It doesn’t take insider insight to know that the cannabis industry is one of the most difficult industries to advertise within. Compliance standards are constantly evolving, and staying on top of advertising can be a challenge. Cannabis programmatic advertising is a game-changer for brands looking to stay compliant while maximizing their reach.
What is Programmatic Advertising?
Advertising is all around us every day, even if we don’t always notice it. Banner ads, for example, are an extremely common form of advertising that we see every day on blogs, articles, news sites, and more. Make no mistake, these forms of advertising aren’t going away any time soon. Programmatic advertising simply helps streamline the ad buying process by way of software and automation.
Instead of purchasing advertisements individually ahead of time, programmatic ads instantly connect advertisers with thousands of open ad slots, with algorithms assisting buyers in determining where to run ads, when to display them, and how much to spend. These advertisements are able to reach a specifically targeted audience that meets certain criteria that makes them more likely to engage with your business itself.
How is this audience selected for your cannabis business? Well, while the methods of targeting may vary, demographic, and behavioral data from real customers is analyzed to help you further understand and target audiences. So, even if you don’t specifically know your audience yet, programmatic ads can help you pinpoint who you should target and when to target them- so you’re more likely to make a sale.
Where are the ads shown? Programmatic ads can be displayed anywhere traditional advertising can be placed, whether it’s via banner ads, podcasts, out-of-house advertising, and even smart-TV advertising.
Benefits of Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic advertising has numerous benefits, but at its core, it exists to optimize your advertising reach while maximizing your return on investment. Ensure you have conversion tracking in place to monitor each campaign’s performance and return on ad spend (ROAS).
You can purchase a guaranteed number of impressions on specific publications and mobile apps to ensure that your campaign has maximum exposure to the audiences that will most impact your bottom line. This type of advertising leverages unique data sets, both first and third party, to help build effective, cross-device campaigns for your businesses.
Or it can work through a system known as “private exchange” buying, in which a limited number of page owners (“publishers”) invite a limited number of advertisers to bid on their ad space. What does that mean for you? Targeted exposure overall and less time spent “competing” with other advertisers to catch the attention of consumers. For cannabis brands, this means compliant advertising built to scale with measurable results.
However it’s instituted, the goal is simple: To bring even more automation and precision to the realm of ad buying, so we can spend more of our time dedicated to marketing strategy, and improving ads rather than deciding how to purchase them- leaving you more time to get back to business.
Brian Petterson
Lead audience developer, manager. Passionate about all things digital media, marketing, social marketing, content marketing, and innovation. My passion is adventure.