The Power of A Guarantee For Digital Ads

Steve Hulkower

November 8, 2018

Learn how the increasingly popular Programmatic Guaranteed is bringing a more effective, streamlined and transparent experience to programmatic ad buying.

If you’ve ever bought a home goods product or watched Tommy Boy, you know the influential role a guarantee can play in informing purchasing decisions. “100 Percent Satisfaction Guaranteed” stickers are commonplace for good reason. People like to know they’re getting what they pay for.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a phrase often heard in digital advertising — mostly because many DSPs and marketers have not been able to accurately measure how well ads perform or where their market spend goes.

Enter Programmatic Guaranteed. It is the buying of inventory impressions with guaranteed delivery (reserved traffic) in a PMP auction. This emerging variant of programmatic trading uses a device ID or cookie to match an audience with a specific publisher. The increasingly popular practice is bringing a more effective, streamlined and transparent experience to programmatic ad buying.

There’s a reason this model has become a fast-rising driver of programmatic growth. With Programmatic Guaranteed, the buyer gets guaranteed inventory, access to known-entity publishers, and the ability to optimize multiple campaigns for specific audiences. Publishers win the ability to lock in revenue through advance reservations and provide more complex offers such as tandem ads, homepage takeovers, and share of voice campaigns, along with the peace of mind that they’re dealing with quality brands. Given the convoluted state of the media supply chain, Programmatic Guaranteed presents a refreshing opportunity on both ends.

The rise of Programmatic Guaranteed parallels the continued rise of programmatic trading overall. By next year, 83 percent of US digital display ad dollars will transact programmatically. Programmatic spending hit $25 billion in 2017 and is projected to exceed $43 billion by 2020. By 2018, nearly three-quarters of all video ad dollars will go to programmatic. In many ways, Programmatic Guaranteed puts the efficiency of programmatic on hyper-drive. When compared with traditional tag-based reservations, studies found Programmatic Guaranteed to be more than 50 percent more efficient for the publishers and almost 30 percent more efficient for agencies.

With more DSPs signing up for guaranteed private marketplace integrations, the model also gives the “little guys” a chance for different types of buying. With predictable, transparent auction dynamics, Programmatic Guaranteed affords DSPs the opportunity to win auctions, instead of relying on black boxes such as Google and Facebook.

The promise of guaranteed private marketplace integrations suggests wide adoptions in the future. After all, who can resist the satisfaction of a guarantee?