Search has been a rescue ring, so to speak, for small to mid-size businesses (SMB) when they start looking for digital advertising options. But, they soon realize that results are not that heart-, or pocket-warming for that matter! See, search Ads, as awesome as they could be for some, compete at the bottom of the sales funnel, which means SMBs will face fierce competition and steep costs.
So, if Search isn’t that helpful, how does it compare to Programmatic Ads from a SMB standpoint? The good news is yet to come! Programmatic buying allows SMB marketers to reach their customers where they actually are, instead of where they could be.
After doing much research about the topic, I believe that NOW is the time for small and mid-size businesses to get on Programmatic Ads. Below are some of the benefits small to mid-size businesses can find in Programmatic Ad buying.
The Price Is Right:
I’ve discussed this in a previous post. But to sum it up, the price you bid in RTB is a reflection of the impression and your individual user to the campaign you are running. That means you will never pay for a block of impressions served to users who aren’t your ideal target. Enjoy the efficiency in media spend, SMB marketer!
Transparency
Everyone loves transparency when we can get it. With Programmatic buying, you can see where your Ads appear, how much you actually paid for each impression, and the results of your campaign. The insights gained help tremendously in determining the best channels for media spend, and where to find the best conversions.
Data-Driven
The algorithms used in Programmatic Ads are very smart about which impressions to buy. It uses Big Data to get an idea about who’s behind each Ad unit and whether they are likely to convert. Users could be targeted based on demographics, geolocation, retargeting, and even the current weather in a given geolocation, amongst other criteria.
Scalability and Flexibility
Ad exchanges, where you purchase Ad inventory, pool inventories from thousands of signed up publishers and give you access to billions of impressions. Narrowing a targeting criteria is now as simple as checking boxes in an interface. Which means you will worry less about grunt work and spend more time on the creatives of the Ad.
Faster Campaign Optimization
Long gone the days where you have to wait for your campaign to end to evaluate results. Programmatic Ads lets you optimize a campaign much faster for you to achieve better results. Remember how we talked about transparency just a minute ago? Same applies here so you can remove sites that aren’t performing and focus on the ones that are.
Multi-Channel
We all know that consumers these days go from mobile to desktop to tablet in a minute and reaching them at the right time is harder and harder. Ad exchanges offer ample supplies of different media inventory for you to reach to your audience wherever they are. Although you have to worry about the creatives of each channel you are using, your Ad exchange partner will be taking care of the rest for you.
At the end, Programmatic Ads provides a fair ground for big money advertisers and small to mid-size businesses as everyone gets the same access to inventory. The impression selection process frees up inventory as no one brand will feel the pressure to buy as much as possible to guarantee scale. So there it is, SMB marketer, your digital advertising is making more sense now.
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