Programmatic Digital Advertising: Pros & Cons for a Growing Business

Have you considered incorporating programmatic digital advertising into your marketing efforts? If so, you might have done a little research, and you may have already answered some of the questions you had when you were just starting out. If you’re new to this idea, however, there’s a whole world of information that’s just waiting to be uncovered. With this in mind, let’s take a little closer look at the world of programmatic digital advertising so you can better understand the pros and cons associated with this method of marketing.

What is Programmatic Digital Advertising?

Programmatic digital advertising is a method of marketing that utilizes technology to buy and sell online advertising space. It’s helpful in that it can target segmented audiences using real-time data in ways that humans simply can’t accomplish. In the end, programmatic ad buys to ensure that advertisements are delivered to the right people at the right times.

Elements of Programmatic Digital Advertising: Pros and Cons

When you hire a digital advertising agency, you should be comfortable knowing the agency’s team will take your brand under its wing and guide you from there. If you’re seeking programmatic digital advertising assistance, you might feel a little lost at first. Fear not! We’ve got everything you need to know about the use of this type of technology in the marketing realm.

1. Humans Still Need to Oversee the Process

Programmatic advertising, by definition, is run by computers (or, some might say, robots). However, people still need to be at the helm, monitoring analytics, and ensuring buys make sense. If a digital marketing agency has bad practices or inexperienced staff, you could find yourself wasting viewability or worse, not being seen at all.

Cons: It’s easy to lose money on programmatic digital advertising if you don’t hire the right team.

Pros: The right digital advertising agency will have a team in place that can launch, manage, and execute successful programmatic advertising campaigns.

2. Programmatic Digital Advertising is Highly Efficient

There was a time when online spots were purchased by humans. Those employees would sit at their desks for hours on end, calling up other people and trading money for ad spaces. This was a slow and unreliable process. Today, algorithms do the work.

Cons: Your employees may have less interaction with peers they may have spoken to in days-gone-by.

Pros: Programmatic digital advertising is incredibly efficient, doesn’t have vacation days, and never calls in sick.

3. It’s Important to Know that Bots are Real

Almost any digital advertising agency you talk to will tell you that bots and ad fraud, unfortunately, are a real thing that you might have to deal with in the digital arena.

Cons: Some companies have been known to create bots that click on advertisements over and over again, running the advertiser’s budget into the ground. Online traffic fraud is a real thing, but it doesn’t have to stop you from putting your brand out there. You just need to employ a digital advertising agency that knows how to look for thieves and miscreants so they can be squashed before your budget bears the brunt of unfortunate actions.

Pros: When you employ a digital advertising agency that knows how to work programmatic buys, they’ll pay attention to unsavory clicks and ad fraud that could cost you a lot of money and put a stop to those behaviors as they’re happening.

4. ROI Can Be Substantial

When you’re not paying humans to do all the little things that algorithms can bring, you might be surprised about how much less you’re spending on your marketing budget in comparison to the amount of money you’re bringing in.

Cons: Bots and unsavory competitors can eat away at your marketing budget pretty quickly. (Thankfully, that’s not a very common occurrence, especially for small business owners.)

Pros: When everything’s been programmed and set up to go, machines will keep chugging along until you meet your goals or hit your budget. This ensures you maximize your ad spend and get a higher return on investment overall.

5. You Have Unlimited Access to Audiences

When you use programmatic technology, you have access to real-time data that can help you match your brand to targeted ads when and where people are most likely to pay attention to them.

Cons: If you don’t have an experienced digital advertising agency on your team, the data can be a little overwhelming when it starts to trickle in.

Pros: Real-time data helps reduce the likelihood that you’ll buy wasteful ads or target incorrect traffic, which can save you time and money in the long run.

Why You Should Explore the Possibilities that Programmatic Digital Advertising Can Bring to Your Business

When it comes down to it, you’re operating a business, and you need to put your brand in front of as many people as possible. While marketing teams may be amazing for a thousand different reasons, the humans that man those roles can’t really stand up to the robots and algorithms that facilitate efficiency, effectiveness, and overall great returns on investment. If you truly want to bolster your brand into the next category of being seen, you need to employ technology to purchase your ad spaces in today’s cyberspace.

At Digilant, we understand programmatic digital advertising because that’s what we do. If you want to work with a team of professionals whose day-to-day livelihood revolves around this type of technology, we’d love to talk to you. Let’s touch base so we can tell you more about our team!