MASTER PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING
Programmatic advertising can feel like a high-tech dashboard full of buttons and dials, each one influencing your campaign in different ways. Knowing which levers to pull (and when) is crucial, so having a solid strategy should be your highest priority.
For startups aiming to drive revenue and catch the eye of investors quickly, we recommend focusing 80% of your budget on finding new prospects and 20% on retargeting. This strategy will help you grow quickly and make a strong impression.
You can take a different approach if your established business wants to achieve results with a smaller investment and already has an audience. Instead of going all-in on new prospects, you can use your budget to target look-alike audiences and retarget your existing customers, boosting their purchase frequency and basket size over time.
These are only two examples that illustrate how experts can leverage different programmatic strategies and tactics to achieve specific business goals. At MediaJel, our team of programmatic advertising experts is here to guide you in crafting a plan tailored for maximum success. Through our managed campaign services, we can help you navigate these complexities and get the results you need.
Programmatic Ads Shouldn’t Scare You
Programmatic advertising is your AI-powered sniper that captures an audience when they're curious and closes the deal when they're ready. MediaJel's technology leverages advanced algorithms to automate ad buying in real-time, ensuring your campaigns reach the right audience at the right moment. Our marketing platform also optimizes your ad spend, delivering higher ROI by targeting specific demographics, behaviors, and interests with pinpoint accuracy.
A marketer's ultimate goal is to reach potential customers exactly when they're searching for your product or solution. Programmatic advertising is about delivering ads when potential customers are ready to buy but identifying and nurturing them before that happens – even when they're just curious.
Our comprehensive course empower businesses with straightforward and easy-to-understand directions on managing their programmatic display advertising campaigns or partnering with a programmatic advertising agency to deliver sensational advertising. Throughout the program, you will gain a deep understanding of the following areas:
1. Navigating the Regulatory Landscape: Learn how to comply with evolving guidelines in regulated industries so your campaigns always meet legal requirements.
2. Targeting Niche Audiences: Master the art of reaching and engaging niche audiences within the cannabis market using advanced targeting techniques.
3. Driving Growth: Acquire the skills to create effective programmatic display ad campaigns that drive growth and achieve measurable results.
As part of a holistic marketing strategy, MediaJel's marketing platform for programmatic advertising integrates seamlessly with other marketing channels to create a cohesive and powerful marketing stack with all the tools you need to reach and engage customers. The next step in mastering programmatic ads to elevate your programmatic advertising strategies is to start browsing our comprehensive programmatic advertising education page below.
Programmatic Display Advertising Vs. Traditional Media
Programmatic advertising clearly outshines traditional media buying in newspapers and magazines. By automating the buying process and enabling real-time bidding, programmatic advertising offers unparalleled precision in audience targeting using comprehensive data, leading to more effective and cost-efficient campaigns. Its flexibility allows for rapid adjustments and optimization based on detailed performance metrics like impressions, clicks, and conversions.
In contrast, traditional media buying is slower, relying on manual negotiations and fixed print placements, which lack programmatic methods' adaptability and real-time insights. While print media offers credibility and tangibility, it falls short compared to digital ads' interactive and multimedia possibilities, making programmatic advertising the superior choice for reaching and engaging today’s audiences.
What is Programmatic Advertising?
Programmatic advertising is a data-driven approach to buying and placing ads that use automated systems and algorithms to optimize ad spending and reach the most relevant target audiences. This method enhances efficiency and maximizes your return on investment by delivering display ads to the right people at the right time.
Programmatic Advertising Ad Types Explained
Programmatic advertising offers various formats to meet campaign goals and audience targeting needs. Selecting the right ad types is the secret sauce for achieving campaign objectives and reaching the target audience:
1. Alignment with Goals: Different ad formats serve different purposes.
2. Audience Targeting: Ad formats should resonate with the preferences and behaviors of the target audience.
3. User Experience: intrusive ads can deter engagement, while well-integrated native or interactive ads can enhance user interaction and brand perception.
4. Platform and Context: Each platform or context may favor specific ad formats.
5. Performance Measurement: Different ad formats offer unique metrics for measuring performance.
Here's a concise overview of each ad type and its benefits:
Connected TV (CTV) Advertising
Multimedia ads on internet-connected TVs, including smart TVs and streaming devices.
Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) Advertising
Digital ads in public spaces like billboards and transit screens.
Audio Advertising
Ads in audio content such as podcasts and streaming music platforms.
Online Video Advertising
Video ads such as pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll within online video content.
Display Advertising
Visual ads like banners and interstitials on websites and apps.
Native Advertising
Sponsored posts that blend seamlessly with platform content, appearing as in-feed ads or premium content.
Semantic Contextual Advertising
Ads are targeted based on the content and context of the webpage or app. Think of this as cookie-free targeting.
Mobile Gaming Advertising
Interactive ads in mobile games, including display ads and in-app ads.
