Programmatic is ultimately the automation of buying ads largely powered with data, which is primarily done through ad platforms. This is an extension of the traditional direct buys done over the phone or in a non-digital form as it becomes data driven & real time via an auction process the same you see on Google / FB. It is largely bought on a dynamic CPM basis. Personally for me, anything automated through an auction process for buying ads is programmatic, so search/social can by definition considered "programmatic" but is often grouped in its own channels because of some legacy things, especially bidding types where its still common to buy on a CPC basis. Ultimately everything is becoming programmatic. First it was banners (display), then it became video / Mobile App & now you see all emerging channels like audio / native / CTV / OOH all offer programmatic buying. The only things that aren't will be traditional offline pieces like print. Platforms exists within the programmatic world and are normally labelled as a DSP or a Demand Side Platform. Google has DV360 as their enterprise solution & is the largest DSP globally: imagine Google Ads but on steroids with more than just Google inventory / tools. Amazon DSP exists and is fast becoming no.2. Other popular platforms include TTD (The Trade Desk), MediaMath, Adobe Advertising Cloud & Xandr Invest. If you want to learn more about programmatic, aside from trying to understanding r/adops or r/programmatic , there are decent courses on the Google Skillshop (choose the GMP ones) and TTD made their Edge Academy free 2 weeks ago. That is actually quite nice in understanding programmatic if you ignore some of their sales push. Answer from goodgoaj on reddit.com
Reddit
reddit.com › r/ppc › eli5: how does programmatic advertising work?
r/PPC on Reddit: ELI5: How does programmatic advertising work?
April 24, 2020 -
I hear about programmatic all the time, but it's still an enigma to me.
I understand it's digital advertising across multiple channels. Are there specific softwares that are used for this kind of advertising? Are there some companies that do it particularly well? What makes it different than running FB, Google, and other similar ad platforms.
Thanks!
Top answer 1 of 9
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Programmatic is ultimately the automation of buying ads largely powered with data, which is primarily done through ad platforms. This is an extension of the traditional direct buys done over the phone or in a non-digital form as it becomes data driven & real time via an auction process the same you see on Google / FB. It is largely bought on a dynamic CPM basis. Personally for me, anything automated through an auction process for buying ads is programmatic, so search/social can by definition considered "programmatic" but is often grouped in its own channels because of some legacy things, especially bidding types where its still common to buy on a CPC basis. Ultimately everything is becoming programmatic. First it was banners (display), then it became video / Mobile App & now you see all emerging channels like audio / native / CTV / OOH all offer programmatic buying. The only things that aren't will be traditional offline pieces like print. Platforms exists within the programmatic world and are normally labelled as a DSP or a Demand Side Platform. Google has DV360 as their enterprise solution & is the largest DSP globally: imagine Google Ads but on steroids with more than just Google inventory / tools. Amazon DSP exists and is fast becoming no.2. Other popular platforms include TTD (The Trade Desk), MediaMath, Adobe Advertising Cloud & Xandr Invest. If you want to learn more about programmatic, aside from trying to understanding r/adops or r/programmatic , there are decent courses on the Google Skillshop (choose the GMP ones) and TTD made their Edge Academy free 2 weeks ago. That is actually quite nice in understanding programmatic if you ignore some of their sales push.
