• by Yann AïtBachir , Op-Ed Contributor, June 9, 2016

The advent of digital advertising technologies, including real-time bidding and programmatic buying, have completely disrupted advertising’s planning process. Real-time bidding allows companies to reach the most relevant audience at the perfect moment. Programmatic automates media buying, resulting in a more efficient purchasing process, increased scale, better ad relevance and the opportunity to optimize in real time.

Traditionally, agencies conducted strategy planning prior to launching a mobile ad campaign. For example, if an automobile company was planning to run a traditional campaign, several weeks prior company strategists would decide the amount that they’d like to spend to reach a specific audience segment and prepare creative. Then, during the course of a typical two-week campaign, the agency would provide two status reports allowing he company to see what worked and what didn’t at certain points. Unfortunately, the company can’t react to the data or modify the campaign quickly enough if certain aspects aren’t effective.

If the same company is running its campaign using mobile real-time bidding and programmatic,  it can be much more granular, selecting the exact subset of car lovers, the preferred time to reach them, and setting a target price. Using programmatic, the company will then have the opportunity to see how the campaign is tracking in real time. If certain audience segments work better than others, it can react immediately and optimize accordingly.

Even within the mobile programmatic space, the speed of a platform can make a huge difference, providing such benefits as:

Increased Effectiveness: To view a campaign and make changes as needed every few minutes is a huge advantage. Companies can change a multitude of parameters including location and audience, allocating more budget to segments / microsegments performing strongly and more. They can also test a variety of creatives to quickly understand which is the highest performing.

Maximized Budget: Advertisers can spend millions of dollars on a campaign in a matter of seconds. Long wait times for results can equal wasted money, which is why real-time capabilities are crucial to ensuring companies are getting the most out of every ad dollar spent.

Machine Learning / Intelligent Algorithms: Real-time bidding transactions can take place in milliseconds, a timeframe too fast for humans to respond to. By building a set of rules, they can optimize campaigns more effectively than a human ever could. The right algorithms also ensure that the machine is continuously learning from the data it encounters to make smarter choices.  

Real-time capabilities have changed the way that advertising campaigns are planned and run for the better. The opportunity to optimize campaigns while they are running is a crucial advancement and can not only help companies use their budget more wisely but can also can save them time and increase the overall effectiveness of their mobile campaigns.