More and more publishers are leaning on programmatic ads to generate revenue for online ad slots their sales teams have been unable to sell. It’s a strategy worth considering. According to Zeniths Programmatic Marketing Forecasts report, advertisers are set to spend around $98 billion on programmatic ad campaigns in 2020 alone. 

Here’s a brief overview to help you decide if programmatic ads are right for your publication’s website.

What are programmatic ads?

Programmatic advertising is the automated process of buying and selling display advertising. I find it helpful to imagine the world of programmatic ads as having two “sides,” a seller side and a buyer side. 

On the buyer side, you have advertisers with online ads they want people to see. On the seller side, you have websites with ad slots to fill. Both of these sides team up with one or more demand partners, who act as their representatives. Each advertiser will tell their demand partner (also known as a DSP or demand-side platform) how much they are willing to pay for an ad slot. And each website will tell their demand partner (also known as an SSP or supply-side platform) how much they are willing to accept for their ad slot. 

After the demand partners have all the information they need, they meet at an online marketplace, or ad exchange, to determine which advertiser will win which ad slots. This whole process—from the user visiting a website to being delivered the winning ad—takes milliseconds.

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