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ELI5 version: when someone visits a website that has an ad unit on it (such as a google display banner), an auction occurs in real time to see who’s ad serves that person. There may be here hundreds or thousands of potential advertisers who could have their ad serve, but only one can win (because there is only one ad unit for this one ad impression). Using data such as IP address, locations, device type, browser, etc, each advertiser bids how much they are willing to pay to win the impression. The highest bid wins and has their ad served. This all happens in microseconds. The longer version: a great deal of display, native, and mobile app ad inventory is now available to buy programmatically. This means that instead of being exclusively available on a single ad network that handles both the buying and the selling, you have a vendor called a Supply Side Platform that handles the selling on behalf of the publisher, and a vendor called a Demand Side Platform that handles the buying on behalf of the advertiser. Let’s use one of the most common SSPs as an example: Google (this used to be called DFP). A publisher puts Google display inventory on their site via Google’s SSP. Now any DSP with access to Google SSP can bid on ad impressions on this publisher. So a user comes to this publisher, and now when the page loads they need to see an ad. Dozens of DSPs representing hundreds or thousands of advertisers get notified that this person needs to see an ad. This notification is called a bid request. It contains data useful to the DSP in determining how much that impression is worth for each is their advertisers. Such data includes IP address, device type, operating system, location, etc. their may even be cookie data that further helps the DSP look up additional info on the user. In any case, each DSP will take the data in this bid request and determine how much they are willing to bid for each of their advertisers. The highest bid will be accepted by the SSP, and the ad for that bidder will be served. This all happens in microseconds. It is a giant, high-speed auction. How is this different the big ad networks you are used to? In many ways. A traditional ad network would handle both the buying and the selling of ads. Generally they buy huge chunks of impressions from publishers at fixed CPMs, and then separately they fill those impressions with ads from their advertisers at higher CPMs, making money off the difference. Or if it is a CPC as network, making money off the difference between how much CPC they were pairs from the advertisers minus the CPM they paid the publisher. Google and Facebook are very different. To my understanding, google search doesn’t have much of any of an “auction.” Rather it looks at a shitload of data including CPC bid, keywords, qualify of the landing page, etc etc and then determines for each search what order it will serve its paid results in. Facebook claims to have an auction very similar to programmatic. However there are some critical differences. Most critically, Facebook handles both the buying and selling, so they determine both who needs to see an ad, and the CPM bid for each potential advertiser. The way they determine that CPM bid, supposedly, has to do with the click thru rate of the ad, plus some mysterious engagement and quality scores of each ad. The idea being that they are trying to align bids with ads that a most relevant to both the advertiser and the ad viewer. But who knows what the fuck is even real on Facebook, it’s all a black box and we have to take them at their word. This is my personal experience, but with one exception I have never been able to make programmatic ad buying work for a performance campaign. You will only be as good as your DSPs ability to correctly bid on the right impression, and I don’t see that happening. Usually the click thru rate is dog shit and the CPM is higher than I would pay on a normal direct ad network buy. The only time I’ve made a DSP work was when I worked for a mobile app developer that built its own DSP in-house. Because they owned the DSP, they ended up with an absolutely enormous graph of device IDs that they could cross reference with player lifetime value data in their game. In mobile app bid requests, device ID is an available data point and is way better at uniquely identifying a specific user than the data available via website bid requests. Because of this we could confidently predict the value of each bid request and make smart bids.
Digital Marketing Institute
digitalmarketinginstitute.com › blog › the-beginners-guide-to-programmatic-advertising
The Beginner’s Guide to Programmatic Advertising | Digital Marketing Institute
August 25, 2025 - Your ad could be brilliant, but if it’s not in the right place and targeted at the right people, your campaign will never reach its true potential. Find out what programmatic advertising is, targeting best practices and examine four brands doing it right.
ELI5: How does programmatic advertising work?
Programmatic is ultimately the automation of buying ads largely powered with data, which is primarily done through ad platforms. This is an extension of the traditional direct buys done over the phone or in a non-digital form as it becomes data driven & real time via an auction process the same you see on Google / FB. It is largely bought on a dynamic CPM basis. Personally for me, anything automated through an auction process for buying ads is programmatic, so search/social can by definition considered "programmatic" but is often grouped in its own channels because of some legacy things, especially bidding types where its still common to buy on a CPC basis. Ultimately everything is becoming programmatic. First it was banners (display), then it became video / Mobile App & now you see all emerging channels like audio / native / CTV / OOH all offer programmatic buying. The only things that aren't will be traditional offline pieces like print. Platforms exists within the programmatic world and are normally labelled as a DSP or a Demand Side Platform. Google has DV360 as their enterprise solution & is the largest DSP globally: imagine Google Ads but on steroids with more than just Google inventory / tools. Amazon DSP exists and is fast becoming no.2. Other popular platforms include TTD (The Trade Desk), MediaMath, Adobe Advertising Cloud & Xandr Invest. If you want to learn more about programmatic, aside from trying to understanding r/adops or r/programmatic , there are decent courses on the Google Skillshop (choose the GMP ones) and TTD made their Edge Academy free 2 weeks ago. That is actually quite nice in understanding programmatic if you ignore some of their sales push. More on reddit.com
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April 24, 2020Getting Started With Programmatic Advertising | Reddit
Programmatic advertising leverages automated media buying to help you connect with your target audience faster. More on business.reddit.com
New to Ad Tech? Here's a Simple Guide to Programmatic Advertising
Hey everyone! 👋 I'm new to ad tech and recently learned about programmatic advertising. It seems like a big part of modern digital marketing, but I… More on reddit.com
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July 9, 2024Understanding Programmatic Advertising: A Must-Know for Digital Marketers
Have you dove into it, dwelled on the topic, embraced the rich tapestry and unnecessarily concluded it all in one final paragraph? This stinks of low effort LLM. More on reddit.com
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August 21, 2024How do I measure programmatic advertising?
