How To Use Programmatic To Drive Search Results Internationally – Gemma Houghton

This talk from Gemma Houghton covered educational examples from genuine campaigns while explaining how taking a targeted approach to search can deliver results on a global scale. Programmatic advertising is key, and can be deployed across multiple markets.

Overview

• Speaker’s name: Gemma Houghton
• Job role and company: Director of Marketing at Webcertain
• Website: https://webcertain.com/
• Twitter profile: @GemHoughton
• LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemmabirch/
• Link to the slides:

What was the talk about?

Programmatic ad buying is an automated marketing method that provides real-time bidding on ad space. Rather than targeting by placement, platform or device, programmatic uses a single platform to target consumers based on their interactions (social media, browsing, etc.). This in turn makes it more likely for brands to gain interactions with their sites, as marketing is based on interest that has already been expressed.

There are two sides to using programmatic: the demand side platform and the supply side. Advertisers use the demand side platform to make sure their ads get seen. They can search for ad space using a number of different filters including target audience, creatives, budget and advertisement run-time. On the other side, suppliers can put ad space up for purchase: the ad exchange (the tech part) then makes sure that the right ads are seen in the right place by the right people.

Fave quote

“Of course whenever we talk about automation there’s that fear of ‘Oh no the robots are coming’ there’s no need for us any more… of course that’s not true. We still very much need people.”

Potential impact on the industry

It\’s already having an impact on the industry, currently being used for 86% and 90% of digital display spend in the US and UK respectively. This year’s figure for China (the second-biggest display market) has doubled from 2017.

“Programmatic is on the rise globally & very effective for generating brand awareness and brand trust” @GemHoughton #BrightonSEO #TypeAMedia

— Type A (@type_a_media) April 12, 2019

Because of their ability to consolidate marketing from a number of platforms to a single one (and to automate part of the process), programmatic systems can elevate the efficiency of digital display. This could potentially free up more time for agencies to work on more important tasks (like making sure that the ads themselves are up to par).

Key takeaways

• Programmatic personalises marketing to the individual.
• It is automated and, in many cases, more efficient.