Programmatic Advertising Benefits
Highly relevant ads drive significant revenue because they resonate with the audience's immediate needs and preferences. Relevant programmatic ads capture users' attention and motivate them to take action, translating into increased click-through rates and conversions. Altogether, the combined benefits from programmatic advertising and audience targeting empowers businesses to see a direct correlation between ad campaigns and higher sales figures. Here’s why:
- Increased Visibility: Reach audiences across diverse digital platforms, enhancing brand presence and supporting the buyer journey, which boosts brand stickiness.
- Targeted Data Segmentation: Utilize data to segment audiences and deliver tailored ads.
- Audience Engagement: Interactive rich media formats boost user interaction and engagement.
- Differentiation in Crowded Marketplaces: Stand out with targeted, relevant, and visually appealing ads.
- Precision Targeting: Reach specific audiences based on demographics, interests, and behaviors.
- Real-Time Optimization: Adjust campaigns instantly with automated bidding to maximize ROI.
- Cost Efficiency: Reduce manual effort and ad spending with automated buying processes.
- Scalability: Easily expand campaigns across multiple platforms and channels.
- Improved Transparency: Access detailed analytics on ad performance and budget allocation.
- Enhanced Personalization: Deliver personalized content based on user interactions and preferences.
- Cross-Device Capabilities: Track and target users across various devices for a consistent experience.
Core Concepts of Programmatic Advertising
To better comprehend programmatic advertising, it’s necessary to first get a handle on these two essential concepts:
Real-Time Bidding (RTB)
Real-time bidding is an automated auction process in which programmatic ad impressions are bought and sold in real-time. Advertisers bid on individual impressions; the highest bid wins the ad placement.
Auction Strategies:
Effective Bidding Strategies will maximize the ROI of your programmatic advertising campaigns. Optimizing bids for key demographic segments, prioritizing ad placements that align with user behavior and preferences, and strategic budget allocation win big by focusing funds on high-performing campaigns.
Here are some tailored approaches:
- Bid Optimization for Key Demographic Segments: Identify and prioritize bidding on key demographic segments that align with your target audience. Utilize data insights to adjust bids dynamically based on performance metrics and audience engagement.
- Ad Placement Prioritization: Strategically prioritize ad placements on high-performing websites, apps, and platforms frequented by your target audience. This can involve higher bids for premium inventory which guarantees better visibility and engagement.
- Budget Allocation for Maximum ROI: Allocate your budget efficiently across different campaigns and channels to ensure maximum return on investment. This may involve setting higher budgets for high-performing segments and experimenting with different bid levels to identify optimal spending.
- Creative Optimization: Test and adjust your ad creatives to improve engagement and performance. This can include A/B testing of different ad variations and dynamic creative optimization (DCO) that adapts ad content in real-time based on user data.
Programmatic Ad Ecosystem
The programmatic advertising ecosystem is a complex network of technologies and platforms facilitating automated buying and selling of digital ad inventory. Understanding the roles of demand-side platforms (DSPs), supply-side platforms (SSPs), data management platforms (DMPs), and ad exchanges will help advertisers in navigating this ecosystem - even if you don’t plan to run ad campaigns yourself. For effective ad campaign execution, including compliance measures for regulated industries, seamless integration between DSPs, SSPs, and Ad Exchanges is foundational. Never contract with a service that can’t offer you a pain-free integration between the three.
Demand-Side Platform (DSP)
DSPs are programmatic advertising platforms, like MediaJel’s marketing platform, that advertisers use to purchase digital ad inventory. They provide tools for automation, targeting, bidding, and campaign optimization. Key functions of DSPs include:
- Audience Targeting: DSPs allow advertisers to define and target specific audience segments based on demographics, behavior, and other criteria.
- Real-Time Bidding: DSPs facilitate RTB, enabling advertisers to bid for ad impressions on an ad exchange in real-time auctions.
- Creative Optimization: Test and adjust your ad creatives to improve engagement and performance. This can include A/B testing of different ad variations and dynamic creative optimization (DCO) that adapts ad content in real-time based on user data.
Supply-Side Platform (SSP)
SSPs are programmatic advertising platforms that help publishers manage, sell, and optimize their available ad inventory. They ensure that ad space is sold to the highest bidder in real-time auctions. Key functions of SSPs include:
- Inventory Management: SSPs help publishers organize and manage their ad space inventory.
- Yield Optimization: SSPs aim to maximize the revenue publishers earn from their ad inventory by optimizing ad placements and pricing.
- Ad Quality Control: SSPs ensure that the ads served on publishers' sites meet quality and compliance standards.
Data Management Platforms (DMPs)
DMPs collect, organize, and analyze data from various sources to provide valuable insights for advertisers to make informed decisions. They contribute to the programmatic ecosystem by:
- Data Collection: Aggregating data from multiple sources to build comprehensive audience profiles.
