The internet explosion paved the way for today’s booming digital marketing landscape, with programmatic advertising at the epicentre. Traditional marketing methods have taken a backseat in accelerating revenue growth in the post-pandemic world.

B2B marketers increasingly rely on programmatic strategies to realize positive business outcomes. Programmatic ad spend has increased exponentially, accounting for 84.5% of all digital display ad in 2020. The eMarketer report forecast that it will reach $79.61 billion in 2021.

Equip Yourself with These Programmatic Advertising Skills

B2B marketers have to be equipped with the right skills to cater to changing roles and responsibilities in a highly competitive market landscape. If your brand is a go-getter in the digital marketing domain, make sure your team isn’t missing out on these critical programmatic marketing skills:

1. You take good note of DATA: You can’t be sure with programmatic strategies until and unless you are 100% sure with data, that is user intent data. If you don’t know who your buyers are and what they want, you can’t target effectively, can you? To hit the bull’s eye, take a good look at data collection, analysis and data quality. Unstructured data in bulk results in unnecessary stress, and certainly you don’t want that. Third party cookies are phasing out, bringing first party data to the forefront. Keeping user data security in mind, business organizations are focusing on live intent signals for audience segmentation, targeting and retargeting users on a large scale and within a short span of time. Tap data sources to reach your goals.

2. You mind your budget: Return on ad spends (ROAS) is a hot topic in the programmatic advertising world. A rule of thumb is that good ad spend strategy should mirror investment strategy. What price do you put on the ability to generate brand awareness and brand loyalty? The time it takes to determine ROAS will depend on whether your company is new or established. Evaluate your competitors to stay ahead in the game, the more the competition, the more you need to invest in paid media. Align programmatic methods with search and social media ads to drive website traffic and conversion rates. The trending marketing mix is 80% of digital ads run through programmatic channels, and 20% through search and social media ads like Facebook and LinkedIn.

3. You understand your buyer journey: Understanding your prospective buyers and tagging along with them in the marketing funnel is crucial. You must ensure your marketing campaigns target the right audience groups, based on their browsing history, gender, geolocation, preferences, etc. As a B2B marketer you have to analyze the most important touch points where you can interact with your target audience and create user experience that’s beyond just a simple TV ad or display ad. Being with buyers, wherever they are in the marketing funnel, helps you to build stronger relationships, thus nurturing brand loyalty and driving conversion rates. Live intent signals come in handy in analyzing those buyer journeys as they’re unfolding.

Collecting user data in bulk and opting for programmatic strategies is just not enough in this era of cut-throat competition. You must align sales and marketing around structured and relevant data to drive revenue growth. To take that thinking further, have a look around our other blogs and resources about programmatic approaches.