standards a customer uses to evaluate products or services before making a decision.
Average Order Value (AOV) tracks the average dollar amount spent each time a customer places an order on your website or mobile app.
Average Selling Price (ASP) is the average price at which a particular product or service is sold across different markets and channels.
A Quarterly Business Review (QBR) is a recurring meeting to assess performance against goals and align on strategy for the next quarter.
A hard sell is an aggressive sales technique that uses high-pressure tactics to push a customer into making an immediate purchase decision.
Edge locations are globally distributed data centers that cache content close to users, reducing latency and delivering web content much faster.
NoSQL ("Not only SQL") databases offer a flexible alternative to relational models, excelling at managing large and unstructured data sets.
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Virtual selling is the process of selling to customers remotely using technology like video calls, rather than meeting them in person.
Precision targeting is a marketing strategy that uses data to identify and reach a highly specific audience most likely to convert.
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Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) is the ideal order quantity a company should purchase to minimize its total inventory-related costs.
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a system of distributed servers that deliver web content to users based on their geographic location.
An API (Application Programming Interface) is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other and exchange information.
An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a detailed description of the perfect, hypothetical company that would get the most value from your product.
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Personalization is the practice of using data to tailor products, services, or content to an individual's specific needs and preferences.
Price optimization is the process of finding the ideal price for a product or service to maximize profitability or other business objectives.
Sales performance metrics are key data points that measure a sales team's effectiveness in achieving its goals and driving revenue.
Dark social is the sharing of content through private channels like messaging apps or email. This traffic is hard to track as it lacks referral data.
User-generated content (UGC) refers to any form of content, like images, videos, or text, created and shared by users on online platforms.
The decision stage is where a well-researched buyer chooses a vendor. They compare specific products and pricing before making their final purchase.
Shipping solutions are services or software that streamline the logistics of getting products to customers, from label printing to final delivery.
A field sales representative, or outside sales rep, travels to meet prospects in person, selling products or services directly within their territory.
LinkedIn InMail messages are a premium feature that lets you directly message any LinkedIn member, even if you're not connected to them.
Sales conversion rate is the percentage of prospects who take a desired action, like making a purchase, turning them into customers.
Overcoming objections is the process of addressing and resolving a prospect's concerns or hesitations to move a sale forward.
A Request for Information (RFI) is a formal process for gathering information from potential suppliers before issuing a more detailed proposal.
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LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a premium tool helping sales teams find and engage with the right leads and accounts on the LinkedIn network.
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Cross-selling is a sales tactic of encouraging customers to purchase products or services that are related to what they're already buying.
Incident response is an organization's systematic approach to managing and mitigating the aftermath of a security breach or cyberattack.
A Customer Data Platform (CDP) centralizes customer data from all sources to create a complete, unified profile for each individual customer.
Lead generation software helps businesses automate finding and capturing potential customers' contact information to build sales pipelines.
Generic keywords are broad search terms that lack specific details like brand or location. They attract a wide audience with less specific intent.
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Supply Chain Management oversees the entire production flow of a good or service, from raw materials to final delivery to the consumer.
Triggers are predefined conditions that, when met, automatically launch a workflow or action, ensuring timely and relevant outreach.
Marketing analytics involves measuring and analyzing marketing data to understand campaign performance and improve return on investment (ROI).
Demand forecasting is the process of predicting future customer demand for a product or service based on historical data and market trends.
Personalization in sales means tailoring outreach to a prospect's specific needs, interests, and context to make communication more relevant.
"Smile and dial" is a high-volume sales tactic where reps make numerous cold calls from a list, often with little to no prior research.
Escalations are the process of moving a customer issue or sales opportunity to a more senior or specialized team member for resolution.