- Audience Segmentation: Creating targeted segments based on data insights to enhance ad effectiveness.
- Campaign Optimization: Providing insights to refine targeting strategies and improve ad performance.
Ad Exchange
Ad Exchanges act as digital marketplaces where programmatic advertising platforms like DSPs and SSPs connect to facilitate the buying and selling of ad inventory. They play a critical role in the programmatic ecosystem by:
- Enabling Transactions: Provide the infrastructure for real-time bidding and the execution of ad transactions.
- Ensuring Transparency: Offer transparency in the buying and selling process, allowing advertisers and publishers to see who is bidding and at what price.
- Integrating Platforms: Integrate various DSPs and SSPs to provide a seamless flow of ad inventory and data across the ecosystem.
- Offering Dynamic Pricing and Efficiency: Enable dynamic pricing of ad inventory, ensuring that publishers get the most for their ad space while advertisers pay a fair price based on demand.
Popular Ad Exchanges:
Several ad exchanges are widely used in the programmatic advertising industry, offering unique features and capabilities. Some of the most popular ad exchanges include:
Targeting Strategies in Programmatic Display Advertising
Programmatic advertising pairs targeting strategies like demographic, behavioral, contextual, geographic, and retargeting with audience segmentation to deliver more personalized and impactful ad campaigns. These strategies aim to reach a shopper where they are in the buyer’s journey.
Demographic Targeting
Demographic targeting is a marketing strategy that focuses on reaching specific segments of the population based on demographic factors such as age, gender, income, education, occupation, marital status, and interests. This is a powerful tool for marketers seeking to reach and engage specific audience segments – you should be.
Segmentation Tactics
Expert-level demographic targeting uses various segmentation tactics to reach specific audience segments. Industry-loved tactics include targeting based on age to appeal to different generations, gender-specific messaging to address unique needs and preferences, geographic location to ensure relevance to local audiences, and interests to align with consumers' passions and hobbies. These tactics work because they help brands connect with their audience on a deeper level, considering consumers' diverse preferences and behaviors in targeted markets.
Audience Personalization
Personalizing ad content and messaging based on audience segments requires a razor-sharp segmentation strategy. For age-based targeting, customize marketing messages to appeal to specific age groups. Gender-based targeting tailors marketing strategies to appeal to male, female, or gender-diverse audiences, adjusting the messaging, visuals, and product recommendations to align with their preferences and behaviors. When leveraging personalization tactics, advertisers can create more relevant and engaging ad experiences that effectively reach and resonate with their target audiences.
Behavioral Targeting
Behavioral targeting is a digital marketing strategy that utilizes consumer data and insights to deliver personalized ad experiences based on users' online behaviors, interactions, and preferences. This approach focuses on understanding and predicting consumer actions, such as purchase intent, consumption patterns, and brand affinities, to select advertising messages and offers accordingly.
Audience/Consumer Insights
Data-informed behavioral targeting allows advertisers to gain deep insights into consumer behavior, such as purchase intent, consumption patterns, and brand affinities. By analyzing this data, advertisers can craft tailored ad experiences that align with consumers' interests and needs. Starting from a foundation of insight ensures that ads are more relevant and engaging, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates. Behavioral targeting involves tracking and analyzing various aspects of user behavior, including:
- Browsing History: Websites visited, pages viewed, and content accessed.
- Search History: Keywords searched, search engine queries, and search results clicked.
- Purchase History: Products purchased, transaction amounts, and frequency of purchases.
- Social Media Interactions: Engagement with posts, shares, likes, and comments.
- Device Usage: Type of device used, operating system, and browsing habits.
Retargeting Strategies
Implementing retargeting campaigns is the best way to re-engage consumers across various digital touchpoints. Behavioral targeting enables advertisers to deliver relevant ads that align with users' place in the marketing funnel by leveraging consumer data obtained through cookies, mobile identifiers, and other tracking technologies. Retargeting helps maintain brand visibility and reminds consumers of their interests, driving them back to complete desired actions, such as purchasing or signing up for a service.
Geo-Targeting
Geo-targeting involves delivering content and advertisements to consumers based on their geographic location. This strategy is crucial for tailoring ads to align with location-specific regulations, consumer behaviors, and market trends. Advertisers must guarantee their messages are relevant and compliant with local laws. Focusing their efforts on geographic areas, advertisers are increasing engagement and effectiveness with:
Location Based Targeting
Location-based targeting allows advertisers to deliver ads tailored to specific geographic areas, considering local regulations, consumer behaviors, and market trends. This approach ensures that the advertising content is relevant and legally compliant, thereby increasing the likelihood of consumer engagement and campaign success. By understanding the unique aspects of different regions, advertisers can craft messages that resonate more deeply with local audiences.
Localized Messaging
To create localized ad content and messaging, start by adapting the language, visuals, and offers to resonate with consumers in specific geographic locations. Strategies include using local dialects, referencing regional events or landmarks, and addressing local cultural norms and values. This personalization helps to build a stronger connection with the audience, making the advertising more impactful and relatable.
