Programmatic
Channel
Programmatic
Programmatic is either missing from the plan entirely, or it has been handed to a reseller who marks up the media, keeps the buying opaque and reports on impressions delivered.
- Funnel stages
- 5
- Campaign types
- 11
- Checked against the platform
- 14 September 2026
5 funnel stages11 campaign typesChecked Sept 2026
Why it is worth running
Bought transparently across CTV, video, native, audio and DOOH. Reported past the impression.
Programmatic is the only channel on this list where the main risk is not execution but the supply chain. Every hop between your budget and the publisher takes a margin, and most of the reporting in the category is built to make that hard to see. Run properly it is the cheapest way to reach a defined audience at scale before they ever search. Run badly it is the easiest place in media to waste money invisibly.
Programmatic is the channel where the industry’s worst habits live: undisclosed margin, inventory nobody inspects, and reporting that counts impressions because impressions are the number that always looks good.
We buy it the boring way. Named inventory, stated fees, frequency controlled across the whole plan, and a test design that can actually tell you whether it worked.
Full funnel
Every stage, and what it is judged on
Awareness
- They are
- Does not know you exist and is not looking for you
- We run
- CTV and online video against defined audiences, audio, DOOH near retail or trade locations
- Judged on
- Incremental reach and cost per completed view, with frequency capped across formats
Interest
- They are
- Aware of the category, forming a shortlist
- We run
- Native and high-attention display in contextual environments, private marketplace deals with relevant publishers
- Judged on
- Attention and engaged-visit rate, never click-through rate on display
Consideration
- They are
- Researching and comparing, visiting more than one site
- We run
- Contextual and behavioural prospecting, sequenced creative that follows the earlier message
- Judged on
- Cost per qualified new visitor and assisted conversion contribution
Conversion
- They are
- In market, close to deciding
- We run
- Site retargeting with strict frequency and recency rules, dynamic product creative for retail
- Judged on
- Incremental conversions tested against a holdout, not last-click credit
Retention
- They are
- Already a customer, worth keeping or upgrading
- We run
- Customer-list audiences for cross-sell, suppression so you stop paying to reach people who already bought
- Judged on
- Cost per retained customer, and the saving from suppression
Every campaign type
Grouped by whatthey are for
Checked against the platform on 14 September 2026, because these names change, and a stale campaign name on a paid media site is worse than no page.
Buying routes
How the inventory is bought decides both price and transparency.
- Open exchange
- Real-time bidding across broad inventory. Cheapest access, weakest quality control, needs hard inclusion lists.
- Private marketplace
- Invite-only auctions with named publishers at agreed floors. The default for brand-sensitive advertisers.
- Programmatic guaranteed
- Fixed volume and price with a specific publisher, executed programmatically. Predictable, and priced accordingly.
Formats
- Connected TV
- Full-screen video on streaming inventory, bought against audiences rather than programmes.
- Online video
- In-stream and out-stream video across web and app inventory.
- Native
- In-feed placements matched to the publisher's own format. Works for consideration, not for direct response alone.
- Display
- Standard banner inventory. Genuinely useful for retargeting and suppression, weak as a prospecting default.
- Digital audio
- Streaming audio and podcast inventory, useful where attention is high and screens are not.
- Digital out of home
- Screens bought by location, daypart and trigger. Pairs with mobile retargeting near the same locations.
Retail media
Increasingly bought programmatically rather than through each retailer's own managed service, which is where the pricing gets comparable.
- Retailer on-site
- Sponsored placements inside a retailer's own search and category pages.
- Retailer off-site
- The retailer's purchase data applied to inventory elsewhere on the open web and CTV.
Verified 14 September 2026 against IAB programmatic buying routes and formats.
Measurement
How we know it worked
We build all of this for free before you commit to anything.
What the free setup covers- 01A transparent fee structure, stated as a percentage, before anything is bought
- 02Inclusion lists rather than exclusion lists, because exclusion lists never finish
- 03Frequency capped across formats and devices, not per campaign
- 04Incrementality tested with a holdout where budget allows, because last-click flatters retargeting
- 05Reporting that shows working media against total spend, so you know what reached a publisher
Questions we get
Asked before,answered plainly
- How do we know what you are taking as margin?
- It is stated as a percentage before the first pound is spent, and the reporting separates working media from fees. If a partner will not show you that split, that is the answer to your question.
- Is programmatic worth it below a certain budget?
- Below roughly the point where you can support a proper test and a holdout, the money is usually better spent on search and social. We will say so rather than sell you a channel that cannot work at your scale.
- Do you use our existing DSP?
- Where you already have a seat and it fits the plan, yes. Where you are buying through a reseller with an undisclosed markup, we will show you what that is costing and let you decide.