What it replaced
Buying ad space used to mean finding the app or the website, agreeing a price and a period with a person there, sending the ad, and waiting for a report. That works for an advertiser with a media team and a large budget. For anyone else it is slow and awkward. Programmatic advertising moves the same buying into software, and into the moment the slot appears.
How it works
When someone opens an app or a page, each ad slot on it is offered for sale. Software working for advertisers looks at the slot, each names a price, the best bid wins and its ad is drawn there, all before the screen has finished loading. Our guide on how real-time ad auctions work goes through it step by step.
What you decide, and what the software does
- You decide how much to spend, where the ad should be seen, for how many days, and what the ad says.
- The software decides, for every slot that comes up, whether it is worth bidding for and at what price, and keeps the spending within the amount you set.
- The report tells you afterwards where the ad ran, when, and what it did.
What it is not
It is not an ad on a search page or a boosted post on a social network. Those are bought inside the search engine or the social network, in that company’s own auction and with its own tools. Programmatic advertising buys slots across many apps and websites at once, from one place. Nor does it promise a result: it puts your ad in front of people, and your report shows what they did next.
What to check before you try one
- Is there a minimum to start?
- Do you see the price before you confirm?
- Can you pause or stop whenever you like?
- Do you get a report you can read without a glossary?
Those are the four questions we would ask. Ailumic’s answers: Start with what you have — there is no minimum. The price is in front of you before you confirm, and nothing runs until you do. No long-term commitment: pause, change the budget or stop whenever you like. Pricing, fees and payment terms will be provided before you commit to a paid campaign.
A florist wants to be seen by people in her town in the week before a holiday. By phone and contract she would have to find the apps and sites her customers use and negotiate with each. Programmatic, she sets an amount, the area and the dates, and the software bids for the slots that come up there in those days. Her report then says where the ad ran and when.