Hidden Risks of Programmatic Marketing

Programmatic marketing is a term used to describe the practice of automated bidding on placement platforms that will buy and sell digital advertising space. 

Sometimes referred to as “targeted advertising,” it has convinced many marketers that they can put the right message in front of exactly who they want. 

However, the reality is different. 

Keep reading to learn some of the hidden risks of programmatic marketing and what other options you have that will allow you to receive the benefits without the frustration. 

No Control Over Where the Ads End Up

Programmatic marketing is automated, so you may find that you are paying for placements that aren't effective or do not line up with your demographic. 

Additionally, suppose you automate the bidding process. In that case, you are not necessarily guaranteed an ad placement because there is a possibility that it might not be delivered if you based your bid on historical data. 

When creating a bidding strategy, it is important to not only take your historical data as a foundation but also modify it based on previous results, goals, and budgets. This is something to keep an eye on when working on your campaigns, whether you are automating or manually executing the process. 

It Can Be Inconsistent 

One of the obvious concerns of ad automation lies with the human element of the process.

That’s why different ad agencies, vendors, or even yourself or your team produce different results. 

It takes highly skilled, highly trained programmatic marketing professionals to launch, manage and execute successful campaigns.

If an agency or vendor has bad practices or inexperienced staff – there could be a host of issues for the advertiser. Ads appearing with low-quality placement, wasted viewability – or worse – a campaign that succeeds but doesn’t reach its highest potential.

How would an advertiser know that their money is being wisely spent then? The advertiser is everything in programmatic marketing.

May Not Be Good For New Businesses 

There’s no denying the power of a super-granular targeting strategy.

Programmatic marketing can be an effective way to learn every detail about your audience. But new entrants may have a difficult time getting results from programmatic as they’re starting from scratch when it comes to their datasets.

Services like Facebook come with internal data, allowing brands to leverage the platform’s insights to connect with new audiences, while Google offers insights that delve deeper into audience patterns as they begin to emerge.

While it is not impossible, it is difficult for newer businesses to dive into programmatic marketing without the right historical data to at least guide your content. And while you might decide to risk it and choose content based on instinct, you will notice that it will take you a lot longer to nail down your target audience, resulting in a very high cost per lead. 

Low Click-Through Rates

Programmatic marketing capitalizes on that brief moment in time it takes to capture someone’s attention. A company that wants to get in touch with healthcare professionals, such as doctors or dentists, can target them across several channels and regions based on when they are most likely to be online.

At that moment, when the target audience is likely online, the automated bidding process kicks off. So, if a doctor is online searching for a healthcare attorney, they might see an ad for legal services. If they think it’s relevant, they might click the link and contact the attorney firm, give them a call, or visit their website.

If they click, the advertiser can review their activity after the click takes place. From there, the advertiser can review which pages they looked at and whether the CTA was effective or not.  

If they don't click, then the advertiser might then tweak the language of the offer or optimize the landing page.

The advertiser has higher chances of success when they link ads to a search action versus relying on programmatic networks like Google Display Network, which presents ad content on the sidebar or footer of another site such as a media site, a blog, or a social network.

Typically, placements are determined based on where your target audience spends the most time online.

For example, if you are a healthcare attorney in the state of Washington, your ad might show on a Medscape.com article — based on that demographic overlap.

While it might seem like an easy way to get your ads out, it can definitely affect the engagement your ads get. Any kind of engagement can be beneficial to track and keep a record of, but when we have programmatic marketing happening, that engagement can decrease significantly, and you will still be paying top dollar for a poorly displayed ad. 

Beware of Bot Traffic 

Another risk of programmatic marketing is bot traffic. According to a survey from MyersBizNet, 78% of marketers have concerns about ad fraud and bots.

Advertisers may even spend upwards of 20% of their campaign dollars displaying their ads to bots, not real people. As such, brands must do their due diligence when it comes to working with publishers and intermediary agencies. You’ll want to understand how vendors and publishers protect against ad fraud; what is the content verification process?

Sure, the bot problem is endemic to the internet, but programmatic ad buying could increase the risk of bot traffic, as there is no relationship between a human publisher and a human advertiser.  

While this is a work in progress, bot traffic can be detrimental to websites, and your spam score could increase a trend of decreasing the viewability of your ads or anything linked to your domain.

Eliminate the Guesswork with Perla 

There’s increased pressure on healthcare professionals and finding the right solutions for their practice, this is where consultants come in hand. The downside is that both parties have less time to find each other and face a crowded digital marketplace saturated with unqualified leads and bots. 

Perla bridges this divide between advisors and providers, allowing them to see each other directly by avoiding the crowded digital landscape. You don’t need to worry about winning the bidding battles to advertise your services on different platforms because Perla is a one-stop-shop. 

Founded to correct the inefficiencies of traditional healthcare sales and marketing, Perla is a private matching platform with a network of vetted and trusted expert healthcare advisors and consultants that is DIRECTLY marketed to vetted healthcare entities and professionals. 

Powered by intelligent matching, Perla allows you to reduce the length and cost of your marketing efforts by ensuring you’ll only receive leads from vetted healthcare entities and professionals that are searching for your exact offerings. 

Add Perla into your sales and marketing process to make the most out of your marketing investment while speeding up your relationship-building timelines. 

Request a demo to learn more about our platform.

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