What the heck is programmatic advertising? And why do you care?
If you're not currently using programmatic advertising in your marketing plan for your real estate business, you're probably missing out. Programmatic advertising creates big opportunities for reaching your target market and saving money.
Not sure what it is or how to use it? Well, let's start with the basics.
What is Programmatic Advertising?
Programmatic advertising is simply using an online system to place ads instead of having a person manually place them. When you remove the human element from ad placement, the process is more efficient and accurate.
Twenty years ago, advertisers placed ads with insertion orders with publishers. Today, the system is highly automated, making it easier for advertisers to get their ads placed. And with the internet, there are more variations for ads than ever. The entire ad placement system is more efficient, reliable, affordable, and, most importantly, effective for the advertiser.
Programmatic ads are placed in front of a specific target market that you create, eliminating wasteful spending on audiences who are not your target market. You no longer need to send your message to an entire zip code. You can send your message to only those who fit into your niche or target. Think of all the dollars you will save advertising this way.
And the great thing is, with this technology, your message will continue to show up for that target after the initial impression. If you've ever seen an ad online and then suddenly it was everywhere, you were most likely targeted by that advertiser. It sometimes seems that you're being cyber-stalked by companies because you most definitely are.
But that's the power of programmatic advertising.
Something for Everyone
There are several different types of programmatic ads you can choose from. You may be familiar with the auction-type ads you can purchase on Facebook. With this style, you sign up to compete for an impression in real-time with each page load. If you have the highest bid at that time, your ad gets the impression.
There are also more guaranteed ways to get your message out with display ads. You'll see those ads on headers and sidebars. They are more costly but definitely will get your message in front of more people.
You probably saw a lot of these types of ads during the 2020 presidential race leading up to November 3rd. It was a bit annoying, but imagine if that were your ad. You would have had thousands of people each day seeing your ad.
Native advertising hides within the text or newsfeed. These ads aren't flashy; they're contextual and have a high likelihood of being read. You could easily mistake them for a post on Facebook.
All of these types of programmatic advertising are very effective and target your specific audience.
The most significant incentive to use programmatic ads like these is the ROI. You can track how well your ad performs, tweak it, split-test it, and see precisely how much it costs to get one new client from your ad. You've never been able to do that with any other form of advertising.
And there's never been a more cost-effective way to spend advertising dollars. When you eliminate anyone who isn't in your target audience, you're targeting your spend, as well. You only pay for the ads going directly to your audience. Brilliant!
The Learning Curve
When you're just starting out with programmatic advertising, you'll soon discover it's not as easy to master. There is a pretty steep learning curve, and the industry is moving at light speed. Things change frequently in the digital advertising world these days. Facebook and Google are continually changing their platforms, their AI and algorithms, and their interface. So, it can be challenging to keep up.
Many marketing teams are adding a tech specialist to keep up with all the changes as they're constantly rolling out. It seems that it's easier to hire an additional person than to expect all your creatives to learn tech.
And that makes sense. If you've ever listened to any of the gurus, they will tell you not to do it all yourself. Don't be the bottleneck in your business. Do only the thing you have to do and hire out the rest.
It makes sense to have someone on your team that can keep up with the tech stuff. That will allow you and your team to focus on the things you do best. You are the face of your real estate business. You take care of your clients – buyers and sellers. Focus on that and let a tech specialist handle the implementation of the technology.
But if you're not quite ready to hire a technology specialist and want to learn more about how it works, you can find courses on places like LinkedIn Learning to learn how to implement some of this tech yourself.
What's Next?
Programmatic advertising is a great tool to get your message out to your specific niche market, streamline the process, and efficiently reach your market. It has changed the way advertising works.
Today you can create multiple ads for multiple target markets. And that's highly recommended if you're working with different target markets.
For example, if you specialize in military relocations and first time home buyers, you might craft two different messages, one for each group of buyers. And if you want to target sellers, you would need a separate message for that audience, as well.
The advent of programmatic advertising and artificial intelligence created an arena where anyone can get into the game. And that's a great thing. But it also means you need to be ready for the competition.
Get really good at knowing your target market, be clear on your niche, and be hyper-local with your advertising. You'll discover you can be internet famous within a few weeks or months, depending on how aggressive you are.
If you need your clients to find you online, you need to master the big companies' digital marketing strategies and apply them to your marketing.
If you need excellent copy to build your ads, you can contact me for a free consultation. Great ads start with excellent copy.