The capability to reach the right kind of audience with the best communication possible at the right time may sound impossible, but it epitomizes the true potential of programmatic. Contrasting the traditional forms of advertising, programmatic advertising is conveyed on an individual level. The programmatic advertising enables marketers to discover and target correct users based on behaviors, individual characteristics, and affinities no matter where they are on the web.
The whole process of programmatic advertising is possible due to the presence of data, i.e. the insights that help an individual to make the most conversant targeting decisions. Lack in data collection, targeting would be like trying to find a needle in haystacks! When it comes to programmatic, there are several categories of targeting strategies an individual can elect to employ. Just like data gathering, targeting comes in many variations. As a company, you can target users by observing individual traits or behaviors, or external variables that may define your ideal customer.
Geotargeting:
It is exactly what its name indicates. ‘Geotargeting’ is the technique of sending extremely specialized and targeted or customized messages based on behavioral profiles and identity for a definite geographic area, i.e. down to the zip code level and IP address.
Targeting the audiences:
One of the most prevalent practice or techniques currently on board by digital advertisers is audience targeting. It involves buying and serving ads to a specific audience segment, i.e. age group, gender, income, relationship status, household expenditure, education level, or explicit demographic attributes. The whole chunk of information is specifically derived from an amalgamation of both primary and secondary data. Audience targeting can easily be ‘select and decide’ regarding the bidding strategies and the available media inventory.
Cross-device targeting:
Basically, it’s an alternative savor of retargeting! The cross-device targeting is the capability to deliver targeted advertising across all the multiple digital devices. It is based on an amalgamation of when and how they may be using those specific devices. It enables an individual to retarget an ad on one device, knowing the customer has seen an ad or visited their site on another device.
If data can be considered as painting a correct picture of an ideal customer, and targeting let you spend less money to reach them to a site you know they will visit, then why not? The more amount of data you have, the better chances you have at refining the right kind of customers. This is when targeting becomes really influential and that makes programmatic advertising so valuable. While each method differs slightly based on your anticipated goals, they all have one entity in common, i.e. they are fixated on the customer, not on the context.