Programmatic video advertising is gaining traction all over the digital space. Advertisers are now realizing that crafting engaging programmatic video ads and implementing them as a major part of their video marketing strategy is essential to staying at par with their audience’s changing needs and demands.
But what exactly is programmatic video advertising? Let us learn about it in detail in the article below:
What is Programmatic Video?
Before understanding what is a programmatic video, let us go through programmatic video ads.
Programmatic video advertising refers to video ads shown on different online advertising platforms. In programmatic video advertising campaigns, ad space is bought and sold in an automated process through real-time bidding using data and machine learning algorithms.
The process uses precise data and analytics to determine which space will be the most effective for displaying your video content to target a specific audience segment.
Now, back to programmatic videos; they are essentially the visually animated content displayed on these ads through various online platforms. These ad formats allow advertisers to reach viewers based on various factors such as demographics, interest, and behavior, ensuring the right message is delivered to the right person at the right time.
How Does Programmatic Video Work?
Similar to any other programmatic advertising formats, video ads are displayed through an automated process of buying and selling ad space. Here is a basic outline of how programmatic videos work:
- First, buyers conduct online research to define the goal behind displaying online videos through programmatic advertisement.
- Now, the platform you have chosen for programmatic advertisements will use different data and algorithms to identify the most appropriate publisher for the ad.
- Additionally, the platform will also decide the most efficient time to display the video ad.
- Once all these are specified, the platform displays the ad through real-time bidding using different user data, such as cookies.
Types of Programmatic Video Ads
Programmatic video advertising platforms offer numerous types of ad formats for precise targeting. Some of the most common are:
In-stream Video Ads
In-stream video ads are generally displayed before, in between, or after you play a particular video. These ads are integrated into your video streaming experience, making them less intrusive than other ad formats.
For instance, you must have encountered numerous in-stream ads while watching a YouTube video. You may not have realized it before, but these ads are a part of programmatic video ad campaigns.
Out-stream Video Ads
Outstream ads are one of the most popular types of video ads that appear in the content we generally surf on the Internet. These video advertisements appear outside the traditional video content, typically within an online article or between paragraphs on a webpage.
In-display Video Ads
Display ads are out-stream video ads embedded within the text content of a webpage, social media feed, or mobile application. So, if you have ever noticed ads while browsing through your Facebook feed, these are nothing but in-display video ads.
Benefits of Programmatic Video Ads
Increased Efficiency and Time Saving
As mentioned earlier, programmatic video advertising automates the process of displaying online video advertising on different platforms, making it extremely efficient and time-saving.
By automating the process, advertisers save the time required to manually search for the right platform and negotiate the needs and prices with the publisher.
Additionally, by automating routine tasks, advertisers also gain ample time to focus on other important tasks requiring their attention.
Precise Targeting
Automation means there is no room for manual errors, leading to precise targeting. This form of advertising ensures that your online video content reaches the right audience at the right time and in the right context.
The accurate and automated targeting offered by these ads leads to better engagement and ROI, making it an appropriate solution for businesses that are looking for automated digital advertising campaigns.
Greater Reach and Scalability
Programmatic ads have an abundance of cross-platform inventory, making them a great option for scaling and reaching a large audience. These ad strategies can easily be optimized to ensure the digital video content is always relevant to the target audience’s interests.
Moreover, in addition to adjusting the scale of your ad campaign depending on the audience, you can also opt for precise targeting based on different factors, such as the weather or a specific time of day, for better reach and engagement.
Transparency and Measurable Results
Since programmatic video ad campaigns rely on real-time bidding, one can measure results and easily pivot in real-time.
The real-time data offered by the ads allows advertisers to take proactive steps to ensure that video content reaches relevant audiences at the right time and enables them to easily change the course of the campaign based on the information obtained.
Improved Return on Investment (ROI)
In programmatic ads, the process of buying and selling ad space is automated, reducing the need for manual intervention. Bidding for ad impressions in real-time increases efficiency and lowers operational costs.
Additionally, since programmatic advertising platforms use real-time data to target different groups of users with precision, they increase the likelihood of conversion and enhance ROI.
