We’ve all heard it before: marketing is most effective when you have achieved the three R’s: deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. For a business, the real challenge is doing that accurately, in real time and at scale. Technologies like programmatic advertising make this possible:  by using software to make algorithmic-based media buying decisions in real time, advertisers can maximize the impact of ads by placing the right ad at the right time for the right person.

What is Programmatic Media Buying?

Programmatic media buying (also known as programmatic advertising or marketing) is a technology- and data-based approach to ad buying. It is difficult to pinpoint an exact definition because there are so many applications, and many different ways to define automated decision making. Pat Garlock of befoundonline.com put it simply when he said that programmatic includes “any ad buy that’s processed from one machine to another machine.” The automation makes the process of ad buying more streamlined and efficient. Machines bid against each other in real time, known as real-time bidding (RTB), using preset budgets and parameters of target audiences in order to serve the most appropriate ads to potential customers.

How does Programmatic Media Buying Work?

One of the main advantages of programmatic ad buying is flexibility. You can determine the type of buyer you want to target and then design ads with messages targeted directly at that specific type of consumer. For example, if someone in your preset geographic area searches “Honda Odyssey,” “Dodge Grand Caravan,” and then “Mazda 5,” you know that this user is likely in-market for a new minivan. Using programmatic ad buying, you can prepare an ad that specifically targets a potential minivan buyer that includes a photo of a minivan on your lot and an incentive to visit your dealership. Cookies are placed in the user’s browser (think of this as a tracker) to track them as they surf the web. For every impression auction you win, your ad will be served to the user, meaning that the right person has seen the right message at the right time—and you have just overcome one of the largest obstacles in advertising.

How Will Programmatic Media Buying Grow in the Future?

Programmatic advertising already accounts for a sizable share of digital ad revenue, and people are so excited about its potential that growth is projected to increase dramatically. eMarketer estimates that programmatic media buying will grow to comprise 63% of digital marketing revenue in 2016, totaling about $21 billion. The technology to employ programmatic tactics in all media channels including radio and television, will come eventually, but the ability to hyper-target customers in the digital realm is here and thriving. Programmatic media buying’s growth can be largely attributed to its impact on audiences and innovation in digital marketing. It is a technology that is here to stay.

How Does L2TMedia Use Programmatic Media Buying?

We are able to put programmatic media buying into practice for our dealer customers because of our understanding of how to track internet users and their visits.  We use keywords that have been proven to show results according to Google Analytics and Google Adwords. Our PSP partnership with Google allows us access to the most detailed statistics, which means we are able to determine the optimal search terms. We set detailed parameters for each advertising campaign and actively monitor each campaign to ensure our customer’s goals are being met. We work directly with each client to determine the best target markets and set the criterion for ad placement.

Why is Programmatic Media Buying Effective for the Automotive Industry?

The automotive industry is an ideal industry for programmatic media buying because users buy cars in very predictable patterns, and typically do a substantial amount of research before making a decision. Since we use cookies to determine the best messages for the best customers, ads appear to be tailor made for each internet shopper.

This approach helps to stretch budgets further by only targeting people that are in the car-buying process. Think of it this way—would you show an ad for dog food to someone that does not have a dog? This applies to the automotive industry in the same way. Why spend money showing an ad to someone that does not plan to buy a car when you can instead use that money to advertise to a qualified potential car buyer?

See the Results of Programmatic Media Buying for Yourself!

If your company could benefit from more targeted ad campaigns and programmatic media buying strategies, contact us! Our team would love to give you a free evaluation of your current marketing plans and share strategies to help you improve your results. Visit l2tmedia.com or call us at 888.331.9292.

Incentives and current offers can be exceptionally effective conversion tools for your paid search (PPC) campaigns. Google has rolled out a new ad extension called “Callouts” that allows you to add even more text to your ad to spotlight incentives, offers, and sales, and highlight what separates you from other car dealerships.

What Are Callout Extensions?

Callout extensions are very similar to the sitelink extensions, but without the links to a specific page. At L2TMedia we recommend that all of our clients use this feature to draw more attention to their ads by using unique selling points and/or product details and benefits that you may not be able to fit in your ad copy. You can use up to four different callouts in your ad; each has a limit of 25 characters and each campaign must have a minimum of at least two callouts in order to display as part of your ad.

Callout extensions can be used in combination with other ad extension formats, such as sitelinks, location extensions, and call extensions. You can also add callouts at the campaign, ad group or account level, allowing you to use general info at the account or campaign level and specific callouts for each ad group. For example, you may have been “In Business For 75 years” or are “Family Owned and Operated.” You can add this to the account level with more general callouts and another in the ad group level for current stock info for a certain make vehicle (as seen above). Perhaps you have over 100 vehicle makes or models you are trying to unload; the advantage of using callouts to display this information is that you don’t have to tap into the precious, limited space of the ad copy.

Why Would You Use Callout Extensions?

At L2TMedia, we ask, why not? The use of callout extensions enhances the performance of your campaigns (including improving click-through rates) and gives your dealership an opportunity to stand out per your specific messaging in the search results. Extra Bonus you get with Callouts: you don’t have to pay anything more to utilize this feature!

Here are a few good reasons to incorporate callouts in your search campaign:

• You can differentiate yourself from the many competing dealerships in your area
• You can add them at different levels (account, campaign or ad group) depending on whether you want to highlight general or specific information, such as sales that your dealership is running that month
• You can specify the dates, days of the week and time of day for your callouts to display with your ads

A Few Closing Notes about Callouts

While Google will generally show your higher-performing and most useful arrangements of extensions and formats in search results, ultimately, you don’t have control over what shows up where.

As mentioned earlier, callout extensions do not cost you extra, as they are simply extensions of your current ads. Costs would be incurred when that ad is clicked on.