Grow your brand with programmatic marketing

Programmatic Marketing Can Create Deep Audience Connections

By: Michael Packard

June 29, 2022

Reach Your Audience and Build Your Brand With a Programmatic Omnichannel Marketing Strategy

There are a lot of factors that drive a successful marketing strategy, and while it might be difficult to isolate one that is the most important, we would argue that a programmatic marketing approach is a critical piece. 

We all know there are many ways auiences take in information: different social media platforms, radio, television, streaming services, video uploads, podcast apps, and more. Programmatic marketing allows you to execute an omnichannel strategy so your brand can be present wherever your audience is. 

What is Programmatic Marketing?

Let’s start with the basics. Put simply, programmatic marketing uses data and machine learning to segment and target your audiences wherever they are with the most appropriate message. Google, for instance, executed one of the first successful programmatic marketing campaigns in 2014 with its advertising campaign promoting the Google Search App. Google reached 30 percent more people with three times the frequency. 

This first foray into programmatic advertising led others to follow suit, and today, it’s a widely-used marketing strategy. 

And the numbers follow the trend. 15 years ago, consumers used only two touchpoints when making a purchase, and only 7 percent used more than four touchpoints. Today, consumers use up to six touchpoints, and more than 50 percent use more than four.  Brands are vying to be present at each of those touchpoints. 

There are three keys to getting a programmatic marketing approach right:

  1. Know your audience: Understand who you’re targeting, both on a fundamental and emotional level so your ad placement and messaging will resonate. This means not just relying on third-party data like tracking cookies or website analytics, but leveraging real consumer insights from second-party data sources like surveys and studies, as well as first-party data from your customers’ interactions with your company – all of which help identify target audience behaviors, preferences, and priorities.
  2. Understand programmatic technology: When launching a programmatic marketing strategy, you want to have the right technology behind it – and the right people – to ensure you will successfully target the right audience and take the right steps to draw them in.
  3. Do the work: The word “programmatic” can be a little deceiving. While it does automate the audience targeting and advertising process, it’s only as good as the information you give it – and the work you do to optimize it. Make sure you’re effectively measuring your campaign to understand what’s working and what might need rethinking, and tweak your ad messaging, timing, or placement based on your findings.

Read More: Do Your Target Audience Research

Take Your Campaigns Further With Omnichannel

Now that you understand programmatic marketing, it’s time to learn how you can spread your message further. Omnichannel marketing does exactly what it sounds like – brings your programmatic marketing approach to multiple channels so it can be seen and experienced by more people. 

Adopt a Programmatic Omnichannel Marketing Strategy

A programmatic omnichannel marketing approach makes marketing far easier and more effective. It enables your brand message to evolve and adapt depending on the channel on which it’s appearing and audience behavior. 

For example, an ad you show a consumer on Instagram at 10 pm should be different from an ad that the same person sees on their search results page when they’re at work. Your ad is automatically catering to your audience’s mindset, behavior, interactions, and lifestyle so you can simultaneously learn more about them and generate more quality leads. 

There is a second way to implement omnichannel marketing that elevates your brand’s reach and impact: adopt a digital omnichannel strategy. This type of strategy involves identifying and creating digital channels on which to reach your audience. These channels include live chat, chatbots, SMS/messaging, knowledge base, ticketing and email, and social media. 

Read More: How to Use the Right Digital Channels to Nurture Quality Leads

Having a digital omnichannel presence allows you to be present for your customers both during and after hours, so they always feel connected to your brand.

According to Aberdeen Group, companies with a strong omnichannel presence see a 91% higher year-over-year customer retention rate and an average 3.4% increase in customer lifetime value. Companies with a weak or nonexistent omnichannel strategy report a 7% decrease in customer lifetime value year-over-year.

Add programmatic to your omnichannel strategy, and you put your brand in the receiving line for some excellent benefits:

  • Increased reach: With algorithms powered by machine learning and AI, you can increase the scale and effectiveness of your marketing campaigns,
  • Rich data: Programmatic omnichannel marketing pulls in deep insights about your audience that you can easily monitor, quantify, and apply to grow your business.
  • Better results: Not only does programmatic omnichannel marketing bring in more qualified leads, but it can save your company money by running an effective campaign instead of one that misses the mark.

The bottom line is that programmatic omnichannel marketing enables your business to not only reach the right consumers but to create a more intuitive, seamless user experience with your brand. 

Fine-tuning the customer journey is a big part of why businesses employ an omnichannel approach. And it pays dividends. McKinsey reports that improving the customer journey helps businesses increase revenues by 10-15% while lowering costs by 15-20%.

Read More: How to Create a Customer Journey Map

There is a lot to be said for the intervention of machine learning and AI in an advertising campaign. As noted above, it’s important for your marketing team to add their own human touch, but manual processes based on guesswork will cost your company in the long run with ineffective campaigns. 

Is Programmatic Omnichannel Marketing Too Complex for My Business?

The short answer is no. We understand that an omnichannel approach can sound overwhelming. Advertisers navigating the programmatic ecosystem, especially for the first time, will find it complex and challenging to identify which channels to focus on for advertising. But no company is too small to take advantage of the benefits of a programmatic omnichannel approach.

Fortunately, there are companies like Fishnet Media that work with experts in programmatic advertising and can help you weed through the variety of channels to select the best for your audience demographics. 

We’ll also ensure you’re targeting and reaching the right audiences, and help you allocate the appropriate budget to each channel. We help our clients achieve an important goal: working with a single programmatic vendor to execute advertising campaigns across multiple channels like video, display, social media, mobile, and native. We help you understand which campaigns are working and make effective, impactful adjustments based on the analytics. 

Get your programmatic omnichannel marketing strategy off the ground and start making deeper connections with your audience. Contact us today to start a conversation.

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Michael Packard

As a co-founder, I’ve been with Fishnet from the start, overseeing the strategy and execution of all work. Through deep, multidimensional expertise across creative, media, data, and technology, along with a strong appreciation of what today’s marketers face, I help brands navigate complex technology and marketing challenges, and drive strategic business initiatives for clients that deliver long-term success. Harnessing a long background of results-driven work for organizations of all sizes and in diverse industries, I’ve been guiding successful brand strategies and creative campaigns for more than 25 years.

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