Regional Campaign Optimization
Optimizing programmatic display ad campaigns based on regional differences, experts programmatic advertisers understand and adapt to varying laws, cultural attitudes, and consumption habits across different areas. Their techniques include adjusting ad spend and creative elements to align with regional preferences and legal requirements, using regional data to inform targeting strategies, and continually testing and refining campaigns to improve performance in each market. This approach ensures that advertising efforts are effective and compliant, maximizing return on investment.
Crafting Effective Display Advertising
Rock-star ad design goes beyond using a stock image and a big button; it involves a comprehensive approach that includes aligning with branding guidelines, adhering to channel-specific best practices, and tailoring messaging to regional preferences. A well-designed ad integrates these elements to create a cohesive, compelling experience that resonates with the target audience and drives better results.
Ad Design
In addition to target audience considerations, the elements of ad design include:
- Visual Elements: This includes imagery, graphics, colors, and typography. Designers choose these elements to reflect the brand’s identity, evoke emotions, and attract attention. High-quality visuals and a consistent color scheme create a strong visual impact.
- Copywriting: The text in an ad, including headlines, body copy, and calls-to-action (CTAs). Effective copywriting is concise, persuasive, and aligned with the brand’s voice. It aims to clearly communicate the message and prompt the desired action from the audience.
- Layout and Composition: How visual and textual elements are arranged in the ad. This includes visual elements' balance, hierarchy, and spacing to ensure clarity and appeal. A well-structured layout guides the viewer's eye and enhances the ad's readability.
- Branding: Incorporating brand elements such as logos, taglines, and brand colors to maintain consistency and reinforce brand recognition. Branding guides ad design to align with the overall brand strategy and identity.
- Channel-Specific Design: Adapting the design to fit the specifications and best practices of different advertising channels (e.g., social media, display networks, print). Each platform has unique requirements and opportunities that influence design choices.
- Interactive Elements: Interactive features like buttons, forms, or animations are common in digital ads. These elements encourage user interaction and engagement with the ad content.
Visual Branding
A visual brand encompasses the graphical elements that represent and communicate a company’s identity, including its logo, color palette, typography, imagery, and design elements. These components work together to create a consistent, recognizable image across all touch points. Without a well-defined visual brand, a company faces the consequences of inconsistent messaging, reduced brand recognition, weakened trust, missed marketing opportunities, and difficulty building brand loyalty. Inconsistent or unprofessional visuals can confuse consumers about the brand's identity and diminish its credibility in the market, making it harder to establish a strong and memorable presence.
Advertising Creatives
Creative advertising is about crafting a compelling and cohesive message through thoughtful design. Designers are pros at developing strategic elements that capture attention and drive action. In the ad world, "creative" is used as a noun and refers to an advertisement's visual and textual components that collectively convey a message and drive engagement. It encompasses all the design elements and content that make up an ad, from the overall concept to the specific details that capture and hold the audience's attention.
Call-to-Action (CTA) Optimization
A call to action (CTA) must include clear and compelling text, such as "Shop Now" or "Learn More," to prompt specific user actions. It should use contrasting colors, buttons, or bold fonts to stand out from other ad elements. The CTA must be relevant to the ad's content and offer, aligning with what users are encouraged to do. Additionally, incorporating urgency or incentives, like "Limited Time Offer" or "Save 20% Today," can drive quicker responses. Without a well-defined CTA, ads may lack direction, leading to missed user engagement and conversion opportunities, resulting in lower click-through rates (CTR) and diminished return on investment (ROI).
Conversion Tracking
Conversion tracking involves clearly defined conversion goals, such as purchases or sign-ups; tracking codes or pixels embedded on websites or apps to monitor user interactions; analytics platforms like Google Analytics or Facebook Ads Manager to collect and analyze data; attribution models to determine which channels contributed to conversions; and conversion funnels to visualize user steps and identify drop-off points. Without conversion tracking, you cannot measure which marketing efforts drive valuable actions and generate ROI, leaving “spaghetti on the wall” as your only optimization strategy. A data gap can result in inefficient budget allocation, missed opportunities for campaign improvements, and reduced overall marketing effectiveness.
Implementing and Managing Programmatic Advertising Campaigns
Campaign implementation is where the rubber meets the road in advertising strategy. All the strategic decisions culminate in the ads people see. Poor implementation means ads may not reach the right audience or fail to engage them, which can lead to a wasted budget, lower conversion rates, missed revenue opportunities, and a diminished return on investment. Additionally, improper execution can damage brand reputation, as poorly targeted or irrelevant ads can frustrate consumers. Implementation using best practices is essential to maximize the impact of your campaign and achieve your desired marketing outcomes.