Impressions, clicks, and actions are three main ways to measure your programmatic advertising campaign, but they are just starting points. You can also measure key performance indicators (KPIs) that map back to your business objectives. Below is a helpful guide; utilize the metrics and OKRs most relevant to your objective:
advertising.amazon.com
advertising.amazon.com › blog › programmatic-advertising
Programmatic Advertising - What It Is and How It Works | Amazon Ads
How much does programmatic advertising cost?
The cost of programmatic advertising varies and is generally based on CPM. CPMs range in price based on who you’re trying to reach, supply settings, advertising budget, and the amount of time the campaign has to run. Adjusting these factors will change the end price for the campaign. For example, holding everything else constant, when you’re reaching a broad audience, the CPM is typically less than when you are trying to reach a more niche audience. Targeting and ad group variables impact the CPMs required to secure inventory. With programmatic, advertisers are charged prices through RTB.
advertising.amazon.com
advertising.amazon.com › blog › programmatic-advertising
Programmatic Advertising - What It Is and How It Works | Amazon Ads
What is the difference between programmatic advertising and display ads?
Display ads could be a type of programmatic ad. While display ads are the ads themselves, programmatic advertising is the process of distributing these ads. Display advertising is also a type of digital advertising, but it does not necessarily need to be programmatic.
advertising.amazon.com
advertising.amazon.com › blog › programmatic-advertising
Programmatic Advertising - What It Is and How It Works | Amazon Ads
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Improvado
improvado.io › blog › martech › the ultimate guide to programmatic advertising: how it works in 2025
Programmatic Advertising: What It Is, How It Works & Why It Matters in 2025
November 19, 2025 - Programmatic advertising is the automated, real-time buying and selling of digital ad space using software and algorithms. The process works through an ecosystem of platforms, including Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) for advertisers and Supply-Side ...
Outbrain
outbrain.com › home › programmatic › introduction to programmatic advertising
Programmatic Advertising Explained [as Humanly as Possible]
September 30, 2024 - The whole point of programmatic advertising is to maximize precision and optimize through continuous improvement. Constantly monitor your campaigns, run deep analytics, and figure out what’s working and what’s not. Most DSPs provide dashboards with real-time campaign data.
Amazon Ads
advertising.amazon.com › blog › programmatic-advertising
Programmatic Advertising - What It Is and How It Works | Amazon Ads
August 8, 2023 - Programmatic advertising refers to the practice of automating media buying and creating digital ads with the use of marketing technology. For an effective programmatic advertising strategy, use an automated workflow to effectively deliver ads ...
Publift
publift.com › home › adteach › what is programmatic advertising? how does it work?
What Is Programmatic Advertising? How Does It Work? | Publift
Programmatic advertising is the process of automatically buying and selling digital advertising space. It’s a smarter, faster alternative to manual advertising.
Simulmedia
simulmedia.com › home › tv advertising glossary › what is programmatic advertising? how does it work?
What is Programmatic Advertising? How Does it Work?
At its most basic level, programmatic advertising can be broken down into the following steps: The consumer clicks on the publisher’s website. This triggers the supply-side platform to automatically put an ad impression up for auction on behalf of the publisher. A demand-side platform determines if the impression is worth bidding for based on the criteria set by the advertiser.
Aidigital
aidigital.com › home › blog › programmatic advertising: what it is, how it works, and why it matters in 2026
Programmatic advertising: What it is, how it works, and why it matters in 2026 — AI Digital
3 weeks ago - Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of digital ad inventory, executed by software that decides—in milliseconds—whether to bid on a single impression, how much to pay, and which creative to serve.
Search Engine Journal
searchenginejournal.com › sej › programmatic advertising
What Is Programmatic Advertising? How Does It Work?
April 22, 2024 - Programmatic is the best way to buy ad inventory to reach the masses due to the abundance of cross-platform inventory. Advertisers can also quickly adjust their audience strategies to capitalize on what is or isn’t working, ensuring their ads are always optimized.
