If you are involved in business, marketing or advertising, there is a good chance that you have heard the terms “programmatic advertising” and “ABM” recently. Though they are not new concepts, the practices are being put to more use now, but many people still have no clue or understanding of either of them.
This article aims to clear up some confusion so that everyone can put these effective practices into place.
What is ABM?
ABM is an acronym for account-based marketing it is used to create highly targeted marketing instead of generic, broad marketing. It is a way to target the pain points and needs of specific audiences and organizations. Businesses use this in B2B marketing to get the right ads and products in front of the right people. If a company produces only women’s products, it does not need to target a company that only deals in men’s products. That would be a waste of time and effort. Instead, that company should focus on targeting companies that deal with women’s products. This is what account-based marketing is. It targets the right people and companies for maximum efficiency.
What Is Programmatic Advertising?
Programmatic advertising is a way to automate and personalize the sales journey sequence. It is effective because the buyer sees what is relevant to them which can entice the buyer to purchase. Using it with ABM means that the marketing team is using the account-based management data to formulate a plan about whom to advertise to and with what.
How to Use Programmatic Advertising
First and foremost, understand that everyone will not relate to the same thing. It will not happen so you have to get more targeted with your programmatic advertising. Get out your ABM data and study it. Which companies will most likely desire the product or service you are looking to provide? Separate those companies from the rest. Now, take your short list of companies and study it further. Think about the individuals that you want to target. Are they men? Women? What is their job role? What problems do they need to fix? What would make them happier or their life/job easier? Really consider these people, their business lives, and their characteristics.
Once you have done this, you will likely find that many of them are different. The product you are selling might be needed by different types of companies. Or one may have a woman as the decision maker and the other a man. Most of the businesses will not relate to the same ad or sales journey. Therefore, each journey needs to be personalized and automated differently. At times, there will be some overlap meaning that some journeys, or at least parts of them, can be the same. The key is to determining differences and similarities and targeting each business in a way that will work for them. Cookie cutter advertising will be a waste of time.
The Benefits of Using Programmatic Advertising
There are quite a few benefits, but here are two popular ones:
- It is extremely efficient. After the initial setup and with regular maintenance, programmatic advertising pretty much does all the work and it definitely does it quicker than human beings can. The automation cuts down on hours of work and reaches many more people.
- The ads shown through this automation are much more relevant to the viewers because that is how it is set up to work. This likely will lead to more sales.
Whether you already focus on ABM or this is a whole new ball game for you, programmatic advertising should definitely be part of your marketing strategy. Being able to generate highly targeted ads to the right people can amp your business success tremendously.
Gather your marketing and account management teams to discuss how your company can put the programmatic display to work in order to fuel your account-based marketing.