Strategic Planning
Develop strategic campaign plans that align with business objectives, seasonal trends, and market dynamics. This process should begin with defining clear campaign goals, such as brand awareness, lead generation, or sales conversion. You can optimize campaign timing and messaging by leveraging seasonal opportunities and consumer behaviors to achieve maximum impact. Additionally, staying informed about industry trends, competitor activities, and regulatory updates will help you adapt your strategies to maintain campaign effectiveness and stay ahead in the market.
Compliance Measures
We can never say this enough - strict compliance to all legal and platform regulations is more important than anything else. Non-compliance can absolutely ruin your business in some industries. Implementing age verification tools and technologies will help verify age eligibility for products or services subject to age restrictions. Content moderation strategies ensure ad creatives comply with legal guidelines and ethical standards. Following platform-specific ad submission and approval procedures will prevent rejections or suspensions, so you can avoid legal pitfalls and maintain the integrity and trustworthiness of your brand.
General Compliance Guidelines
- Avoid misleading claims; ensure statements are truthful, verifiable, and evidence-supported.
- Exclude content related to prohibited substances and avoid offensive language or imagery.
- Maintain brand consistency with visuals that align with your brand’s identity.
- Ensure compliance with relevant regulations, including product claims and disclaimers.
- Utilize high-quality images and graphics to convey a professional image.
- Tailor language to the target audience’s preferences; avoid jargon or complex terms.
- Adapt messaging to respect cultural norms and values to avoid misinterpretation.
- Regularly test ad variations using A/B testing.
- Continuously review and update ad creatives for compliance with evolving policies.
Ad Creative Management
Effective ad creative management takes campaigns to the next level by keeping up with the quality, making them engaging, compliant, and strategically aligned with campaign objectives. The goal is to drive better results and maximize the return on advertising investment. Ad creative management involves planning, developing, and overseeing the creation of advertisements to ensure they effectively communicate the intended message, meet marketing objectives, and comply with relevant guidelines and regulations.
Campaign Planning and Setup
A campaign manager oversees the development and execution of advertising strategies, so that messages and visuals align with campaign goals and brand identity while complying with industry regulations and local sensitivities. They are responsible for testing and optimizing ad variations, analyzing performance metrics, and refining the creative approach based on feedback to drive campaign effectiveness.
Localization Strategies
Tailoring ad creatives and messaging to resonate with local market preferences and cultural sensitivities enhances relevance and engagement. Customize ad content to reflect regional interests, behaviors, and consumer preferences. Adapt messaging to respect cultural norms and values, ensuring acceptance within diverse regional communities. By implementing localization strategies, you can optimize the impact of your campaigns, making them more relatable and compelling to target audiences.
Programmatic Advertising Analytics Tracking
Ignoring analytics tracking undermines your campaign. Full stop. You cannot determine which ads perform well without this step. The consequences are in ineffective spending and missed optimization opportunities. You need to measuree key performance metrics, to accurately assess campaign success or make data-driven decisions. Failing to track audience behavior leads to low engagement and poor user experience, placing you at a competitive disadvantage against those who leverage analytics to refine and improve their campaigns.
Don’t Fall Behind. Actionable Data for Optimizing Campaigns>> MediaJel Attribution Dashboard
Performance Metrics
Unsure which metrics you should look at or what you should change based on the metrics you're seeing? Understanding key performance indicators (KPIs) such as impressions, clicks, click-through rates (CTR), and conversions is crucial for transforming the impact of your campaigns. This knowledge enables you to make informed decisions, optimize ad creatives, refine targeting strategies, and enhance overall campaign effectiveness, leading to better engagement and improved return on investment (ROI). These metrics include:
- Impressions: Total number of times ads are displayed to users.
- Clicks: Number of times users interact with the ad by clicking on it.
- Click-through Rate (CTR): Percentage of users who click on the ad after seeing it.
- Conversions: Actions taken by users that align with campaign goals, such as sign-ups, purchases, or form submissions.
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Ratio of revenue generated to the cost of the advertising campaign.
Data Collection and Analysis
Collecting data is simple; platforms like Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics provide detailed insights into traffic sources, user demographics, and behavior patterns, usually in easy-to-understand tables, charts, and data points. The challenge comes in knowing what to do based on the data in front of you. Tracking user interactions helps advertisers understand audience preferences, engagement patterns, and conversion pathways. Identifying high-performing segments and focusing resources can significantly increase your ROI when assessing campaign effectiveness across different channels, devices, and demographics.
Optimization Strategies
Optimize campaigns with analytics insights by adjusting bids in real time to enhance ad placement and visibility. Next, test various ad creatives to determine which designs and messages perform best, so your content is engaging and effective. Additionally, refine audience segments using data-driven insights to target the right users and boost engagement. Implementing the strategies below can significantly improve your campaign's outcomes.
- Real-Time Bidding Adjustments: Continuously monitor campaign performance and adjust bids in real time to capitalize on high-value impressions and maximize visibility. This ensures that your ads are competitively placed while staying within budget constraints.
