Programmatic Advertising Platforms: The Best Picks

When planning to invest in programmatic advertising, the first thing to figure out is an efficient platform to partner with. This article will help you make that choice.

Programmatic advertising allows leaders to implement media purchases and retarget customers with automated tools. Choosing the right platforms simplifies launching efficient ad campaigns, highlighting a brand’s offerings, and garnering more customers.

The various features and advantages of programmatic advertising make it a popular channel for marketers. As technologies emerge, brands must incorporate these media channels to boost ROI.

Studies indicate that in 2025, its strategic integration can contribute to an unprecedented growth of around $271 billion in ad spending in the United States alone. You can couple it with top-notch ad templates and ad inventory to improve user experience.

More about B2B Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising comprises two main players: an advertiser and a publisher. The advertiser brings ads to the target audience, whereas the publisher uses the ad space to display them. In contrast to display ads, programmatic ads can be bought or placed on platforms using the software. The purpose is to increase a brand’s distribution and scale at a higher budget.

With programmatic advertising, brands can give digital advertisers the benefit of the doubt for buying and selling ad inventory from publishers. You can leverage these platforms to buy the ad space of choice, manage ad campaigns, and optimize them using data.

There are six critical components involved in programmatic advertising’s automated process:

Demand-Side Platform (DSP)

DSP is an automated buying platform that is a good fit for purchasing digital ad inventory. It lets you buy an ad space in exchange for advertisements at a pre-determined cost. When you launch ads with DSP, you can target audiences based on location, age, and online presence.

Supply-Side Platform (SSP)

This tool is perfect for including an ad inventory in an ad exchange. Typically, SSP can be managed before the onset of programmatic bidding.

Ad Exchange

An ad exchange is like the trading floor where the actual bidding occurs. After an inventory is available, the ad space can be sold to the highest bidder. This process resembles an auction setting— the only difference is it happens through algorithms.

Real-Time bidding (RTB)

RTB offers clarity about what the target audience is seeking and how much they are willing to invest to reach them.

Private Marketplace (PMP)

Also known as a private exchange, it gives ad publishers more power when choosing what’s best suited to purchase their ad space. Publishers will provide inventory to a handful of advertisers.

Programmatic Direct

This ad platform allows publishers to sign one-on-one deals with advertisers ahead of time. The pre-planning helps gather impressions at a guaranteed price. However, the actual process of publishing ads to the target audience happens through an automated system.

What Goes into Programmatic Advertising

There are six steps involved in the process.

Step 1: When customers visit a website displaying a programmatic ad, the site first shares client details with an ad exchange.

Step 2: The ad exchange then assesses user data. This detail is shared with advertisers in real-time. All this is followed by the initiation of an auction.

Step 3: With the help of DSPs, advertisers review the information, evaluate the value of serving their ads, and then place a bid accordingly.

Step 4: After a bidding process is completed, the ad exchange can select the best bid, and the winning advertiser gets the ad space.

Step 5: Soon after that happens, the selected ad gets uploaded to the user’s webpage.

Step 6: Once an ad has been published, you can evaluate its performance using metrics like clicks, impressions, and conversions.

If you want to read more about programmatic advertising, please refer to some of our other blogs on this topic.(link)

Which are the Best Programmatic Advertising Platforms?

With many efficient ad platforms in the market, it could seem like a real challenge to decide which would be ideal for your brand.

We’ve prepared a list of top picks to help you integrate the leading programmatic advertising channels.                                                                                                                                                                     

Publift 

Publift is a Google Certified Publishing Partner specializing in ad tech, startup strategy, and optimization. Also, their high-quality custom solutions and customer service have given them a high reputation. Publift easily provides access to features like premium demand sources, real-time bidding optimization, and data-driven yield management. It’s a perfect choice for driving a significant increase in publisher revenue. Publift is ideal for brands looking to deliver structured reporting and analytics to track ad campaign performance. The core objective is to push informed decision-making with these ads and optimize them.

Google Ad manager

As a leading programmatic advertising platform, Google ad manager seamlessly allows brands to target large publishers, thus generating traffic and revenue. Its equipped tools make ad optimization a smooth process. Google Ad Manager’s ad exchange platform contains automated optimization and dynamic allocation. Features like this enable companies to modify campaigns as per performance indicators like cost per action or click rate.

Adobe Advertising Cloud

One of the highlights of this platform is you get the benefits of features in both Adobe Marketing Cloud and Adobe Analytics Cloud. This offers flexibility, supporting various programmatic ads across different channels, such as display, video, social media, and so on. So, you have an all-in-one platform that enables you to reach an audience through different ad formats. And it’s user-friendly, streamlining ad campaigns plus having the right tools for optimizing performance. You get holistic information on customer behavior and preferences. Adobe Advertising Cloud’s real-time analytics will help adjust bids and budgets, amplifying the ROI cycle.

Trade Desk

The features of Trade Desk have the capability to improve audience targeting and streamline omnichannel marketing. You can access RTB, private marketplaces, budget management, and more using the same tool. What’s more — it exposes you to a data marketplace that gives advertisers access to high-quality data to enhance targeting efficiency. This platform enables brands to reach the right audience using the right message at the perfect time.

Xandr

Xandr is a Microsoft-owned platform that helps brands streamline buying and selling of digital advertising. What makes it stand out is that it is very adaptable. Xandr’s striking blend of automated tech, data, and identity solutions makes it an asset for brands wanting to engage the target audience. The highlighting feature of Xandr is its efficient audience analysis tool, providing insights into customer interests and preferences. Brands can use these details to customize ad campaigns to connect with customers and accelerate the sales pipeline.

PubMatic

PubMatic offers you the seller’s perspective. Brands can choose from an array of solutions that it offers, ensuring ad quality and monetizing the ad space. It also allows you to access a private marketplace, analytics tools, and tools to manage ad fraud. Businesses can use the media buyer console plan in PubMatic to manage the campaigns across multiple channels. The best feature of this platform is its scalability, making it applicable to different budget options.

MediaMath

Launched in 2007, MediaMath is an established platform integrated with cutting-edge programmatic buying tech. The Gartner Magic Quadrant for Ad Tech listed it as a leading platform. MediaMath’s combination of catchy video and first-party data provides a complete end-to-end solution that promotes simple yet efficient omnichannel advertising. This programmatic advertising platform is an ideal choice for omnichannel campaigns across mobile, display, video, audio, etc.

Summing up

Brand positioning remains significant in marketing, irrespective of a company’s size or year of establishment. The boom in technology calls for a strong digital image. For that to happen, brands must be available on the right channels in front of the right audience. Embracing this change with open arms will do wonders for your brand. Programmatic platforms will help elevate your digital advertising efforts. So, it’s important to understand what these platforms offer and choose the best fit.