1doneRThe term "programmatic marketing " was coined around 5 years ago and behind it is an extremely customer-oriented, automated form of marketing with a direct approach. Looking at the customer as an individual is part of the future-proofed concept of addressing individuals directly and purposefully, which makes programmatic marketing cost-efficient as there is no waste coverage. A marketer must intervene only when creating and evaluating the campaign.

Programmatic marketing aims at the interests of individuals, recognizes the intention of the user and displays appropriate content, which does not necessarily seem like advertising. In fact, from a certain campaign size onwards, automation is inevitable and the playout is generally not planned but in real time. Nevertheless, the marketer isn’t made redundant because of a machine, since success depends mainly on a well-planned campaign and the evaluation and interpretation of the results for future projects must still be done by human hands.

However, ‘real-time bidding' (RTB) can only be taken over by machines and properly done programmatic marketing is above all one thing - precise. By addressing the customers to the point, advertising can no longer be perceived as obtrusive. Eventually, the intentions and interests of the user are already disclosed. What follows is not an inapt advertising, but an added value, comprising of all kinds of content. It could be an offer that exactly meets the customer's request or the answer to a question that the user might have asked a second ago. For being able to do all that, programmatic marketing requires that all necessary data is available, which explains on the other hand why programmatic marketing worries data protectionists and cookie objectors.

An example can illustrate this very clearly: A customer is looking for a specific model of a high-priced headphone on an online shop for electronics. He found it by researching exactly for this model in the internal search, lingered on the page for several minutes - possibly reading everything he could find on the single page. He then clicks two other products in the same category and leaves the page. Next, he calls up an online price comparison page and searches for the initial product. From this, you - or rather the properly programmed machine – can come to the following conclusions:

  • The customer is interested in the first product, but especially in high-priced headphones.
  • The price is important to him.
  • Either your price is too expensive for him OR he wants to check if the shop has good offers OR he is not yet completely convinced by the product or your shop.

You - or rather the machine – know already that you are not the most favored supplier. How can programmatic marketing help in this case not to lose the customer?

There are several opportunities: The next visit of the customer on a platform where you can display advertising using real time bidding keeps a display of the product at a reduced price by personalized voucher - but the advertising shows not only the product, but a positive test report. Or the customer gets an email that not only promotes the headphones with a discount, but also refers to one of your information pages, on which he finds information about what he must consider when buying headphones. Also possible is a list of good alternative products. Of course, this email - just like the ad before - can be optimized by further knowledge about the customer.

All that makes programmatic marketing very versatile and goes far beyond classic re-targeting, although we probably just scratched the surface of the various options. But customer focus, cost-saving through automation, and higher conversion rates due to a precise customer approach, are clear benefits that come with programmatic.

By Daniela La Marca