Programmatic Adtech for B2B Marketers

Programmatic advertising is not something B2B marketers took to at once. In fact, the original avatar wasn’t even conducive to B2B buyers, who valued relevant exposure and high engagement versus maximum exposure and clicks.

But now, programmatic adtech is evolving and its becoming increasingly relevant for B2B marketers and advertisers too. We explore some important aspects of the changing B2B-programmatic equation.

Programmatic is the best way to reach the maximum number of people at the best possible cost – but that also means low quality of reach and poor engagement. B2B advertisers didn’t think it made sense to them. Justifiably so.

Kevin Cunningham, CEO, President and Co-founder of predictive acquisitions firm MRP says that “programmatic hasn’t always provided B2B with the depth and direct conversions they need to drive ROI”. B2B Marketing needs time, higher levels of engagement, more technical marketing material and of course, a campaign that simultaneously connects with multiple decision makers.

But things change. The recent B2B Advertising & Marketing Report 2018 by Adage and Dunn & Bradstreet showed that programmatic for B2B is on the rise, with 63% of B2B marketers (on a sample of 164 B2B advertisers) indicating they currently buy or sell advertising programmatically and 64% of B2B firms that buy advertising programmatically plan to spend more in 2018 than they have in 2017.

So, what’s changed for B2B programmatic advertising? Here are a few reasons why B2B advertisers are increasingly investing in Programmatic Adtech

1. Advancements in data management, predictive analytics and machine learning are changing the game for B2B marketers wanting to scale their display efforts without compromising on the inherent need for quality targeting and engagement.

2. More B2B buyers are seeking a B2C buying experience and display is an important piece of the media mix when trying to deliver that ‘holistic’ brand experience during the buying journey

3. Programmatic is evolving to become more data-driven. Lack of data has been a pet peeve of B2B marketers but with DMPs and DSPs, that is changing. Data-driven programmatic essentially means better ability to segment and target than was possible earlier. The entire data-solutions ecosystems have evolved rapidly in the last few years, with DMPs and third-party data vendors providing increasingly sophisticated targeting and segmenting options by fully leveraging the marketers’ first-party data for programmatic. For example, AppNexus’ data marketplace helps data companies bucket sell their data, which ultimately helps marketers identify and prioritize targeting accounts and align resources based on tiers.

4. Programmatic is evolving to offer a wider mix of media options: from display to native, video and mobile advertising – programmatic today enable the buying and selling of all these formats. In fact, as per the B2B Advertising & Marketing Report 2018, nearly half of the respondents were using programmatic to purchase native advertising, video and sponsored content (as against display). These are more appropriate channels for the content-focused marketing style that B2B marketing needs.

5. Publishers are responding with increased transparency, wider offerings (native, video and mobile for example, instead of just display) and better ability to track ROI

6. Advancements in attribution and predictive analytics have led to better account as well as individual level reporting capabilities as well as targeting based on intent. It has helped build a stronger business case for B2B marketers.

Read More at https://www.martechadvisor.com/articles/ads/programmatic-adtech-for-b2b-marketers/