What Does Programmatic Mean and How Does It Work?

Programmatic advertising uses automated systems to buy and place ads in real time. For example, when a visitor lands on a website with advertising on it (ex: washingtonpost.com), the system instantly determines which ad to display (in a leaderboard, big box, etc on that website) based on the visitor’s profile (age, location, online behavior) and based on the highest bidding advertiser (just like in an auction). This happens in those few miliseconds when the site loads: bids from hundreds (sometimes thousands!) of advertisers are coming in to buy that ad unit before the chosen ad (the winning bidder) is served.

This ensures your advertiser's ad is shown to a highly relevant audience. 

How do programmatic ads work?

At the core of programmatic advertising is real-time bidding (RTB) — it's like a live auction that happens in milliseconds every time a web page loads.

1. A user visits a website.

2. That site sends a request to an ad exchange (aka: Demand Side Platform, or DSP) with information about the user (anonymized data like location, device, browsing behavior).

3. The Advertisers bid in real-time to show their ad to that user.

4. The highest bidder's ad is shown to the user — all in the time it takes for the page to load.

Why Advertisers should LOVE buying ads programmatically: 

It's efficient: This process automates what used to be manual ad buying.

You can advertise with precision: Uses data to target audiences based on demographics, behaviors, intent, etc.

Real-time Optimization: Budgets and creatives can be adjusted on the fly.

You can scale your advertising: Access inventory across thousands of websites, apps, audio platforms, CTV/OTT (Connected TV or Over the Top TV), and DOOH (Digital Out of Home), all which are products available here at SoCast. 

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