Evolution of Programmatic Buying – Private Marketplace

According to eMarketer, US advertisers will spend more than $9 billion on programmatic advertising by 2017. Programmatic has changed the way advertisers and agencies purchase media as it allows to deliver at scale, targeted and relevant ads in real time to consumers.

Programmatic offers different ways of buying display, video and mobile inventory. One method that is becoming more popular for the last few months is Private Marketplace deals (PMP). Private Marketplace is an invitation only marketplace which allows advertisers to programmatically target premium inventory, which is not available in an open exchange.

As inventory transparency becomes more important due to issues with brand safety and viewability, Private Marketplace is a great way to access premium inventory that once was only available via direct buys.

This inventory is typically offered at a premium cost that can be negotiated depending on the type of PMP deal one chooses to use. Here are two ways of accessing this premium inventory through programmatic:

Private Marketplace

Access to premium publishers

Access to custom ad formats

Optimization controls

Scale across diverse inventory set

Layer audience targeting

Inventory is not guaranteed

Inventory is purchased via private fixed rate or private auction

Automated Guaranteed

Access to premium publishers

Access to custom ad formats

Inventory is guaranteed

Inventory is purchased via fixed rate only

This option is very similar to purchasing direct

Private Marketplace is relatively new and publishers and platforms are still working through a few hurtles to provide an easy solution to advertisers. Thus, as this type of programmatic buy continues to evolve, it will become easier for advertisers to access this premium inventory via the platforms.

Also, don’t forget to leverage the site performance data from the exchange in order to identify and secure more inventory from premium publisher sites. Private Marketplace should be a complimentary addition to any branding and DR campaigns as it allows for more access to premium inventory.