Try this out: Google any term related to programmatic advertising technology. It could be programmatic guaranteed, supply-side platforms (SSPs) or demand-side platforms (DSPs). You won’t have to scroll far in the search results to see some self-styled advertising “guru” saying that the term you Googled is the next big thing.

So often, voices in programmatic advertising say the product or service they provide is trending up. They’re marketers - they are trying to boost their own sales. So, how can publishers and advertisers tell which programmatic advertising trends are worth paying attention to and which ones they should ignore?

It can be difficult, but Playwire is here to help. In this post, we discuss a few trends in programmatic advertising that are certainly worth your time to learn about. To understand more about these trends, and how you can use them to maximize your revenue, speak with the programmatic advertising experts at Playwire.

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Programmatic Advertising: What Publishers and Advertisers Need to Know

Read the guide and stop wasting revenue on programmatic done wrong.

Privacy in Programmatic Advertising 

Privacy is a programmatic advertising trend that could put some ad tech companies out of business. The world’s biggest platforms - like Google and Apple - are cracking down on advertisers’ ability to track user behavior. That ability, which usually comes from third party cookies, is essential to many ad tech companies’ business models. Third party cookies inform ad targeting efforts to make campaigns effective and increase ROI. 

Although Google recently delayed its initial decision to phase out third party cookies on the ubiquitous Chrome web browser, this change is coming. And Apple recently forced an opt-in for  Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) tracking for app installs and similar behavior on iOS devices. The third party cookies and the IDFA may just be little snippets of code, but massive companies have built their entire businesses around them.

What does this mean for programmatic advertising? To start, it means that publishers’ first-party data - the information they gather about their own users in their publishing environments - is suddenly going to become a lot more valuable. Agencies and brands will soon be chomping at the bit to get their hands on first-party data once third party cookies are phased out.

For agencies and brands, this trend means they will have to seek out platforms that rep exclusive publisher inventory and have built relationships that can withstand massive changes like this. Buying on the open market becomes a lot more difficult when publishers are suddenly interested in leveraging their first-party data with platforms like Playwire.

Open Programmatic Exchanges vs. Programmatic Guaranteed

The death of the third-party cookie has sparked another programmatic advertising trend that promises to become more common. Put simply, publishers and advertisers are opting for programmatic guaranteed over standard programmatic more often.

Why? Because the standard open programmatic exchanges (also called simply the open market) rely heavily on third-party data to connect publishers’ inventory with advertisers’ campaign targets. Programmatic guaranteed is more exclusive - publishers guarantee inventory for certain advertisers, and the two parties negotiate over it. 

Not every piece of inventory is available with programmatic guaranteed. In fact, programmatic guaranteed is the ideal platform to promote the highest-quality content that advertisers can’t get everywhere else. This is a win for publishers who want higher revenue and for advertisers who want exclusive access to the best inventory.

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Podcasts and Streaming Services

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, working at home, social distancing and all-day sweatpants started trending up. And one of the key programmatic advertising trends that came with that had to do with content on streaming services.

People were sitting at home and missing their once-busy social lives, so, naturally, streaming content was a go-to boredom killer. And that included podcasts and other audio streaming - in fact, 18% of people said they were listening to more podcasts during the pandemic.

Because streaming content is getting more engagement, it is offering more opportunity to publishers and advertisers. Buying and selling programmatic advertising on streaming content, including podcast, over-the-top (OTT services) and connected TV (CTV) platforms, quickly became more popular, and there’s no sign of this advertising in 2021 slowing down.

Programmatic Advertising Out of Home

Imagine walking through Times Square and looking up at a digital billboard to see an ad for a brand you were just looking at on your phone. That’s not future-fiction - it’s real, and it’s called programmatic digital out-of-home (DOOH). 

The ability to target particular consumers outside of their homes and personal devices has been advertisers’ dream for a long time. In the past, billboard and other OOH ads were purchased manually, and you had to hope that the ad would resonate with the people who happened to walk or drive by it. Now, programmatic advertising has extended its reach to DOOH placements.

Advancements in data gathering, analysis and synthesis have allowed for ad targeting based on everything from individual IPs to exact locations. That means advertisers can get their ads to the right people in the right environments, and they can do so programmatically. This is one of those nascent programmatic advertising trends that has the whole industry talking and, by Playwire’s estimation, it has staying power.

Stay on Top of Programmatic Advertising Trends with Playwire

There’s a lot going on in the programmatic advertising world. Busy publishers and advertisers barely have the time to get their bread-and-butter work done. Who has the time to keep up with all the programmatic advertising trends?

Playwire does. Programmatic advertising is kind of our thing. So, let our team stay on top of everything for you. That way, your revenue and advertising strategy are exactly where they need to be - at the very top and on the cutting edge, respectively.

To learn how Playwire’s revenue amplification platform works, reach out to us. Give us a call at 1-561-206-4621 or contact us online and let’s get your programmatic advertising on track.

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