Digitization has been significantly transforming the world of advertising. Currently, numerous advertisers prefer purchasing automated advertisements (also known Programmatic Advertising). Unlike traditional digital buying, programmatic ad buying is effective, efficient and a competitive option. Moreover, it enables brands to interact with its target audience at the right time and right place.
Large marketers are making waves in Programmatic Advertising by outsourcing agencies that have access to the most-advanced advertising technology and marketing technology stacks. Such agencies also own a programmatic trading desk that takes care of programmatic media obtained by means of a bidding system that aims to target a specific set of audience.
Since large marketers are reaping all the advantages in the world of programmatic display, video, and native advertising, it becomes essential for small and mid-sized marketers to utilise the benefits that an agency partner can offer, so that they can take the right steps to balance the large marketer advantage. Now let us spark some insight on how agency partners can help small or mid-sized marketers compete with big marketers when it comes to programmatic advertising:
- Having Access to Bigger Data: Big marketers have accesses to bigger data which makes them more powerful. In programmatic ad buying, having faulty or incomplete data may prove to be disastrous. Correct and comprehensive data enables big marketers to make accurate decisions on bidding—ranging from search, and social media to video, audio and display media.
- Invest offline: Big advertisers adhere to the practice of investing offline. Big marketers while creating awareness about their brand also reinforce the same by presenting programmatic video or programmatic display to their consumers and target audiences. Unlike big marketers, it may not be possible for small marketers to make use of offline media. However, small marketers can take various measures such as retargeting, hyper-local geo-targeting at their physical locations, custom audiences, and using free media significantly to ensure that their consumers and potential customers who are receiving their brand messages are aware of their presence.
- Frequently updating advertisement creative: Big marketers come up with unique ad creative and also update them regularly, which empower them to bid more insistently. Small marketers may not afford to create or update their ad creative on a regular basis; however, they can practise affordable measures such as— making use of templates for designing a creative, where one can easily alter the image or caption by keeping the logo intact.
At the same time, small marketers should be vigilant with budgets considering the overall size and ability to allocate budget, wherever required. Though predictable budgets are highly preferred by marketing departments, it is quite difficult to predict budgets in auctioned media owing to the ever-changing bid-landscape. This requires the media-buying department to keep a close eye on campaigns besides managing the volume, ROI and budgets at the same time.
Last but not least, the ambiguity of programmatic should not intimidate small marketers. In fact, they should use it as an empowering tool to subdue bigger marketers who lack nimbleness. By being nimble and by leveraging the benefits offered by agency partners, small marketers can go a long way in counterbalancing the big marketer advantage.