Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising is the automated buying of ad inventory across the open web — millions of websites, apps, streaming platforms, and digital screens that exist outside the walled gardens of Google and Meta. While Google and Meta limit you to their own properties and partner networks, programmatic gives you access to premium inventory across the entire internet through demand-side platforms (DSPs) like The Trade Desk, DV360, and Amazon DSP. You get more reach, lower CPMs, and far more granular targeting options.

Programmatic is the perfect upper-funnel complement to your performance channels. By building awareness and priming audiences through display, CTV, and native ads, you create a halo effect that makes your Google Search and Meta conversion campaigns dramatically more efficient. Consumers who've already seen your brand through programmatic touchpoints convert at higher rates and lower costs when they encounter your bottom-funnel ads. We measure this lift rigorously through incrementality testing and media mix modeling.

Programmatic offers targeting capabilities that go far beyond what's available on any single platform. You can target by first-party data (your CRM lists and website visitors), third-party audience segments (purchase behavior, interests, demographics), contextual signals (content categories, keywords on page), geolocation (down to specific addresses and points of interest), weather triggers, device type, and even custom-built lookalike models through data management platforms. The precision is surgical.

We typically recommend a minimum of $10,000/month in programmatic spend to generate meaningful data and optimize effectively across channels. However, the right budget depends on your goals and the channels you want to activate. CTV generally requires higher minimums than display or native. We'll be direct about whether programmatic is the right investment for your business at your current scale — and if it's not, we'll tell you that too.

We don't just look at click-through rates — that's a vanity metric for upper-funnel media. Instead, we measure brand lift, incremental reach, site visit lift, and the downstream impact on your conversion campaigns. We use multi-touch attribution, media mix modeling, and controlled incrementality tests to quantify the halo effect programmatic creates across your entire marketing ecosystem. You'll see exactly how awareness spend translates to bottom-line revenue.

We're platform-agnostic and choose the DSP that best fits your goals. We work with The Trade Desk (our primary DSP for most clients), Google DV360, Amazon DSP (essential for Amazon sellers), StackAdapt, and several others. For data management, we integrate with LiveRamp, Oracle Data Cloud, and Lotame. Our team holds certifications across all major platforms and stays current on every product update.

We start with a media strategy session to understand your business goals, target audiences, and existing marketing mix. Then we build a comprehensive programmatic plan — including channel mix, targeting strategy, creative specifications, and measurement framework. We handle all DSP setup, audience building, and creative trafficking. Most clients are live within 2-3 weeks of signing. You approve the strategy before we spend a dollar.