What Is Programmatic Advertising? How It Works, Types and Examples
The banner you see on a news site may have been sold in an auction held as you opened the page. While the page loads, the ad space goes up for auction in milliseconds, and the winning advertiser’s ad appears on screen.
Short answer: Programmatic advertising is the automated, data-driven buying and selling of digital ad space through software. It’s also known as programmatic ad buying or programmatic media buying. Rather than buying space on a particular site, the advertiser buys individual impressions that reach the audience it has defined.
In this article you’ll find:
- How programmatic advertising works — and what it isn’t
- How it’s used alongside direct buying
- Programmatic advertising types and formats
- Its advantages and example use cases
- How to run programmatic advertising, step by step
How Does Programmatic Advertising Work?
The sale of an impression begins the moment a user opens a page:
- The publisher’s ad space is put up for sale through a supply-side platform (SSP).
- The space is offered to buyers on an ad exchange.
- Demand-side platforms (DSPs) used by advertisers place bids based on data about the user and the page.
- The highest bidder wins, and their ad is shown.
The bid depends on whether the user fits the target audience, the page content, the device, the location and how many times that person has already seen the ad. This instant auction is called real-time bidding (RTB).
In Türkiye, it’s now the main way digital ads are bought. The 2024 report by IAB Türkiye and Deloitte estimates digital ad investment made through programmatic methods at TRY 111.4 billion — 70.5% of total digital media investment.
What Programmatic Advertising Is Not
- It’s not just RTB: Deals agreed with a publisher in advance and executed automatically also count as programmatic.
- It doesn’t run without people: Software places the bids, but people set the goals, the audience and the brand-safety rules.
- It’s not only for big brands: With the right audience definition, mid-sized campaigns can benefit from programmatic too.
Direct Buying vs. Programmatic Buying
In direct buying, ad space is bought through a one-to-one agreement with the publisher. The brand appears on a specific site, page or period; sponsorships and content partnerships are also bought this way. In programmatic, the target audience is defined first, and the ad is shown to that audience across different sites.
The two methods aren’t alternatives; they complement each other. Many campaigns use both, and the campaign’s goal determines which one leads.
| Direct buying | Programmatic buying |
How it’s done | Agreed one-to-one with the publisher | Run automatically through platforms |
Best for | Sponsorships, custom content, visibility on specific pages and dates | Audience targeting at scale |
Targeting | The publisher’s audience and content context | Audience, location, interests and context |
Planning | Placement and timing are fixed in advance | Settings can be changed while the campaign runs |
Types of Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic advertising types differ by how the ad space is bought. The definitions are based on the transaction types described in Google Ad Manager Help:
Type | How it works | When to choose it |
Open auction (RTB) | Ad space is sold in a real-time auction open to every buyer who wants to take part. | Broad reach and audience targeting |
Private marketplace (PMP) | The publisher opens the auction only to the buyers it invites. | Appearing on premium publishers |
Programmatic direct deal | Price and inventory are agreed with the publisher in advance, and delivery runs automatically. | Planned visibility on specific publishers and placements |
Programmatic Advertising Formats
- Display: image banner placements on websites
- Video: video ads that play before or within content
- Native: ads that blend naturally into the content feed
- Digital out-of-home (DOOH): screen-based billboards and panels. We explain how out-of-home works together with digital in Does Out-of-Home Advertising Still Work?
- Connected TV (CTV): ad placements on internet-connected TVs
Advantages of Programmatic Advertising
- Audience targeting: First-party data, user behavior and contextual targeting based on page content can be used together.
- Frequency control: You can cap how many times the same person sees an ad.
- Real-time optimization: Bid, placement and audience settings can be updated while the campaign is live.
- Measurability: Impression, viewability, click and conversion data can be reported by placement.
We cover how uncapped frequency affects your budget in Why Is Your Ad Budget Quietly Disappearing?
Programmatic Advertising Examples
The examples below are scenarios showing how programmatic can be used for different goals:
- E-commerce: A visitor who left a product in their cart sees a retargeting ad for that product on the news and content sites they browse.
- Product launch: To build awareness for a new product, video and native ads run on selected publishers through a private marketplace (PMP).
- Local campaign: For a store opening, impressions are bought only on digital out-of-home screens and mobile devices in the surrounding district.
- B2B: People reading industry news are reached through contextual targeting based on the page’s topic.
How Do You Run Programmatic Advertising?
A programmatic campaign is usually set up in five steps:
- Goal and KPI: Define the campaign’s goal — awareness, traffic or conversions — and the metric that will measure success.
- Audience definition: Build the target audience from first-party data, interests and contextual signals.
- Inventory and deal type: Choose the publishers, formats and buying type.
- Brand-safety rules: Set site lists, a frequency cap and a viewability target before launch.
- Launch and optimization: Adjust bids and placements based on data, and report results regularly.
Programmatic Advertising with StormX Media
Programmatic Advertising & Media Buying starts with audience and inventory strategy. We use DSPs, led by DV360, and define allowlists and blocklists before the campaign is set up. We share programmatic, search and social media results in a single report.
We can assess together whether programmatic is right for your brand in a free 20-minute strategy call. You can reach us through our Contact page.
