When programmatic first came into use, the industry was focused on basic retargeting, the low-hanging fruit, as it’s commonly called, or the lower purchase funnel. But as programmatic technologies have matured over the past few years, leading advertisers are now leveraging the efficiency and scale of programmatic to reach their audience in progressively intelligent and creative ways throughout their purchase journey.

Increasingly, full funnel programmatic is gaining adoption. Advertisers are using a blend of targeting tactics to reach their customers at every level of user engagement — from upper-funnel awareness and consideration to lower-funnel conversion and loyalty programs.

FULL-FUNNEL PROGRAMMATIC SOLUTIONS

AWARENESS

In this initial phase of the customer journey, the goal is to increase the reach of your brand. Advertisers can use Keyword and Category Contextual Targeting to get in front of new audiences who are visiting pages relevant to your product or business. Consider also using Search Retargeting. This tactic allows advertisers to reach potential customers with display ads based on the searches they perform across the web.

Geo-Fencing, Simpli.fi’s advanced location-based mobile advertising technology, is another powerful awareness driver. Target potential customers who attended specified events or locations during a specific date and time window and then advertise to those people. Disrupt your competitors’ efforts and target mobile users who have recently visited one of your competitor’s locations.

CONSIDERATION

The potential customer is now aware of your brand and it’s time to stay top of mind as they browse the web. Did you know that roughly 98% of consumers leave a site without converting? With Site Retargeting, you can reach users who have previously visited your site and drive return traffic. Following users based upon their browsing behavior increases brand exposure and is an effective method of converting site visitors into purchasers. Continue to leverage Search Retargeting to target potential customers with display ads based on the searches they perform across the web.

CONVERSION

During this crucial phase, the consumer is ready to convert. Advertisers should continue to utilize Site Retargeting to retain attention and target the user with relevant product or offers.

For some advertisers, a conversion is an online sale. For other advertisers, a conversion is about generating foot traffic to a physical location. Recently Simpli.fi announced Geo-Conversion Lift, an upgrade to our industry-leading Geo-Fencing with Conversion Zones solution. With Geo-Conversion Lift, advertisers gain a clear view of how effective their geo-targeted ads are along the path to purchase. This data is vitally important to advertisers as more than 92 percent of shopping in the U.S. is still done in brick and mortar stores.

Maximize your customer data with CRM targeting. Upload data from an existing or purchased database of names, email and postal addresses, etc into the Simpli.fi platform and show ads to those users as they surf the web. CRM Targeting also helps advertisers discover search and site visitation patterns of existing customers in order to then target prospective customers based on similar activity.

LOYALTY

Geo-Fencing with Conversion Zones can also be used during the Loyalty stage to target known customers who have previously been to your brick and mortar location with promotional and loyalty offers.

CRM Targeting is also used here to bolster reward programs or reach loyal customers with special promotional offers. Current customers who have previously engaged with your brand should receive different ads then prospective customers and CRM Targeting allows for this customization.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CROSS-CHANNEL TARGETING

Reaching customers across their purchase journey requires cross-channel targeting capabilities where ads can be served — and optimized — across formats and creative types.

If there’s one requirement for cross-channel programmatic success, it’s mid-flight optimization. Allocation decisions need to be made in real-time, throughout the duration of a campaign, not after results are collected and compared between various vendors/networks/platforms. Marketers need to know in real-time which ads, devices or media types are performing (or not) and then optimize accordingly.

Additionally, buyers respond to media differently throughout the day. For example, for an auto dealer, it could be that the most effective impressions for creative showing sports cars will skew towards desktop display during the business day, mobile video during weeknights, and native on weekends. Creative showing mini-vans may have a different optimal mix. And the ideal mix will likely change over the duration of the campaign.

That’s why advertising professionals are realizing they need a single platform to get the most out of cross-channel targeting. Tailoring appropriate messages by timing and channel requires a cohesive, all-encompassing data picture. Only then can it be understood which impressions, which media, which devices and what locations are performing – and when. Those are the insights advertisers need – and that Simpli.fi can offer – to steer programmatic performance as a whole and reallocate budgets to the most effective impressions.

Programmatic can achieve its full potential when using a blend of targeting tactics to target, bid and optimize at every level of user engagement. Advertisers that want to really drive campaign ROI will realize their strongest results by using one omni-channel platform like Simpli.fi