- Bid Multipliers: Utilize bid multipliers to adjust bids based on specific factors such as device type, geographic location, time of day, or audience demographics. This allows for more precise targeting and helps allocate the budget more effectively to high-performing segments.
- Automated Bidding: Implement automated bidding strategies offered by platforms like Google Ads or programmatic ad networks. These tools use machine learning algorithms to adjust bids based on performance data, helping to optimize spend and maximize ROI with minimal manual intervention.
- Bid Capping: Set bid caps to prevent overspending on individual auctions or placements. By defining maximum bid limits, you maintain control over your budget and ensure you do not exceed cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM) thresholds.
- Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) Bidding: Focus on achieving a specific cost per acquisition by adjusting bids to optimize conversions rather than clicks. This strategy helps in maximizing the number of conversions within your budget.
- Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) Bidding: Optimize bids to achieve a target return on ad spend. This strategy adjusts bids based on the expected revenue from each ad placement, ensuring that the campaign remains profitable and cost-effective.
- Competitive Bidding Analysis: Analyze competitor bidding strategies and adjust your bids to stay competitive in the auction. Understanding the bidding landscape helps you make informed decisions and improve your ad placement outcomes.
Reporting and Insights
Campaign reporting is the heart of an programmatic agency-client relationship because it ensures transparency and accountability, showing clients exactly how their campaigns are managed and what results are achieved.
Custom reports highlight key performance indicators (KPIs) and trends, providing essential data for performance analysis and strategic decision-making. Agencies, including MediaJel’s Managed Campaign Service, can recommend adjustments and use insights to inform future campaign planning and optimize advertising budgets, fostering effective communication.
Following these steps, you can systematically enhance your programmatic advertising strategies and tactics, making informed decisions that drive better results and help achieve your advertising objectives.
- Review Performance Metrics: Examine key performance indicators such as impressions, clicks, click-through rates (CTR), conversions, and return on ad spend (ROAS). Use analytics platforms to assess how well your ads are meeting campaign objectives.
- Conduct A/B Testing: Run A/B tests by creating different versions of ad creatives, bidding strategies, or audience segments. Evaluate which variations perform better to identify high-performing elements and optimize future ad deployments.
- Analyze Audience Behavior: Study audience interactions and demographics to understand who engages with your ads and how. Use this information to refine your targeting strategies, so you reach the most relevant segments.
- Evaluate Channel and Device Performance: Assess how your ads perform across various channels (e.g., social media, display networks) and devices (e.g., mobile, desktop). Allocate resources to the most effective channels and optimize ad delivery for different devices.
- Benchmark Against Competitors: Research competitor strategies and industry trends to gain insights into best practices and innovative tactics. Apply these insights to your plan to stay competitive.
- Make Data-Driven Adjustments: Use the insights gained from your analysis to adjust bidding strategies, creative elements, and audience targeting. Decisions may include reallocating the budget to higher-performing segments, tweaking ad copy for better engagement, adjusting bids for optimal placement, or shifting resources to more effective channels.
- Monitor Continuously: Regularly track campaign performance and make iterative improvements as needed. Continuously monitoring your campaigns ensures that your strategies align with market conditions and campaign goals.
Take the Reins with MediaJel’s White-Label and Self-Service Solutions
Apply your expertise with MediaJel's programmatic advertising platforms with white-label and self-service solutions designed to give you unparalleled control and flexibility. Take your advertising to the next level—contact us today to discover how MediaJel can drive your success.
Quiz on Programmatic Display Ads in Cannabis Advertising
Recap of Key Learnings from the Programmatic Display Ads Academy
Throughout the programmatic display ads academy, several key concepts, strategies, and insights have been highlighted, particularly in the context of cannabis advertising:
1. What is Programmatic Advertising: Programmatic advertising offers precise audience targeting, scalability, and real-time optimization capabilities, which are crucial in the competitive cannabis market.
2. Ad Formats and Creativity: Exploring various ad formats, such as static banners, rich media, and native ads, allows creative experimentation while adhering to regulatory constraints and brand guidelines.
3. Audience Targeting Strategies: Leveraging demographic targeting, behavioral insights, and geo-targeting helps tailor ad campaigns to specific consumer segments, enhancing relevance and engagement.
4. Compliance and Regulatory Considerations: Understanding and adhering to strict advertising regulations and platform policies is essential in cannabis advertising to avoid legal issues and ensure ethical practices.
5. Analytics and Optimization: Utilizing performance metrics like CTR, conversions, and ROAS, along with advanced analytics tools, enables continuous campaign optimization and improved ROI.
6. Strategic Campaign Planning: Developing strategic campaign plans aligned with business objectives, seasonal trends, and market dynamics helps maximize campaign effectiveness and adaptability.
7. Creative and Messaging Strategies8
8. Continuous Learning and Adaptation: Emphasizing the iterative nature of programmatic advertising, testing different strategies, and learning from analytics insights are crucial for ongoing campaign improvement.
