Advertising
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Programmatic Advertising
Buying ad inventory through software and auctions instead of one-off human insertions. DSPs, SSPs, and exchanges sit in that chain.
Detailed explanation
Programmatic covers display, video, and native sold in milliseconds via RTB. Scale and audience targeting are the upside; brand safety, invalid traffic, and opaque fees are the risks.
Programmatic guaranteed is not the same as the open exchange. Cheap open-market impressions can be unseen or unsafe; viewability and IVT reports matter.
Small teams using Meta or Google automation are not running a classic open-web DSP. Use the word precisely in budget conversations.
Frequently asked questions
- Is programmatic only banners?
- No. Video, native, audio, and connected TV can all trade programmatically.
- Why can a cheap CPM be a warning?
- Unseen inventory, bots, or unsafe sites pull the price down. Check viewability and invalid-traffic reports.
Related terms
Internal links for the topic cluster — read these concepts together.
- DSPDemand-Side Platform: software advertisers use to buy impressions across programmatic exchanges. Bids, audiences, and frequency live here.
- SSPSupply-Side Platform: software publishers use to offer inventory to programmatic demand and try to maximize yield.
- Real-Time BiddingSelling a single impression in an auction that finishes in milliseconds as the page loads. The price is not a preprinted package; the bid follows that user and context.
- Display AdvertisingBanners, native units, and other visual formats on sites and apps. Unlike search text ads, they show up before someone has typed a query into the box.
- CPMCPM (Cost Per Mille) is the cost of 1,000 ad impressions; it is one of the most common media buying units.