Originally published in MarTech Advisor, written by Indrajeet Deshpande

Programmatic advertising platforms help advertisers/brands manage their ad campaigns effectively. It also helps publishers optimally leverage their ad inventory. Here are the top five programmatic ad platforms for 2020 and beyond.

The programmatic display ad spend in the U.S. is forecasted to reach $68.87 billion in 2020 compared to $47.37 in 2018. Brands and organizations have realized the power of programmatic advertising and are including it in their advertising strategy.

Programmatic advertising enables advertisers to place their ads on publishers’ websites with little to zero human participation, thanks to AI-powered algorithms and an elaborate programmatic ecosystem.

In this article, we will look at the top five programmatic advertising platforms that brands and agencies can use to execute programmatic ad campaigns. Before we look at the platforms, let’s understand the concept of a programmatic advertising platform.

What Is a Programmatic Advertising Platform?

A programmatic advertising platform enables marketers and advertisers to automate the purchase and management of their digital ad campaigns. This includes media buying, ad placement, performance tracking, and campaign optimization. Many platforms also offer an editing tool to design campaign creatives.

Publishers can manage their ad inventory through programmatic advertising platforms. Ad inventory or advertising inventory is the ad space an online or offline publisher has to sell on their website, mobile, app, video, and so on.

Now that we’re clear on the concept of programmatic ad platforms, let’s look at the top five platforms geared towards 2020 and beyond:

1. SmartyAds

SmartyAds offers a full-stack programmatic advertising ecosystem to cater to brand, agency, publisher, and app developer needs. This ecosystem consists of a Demand-Side Platform (DSP), Data Management Platform (DMP), Supply-Side Platform (SSP), and an ad exchange. SmartyAds also offers a white-label solution that allows brands to build their product on top of it.

The platform enables advertisers to run display, in-app, video, and native advertising campaigns across desktop and mobile devices. Features such as ad creation tools, robust analytics, and rich targeting capabilities help advertisers with inventory selection, ad placement, and campaign management.

SmartyAds’ header bidding solution allows publishers to run pre-bid auctions to sell the ad inventory at a premium price. App developers can use the platform to run in-app ads in formats such as rewarded video, native, banner, and playable ads.

Learn More: How to Propel Your Brand Towards Programmatic Audio: Interview with Laura Barnett of Propel Water by Pepsico

2. TubeMogul (A Part of Adobe Advertising Cloud)

TubeMogul’s programmatic advertising software allows brands and agencies to plan, run, and optimize their advertising efforts. TubeMogul gives brands access to premium ad inventory through the real-time bidding (RTB) process. Brands can also import their direct deal or programmatic reserves inventory into the software.

You can run desktop video, mobile video, connected TV, display, native, and digital out-of-home (DOOH) ads through the platform. TubeMogul’s programmatic TV buying solution can be used to access the inventory, which is not usually available through traditional media buying.

TubeMogul launched Non-Human Traffic Credit Program in February 2016, a program that compensates advertisers for fraudulent traffic.

3. Simpli.fi

Simpli.fi Programmatic Marketing Platform is a localized programmatic platform that allows advertisers to buy ad inventory on multiple RTB ad exchanges. Simpli.fi has developed its proprietary DSP, DMP, and SSP, among other data technologies.

Advertisers can build audiences on various criteria such as device, OS used, browser, geography, intent-based search data, etc. You can import their CRM data to enhance audience targeting. The audience can be further optimized on the search and contextual keywords, IP data, frequency capping, CRM data, etc. You can also use the look-alike and search-alike modeling to expand your audience base.

Simpli.fi’s reporting suite provides over 60 in-built report templates and lets you generate ad-hoc reports or schedule customized reports.

Learn More: What Advertisers Expect, and Publishers Should Deliver

4. MediaMath

MediaMath’s omnichannel programmatic marketing platform enables advertisers with end-to-end campaign management.

MediaMath’s DMP helps marketers by integrating data sets from first- and third-party sources, which can be segregated into segments before activating them. Advertisers can connect with their most valuable audience using the MediaMath Audience feature.

The omnichannel DSP takes care of omnichannel ad campaigns that include mobile, display, video, audio, native, and Digital Out of Home (DOOH) ads. The Creative Management and Dynamic Creative features enable marketers to deliver a consistent brand experience through all mediums.

Brain Insights and Brain Optimization utilize ML and predictive modeling to optimize their ad campaigns.

5. PubMatic

PubMatic offers solutions for both – brands and publishers.

Advertisers can access a high-quality ad inventory through PubMatic’s private marketplace. The media buyer console helps advertisers plan and manage programmatic direct campaigns across different ad formats and channels. PubMatic’s fraud-free program refunds a credit amount in case an ad fraud is detected. Advertisers can use the real-time analytics feature to optimize the campaigns.

Using the RTB advertising technology, publishers can get the highest yield on each impression. The ad quality feature scans the creative automatically and manually to prevent security violations and ensure the publisher user interface (UI) doesn’t get messy.

Learn More: Blockchain for Programmatic: Breaking the Speed Barrier

Which Programmatic Advertising Platform Should You Choose?

A simple Google search will fetch a long list of programmatic advertising platforms, and choosing the most compatible platform for your brand can get daunting.

Besides features such as transparency, interface, flexibility, and real-time analytics, here’s a checklist that will help you choose the right platform:

1. What is the pricing structure? Is there an onboarding fee? Does the platform charge a monthly retainer fee or a certain percentage of the ad spend? Can the pricing be negotiated?
2. Does the platform offer access to high-quality, multi-platform ad inventories?
3. What are the audience targeting (geo-targeting, day parting, frequency capping, retargeting, etc.) and personalization capabilities?
4. What are the safety measures implemented to tackle ad frauds?
5. How efficient is the technical support?

Once you know the answer to these questions, it will be simpler to decide on the programmatic advertising platform that’s right for you.

If you have any questions about choosing the perfect programmatic advertising platform, ask us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.