While many B2B brands go about their business quite happily without giving programmatic a second thought, others are starting to realise the value it can bring. So let’s have a look at some of the ways in which programmatic – when used in the right way – can actually be a rewarding approach for B2B brands. Among other things, programmatic can help you in these four areas:
1. Targeting
B2B brands often have a more specific idea about who their customers are, and this is actually an advantage with programmatic, as the more you know about your audience, the more targeted your efforts can be – it’s not all about scale.
2. Reach
While programmatic allows marketers to target specific audiences, it can also be used to reach previously untapped audiences. The reach of programmatic can be huge, and while many B2B brands may not see this as a priority, the ability to reach new audiences can, naturally, be invaluable.
3. Efficiency
As our report – Unleash the power of programmatic in B2B – details, when done in the right way, programmatic is an efficient approach to digital advertising – obviously a priority in B2B. By using data in the right way, it’s possible to be incredibly targeted (for instance, if you use geo-targeting to reach people in a certain postcode near an event).
Gareth Neville, UK head of programmatic at Hitwise, says: “In B2B you want to eliminate as much waste as you can, and programmatic allows you to do that – whether that’s by layering data to define the salary bracket for a particular job type, or even drilling into particular inventory sources and sites to ensure you’re advertising within your chosen sector.”
4. Adaptability
Programmatic is the perfect platform for testing and learning – in fact, many would argue that a programmatic campaign wouldn’t be worthwhile unless you continued to test and learn. It’s an extremely adaptable way of advertising, which means tweaking a campaign as you go isn’t just a benefit, it’s actually recommended.
Kenneth Kulbok, programmatic advertising lead EMEA at LinkedIn, explains: “For B2B marketers, there’s a great deal of flexibility in how they can operate programmatically. They can leverage data they have on their side to target users they already know, across publishers. Equally, if they have any gaps in their data sets or want to work on top of the funnel prospecting, they can work with publishers that have those data sets available to fill the gaps with their own data.”
