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Visual content generates the best results. Also, the digital video penetration in the United States reached around 83.3% in last two years.
Yes, you read that right!
As of 2022, an average person is predicted to spend 100 minutes per day watching online videos. But what does that mean for marketers, and businesses that have an online presence?
Well, it means one thing — running video ads is one of the sure ways of generating lead. And that’s where programmatic video advertising comes into play.
Gone are the days when videos were used for entertainment purposes. Nowadays, videos are created for educational functions — and it’s a great way of learning more about a product (or service) offering.
Back in the day, buying ad spaces involved speaking to several companies and getting the best possible deal. That is, everything has to go through humans — and that’s not easy to deal with!
Well, times have changed. With the advent of machine learning and data, about 75+% of Google video ads are programmatic.
But what does programmatic video advertising mean? Well, here’s what you need to know:
Programmatic video advertising pretty much involves using automated systems (or bots) to purchase ad spaces. And these are based on set prerequisites. As a brand or business owner, you get to easily promote a product or service offering using programmatic video advertising.
The process is quite straightforward — all you need to do is find a sleek online video platform and buy ad space for your business, and all the heavy lifting will be done for you. Most of these platforms are built with complex algorithms that locate your target audience. This way, they get to show your ads to people who would find them relevant.
In a nutshell, advertisers have to merely identify who their target audience is, offer them access to their ads, and set a Google Ads budget.
Nothing more, nothing less!
Yes, everything else will be handled by the platform. The platform will analyze Google Ads data provided, and begin real-time bidding. At the same time, your ads will be displayed to publishers who will find your ads relevant.
Here comes the next big question — why is programmatic video advertising useful? Well, here’s everything you need to know.
Running targeted video ads that show up for the people who are interested in your service offering sounds too good to be true. However, it’s possible — and you can achieve that using programmatic video advertising.
Here are some reasons why programmatic video advertising is useful.
Programmatic video advertising doesn’t just guarantee more reach, it helps you reach a super-specific audience.
If you opt for traditional advertising, you’re more likely going to buy some time slot on TV. However, things are quite different with programmatic advertising.
With programmatic video advertising, your audience is tracked using behavioral data. This way, you get to display your video ads to an audience who are more likely to engage with them.
Imagine it like this…
You’d display the perfect video ad to the perfect audience. That’s a sure recipe for superb engagement.
Tweaking your campaigns is easy with programmatic video advertising. If you’re not comfortable with the campaign that’s already running, you get to make the necessary adjustment and change the parameters of the Google Ads.
Yes, it’s all possible — and contrary to popular belief, you can do all these without lengthy re-negotiations or meetings.
There are a few limitations when it comes to programmatic video advertising. Since it’s built to rely on data, you get to reach your audience across multiple channels. What’s more, there is an option of targeting Google Ads on desktops, mobile devices, and TV sets. If you’d like to make sure that your ads will appear on YouTube TV, you can buy placements on a reservation basis, instead of through the Google Ads auction.
With the programmatic video ads, reports are mainly dependent on communication between machines. It’s also data-dependent — and there is no room for guesswork.
Furthermore, you get to figure out how successful your PPC campaigns are by merely looking at the data. If you’re not satisfied with the results you see, you get to improve them.
Traditional advertising involves building a quality relationship with the sales team and buyers. However, programmatic video advertising is quite different. There’s no need to go through the tedious process that involves building a healthy relationship with third parties. Everything is automated — you get to get things done by merely clicking on your computer screen.
All you’ve got to do is provide relevant information to the algorithm. Yes, by providing enough info, the algorithm will take it up from there.
On the flip side, programmatic video advertising is not all rosy — there are some challenges you’d encounter along the way.
Here are some challenges that come with programmatic video advertising.
If it’s on the internet, someone will try to steal it — that’s an old law of the web, and it holds for programmatic video advertising. Sometimes, fraudsters try to use bots to trick the system. Yes, bots can be used to go around the system and drive prices up. This way, you’d spend more in the long run.
Impressions are everything in the online ad industry. As a marketer, you’ll most likely focus on the number of clicks and views your ads generate. Not just that, you’d want to ascertain the accuracy of your data — and that’s where the validity of the number of people displayed on your dashboard comes into play.
Notice, emphasis is on the number of people, and for good reasons.
Here’s where the problem comes into play…
There are times when the software app runs automated tasks — and the number of people displayed on the dashboard may be invalid. That is, it will appear as if people have viewed your video ad when they’ve not.
