"Programmatic buying is the gluten of advertising," Jimmy Kimmel quipped during ABC's upfront presentation last week. Like gluten, "programmatic" has become a buzzword that many people use but few really understand. They just know it's important. For some reason.
The term covers a wide range of technologies that have begun automating the buying, placement and optimization of advertising, replacing human-based methods like phone calls, faxes and, yes, three-martini lunches. Through programmatic technologies, advertisers can buy ads the way they pick up something on Amazon or bid on eBay.
For all the ink spilled, you'd think the entire world had gone programmatic, but it's still just a sliver of online-display advertising. Interpublic Group of Cos.' buying arm Magna Global projects that programmatic spending will reach $9.8 billion in the U.S. this year, or about 20% of the overall digital-ad market. To move brand dollars, programmatic technologies have to grow up and advance to other forms of media, like TV and radio.
But programmatic buying isn't as complicated as the jargon makes it sound. Here's a breakdown:
What exactly is programmatic?
Programmatic simply means automated. A lot of people confuse it
with buying ads through computer-run auctions -- known as real-time
bidding -- but that's just one way to buy ads programmatically. At
its core, programmatic buying is any ad buy that gets processed
through machines.
Why is everybody talking about it?
Remember when booking a hotel room meant calling a concierge or
travel agent? Or when buying stocks required being on the New York
Stock Exchange floor? Over the past decade, billions in investment
dollars have been bet that the ad market would be next to undergo a
similar transition. "What you're seeing is a fundamental shift in
not just how media is bought, but how advertisers can engage with
consumers more effectively," said Brian Lesser, global CEO of
Xaxis, WPP's programmatic-buying arm.
Is it expensive?
Programmatic can actually save money. Through automation, the
transactions become more efficient, cutting out complex
ad-operation tasks. At the same time, it can involve myriad tech
vendors that enable certain types of targeting or verification, and
they all collect tolls along the way.
In an ideal world, automated technologies would take over
data-heavy tasks and leave humans to what they do best. "This whole
thing is about freeing up those resources for more actual human
conversation and human creativity," said Todd Gordon, exec VP-head
of U.S. investment at Interpublic's MagnaGlobal.
Will all ads be automated?
Probably not. "I don't know whether anyone would ever buy 100% of
[their ads] programmatically because deep brand integrations,
content plays and tentpole events wouldn't be done
programmatically," said GroupM Interaction Chief Operating Officer
John Montgomery. However, "looking into the future, a majority of
buying will be done programmatically."
MagnaGlobal has pledged to automate 50% of its clients' media buying by 2016. "When we started on this [mission], the percent of our activity we could really call automated was less than 5%," Mr. Gordon said.
Earlier this month, Ad Age obtained a document American Express sent to potential ad-tech partners, stating a goal of spending 100% of its online display-ad budget programmatically. That seems to be more of an ambition than expectation. When asked about its 100% programmatic goal, American Express walked it back, calling it more of a "theoretical strategic thought."
If programmatic is so great, why is so little being
spent there?
A lot of advertisers still don't understand programmatic. They hear
real-time bidding and think bottom-dollar auctions. They see that a
million people saw their ads but have no idea on which sites.
They're told programmatic tools can extend their ads to any site
but wonder if that goes for in-stream "native" ads as well.
This year the Association of National Advertisers surveyed 153 marketers and found that only 26% of respondents said they knew what programmatic buying is and have actually used it (see related story, P. 10). The other 74% ranged from either being completely oblivious, aware but unclear or in need of education. But even those who use programmatic tools to buy media may not have a firm grasp of what that means.
Programmatic's overarching problem is that too many people assume it's synonymous with loosely controlled auction-style buying, the difference between booking a hotel room by naming your price on Priceline or finding the cheapest fare via Kayak. "In many advertisers' minds, they equate programmatic buying with [real-time bidding]. The fact is, RTB is a first-generation of programmatic," Mr. Lesser said. But that's not the only thing holding programmatic back.
Are you talking about fraud?
Digital advertising has a fraud problem so big it got slapped with
the "crisis" label by Interactive Advertising Bureau Board Chairman
Vivek Shah. Conservative estimates place the level of fraud in the
ballpark of 10%; others say it's much higher.
