10 Things You Need to Know Now About Programmatic Buying

The advertising industry is on a march toward automation. Plenty of advertisers today are buying digital ads without speaking to a single human at a media company, and print and TV ads might not be far behind. Automated, or programmatic, buying is growing not only because it makes ad transactions more efficient but because it can make them more effective, as long as the right data is applied. When surfing the wave of automation, here are 10 things you should know: The pie is growing (fast). Programmatic buying is on track to make up $14.88 billion of the approximately $58.6 billion digital advertising pie this year, according to eMarketer. That's a nearly $5 billion leap from 2014, when it accounted for $9.9 billion. It's not just for direct response anymore. Programmatic-buying systems now have access to some traditional TV inventory and plenty of ad time in "over the top" TV delivered via the web, making the practice increasingly attractive to brand marketers. Imagine this programmatic scenario: You serve a branding commercial to someone on her TV and follow it with a display or Facebook ad on her desktop or mobile device. "Many of the big brands are thinking about more full-funnel tracking and buying of media," said Brian Stempeck, chief client officer at The Trade Desk, an automated-buying platform. Data rules. Brands are taking it in-house. Mobile is a major issue. Social networks are gaining clout. Fraud is still a problem. The big players are set. It's not just banner ads. It can be good for viewability. Though programmatic buying is sometimes derided as a swamp of nonviewable, fraudulent, garbage inventory, there are controls available within the technology that allow buyers to purchase ads that are more viewable than others. You can get as granular as buying only the top 10% of ads that are viewed for the longest time. Good news for advertisers.

10 Things You Need to Know Now About Programmatic Buying

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