Introduction
In the intricate ecosystem of programmatic advertising, where sophisticated technologies, vast data flows, and multiple actors with diverse interests converge, there is a central element whose experience and behavior ultimately dictate the success of any campaign: the user. Often, the focus is on platforms, algorithms, and optimization strategies, but it is essential to remember that the ultimate purpose of programmatic is to impact a real person in a relevant and non-intrusive way. Understanding the user’s role, how they interact with digital media, and how their behavior is the basis for segmentation and personalization is crucial for creating effective programmatic strategies. This article delves into the user’s position within the programmatic ecosystem, exploring their interaction with advertising, the importance of their experience, and how their behavior drives the entire process.
The User as the Starting Point
The user, or audience, is the most important actor in the programmatic ecosystem and the starting point of the entire process. A user is any visitor to a website or application. They are potential customers for advertisers, who seek to show them ads that persuade them to purchase their products and services.
The programmatic buying process begins precisely when a user visits a digital medium (a website, an application) that has advertising spaces available. This visit creates an opportunity to display an ad, which triggers a series of technological events within milliseconds to determine which ad is most suitable for that user at that time and place.
User Behavior and Identification
User behavior in the digital environment is the primary source of data that fuels programmatic advertising. Every interaction leaves a “digital footprint”, whether it’s Browse pages, clicking, performing searches, filling out forms, or interacting with content. This vast amount of information is collected and analyzed to create user profiles that allow advertisers to segment their campaigns accurately.
User identification has traditionally been possible through technologies like cookies in the web environment. Cookies, fragments of information generated by the browser, allow websites to keep a record of each user and their requests. Third-party cookies have been fundamental for tracking users across different sites and building audience profiles for advertising purposes. In the mobile environment, identification is done through Device IDs.
However, growing privacy awareness and regulations like GDPR are limiting the use of third-party cookies. This is driving the search for alternative identification solutions, such as Universal IDs based on deterministic data and the increasing use of First-Party Data, which is the data that companies collect directly from their users with their consent.
The User and Advertising Relevance
Programmatic advertising seeks to maximize the relevance of the ad for the user. Unlike traditional advertising that often reaches mass audiences, programmatic, using data and segmentation, attempts to show the right ad to the right person at the right time. This improves the user experience by presenting them with advertising content that may be of interest to them, instead of irrelevant ads that can be intrusive.
The ability to segment audiences according to user profiles defined by first-party data, third-party data, and shared data is what allows targeting highly qualified audiences, maximizing investment, and achieving completely revolutionary segment and message personalization capabilities.
User Experience and the Perception of Advertising
The user’s experience with programmatic advertising is a critical factor for long-term success. Overly intrusive, slow-loading, or irrelevant ads can lead to frustration and cause users to employ Ad Blockers. Ad Blockers, programs that prevent access to different types of ads, aim to allow users to browse without distractions or interruptions. This represents a significant challenge for the industry and underscores the need to deliver a quality advertising experience.
Aspects like viewability are fundamental to the user experience. A viewable impression is when an ad has appeared within the browser and had the opportunity to be seen by a person. Programmatic allows optimizing for viewability, ensuring that advertisers only pay for impressions that truly had the opportunity to be seen, which in turn contributes to a better user experience by reducing non-viewable ads or ads loaded “below the fold”.
Brand Safety also impacts the user experience, although from a different perspective. It refers to ensuring that a brand’s ads appear in a suitable environment, avoiding sites with violent, adult, or other inappropriate content. Although brand safety is primarily an advertiser’s concern to protect their image, it also contributes to a better user experience by preventing them from encountering ads from recognized brands in inappropriate contexts.
The User in a Post-Cookie World
With the decrease in the use of third-party cookies, the user’s role in the programmatic ecosystem is evolving. Their First-Party Data becomes more valuable. Companies are focusing on obtaining data directly from their users with explicit consent, building direct relationships, and offering value in exchange for that information.
Furthermore, the industry is exploring new ways to understand and reach users in an aggregated or contextual manner, without the need for persistent individual identifiers. The focus is shifting towards understanding behavioral patterns at a cohort level and the contextual relevance of content, ensuring that ads are pertinent based on what the user is seeing or reading at a given moment.
Conclusion
The user is the central pillar of programmatic advertising. Their behavior in the digital environment generates the data that enables segmentation and personalization, and their experience with advertising determines the effectiveness of campaigns. Although technology and automated processes are complex, success in programmatic depends on the ability to impact the user in a relevant way, respecting their privacy and offering a quality advertising experience. In a post-cookie world, a deep understanding of the user through First-Party Data and adapting to new forms of segmentation and measurement will be even more crucial. Placing the user at the center of the programmatic strategy, always seeking relevance, transparency, and a positive experience, is the key to building lasting relationships with audiences and achieving business objectives in this dynamic digital ecosystem.