The underlying problem here is that clicks and impressions are generated from bots, and not real people. Furthermore, the increase in the number of fake clicks and impressions almost always leads to an increase in ad budget. Therefore, the amount spent on an advertisement does not tally with the result generated.
Why?
Because bots, and not customers view the ads. To a large extent, it will ruin the marketers’ effort, and pretty much defeat the overall intent of the advertiser.
The good news is, there is a high degree of sophistication in the world — and most times, there are safety measures in place to put things in check.
One of the major challenges that come with video advertising is the loss of control if you go for smart campaign advertising. If you’re using smart campaigns, you’ve got little to no control over where your ads get displayed. To get a grip over this, you’ve got to be careful when choosing an proper campaign type.
That’s not all…
You’ve got to put in the work when it comes to defining who your audience is.
Don’t get it twisted — programmatic video advertising is designed to help you reach a super-targeted audience. But sometimes, the algorithm may be focused on price, thereby reaching a wider audience.
However, you can make some changes by redefining the parameters to reduce the chances of reaching the wrong target audience.
New technological innovations come with some challenges. One of which is a steep learning curve, and lack of knowledge. Before diving into the world of programmatic video advertising, marketers have to learn new tech languages and master new acronyms.
It’s okay to doubt your skill set when it comes to programmatic video advertising. Fret not! About 50% of the people who use the technology doubted their ability to learn the skill.
What’s more, there are various types of programmatic video ad platforms, and each of these platforms is designed using a different approach.
At the end of the day, you have to choose the right platform for your brand.
As a general rule of thumb, you’ve got to learn all there is to know about programmatic video advertising. This way, you will likely make an informed decision, and possibly get a good grasp of the various types of video ads.
Speaking of types of video ads, here are the five different types.
Following are 5 different types of video ads.
If you’ve watched videos on YouTube, then you should know what In-stream videos are. In-stream videos could be pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll videos.
These video ads play before the start of a video. They could run between fifteen to thirty seconds. There are times when these videos are longer. In such instances, the viewer has the option of clicking to skip the video ad. Before the option of clicking to skip the video ad comes up, the view must have seen the video for some seconds.
As its name mentions, you cannot skip this ad. Use non-skippable in-stream ads when you have video content you’d like to promote before, during, or after other videos on YouTube and across websites and apps running on Google video partners and you want viewers to see the entire message without skipping your video.
Use in-feed video ads to encourage video content in places of discovery, including next to related YouTube videos, as part of a YouTube search result, or on the YouTube mobile homepage.
These are 6 seconds videos. It could be shorter — and viewers don’t have the option of skipping the ad. It plays before, during, or after a video. Typically, Bumper ads are seen on YouTube, across websites, or apps that are powered by Google.
It’s an ideal fit for brands that want to generate awareness and more reach.
In a nutshell, Bumper ads help you to reach more viewers with a memorable, short message.
If you are trying to reach more customer, use out stream ads when you want to expand the reach of your video ads on mobile,
Out stream ads are mobile-only ads and only appear on websites and apps running on Google video partners. Out stream ads aren’t available on YouTube.
If you want to generate awareness for a new product (or service) offering, then the Masthead ads are probably a good fit. If you’re targeting people who use desktops, then the ad will be showcased for 30 seconds without sound at the top of a YouTube Home feed.
Target audiences who use mobile devices get to see the ad displayed at the top of their m.youtube.com or YouTube app Home feed. It auto plays for some time without sound.
Finally, if you target customers who use TV screens, the ad will be displayed without sound as it autoplay — and it’s shown at the top of the YouTube app for TVs. Unfortunately, there’s no way of adding a CTA to Masthead ads that show on TV screens.
Google Ads is somewhat similar to programmatic advertising in several ways. Both reach their audience using display and auction-based advertising.
These are places where marketers and advertisers automate steps for a successful digital ad campaign. These steps could be performance tracking, ad placement, campaign creative design, campaign optimization, and media buying.
It involves using automated technology for media buying instead of traditional (or manual) digital advertising methods. By now, you probably know that media buying involves buying advertising spaces.
Programmatic selling involves the sale of inventory by a publisher, without the direct communication with a buyer. Most publishers do not like it – because it introduces more middlemen.
There has been tremendous growth in the world of online advertising — and programmatic video advertising has not been left behind. The thing is, this system will keep evolving and maturing with time.
As it matures, it would be best if you keep up with the trends by learning the latest tech skill that will help you keep up with your competition.
As a general rule of thumb, you’ve got to learn all there is to know about ad exchange before investing in it.
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