How to build a programmatic advertising strategy that actually works

A well-structured programmatic advertising strategy can help reduce customer acquisition costs and improve conversion rates when campaigns are properly optimized. Yet, building a programmatic marketing strategy can be challenging if you don't know where to start.

One of the most common mistakes advertisers make when approaching a programmatic marketing strategy is the absence of clearly defined success metrics and attribution models. Below, we will delve deeper into what good programmatic strategy steps should look like.

What is a programmatic advertising strategy?

Programmatic strategies help improve campaign efficiency, audience reach, and media performance. It has become one of the primary methods for buying digital media thanks to automation and real-time programmatic campaign optimization.

This approach includes the growing role of OTT in advertising and programmatic TV advertising, which brings automation and real-time bidding to television ad placements. The strategic shift isn’t limited to national or global campaigns — regional TV inventory is increasingly becoming available through programmatic buying too, merging the precision of programmatic with the reach of regional broadcasters. 

How to build a programmatic strategy?

A successful programmatic marketing strategy requires the following key steps: 

Define your objective and budget

A well-defined objective is the foundation of any successful programmatic advertising strategy. Clearly identifying your client’s goals will shape every aspect of your programmatic setup. 

Consider what you're trying to achieve with your programmatic strategies and what size of programmatic ad budget matches your preferences. Knowing how much you’re willing to invest from the outset allows you to calculate appropriate bid amounts to effectively reach your target audience. With your goals and budget in place, you’ll develop a focused and actionable programmatic strategy.

Work with the right audience

To understand your audience, identify which data can help you engage them. Overly narrow  audience targeting in programmatic can restrict your reach and make it harder to achieve the intended impact.

Imagine you’re trying to reach a target audience that is searching for properties in select geographical regions or locations. With relevant keywords and URL domains of competing companies, you can reach people browsing real estate listings and serve them with display ads.

Choose the right ad format 

Programmatic advertising features many formats, but not every platform can support them all. You need to choose formats that match your programmatic strategy and available inventory. The most common ones include:

• Display banners: Suitable for brand recognition, retargeting, and driving traffic.

• Video ads: Suitable for upper-funnel awareness, product demonstrations, and high-impact branding campaigns. 

• CTV ads: Perfect for getting to your audience via streaming services through an impactful, television-like experience with advanced targeting.

• Native ads: Designed to match the surrounding content, so they are effective for promoting content and are less intrusive than other methods of displaying advertising.

• Audio ads: Can be useful for reaching users on music streaming, podcasts, and digital radio platforms when visual attention may be limited.

• DOOH advertising formats: Allow advertisers to place their advertising message on dynamic digital billboards, screens, and other public displays so they can deliver their programmatic message into the physical environment.

These are just a few possibilities to consider when choosing programmatic advertising best practices and your ad format. Once you’ve decided, the next step is to focus on planning your creative programmatic strategy.

Map an engaging user journey 

Understanding a user journey means shaping and evolving your interactions with prospects to drive conversions. Try to deliver the right ad to the right customer on the right channel at precisely the right time. 

A couple of scenarios include:

• The prospecting phase:

A first-time visitor needs to feel a connection with your brand. Similarly, your programmatic marketing plan should include an introductory phase consisting of softer messages to create awareness and interest in your brand.

• The retargeting phase:

Once customers identify you, you can then discuss specific product details, prices, and finalize the sale process. At this phase, you can craft a personalized creative message to stimulate the consumer based on their behaviors when they visit specific pages or perform specific actions. If this consistently delivers strong results, consider direct vs programmatic advertising to secure premium placements and strengthen your reach among high-value users.

A strong programmatic ad partner will work with you to ensure they are familiar with your sales process so they can create an appropriate programmatic marketing strategy to help you meet KPIs. In addition to that, many programmatic platforms support creative management and optimization capabilities to make real-time updates or optimizations to your ads based on the data gathered as the customer travels through their buying journey

Leverage data for performance analytics and troubleshooting

After you finish the programmatic advertising strategy, keep an eye on win rate, frequency, viewability, CPA, ROAS, and reach saturation to track the campaign's overall health. If your ad campaigns aren’t meeting these metrics, you can tweak your bid strategy, refine your targeting, or refresh your ad creative. 

A clear structure and plan make a programmatic marketing strategy much simpler. Establish realistic objectives, such as expanding brand awareness, driving traffic, or increasing conversions. 

