Programmatic, OTT & Other Marketing Terms to Know for 2020

In 2020, it feels like a new piece of technology is released every week.

That means there’s always something new to learn or keep up with.

Understanding marketing terminology and technology can quickly become tricky and confusing.

Whether it’s a revolutionary new platform or a catchy new buzzword, marketers have to continuously adapt strategies, and therefore their terminology. But it’s all in a day’s works to keep businesses’ strategies consistent, effective, and profitable as they progress.

Below are some of the most important new marketing terms to know in 2020 and beyond.

Programmatic Marketing

Programmatic marketing offers the ability to target individuals based on their real-time behavior, interests, or buying patterns, through the use of real-time-bidding, or RTB.

This ensures that each ad is as relevant as possible to each user. Relevancy increases the likelihood that the audience members will engage and convert.

The process of RTB begins as websites offer ad space to distribution networks, which then offer it to advertisers.

When a user visits a webpage on a distribution partner, the distribution network will:

1. Assess who the user is in addition to what interest and demographic groups they fit.
2. Identify which advertisers are most closely targeting those particular interests and demographics.
3. Look at who is bidding the most competitively on that impression (like the competition).
4. Award the ad slot to that advertiser.

All of this happens in nearly real-time and creates an instantaneous experience for the website visitor.

Programmatic marketing also employs the use of third-party behavioral data, as opposed to Google Ads which only use Google data.

Using behavioral data allows for more robust and specific targeting opportunities, allowing advertisers to hone in on their core audience and maximize the ROI from their marketing efforts.

OTT Advertising / CTV Advertising

Over-the-Top media, most commonly known as OTT, refers to any television or film content that can be accessed via the internet through platforms and apps like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon rather than accessing the content through traditional television media services like DirecTV, Verizon Fios, or Dish Network.

In the past, all television advertising was negotiated and placed through television networks.

But, as consumers began cutting the cord, foregoing cable and satellite in favor of online subscription services, OTT advertising came onto the scene as a valuable new resource to businesses and marketers.

OTT advertising makes television advertising more accessible, as placements on OTT platforms are significantly more affordable and flexible than traditional TV advertisements.

It also combines the engagement of a longer-form video television spot with the detailed targeting and robust analytics capabilities of digital advertising.

Through OTT, advertisers are able to spend their money more efficiently by targeting specific audiences who are likely to be interested in their products and services.

This targeting allows brands to boost ROI by analyzing how those ads affect their bottom line while also optimizing ad placements and targeting accordingly.

Connected TV advertising, also known as CTV, is a part of OTT advertising that is specifically shown on televisions connected to the internet and access apps like Netflix, Apple TVs, Fire TVs, Roku Devices, or gaming consoles like Xbox and Playstation.

These televisions with internet connection capabilities are considered to be Smart TVs.

With more televisions becoming Smart TVs and more television viewing shifting to online, CTV is becoming an increasingly important element of OTT advertising.

Geofencing

Geofencing is the process of triggering a specific action, like a text message, push notification, or other advertisement, on a user’s device when that device is within a virtual boundary around a designated location.

For geofencing to work, the user will need to enable the device location. The GPS location emits signals which help determine the user’s location.

Geofencing will use these signals for a variety of purposes, like determining a returning customer or sending offers to customers within the vicinity. 

While geofencing is a great way to engage with customers who are physically close to you, those users must have your app installed, location settings enabled, and in some cases have push notifications enabled.

Think about the Target app sending sale notifications to app users when they are close to a store, or an offer encouraging customers to shop.

A common misconception of geofencing is the assumption the term means geographic targeting or targeting ads to consumers searching the internet within a specific location.

However, geographic targeting can be implemented on most ad platforms using the zip code or radius level, combined with interest and other demographic targeting, is a fantastic way to get in front of a relevant audience.

Closed-Loop Analysis

One of the most common conundrums of marketing is what happens after a lead moves from the marketing funnel to the sales funnel.

It’s possible the potential customer will end up in a CRM or in one-on-one contact with a salesperson. In many cases this is difficult to reliably track and analyze via platforms like Google Analytics.

Closed-loop analysis is the process of feeding sales data back to the marketing department in an effort to identify marketing tactics and channels that bring in high-quality leads.

Allowing the marketing team to adjust their strategies accordingly can help increase the number, and quality, of sales.

This process can happen in a variety of ways. Whether it’s by using sophisticated software to track website traffic and assign lead statuses and values, or the sales team manually provides the marketing team with sales data.

When creating closed-loop reporting processes for clients, we recommend a custom approach that takes the website capabilities, CRM capabilities, and unique sales processes into account.

Dynamic Content

In the marketing world, “dynamic” refers to anything that is automatically adapted by a marketing platform to fit a specific user’s needs.

Dynamic ads can adjust content, messages, offers, prices, and more to be as relevant as possible to each user based on criteria like browsing patterns, search history, demographic or location data.

Dynamic website content may adjust messages and calls-to-action depending on previous website engagement data — for example if someone is a new user or a returning user. The dynamic content helps your marketing efforts be as targeted and user-relevant as possible, increasing customer engagement and improving ROI.

The marketing landscape has always been, and will always be, a constantly shifting place. With the prevalence of digital marketing and the constant evolution of marketing technologies, there will always be new terms to learn, new platforms to adopt, and new strategies to test.

It can be a lot to handle, especially when you have business that needs your focus. And these are only a few of the marketing phrases you need to know.

Working with a trusted marketing partner will help you evaluate if new strategies will work for your business, test those strategies in a way that is both data-driven and customized to your unique needs.

Put these marketing strategies, and many others, to work with the expert help from Elevation Ten Thousand.