Epsilon
epsilon.com › us home › epsilon blog › 8 benefits of programmatic advertising worth considering: why it's worth the investment
8 benefits of programmatic advertising worth considering: Why it's worth the investment
December 9, 2024 - Programmatic advertising works by automating the ad-buying process using demand-side platforms (DSPs), supply-side platforms (SSPs) and ad exchanges.
StackAdapt
stackadapt.com › resources › blog
What Is Programmatic Advertising? How It Works
December 4, 2024 - Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how the whole process works: Let’s say an advertiser wants to promote a new product or service using programmatic advertising.
Operative
operative.com › home › resources › programmatic advertising – what is it and how does it work?
Programmatic Advertising - What is it and How Does it Work? - Operative
January 18, 2024 - Let’s start with the basics. Programmatic advertising uses automated technology to manage the media buying and selling process between advertisers and publishers. Programmatic advertising comes in a number of formats, from guaranteed media ...
Adobe
business.adobe.com › blog › basics › programmatic-advertising-made-simple
What is programmatic advertising?
June 25, 2025 - Because the traditional buying and selling of display ads is a largely manual process that involves human actions and decision-making, it can be time consuming and laborious. Conversely, programmatic advertising is automated, with the buying and selling of ad space largely handled by AI and advertising technology platforms such as DSPs and SSPs. Advertising workflows are generally more efficient with programmatic advertising.
Adsmurai
adsmurai.com › en › articles › what-is-programmatic-advertising-and-how-does-it-work
What is programmatic advertising and how does it work - Adsmurai
Thanks to data-driven algorithms, users are exposed to ads more aligned with their interests in real-time. At the same time, advertisers can improve their ad interaction and conversion rates. Programmatic creativity enables the use of data-driven creative strategies to deliver highly personalized, dynamic, and contextually relevant advertising content to users.
Epom
epom.com › blog › programmatic › what-is-programmatic-advertising
What is Programmatic Advertising: The Comprehensive Guide
June 11, 2025 - Three hypothetical advertisers have CPMs of $4.50, $5.00, and $4.70. Ad exchange has determined the second to be the highest CPM, so their bid wins and has an ad placement on the publisher’s website. The whole process takes about 100 milliseconds, making it quicker than my Friday work shift. Feeling inspired already? Well, as you can see, the programmatic is not a cosmic technology, it’s understandable and fast, especially with the right tech.
Agilityads
agilityads.com › blog › what-are-programmatic-ads
What Are Programmatic Ads & How Do They Work? - Agility - Precision Brand Advertising
Programmatic advertising eliminates the tedious traditional ad-buying process by using highly effective, efficient technology to do the most repetitive aspects of the task. The results are highly-targeted, cost-efficient ads across the open internet.
Indeed
indeed.com › career-advice › career-development › what-is-programmatic-advertising
What Is Programmatic Advertising? (Plus Types and Benefits)
2 weeks ago - There are many professional skills and traits that make you successful in your career. Learning how to communicate in the workplace and build good relationships are key.
AppsFlyer
appsflyer.com › appsflyer homepage › media buying on autopilot: the ultimate guide to programmatic advertising › measurement & analytics › media buying on autopilot: the ultimate guide to programmatic advertising
Programmatic advertising - The complete guide | AppsFlyer
October 12, 2021 - The explosive growth in programmatic is a result of how it has streamlined the advertising process at scale. In the past, the media-buying process was slow and manual, involving direct sales between publishers, agencies, and advertisers to negotiate for the best ad inventory. Advertisers and publishers worked with agencies as middlemen to negotiate placement and time, and carry out audience research.
Camphouse
camphouse.io › home › blog › what is programmatic media buying and how does it work?
What Is Programmatic Media Buying and How Does It Work? | Camphouse
February 17, 2025 - DMPs and DSPs play different roles in programmatic advertising. DMPs focus on collecting, organizing, and analyzing data to create useful audience segments. DSPs use that data to buy ad space across digital channels. Think of DMPs as the intelligence engine, while DSPs handle the actual media buying. At the same time, DSPs act as the execution arm, enabling the actual purchase of ad space based on the insights from the DMP. When integrated seamlessly, DMPs and DSPs work in tandem to drive successful programmatic campaigns, with the DMP ensuring the right target is identified and the DSP ensuring the ad reaches that target efficiently.