Have you ever tried scrolling through your social media account only to find yourself spending a lot of time hopping from one video to another? In between these clips, you stumble upon short video ads, and to your surprise, you end up taking the time to watch those, too.
Sounds familiar?
We’ve all encountered programmatic videos one way or another, but it seems like they’ve really blown up over the past couple of years. It used to be that when we saw ads on the TV, we’d flip the channel or let them drone on without paying much attention. But now, video ads are taking the world by storm.
So, what is it with programmatic videos, and why are they taking over the world? How can you use them to bolster your marketing strategy?
The Growing Popularity of Programmatic Videos
More people are consuming more video content. An Insider Intelligence report indicates that 40% of the world’s population, or more than 3 billion people, are considered digital video viewers. On social media, videos are a huge crowd favorite, with 73% of consumers claiming that a brand’s online presence influenced their purchasing decisions.
With the rise of digital advertising, programmatic video ads, whether they’re native ads or ads you find on social media, have quickly become a favorite among marketers. It’s estimated that this year, US advertisers will spend more than $62 billion on programmatic advertising, which is a significant rise from 2021’s over $50 billion.
Programmatic videos are more than just engaging short clips you see on the internet. Compared to traditional text, short videos are often easier to digest and are more appealing. However, with the sheer amount of video choices and viewing platforms to choose from, marketers see a fractured audience. You can have the best ads, but if they’re not reaching the right people at the right place and time, your online advertising campaign may end up falling short. Learn more in our collecition of video marketing blogs.
The Influence of Programmatic Video Ads
Programmatic advertising enables marketers to reach their target audience across multiple channels by using automated technology or software to purchase ad space. Instead of the traditional approach, which entails a lot of paperwork and negotiations, you’re essentially making use of algorithms and machine learning to buy (or sell) digital ad space.
Instead of blasting your ad randomly across a variety of channels, you’re able to use data from online traffic to drive impressions. You’ll need to identify who your target audience is first and then set a budget for your digital campaign. From there, you can purchase your digital ad space from multiple publishers.
If you want to purchase digital ad space to launch an online campaign, you can work with a trading desk or a programmatic ad agency, which uses a demand-side platform (DSP) to automate the purchase of ad impressions. This DSP lets you purchase ad inventory from publishers while ensuring that your ads will reach your target audience.
This seems like a lengthy process, but because of modern digital technology, these transactions happen quickly, often within milliseconds.
Programmatic advertising has surged in popularity because of three main reasons. It’s highly targeted, easily scalable, and more efficient compared to traditional advertising approaches. Plus, you won’t have to spend a lot of money on campaigns that may or may not work.
Why Programmatic Advertising Works
Why is everyone so keen on jumping on the programmatic video ads bandwagon? Here are a few reasons why programmatic videos work:
- They’re fast: With programmatic advertising, you’re leveraging the capabilities of artificial intelligence. The process of purchasing digital ad space happens within milliseconds, and you’re able to get real-time metrics, allowing you to quickly gauge the performance of your campaign.
- Highly targeted: Programmatic video ads help you reach the right people because you’re able to create a very specific audience profile. AI and machine learning can interpret vast amounts of data to analyze a visitor’s behavior and history, allowing you to deliver relevant and engaging campaigns that resonate with the viewer.
- More efficient: Because it’s highly targeted, there’s little to no risk of hit-or-miss campaigns. You’re able to optimize your ads to reach your intended audience segment, which can help generate more conversions without you necessarily having to shell out a lot of money for acquisition.
- Works on multiple channels: Programmatic advertising essentially eliminates the limitations that come with traditional advertising. With it, you can show your ads on different platforms and devices, whether they’re mobile or TV. It allows you to show ads practically anywhere, not just on social media.
- More cost-effective: You won’t have to go through rounds of negotiations with different publishers. Programmatic advertising may cost anywhere from $0.50 to $2 compared to other platforms, where the cost per impression can fetch between $6 and $7 on average. Plus, you can set your budget to fit your campaign goals.
Programmatic Best Practices You Can Follow
Programmatic videos power digital advertising. Let’s look at the programmatic best practices you use for your campaigns.
- Explore the marketplace: Aside from knowing who your audience is, you’ll benefit greatly from being able to know more about the programmatic advertising landscape. Take the time to research the ins and outs of programmatic video ads, including new terms.
- Be engaging: Make sure your videos are compelling enough to catch your viewer’s attention and hold it for the entire duration of the video. Your video must be able to draw them in within the first few seconds. You can use data or behavioral targeting to serve targeted ads with specific content types to give them more context.
- Think mobile: The world is becoming more mobile, so you need your videos to have the correct aspect ratios for viewing on mobile devices.
- Consider your branding: Short videos provide ample opportunity for branding. Aside from showing your logo, you need to be consistent with your visuals. This helps build brand awareness and make your ads more recognizable. If you’re targeting a new audience, consistency can help establish your brand identity.
- Don’t forget the human touch: Programmatic advertising makes extensive use of technology, but this doesn’t mean you must forgo the human touch altogether. You will still need to work with other people to plan and optimize your campaigns.
Videos Made The EWR Way
EWR Digital is a full-service digital marketing company that can help your business create and use powerful video advertisements. Whether you need a video to enhance your virtual storefront, create corporate training videos, or need a creative post-production team to level up your internal videos, give our creative team a call today.