Investing in advertising is a key step that every company faces in order to maximize profits and drive more and more consumers to final conversion. There are different ways of doing advertising, but today we will focus specifically on using Programmatic.

In the world, in fact, total spending on digital advertising through Programmatic shows an increasing trend, with a growth of 16% YOY in 2020. At the same time it absorbs a growing share of total spending on digital media, with a growth rate of around 5%.

Specifically, Programmatic usage in China shows an even greater growth trend than globally, with +25% YOY in 2020, and a larger share in total digital media spending than globally.

What is Programmatic

Programmatic is a true digital advertising service for creating banner ads that can be integrated into an adv plan for the Chinese market in parallel with the paid advertising features already present in specific Apps and platforms. These include, for example, WeChat, which allows companies to leverage features such as WeChat adv Moments and WeChat banners, but also Weibo, Douyin, and many others.

Compared to the above options, Programmatic focuses more on the accuracy of the adv campaign to achieve an optimal conversion rate. Therefore, we can talk about true performance advertising.

Moreover, thanks to its Artificial Intelligence capabilities, this tool is also able to select the best KOLs to optimize target brand impressions and maximize conversions. So it also lends itself to supporting various promotional strategies for companies beyond those strictly related to advertising.

The advantages of Programmatic

One of the advantages of this tool is definitely its adaptability to a cross-device approach, which allows you to reach your audience accurately and implement effective remarketing strategies.

Another pro related to the use of Programmatic in China comes from the fact that this tool helps companies avoid fake traffic or audiences that are not valid for the set goals. In fact, thanks to a precise analysis of the target audience and the subsequent analysis that is done on the data generated by the advertising campaigns, it allows them to work on the correct target audience. This is very important not only so as not to waste resources invested in the adv campaign on users who would not be interested in the company’s offer, but also so as not to damage the brand’s image, since one of the key mantras for achieving results through advertising is to be able to avoid “disturbing” the consumer to the point of driving them away from the advertisement instead of bringing them closer.

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Programmatic in China: an ally for businesses

Programmatic is therefore not geared toward achieving goals such as positioning, awareness or consideration, but to actual performance. In fact, as proof of this, the various banner ads that consumers encounter while browsing have the sole purpose of redirecting them to the brand’s store, which in the vast majority of cases when it comes to the Chinese digital ecosystem translates to Tmall Flagship Store. This is precisely why if a company decides to make use of Programmatic, it is important to remember to have a distribution channel ready to receive strong visitor traffic.

Of course, there are also other steps that it is important to take before starting this type of activity, such as:

– establishing and defining the buyer personas that make up the target audience for the company’s offer so that adv can be best targeted;

– draw up a media plan together with the partner providing the service, so as to understand what the overall expenditure will be in order to achieve the set goals;

– take time to evaluate the first campaigns launched so that you can further optimize performance on subsequent ones;

– plan from the outset to include remarketing campaigns in your action plan.

When to use Programmatic

Once you have chosen to use Programmatic, it’s time to evaluate the best time to begin its implementation in your digital strategy. In case the budget allows it, of course, the best way would be to use it consistently over the long term, starting one campaign after another. In fact, it should be remembered that by its very nature Programmatic consists of campaigns with a definite beginning and end. This will allow you to continuously improve your approach and achieve your goals more and more effectively.

However, this is not always possible. That is why many brands choose a more timely strategy, which focuses resources on launching campaigns at certain times such as Shopping Festivals to achieve a high number of conversions.

Finally, it should not be forgotten that regardless of how often Programmatic campaigns are launched in China, the best performing option is definitely to integrate this tool as much as possible into a multichannel strategy, so as to guide the consumer to purchase the product through a whole range of different touchpoints.

The 13th Annual Report of the Italy China Council Foundation – ICCF – is Italy’s most authoritative and comprehensive guide to the political, economic and business access scenario in China. Download the excerpt prepared by East Media on Digital Marketing in China!