Programmatic advertising offers a competitive advantage that’s empowering more brands to invest in digital media. So much so, in fact, that programmatic ad spend grew from $5 billion in 2012 to $39 billion in 2016.
With the busiest shopping season nipping at our toes, it’s the perfect time to work programmatic advertising in your holiday marketing plans, so your brand can reach specific audiences based on their interests and behaviors. The result is a personalized experience for the consumer – and a much better chance of converting window shoppers into paying customers.
You can shape your holiday shoppers’ buying habits. Here are three ways programmatic advertising can grow sales for your brand.
1. Boost In-Store Shopping with Geotargeting
With online shopping emerging as a go-to channel for consumers to purchase their favorite items, retailers are searching for new ways to drive in-store foot traffic. One solution is to customize the experience for shoppers walking into physical stores.
Programmatic advertising is helping fill this need through geotargeting. These ads drill down consumers by their geographical locations, including ZIP code levels. Such precision gives brands the power to develop hyper-localized ads to fit consumers’ exact preferences.
Noah Everist, digital strategy director at the Goodway Group, adds that by “serving in-store promotions or product-specific ads to consumers within the perimeter of their store locations, advertisers can target those most likely to interact.” For instance, a week before a local Thanksgiving parade, you can target nearby consumers with a 20% off coupon from your store located on the celebration route.
2. Target Ad Buying Toward Last-Minute Shoppers
Every year, there’s a frantic rush by consumers to purchase last-minute gifts for their coworkers and friends. For the unprepared brand, it can leave your team scrambling for these crazed shoppers’ attention.
Experienced brands are turning to programmatic advertising to earn these eleventh-hour sales. These campaigns offer the flexibility to ramp up relevant ads to specific audiences. With real-time data at your fingertips, you can make the necessary tweaks to maximize your holiday campaign performance.
AirAsia offers an innovative example for brands to learn from. To boost customer confidence, the airline segmented its audience by customer profiles. Each group saw a different ad creative that appealed to their interests. The campaign generated a 30x return on ad spend.
3. Recommend Gifts Based on the Recipient’s Interests
Holiday shopping is a stressful adventure for consumers. They don’t know whether to get socks for Dad or a limited-edition NBA jersey. This dilemma is where brands can take the lead in their holiday marketing efforts.
With programmatic advertising, you can remain agile to your consumers’ needs. You can offer shoppers product recommendations organized by the type of gift recipient – wine lovers, sports fans, and so on.
Let’s say you want to target stay-at-home moms looking for holiday gifts for their teens. Your team can purchase ads in parent-focused publisher email newsletters. Email advertising creates an uninterrupted consumer experience – unlike the pesky pop-up ads on websites. Programmatic native ads or native recommendation widgets as we call them, take this experience one step further. You can marry customization with automation and offer consumers a personalized experience. Let’s go back to the stay-at-home moms example. With native recommendation widgets they can be also be reached via blog posts or articles where you can showcase your products like, “Top 10 Items on Your Teen’s Wish List This Year”, or “Tech Gifting For Newbies”.
This season, consider adding programmatic advertising to your holiday marketing budget. You’ll influence how shoppers purchase gifts for their loved ones and add more revenue to your quarterly report.
Want more programmatic content? Read 3 Ways Programmatic Advertising Is Becoming Truly People-Based.