Access to Premium Inventory
The programmatic advertisement works on premium inventories and mechanisms, enhancing efficiency and targeting capabilities.
These ad formats use artificial intelligence, machine learning mechanisms, and top-notch data-driven tools to gather user data and track KPIs accurately, precisely targeting audiences and enhancing the impact of the video campaigns.
What are the Best Programmatic Video Platforms?
Google Display & Video 360
This programmatic platform allows marketers to manage end-to-end campaigns across displays, video, audio, and other formats.
Here are some of the key features of the platform:
- The platform provides improved targeting by helping marketers manage all digital advertising campaigns from a single interface.
- It makes first-party and third-party data easily available for highly targeted campaigns, helping to reach a specific audience segment and send ads based on the user’s geographical location.
- It also helps automatically customize and optimize different ad campaigns based on user data and behavior.
- The tool can be seamlessly integrated with other Google marketing tools to create a cohesive ad strategy for maximum impact.
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk is one of the leading programmatic video advertising platforms. It allows marketers to purchase and manage digital advertising campaigns across various channels, including display ads, video ads, native video ads, and connected TV.
Here are some of the key features of the platform:
- The tool offers omnichannel campaign management that helps optimize your ad campaigns across multiple devices from a single interface.
- Additionally, it enables advanced audience segmentation, using first-party, third-party, and CRM data to create precise audience segments for contextual targeting.
- In addition, it also offers access to a vast amount of their party data, making creating effective strategies for targeted programmatic media buying easy.
Xandr
Xandr offers a range of features designed to refine advertising capabilities for both buyers and sellers.
Here are some of the platform’s key features that you can’t miss.
- Xandr allows you to manage and execute video advertising campaigns across digital and TV ecosystems from a single platform.
- The solutions offered by Xandr also make extensive consumer data easily available, enabling the creation of highly targeted advertising campaigns that help you reach specific demographics and user groups.
- It also supports a wide range of ad formats, including display, video, native video ads, and connected TV ads.
MediaMath
MediaMath is a leading global advertising technology company that provides marketers with advanced tools for executing and optimizing programmatic video advertising campaigns.
Here are some of the most essential features of the platform:
- The platform empowers agencies and businesses with the flexibility to deliver omnichannel marketing campaigns.
- Its CTV advertising features offer marketers an opportunity to build one-on-one relationships with customers across all screens and craft a data-driven marketing plan.
- Depending on your preferences, this omni-channel demand-side advertising platform offers accurate targeting with or without cookies.
- It provides top-class tools for in-depth analysis and reporting, allowing users to measure campaign performance, track key metrics, and gain actionable insights.
- The platform utilizes AI and machine learning algorithms to optimize bidding strategies, improve targeting, and enhance the overall campaign performance.
Amazon Advertising
Amazon ads offer a comprehensive suite of advertising solutions designed to help businesses reach and engage customers on Amazon’s vast marketplace as well as across the web.
Here are the top features offered by the platform:
- The Amazon demand side platform enables advertisers to programmatically buy display, videos, and audio ads both on Amazon sites and across Amazon publishers and third-party exchanges.
- It offers accurate audience targeting based on first-party shopper data, which consists of understanding shopping behavior, interests, purchase history, and interests.
- The platform’s most notable feature is its omnichannel metrics, which measure the total impact of campaigns across different platforms while they are still in process.
Trends of Programmatic Video Advertising
Rise of AI and Automation
AI and automation are already used in programmatic video advertising. However, recent trends show an increasing use of AI to display different types of video ads.
The latest technological advancement will allow advertisers to improve precision while targeting audience members based on age, demography, gender, educational background, and device choices.
AI is also enabling brands to create a precise buyer persona, which technically refers to the brand’s ideal customer. Thus, marketers can create more engaging video content with a better chance of conversion.
Focus on Privacy-Centric Solutions
Audiences today appreciate businesses that respect their data privacy. The recent focus on data privacy and ethical practices has made marketers understand the importance of respecting a user’s consent while using their data for a successful video ad campaign.
Hence, when a brand launches its programmatic video advertising campaign, it double-checks the DSP to ensure compliance with privacy laws.