Let’s take an in-depth look at each digital marketing channel.
Given the unique position of the cannabis industry, we’re only covering the digital marketing channels that are permitted to use by ancillary businesses, brands, dispensary owners, mobile applications, producers, processors, and websites. There is a legal gray area when marketing cannabis companies, and you should regularly reference the laws within your state before starting any campaign.
Effective branding strategy comes from a place of authenticity, about what your dispensary represents. As marketing guru and best-selling author, Simon Sinek, notes: “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.”
Effective branding can give you an edge in increasingly competitive markets, like cannabis. Without an effective branding strategy, you’re just another dispensary. Branding starts with defining who you are and what your brand represents. And, it’s carried through everything you do: your name, slogans, signage, symbols and design.
Why is it important?
- 90% of consumers expect that their experience with a brand will be similar across all platforms and devices. They expect a seamless transition between web and device-native applications through color, flow, and overall quality. (New Jersey Institute of Technology)
- 64% of people cite shared values as the main reason they have a relationship with a brand.
Read our Beginner's Guide to Cannabis Dispensary Marketing
Read NowWhere do you start? Make sure your website is built for desktop and mobile (so that customers can easily scroll on their mobile devices, and see your store). Provide accurate menus with online ordering (if available). Ensure your contact information is accurate, clearly visible, and provides a map to your location. And, of course, there’s conversion: do you have places where you can capture customer information (like a newsletter or free download)?
Visit Our Learn Section to Hone Your Digital Marketing Skills
Read NowWhen it comes to content marketing, there are a few go-to rules for how to market your cannabis business: Create and share “remarkable” content to stimulate interest in your brand. Make sure the information is relevant, useful, and digestible. You can create blogs, infographics, checklists, and guides; just make sure to use images (original if possible), videos, and other media.
Read our Beginner's Guide to Cannabis Dispensary Marketing
Read NowEvery dispensary should consistently create fresh content for their blog; the fact is, most don’t. Yet, it’s not that difficult. Updates can be simple: from short and sweet (250 – 500 words) to more in-depth, informative pieces (1000-2000 words) known as “epic blogs.”
Do your blog right, and reap the benefits:
- Improve search results (SEO)
- Drive more traffic to your site
- Engage with your customers
- Elevate your brand as a thought leader in the cannabis industry
Read our Guide to Content Marketing
Read NowThink about it: a potential customer whips out their phone to search on “dispensary nearby.” Who shows up first? Do you (or your competitor)?
Search marketing can get complex, no doubt about it. But, by following some fundamental principles — the proper use of keywords, meta tags, correct and consistent display of your dispensary name, address, phone number (NAP) — helps ensure search engines can easily find you. In turn, of course, this means so can customers.
Read Our Blog "8 On-Page SEO Techniques to Increase Cannabis Dispensary Local Rankings"
Read NowA local business listing is an online profile that contains your business name, address, phone number, and other details. There are thousands of websites and directories on which local business owners are allowed to create free business listings.
Apps overlap with directories. But, high traffic sites like Leafly and Weedmaps also provide mobile apps that cannabis consumers use to search on strains and dispensaries.
Visit Our Learn Section to Hone Your Digital Marketing Skills
Read NowWhy is it important?
- 985% of small businesses get customers through Word of Mouth
- 84% of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family, colleagues, and friends about products and services – making these recommendations the highest ranked source for trustworthiness. [Nielsen]
- 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision. [Ogilvy/Google/TNS]
Read our Guide to Word of Mouth Marketing
Read NowUsing reporting data in your POS system, you can determine customer product preferences and buying patterns. Use this data to understand customer buying motivations better while empowering your budtenders to serve customers more effectively. Remember, you’re not just selling products; use your expertise to improve their purchasing experience.
Bud tenders training session should include:
- Company values: branding, mission, vision
- Customer service: communication, respect, processes
- Product knowledge: strains, brands, categories, deals
- Technology: POS system, mobile applications, website, social media
Read our Budtender Training Blog
Read NowCount on video — if it hasn’t already — to dominate your audience’s online activity.
Don’t believe us? Consider this:
78% of people watch videos online at least once a week
55% watch videos online daily; yes, daily.
Think beyond the blog — from Snapchat to Instagram to Facebook Live; you can’t escape video! Consider producing live videos (streaming), explainers, funny videos, customer testimonials, and more.
Read our Video Marketing Guide
Read NowA loyalty program is a rewards program offered by a dispensary to customers who frequently make purchases. A loyalty program may give a customer advanced access to new products, special sales, coupons or free merchandise.
Why is it important?
A successful dispensary — relies on building a base of loyal, repeat customers. They keep the lights on, the doors open, and serve as your brand ambassadors. And, let’s not forget: the cost of acquiring new customers is much higher than retaining (and nurturing) existing ones.
