Programmatic Buying:
How much can media planning be automated?
Perhaps one thing first, our industry likes to use fashion terms and is very careless with them. Programmatic buying is one such term and is then occasionally called programmatic marketing, which is just as wrong as talking about online marketing and meaning online media. Marketing is much more than communication policy.
At Reichl und Partner Media , we understand Programmatic Buying to mean all online media measures that are driven by algorithms, i.e. complex sets of rules. A simple placement of an online media campaign with a corresponding target group definition and a classic real time bidding is often offered as Programmatic Buying, but has little to do with it. Programmatic buying is much more, not only price (bidding) and target group are defined, but also the entire user behavior in the World Wide Web is included in the algorithm, so that also statistical target group twins are calculated, time and topic affinities are defined and also from the past behavior conclusions are drawn about the future potential of a user, so that the goals and target group of a company are reached in the best possible way. The algorithm does this job better, faster and more correctly than the best media planners in the world put together. This all happens in real time and is only comprehensible in retrospect. An achievement of digital communication that also has an impact on the entire world of media planning.
Programmatic buying and classic media planning
As a media agency, we naturally transfer the findings to the planning of classic media. And this is where the human factor comes into play. In addition to understanding programmatic buying, now comes the holistic view of the media planner.
Programmatic buying builds one-to-one communication.
The instruments:
Programmatic buying and dynamic targeting brings insights for overall media planning
It is the customer journey on the World Wide Web that provides us with the data. Analytics instruments throughout the Internet and the holistic understanding of the product-market combination are the basis for appropriate target group planning. The target group changes in real time and thus becomes a dynamic target group. As a waste product, we use these findings in turn for the classic target group definition of analog media. Traditional media planning benefits from these insights.
Programmatic buying and the qualification of media planners determine the success of every campaign
"If you pay pinuts, you will get monkeys" this phrase also applies to the qualifications of media planners in the online sector. As a rule, graduates of a UAS for digital communication understand very little about media planning. The ideal online media planner has knowledge of traditional media planning and appropriate training in digital communications.
The efficiency of a campaign lies not in its cost effectiveness, but in the effectiveness of its impact.
If you buy crap, you get crap," especially when it comes to the quality of the media you buy. Often, cheap inventory is played out via real-time bidding in particular. Customers then receive high discounts for the lowest performance. The success of these campaigns then also turns out accordingly. Therefore, it is also a lot in the algorithm itself how shopping is done. It is often wiser to buy at a higher CPM and pay attention to the quality of use.
Programmatic buying and the psychology of perception
Programmatic buying is a result of Big Data. The result is of theoretical quality. For all the love of technology, perceptual psychological insights are disregarded in all programmatic buying; the focus is solely on technical accessibility. And so it is again the human being who has to question the click rates measured by the computer. More than ever, pretests such as perception tests in the form of eye-tracking, content analyses in the form of focus groups and the measurement of the communication quality of an online advertising medium in general are becoming enormously important. Because we all know that pure online media campaigns have by far not yet reached the advertising impact of classic campaigns, and that despite Programmatic Buying.
Programmatic buying is ingenious, but requires the common sense of media planners
Media agencies therefore need to advise their clients more than ever holistically, namely in both the analog and digital spheres, drawing on the best tools in each category. Programmatic buying is one of those tools that can lead to the highest effectiveness of campaigns in the online space.