Main challenges of your programmatic strategy

As you define your programmatic approach and set up your strategy, you should also be aware of the challenges and potential solutions.

Ad fraud and viewability

Ad fraud is an ongoing challenge for brands, as fake impressions, bot clicks, and fraudulent conversion events all affect the success of digital ad campaigns. They can negatively impact a brand's reputation since those impressions were generated by bots that did not provide any legitimate value. Due to poor viewability, an increased percentage of impressions served also occurs in areas of a webpage that users rarely see.

Solution:

Work with professionals with progressive fraud detection tools that will help you to determine, detect, and block potentially fraudulent activity in real-time. In addition, partner with trustworthy programmatic advertising platforms that apply pre-bid fraud prevention methods.

Brand safety

If you put your ad next to irrelevant content, your brand's image may be spoiled or you may lose trust with existing or potential clients. Without knowing where your ads run, the clients may associate your brand with content or webpages that don’t align with their values.

Solution:

Partner with demand-side platforms or scanners with robust verification techniques. Utilize contextual targeting to ensure your ads run on content categories that meet your target audience. Integrate brand safety solutions like whitelists, blacklists, and negative keywords to specify where your ad appears.

Ad blockers

The use of ad blockers has left many companies with fewer users to target. Not only does this limit how well they can convert customers through advertising, but it also influences ROI for programmatic advertising efforts.

Solution:

You can integrate native ads, which combine seamlessly with your content and are less likely to be blocked. Concentrate on high-quality, user-friendly ad experiences to minimize the likelihood of triggering ad blockers. You can also engage users through contextual advertising to produce relevant content tailored to their browsing behavior patterns.

Lack of transparency

The complexity of programmatic advertising can result in an absence of visibility into the bidding process or how much advertisers are spending on their ads. Consequently, advertisers do not know where the budget goes. 

Solution:

To get insight and visibility into ad placements, turn to platforms that facilitate transparency and provide detailed reports. Implement Supply Path Optimization to analyze and choose the most effective supply paths. Hold your supply chain partners accountable by establishing clear expectations for reporting and conducting audits of ad spend.

Attribution and measurement

Determining which touchpoints drive conversions and tracking ad viewability can be restricted by fragmented user journeys. Without precise attribution, advertisers can’t optimize campaigns effectively.

Solution:

To verify the validity of impressions, clicks, and conversions, consider third-party verification. Establish clear KPIs and measurement frameworks. Multi-touch attribution models will help in analyzing the full scope of the user's journey to determine the most effective touchpoints.

Ad fatigue

Repeatedly seeing the same ad can discourage users, resulting in less engagement and even brand avoidance. This is a common issue in campaigns that lack variation or dynamic creative strategies.

Solution:

Ad creatives need to be regularly enhanced and updated to keep the campaign fresh and interesting. Experiment with ad formats, such as video, interactive, and dynamic, to capture user interest in multiple ways.

Privacy and compliance

Due to the strict requirements of GDPR & CCPA, advertising must proceed carefully regarding the collection and processing of user data. Non-compliance can result in fines and influence your brand image.

Solution:

Guarantee full compliance with regional data privacy laws by receiving explicit user consent. Secure data management platforms will protect sensitive information. Adopt a privacy-first marketing approach — contextual targeting — to reduce dependence on personal data.

How TeqBlaze helped a startup build a programmatic ecosystem

Our collaboration with a forward-thinking startup is an example of our programmatic advertising strategy's success. In the programmatic ecosystem case study, we developed a custom white-label SSP and white-label DSP bundle to transform the startup’s programmatic capabilities.

The startup's goal was ambitious: to revolutionize how ads are delivered online through context-based targeting and ad formats. However, they faced challenges related to the integration of advanced targeting mechanisms and ad delivery.

The results were transformative. Within the first year, the platform grew from 28 publishers and 62 advertisers to over 500 publishers and 300 advertisers, validating demand for privacy-first contextual advertising.

Final word

A good programmatic advertising strategy begins before the first ad is viewed by your target audience. Many challenges can stem from poor planning. Before launching a strategy, ask yourself: What type of business objectives do you want to achieve? What audience are you going to target? Combining advanced technology and commitment to transparency, TeqBlaze establishes the foundation to enable advertisers to convert their programmatic strategies into scalable growth tactics.