What is programmatic buying?

Programmatic buying has entered the world of marketing, making ads more efficient and effective. This is achieved thanks to the use of big data that makes the advertisement appear in the most appropriate inventory, either in the form of banner or video pre-roll on websites or social networks.

The purchase is made through RTB, Real Time Bidding, an auction of impressions and prices in real time. It is therefore an automated system of buying and selling advertising space for digital ads in which we can choose the audience to address, the maximum price we are willing to pay and the format to do so. Some programmatic buying systems currently have even access to traditional TV inventories and video on demand platforms such as Hulu.

Some platforms have tools that allow greater flexibility when choosing digital marketing plans. They have controls that allow them to buy ads that are more visible than others, being able to corroborate not only the effectiveness, but also the presence in the media. For example, one has the option to buy 10 or 15% of the most viewed ads at a certain time and in a certain network.

Thus, while a traditional online advertisement usually maximizes the attributes of a website and its spaces, programmatic ads are able to establish closer communication with users as they are deployed based on their tastes, age or location, and at prices more competitive than the purchase of more traditional digital advertising.

Much of online advertising is moving toward programmatic buying because of its adaptability, both in workflow and performance. How long will it take advertisers to deepen these new techniques and benefit from this new way of buying on programmatic platforms? In the meantime, programmatic keeps growing.