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Programmatic Advertising Platforms: A Complete Overview

Those who’ve yet to incorporate digital marketing space into their strategy are missing out.

As the advertising world becomes more and more reliant on online solutions, it is perhaps no surprise that, as of early 2023, almost 70% of digital media is now programmatic-focused. Whether or not you opt in for a SaaS paid advertising agency to leverage web targeting for your B2B company, it is important to do your research so as to understand exactly what are the different programmatic platforms.

Not only does programmatic advertising save time and money, it also harnesses airtight user data to build and target precise audiences. 

Whether targeting new or existing customers for your next campaign, programmatic advertising platforms could be the ideal solution for a maximum ROI on your marketing budget.

Let’s explore this further….

Programmatic Advertising Platforms: The Lowdown

Programmatic advertising platforms are simply one cog in the overall programmatic machine, which serves to aid marketing, analytical, and operational processes in order to work in conjunction with each other, with the end goal being to reach web users from a specific audience with a specific message (which will be personalised) at a specific time.

Types of Programmatic Advertising Platforms

There are more than one type of programmatic advertising platforms. 

During the campaign planning process, the platform will generate results from data taken from first, second, and third parties. These are known as Demand Side Platforms (DSP), which will correlate with the advertiser’s platform: Supply Side Platforms (SSP). The latter of which holds the publisher’s inventory and ad exchange and will unite to organise and manage data.

Those with a base knowledge of programmatic advertising platforms will probably already be familiar with the key programmatic buying model, known as RTB. This model enables advertisers to run multiple campaigns simultaneously, based on data that highlights the most effective advertising tactics per campaign. 

RTB media is sold via an online auction and sold to the most relative user.

Top 12 Programmatic Advertising Platforms

Many digital advertisers are implementing programmatic advertising within their strategies, and while there are multiple programmatic advertising platforms available, these are our top twelve most recommended ones.

  1. MediaMath

Boasting over 35,000 clients, MediaMath is established and renowned for its omnichannel ad campaigns and end-to-end campaign management prowess.

It will integrate data in an expert way to allow clients to reach the most high-quality leads. MediaMath has a good rep for excellent service, and allows advertisers to choose from multiple ad options, including:

  • Digital Out of Home ads
  • Video
  • Audio
  • Native
  • Display
  1. Google Ad Manager

Google Ad services are one of the most powerful in the world, and operate supply-side to allow advertisers to execute their campaigns. 

Almost 80 percent of ad impressions delivered in the US are done so via Google Ad Manager, which makes them a surefire solution for your digital ad space needs.

Also, Google Ads are designed for brands who may not have direct marketing expertise, therefore they are super easy to set up and maintain. It also has useful tools to optimise your campaigns, as well as analytics to monitor performance. 

  1. PubMatic

PubMatic is designed for both advertisers and publishers to benefit from, which means smooth sailing for both parties and seamless transactions.

It also features a n expert ad inventory accessible through its private marketplace, live analytics, a huge span of ad formats, and programs to tackle fraudulent activity (including refunds) – to name but a few.

PubMatic is probably in the top three most popular options, and boasts over 1.2 trillion ad bids a day.

  1. War Room

War Room is one of the more unique options insofar as its focus is to unite programmatic tech with human insight, and offers almost 100,000 premium ad networks, as well as an array of ad format options, including:

  • Metaverse advertising
  • Search
  • Display
  • Video
  • Audio
  • Social
  • Shopping
  • Native
  1. Adobe Advertising Cloud

Most of us are more than familiar with the software powerhouse that is Adobe, and it probably comes as little surprise that they offer a notable programmatic advertising platform service.

It predominantly harnesses people-based marketing, as well as inventory management, AAC offers ad types including:

  • Audio
  • Native
  • Search
  • Video
  • Display
  • Connected TV
  1. Amobee

Amobee is another people-based marketing platform, and it helps unite more than one programmatic ad type to bolster a full campaign and can help advertisers engage their audiences with a number of different options, including:

  • Connected TV
  • TV
  • Social
  • Digital
  1. AdRoll

AdRoll has been in the data collection game for over fifteen years now, and is a heavyweight in providing high-quality, easy-to-use templates for advertisers of all levels of digital marketing skill.

They work with over 120,000 brands, and are second-to-none when it comes to audience targeting, with audience options including:

  • Demographic
  • Internet-based campaigns 
  • Lookalike
  • Contextual 
  1. Criteo

Focusing predominantly on the supply-side, Criteo currently boasts over 690 million publishing clients by enabling publishers (particularly small ones) utilise AI, intent data, and large-scale purchase to achieve maximum profit their content by working with:

  • Mobile ads
  • Social media
  • Web
  • Display
  • Video
  1. SmartyAds

As opposed to just focusing on one party or the other, SmartyAds will team up with both publishers and advertisers to provide ample tools and services to offer a simple strategy in which businesses have utmost control over who they trade with.

SmartyAds is very conversion and CTR (click-through-rate)-focused, as well as improving engagement. This platform generates over 500 million impressions every month, and is one of America’s leading options.

  1. Lotame

Lotame’s key focus is ad exchange and aims to connect advertisers with users via mobile CTV and browsers.

It uses data to analyse customer segments, as well as providing high-quality campaign management tools that are focused–heavy on audiences, and enhances audience segments via publishers’ data. And because they work with the no-cookie approach, they are loved by many advertisers across the world.

  1. Xandr

Xandr focuses on supply and demand, and is effectively an ad exchange for various different ad types.

Xandr is loved by all 193,000 brands who use its services because it offers exemplary data collection, which focuses on optimising buying strategies. It also has an array of impressive tools and is easy to use.

  1. The Trade Desk

Serving as an ad exchange, The Trade Desk enables publishers to target advertisers by selling targeted ad space, and allows users to collect, manage, and activate data quickly and easily (and all within the same space).

Users love The Trade Desk because one of its functions is to allow advertisers to implement lookalike modelling to broaden their audience reach. 

Conclusion

As you can see, programmatic advertising platforms are a useful tool for all digital advertisers, and with a bit of research, it isn’t difficult to find the right platform for all your campaign advertising and/or publishing needs.

If you’d like to learn more about how we help B2B SaaS and Tech companies grow their MRR through online paid advertising, contact us online or send us an email today at info@getuplead.com to speak with someone on our team.