Continued Growth of CTV Advertising
CTV advertising, or connected TV advertising, is slowly dominating programmatic video advertising campaigns. Over-the-top advertising, or OTT ads, which are an increasingly popular programmatic channel accessed through CTV, is soon predicted to replace traditional TV ads.
Growing Importance of ROI
The return on investment in programmatic advertising is already high. However, with the latest inclusion of virtual reality and augmented reality into programmatic advertising platforms, we can assume that marketers are looking for unprecedented results from these campaigns.
Marketers now understand that the number of clicks or impressions can’t simply determine the success of an ad. They are looking for solid results showcasing the video ad’s true success.
They are looking for answers, such as whether the display ads led to store visits or a subscription and whether the target audience bought anything after encountering the ad.
So, with increased investment in the latest technologies, such as AR and VR, which in turn improves the efficiency of the campaign, the ROI is also projected to increase in these ad formats.
Innovation in Ad Formats
As mentioned above, marketers are increasingly using augmented and virtual reality to create engaging video marketing campaigns. Along with this, to stay up to date with the current needs and demands of the young audience, they are also targeting podcast ads.
Since the young audience, popularly referred to as Gen Z, prefers listening to podcasts, marketers, and advertisers aim for programmatic media buying on podcast ads, where they buy ad space on the podcast platform to target the younger audience.
Best Practices of Programmatic Video Advertising
For a successful video ad campaign, it is important to remember the following best practices:
- It is extremely crucial to define your audience carefully. By considering factors such as age, gender, demography, behavior, and interest as some of the essential criteria to identify your audience, you can craft engaging digital video ad campaigns to maximize the impact.
- You have a wealth of important insights and data when you opt for programmatic video campaigns. Therefore, you must leverage all the information available to optimize your campaign in real time. Check for metrics such as the number of clicks, impressions, views, conversion, and user behavior to craft campaigns that will actually be effective for you.
- Using high-quality creatives is extremely pivotal if you wish to craft an impactful programmatic marketing campaign. When creating online videos for your ad campaigns, you must look for high-quality videos that accurately deliver the message without boring your audience.
- Programmatic advertising offers numerous personalized targeting options, such as retargeting, geo-targeting, and behavioral targeting, to ensure your ads reach the right audience at the right time and location. So, make sure you leverage the benefits of all these customizable solutions for better and more effective targeting.
Future of Programmatic Video Advertising
Numerous studies suggest programmatic advertising will cover over three-quarters of the global digital ad spend. Now that we know that programmatic video advertising is going to rule the global ad market, we can expect some major developments in this field.
Firstly, we can expect AI to refine its capabilities and craft sophisticated tools that target audience groups with unprecedented accuracy.
Secondly, the campaigns will focus on more privacy-oriented targeting, where cookie-less solutions will be embraced as a superior option.
Thirdly, contextual targeting will mark the renaissance of a new era in programmatic video advertising. In contextual targeting, advertisers will start focusing on the relevance of the content in which an ad is placed rather than simply taking into consideration the interests of their audience.
Fourthly, a cohesive ad campaign strategy is what will make advertisers win the race in programmatic video campaigns. There will be a high focus on multi-channel yet linear ad campaigns where the target audience will be shown similar ads on different platforms.
Why Should You Choose Propellant Media For Programmatic Video Advertising?
Propellant Media is your one-stop omni-channel marketing solution that offers programmatic video advertising campaigns for different brands and agencies.
Here are some of the primary reasons why you must choose us for programmatic video advertising:
- We take video ads a step further with real-time bidding that automates the buying process, making it faster and more efficient.
- We offer a dynamic cost-per-impression option. In this option, rather than paying hundreds of dollars for your ad campaigns, you pay only for the opportunities or individuals who are most likely to convert.
- In addition, we help craft creative video ads and static ads that are more engaging and have a better chance of conversion.
- Along with programmatic advertisement solutions, our platform offers site retargeting, search retargeting, geofencing, keyword, contextual targeting, and CRM retargeting for better results.
Overall, Propellant Media has established itself as one of the leading programmatic advertising media platforms that helps brands and businesses establish themselves as leaders in their niches with data-driven tools and solutions.
So, if you want the ultimate companion for your video marketing and advertising needs, contact us today!