1programmProgrammatic represents the culmination of decades of innovation in data technology and addressable media. Buying digital advertising space by auction via respective platforms in real-time.is clearly gaining momentum.

The CEO of intelliAd penned once four “must-haves” for yield-optimized programmatic buying campaigns, which hold good advice for all working in the digital marketing industry. Although smart technology and fast computing capacity are the main features of programmatic buying, the expert holistically points out that the key success factor is still the human being, and gives the following tips:

1. Banner design: Clear and direct! Simple, but creative!

Whether and how long banners are looked at depends mainly on the design quality. Your campaign's success stands and falls with an eye-catching design of the banner. Therefore, go for clarity of content with little text and use a strong call to action. Further, make sure that your product and your brand can be seen immediately. Do not just listen to your gut feeling, but perform A/B testing for different banner designs to identify the most successful creation. A click on your promotional material should also not lead prospects to your website, but on a product- or campaign-oriented landing page that makes a purchase as simple as possible. When designing the banner, consider the standard formats the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) defined, as you need reach - and special advertising formats are still making the exception in Programmatic Advertising.

2. Visibility: Above-The-Fold (ATF) & Below-The-Fold (BTF)

Not only the space that is immediately visible when the page loads, so-called advertising ‘above-the-fold’ (ATF) should be considered in programmatic buying, as is does not necessarily perform better than ‘below-the-fold’ (BTF). The premium "Leaderboard", a page wide banner that is placed at the top above the actual content, for instance, slips with the first scrolling immediately from the visible area. Therefore, book ATF and BTF placements and see which variant brings in better results for your objectives. You can further optimize your performance by targeted blacklisting, sorting out that way inefficient or undesirable publishers, or whitelist particularly efficient and appropriate settings.

3. Timing: Industry-Specific

In programmatic buying it is all about the right timing, because the shopping behavior varies depending on time and day – sometimes even considerably. For instance, according to data analysts, less advertising is usually delivered on weekends, but the click-through rate is significantly higher. The reason for that phenomena is most probably that many users surf from home at that time with real buying interest and not from the office in between work duties. There is prove that the conversion rate and sales on Sundays is the highest and that the surfing and purchasing behavior varies greatly depending on industry and product category. This means that it can make a huge difference if you sell goods within the same industry in a mid-price category or in the luxury segment. The latter e.g. is bought more often during the day and week, which means you must find the right timing for your industry and product category. To do so, track your channels holistically and combine your collected data in one central location to get a picture of your customer. Only then you will know when at which touchpoints in the purchase process which display campaign work best.

4. Targeting: Individual

Always keep in mind that the theme of the advertising material must correspond to the customer. With an intelligent banner generator, that can compose text and image designs dynamically, you can theoretically show each user individually tailored advertising - bespoke to customers’ interests and content-tailored to their stage of the buying process. If you want to drive new Internet users to your site that have not yet had contact with your advertising materials, a combination of designs is useful, like general brand messages followed by retargeting that offers concrete products. But please don’t be tempted to send out ads too often, as it just annoys the user and could cost you more than just money.

By Daniela La Marca