Industry Insights

If you’re considering a Denver career path, the hottest trend we’re seeing is in programmatic advertising. The growth of this job is closely tied to the creation of intelligent software that upgraded this career path. If you know this technology, it can help you work smarter, but it can also make you highly attractive to employers looking to maximize their spend ROI. What is programmatic advertising? Why is launching a programmatic career so lucrative these days? What kinds of jobs are available in the field? We have answers if you’re looking to build your Denver career.

What is Programmatic Advertising?

You understand media buying and programmatic spend across the omnichannel, but today there is software that can automate some of the nuts and bolts of this work. Programmatic advertising is an automated process fueled by technology that uses intelligent algorithms to determine your bids by site, audiences, and demographics. Basically, programmatic advertising is designed to automate buying and selling online ad space. 

The complexities of our increasing ad spend have been crying out for this type of software for years. There is simply no better way these days than to use programmatic advertising software to track digital spend across an increasingly omnichannel experience. 

If you’re looking for a Denver career that is both lucrative and highly in demand, programmatic advertising is increasingly critical to the success of enterprise and midmarket organizations. It’s replacing the manual effort of the media buy with a smarter way to work. Programmatic advertising seeks to leverage technology to deliver ads to the right end-users at the right time and for the lowest cost. 

Understanding what you will do in a programmatic career first requires understanding how media buying is segmented in this job category. Typically, we see programmatic media buying applied in three areas:

• Real-time bidding, known as RTB or open auction. 
• Private marketplace (PMPs) work like RTB, but it’s not a cattle call. Instead, PMPs restrict participation on an invitation-only basis. 
• Programmatic direct allows a publisher to sell space at a fixed CPM (cost per mille).

Traditionally, your bids are placed manually but imagine faster decision-making by using technology to analyze data and make decisions at digital speeds. Within the contest of programmatic advertising, several types of software can impact your media buy. This could include:

• A sell-side platform (SSP) lets publishers use the real-time digital space to show the potential buyers an image of what’s available. It enables media buyers to snag new ads tied to competitive shifts in corporate strategy. This software also gives publishers greater inventory control.
• Demand-side platforms (DSP) are perfect for the challenges of an omnichannel world. The software allows agencies and their buyers’ cross-platform purchases with better visibility into their buys.
• Ad exchanger software sends inventory into a buying platform (ad exchange). This allows for bidding and selling by buyers and sellers.

Not surprisingly, this area of technology is advancing rapidly. It puts a completely different spin on the old media buyer roles by turning them into digital media specialists savvy in using programmatic software as a growth marketing tool. 

What is the Demand for Programmatic Careers Now and in the Future?

Programmatic advertising spends increase to $100 billion in 2022. Advertising agencies and corporate marketers are placing more than 50% of their media budget into the programmatic advertising bucket. As eCommerce continues to expand, look for these digital marketing jobs to increase correspondingly. 

ROI Revolution shares some of the statistics on the latest programmatic marketing trends:

• Programmatic ad spending hit $63 billion in 2020, $80 billion in 2021, and is expected to increase by another $20 billion increment to $100 billion by next year.
• In 2021, programmatic ad spend will count for 72% of all the money spent on display advertising.
• Programmatic video ad spend is particularly hot, surging to $35 billion this year, increasing more than 30% from 2020.
• Programmatic spend for connected TV was just as jaw-dropping, surging 53% this year. 
• Programmatic digital radio spend will grow by 46% to $897 billion this year.
• Mobile programmatic video spend is the highest category of ad spend at 75% of the average total budget.
• Watch for connected TV (streaming devices) to be the next big thing in programmatic advertising. Ad spend is expected to increase by nearly 50% this year.

If you’re considering a new programmatic career or are seeking to upskill and join these new types of digital media specialist roles in the Denver market, the time is now to make a move. 

What Are the Types of Programmatic Careers Available?

 “Programmatic advertising is more than just a means of buying and selling ads. It’s also a vehicle for uncovering data and insights about consumers that can lead to more personalized experiences.”

 Forbes

Traditional media buying for Denver career professionals is evolving into these new types of digital media specialist roles. Digital media buyers are incredibly in demand right now in teams focused on growth marketing initiatives. Some of the biggest companies in the country have programmatic marketplaces and use these tools and approaches regularly, including these innovative approaches from:

• Amazon has a DSP that allows digital media buyers to purchase audio, display, and video ads both on and off their primary eCommerce site. Amazon’s captive audiences make for a highly attractive target audience for most growth marketing strategies.
• Walmart launched its own DSP in 2021. The platform their using is data-centric, melding data from both first and third-party vendors. Like Amazon, Walmart has some sophisticated advanced reporting capabilities around inventory, audience, and spend. 
• CVS launched its CMX (CVS Media Exchange) last year. This platform reaches across advertising channels in the digital space as well as in-store brick and mortar. The PMP grabs data from the brand’s customer loyalty program, purchasing history, and other interest-based data.
• Target’s programmatic service line is branded as Roundel, which focuses on first-party data that crosses eCommerce, brick and mortar, and a loyalty app. Other businesses can integrate their DSPs to Target customer data and advertise to these segmented populations.
• Kroger introduced a consumer package goods (CPG) PMP marketplace this year. One interesting feature of this platform is the pre-optimized audience options that give some very granular targeting options for digital media specialists to buy. 
• Unilever has a dedicated programmatic division embedded within its in-house agency called Ultra. They use a number of DSPs to buy inventory, connect online with customers, and track eCommerce data.
• Kimberly-Clark was one of the earliest organizations to launch a programmatic division in-house back in 2011. The brand has always been recognized as staying on top of technology trends, creating an early innovation lab focused on data-driven marketing and omnichannel advertising.

When considering a programmatic career, the CPG category is one to pay particular attention to. The category has been exciting, particularly during the COVID pandemic. 

Campaign says, “The programmatic advertising industry is buoyant with junior and mid-level positions. Graduates that have a passion for technology can do well in sales through to technical roles.” Some of the types of programmatic careers in Denver and other markets recently included:

• Agency Programmatic Associate Director
• Agency Programmatic Ad Operations Manager 
• Entertainment Programmatic Director

While these are just a sample of the positions available today, it’s clear the growth of this career track will only expand in the coming years. Why are programmatic advertising roles so hot? What are the benefits of this job that blends traditional media buying with the power of the digital space?

Benefits of a Denver Career in Programmatic Advertising

 The future of digital spend resides with programmatic advertising. Manual media buying had grown archaic in the face of a digital world. One person working in the field put it this way, “The main attraction of working in the programmatic space is the ability to do things in real-time.” Traditional media buying involved a lot of manual effort, requests for proposals (RFPs), human negotiation, and manual IOs (insertion of orders). The risk of error was always high in this laborious and slow process. Technology, as it so often does, changed the game for every aspect of the media buyer’s job, from targeting, bidding, and negotiation to placement, tracking, and reporting.

Programmatic careers offer a variety of exciting, engaging tasks with a variety of companies in different industries. Because the field is relatively new, you have an opportunity to make a big impact quickly. Because programmatic advertising budgets are increasing so rapidly, you not only will experience job security but many choices when it comes to selecting a particular job.

Marketing Week suggests that the talent pool for programmatic professions is really quite thin right now. That spells an opportunity for any growth-minded marketing professionals seeking out a programmatic career. 

Build Your Career with Method Recruiting

Are you looking for a programmatic advertising role in the Denver market? Are you interested in learning more about this exciting and rewarding field? Contact Method Recruiting. We have the opportunities you’re seeking and can help you get to work in a more lucrative and rewarding career. Call on us.