Whenever something becomes a buzzword in business or tech, it’s easy to misunderstand it. In recent years, programmatic advertising has been getting a lot of attention and has become one of those widely used phrases.
However, the phrase “programmatic advertising” is often used interchangeably with other phrases such as digital advertising, online advertising, and even artificial intelligence. Here’s the problem: each one of those phrases is completely unique. This causes a lot of confusion, especially when it comes to criticisms.
For example, digital advertising has experienced quite a bit of judgment lately for issues with brand safety and ad-blockers. These poor experiences then cast an unwarranted shadow on programmatic solutions.
How are programmatic advertising and digital advertising different?
Programmatic advertising automates the decision-making process of media buying by using algorithms to target specific audiences and demographics.
In contrast, digital advertising is a less specific term that essentially means using the internet to communicate marketing messages. Digital advertising doesn’t rely on algorithms and is less technical than programmatic advertising.
The reason these two concepts are often confused is because both programmatic advertising and digital advertising are done online. However, programmatic advertising allows you to automate both traditional advertising (i.e. radio, television) as well as digital advertising (i.e. streaming, display).
What about RTB?
Real Time Bidding (RTB) is the buying and selling of ad impressions via an auction. As the impressions load in a web browser, information about users gets passed on to advertisers. If an advertiser is interested, they can initiate the bidding process. In short, the highest bidder wins.
The big difference between RTB and programmatic is that programmatic is a method used to determine the if the advertiser wants to purchase inventory and RTB is one way purchase. This means that not all programmatic utilizes RTB. In fact, most don’t. For example, at Jelli all of the inventory has a set price and is available to purchase without bidding.
Advertising is Better with Automation
Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s talk about how much advertising has improved with the introduction of programmatic technology. Fifty years ago, there was no way to target audiences based on psychographics and lifestyle habits and most advertising was virtually impossible to track. Today, programmatic tech solutions give you the ability to get buys to market faster and reach everyone with greater accuracy. Plus, it allows you to put your calculator away because algorithms are built to optimize every single buy, guaranteeing the highest ROI on your campaigns — a marketer’s dream come true.
Programmatic platforms have opened up a new door for marketers. One thing is for sure, the future of audio advertising is underway thanks to these programmatic solutions. Learn more by downloading "Yesterday vs. Today" where we highlight automation's impact on media buying. There’s never been a better time to embrace technology and improve your media buying processes.