81% of consumers agree that loyalty programs make them more likely to continue doing business with a brand (Bond)
89% of American consumers say they are loyal to brands that share their values (Wunderman)
8 out of 10 consumers are willing to pay more for better customer experience (Capgemini)
Read Our Beginner's Guide to Cannabis Dispensary Marketing
Read NowWhy Does It Work?
74% of event attendees say that they have a more positive opinion about the company, brand, product or service being promoted after the event. (EMI & Mosaic)
87% of consumers said they purchased the brand’s product or service after an event at a later date. (EMI & Mosaic)
Event Marketing Success
Example 1: Meet and greet with Snoop Dogg this Friday at MediaJel! Get an autograph and picture with your favorite west coast rapper.
Example 2: Join us on 7/10 for live music, food trucks, and educational seminars on different types of product.
Example 3: Join us at Ocean Beach for a all-day clean up. Support the environment, network with fellow cannabis enthusiasts, and do good for your planet.
Learn More About Event Marketing. Read our Beginner's Guide to Cannabis Dispensary Marketing
Read NowEffective mobile tactics may include:
Website: Invest in responsive web design that achieves: flexible grid design, responsive images, mobile navigation, short and concise product descriptions, personalized, location-specific content, and a responsive footer navigation.
Email: Recognize that you have a smaller screen size to work with and need to be concise with the information you’re delivering and place your most important information towards the top.
Text Message Marketing: Also referred to as SMS marketing, text message marketing can be an incredibly effective method to maintain contact with customers as they are more likely to read a text message than an email.
Search Engine Marketing: Customer’s often use their phone, Siri, Google Maps, Apple Maps, etc to find a dispensary nearby. Search engines use location services to show you the most relevant stores nearby based on your geographical location.
Mobile Applications: The opportunity of marketing through mobile apps is available to both dispensaries who have their own live app in the app store and those who don’t.
Read the Text Message Marketing Guide
Read NowConsider this fact: 90% of email gets delivered to the intended recipient’s inbox; whereas only 2% of your Facebook fans see your posts in their News Feed (Source: Forrester Research).
Build your email list through your website or point-of-sale. A well-compiled email list ensures you need not become beholden to evolving social network algorithms; your email list will allow you to target a customer exactly where they’re at, in their inbox.
Learn More on Email Marketing. Read Our Beginner's Guide to Cannabis Dispensary Marketing
Read NowYou’ve no doubt you’ve come across some bad reviews of your competitors, or you’ve seen negative comments in forums, social media, or other places about various brands in the space. Your reputation is everything and affects everything from word-of-mouth to search strategies. So it’s important you closely follow your brand’s reputation online by monitoring and responding to reviews, tagged photos, blog posts, and other social media interactions.
Why is it important?
68% trust online opinions from other consumers, which is up 7% from 2007 and places online opinions as the third most trusted source of product information. [Nielsen]
88% of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts. [BrightLocal]
72% say reading a positive customer reviews increase their trust in a business; it takes, on average, 2-6 reviews to get 56% of them to this point. [BrightLocal]
Online reviews have changed the face of online dispensary marketing. Reviews bridge the gap between word-of-mouth and the viral form of feedback that can make you (or break you). A well-thought strategy will help you develop active, positive participation among your customers while increasing brand awareness an
We encourage setting up daily specials that are consistent every day of the month, as well as special deals for vendor days, or holidays like 4/20 or 7/10.
Here are a few clutch ways to entice your customers with deals:
Example 1: Foodie Fridays: Show us this text message to receive 10% any edibles in the store every Friday!
Example 2: Two for Tuesday, buy any two items and get 10% off your entire order at HERB! See you soon!
Example: Happy Independence Day from HERB! To celebrate we’re offering 10 deals on flower, concentrates, edibles, and glass.
Example: Chocolate Lover’s Alert! Bring in this coupon throughout the month of September to receive 10% off of newly stocked chocolate edibles.
Example: Learn and Earn! Visit us this weekend to learn about the newest vape technologies. Earn 10% of vapes and accessories this weekend only!
Tip: When creating your deals, be sure to promote them on all marketing avenues: email, text message, website, in-store flyers, and in-store tv screens.
Want more information on how to market your cannabis business? Read Our Beginner's Guide to Cannabis Dispensary Marketing
Read NowMore Academy courses
Better Connections Begin Here
We purpose-built every element of MediaJel’s proprietary platform and
personalized client support services with one unshakable mission:
Unleash the power of compliant digital marketing and brand-safe programmatic advertising so that cannabis brands and regulated retailers can grow, scale, and thrive.
Let’s get started.
Navigating Compliance in Advertising
Ignoring regulations could derail your entire advertising strategy. Every industry has specific regulatory considerations that impact advertising strategies. If you hate wasting money, we recommend adhering to industry and legal regulations across all your digital channels. Essential regulatory standards and criteria include: