Introduction to Programmatic Advertising

by Dominik Kosorin

***** SECOND EDITION of this book now also available (purple cover) *****Programmatic advertising is the most exciting thing that happened in marketing in a long time – perhaps since the advent of mass advertising itself. This book offers the first comprehensive introduction to the world of programmatic advertising. If you are new to this revolutionary technology, it will help you get quickly up to speed. The book is intentionally relatively short and dense, so it can be read over a weekend – and then kept on your desk for reference. Here's a quick Chapter one outlines the basic technologies enabling programmatic advertising – such as cookies, pixels, banner ads, or ad exchanges. Chapter two introduces the programmatic ecosystem and its various players, including publishers, advertisers, SSPs, DSPs, DMPs, agency trading desks, and the most important industry bodies. Chapter three is dedicated to programmatic ad trading, with special attention given to the real-time bidding (RTB) auction, role of the Deal ID, and publisher prioritization including header bidding. Chapter four is all about data and ad targeting. Retargeting and various prospecting tactics are covered, including contextual targeting, behavioral targeting, and look-a-like modeling. Chapter five expands the scope of this book into mobile. Mobile cookies, cross-device identification solutions, or location data are covered here. Chapter six offers an overview of the current issues discussed across the digital ad industry – including fraud, viewability, attribution, ad blocking, or privacy. Chapter seven is about new formats available programmatically, such as rich media, video, or native. It also covers new programmatic channels including TV, audio or print.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

134 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 14, 2016

Reviews

[Klaidas Gevorkian · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book for a person starting his journey in the world of adtech. Explains fundamentals pretty well, however, some parts require a more in-depth elaboration. Moreover, some practical examples or case studies would really be beneficial, especially for new joiners of the industry reading this book, who are keen on understanding how theory applies in practice. Also, since programmatic advertising as an industry is still quite young and very dynamic, it would be great to keep updating the book every few years.

[Walter Ullon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Programmatic Advertising is to ads what high-frequency trading is to the stock market: a highly efficient, light-speed, automated, transactional system for buying and selling commodities in virtual ad exchanges. The commodities are ads and ad space. The market is the attention of billions of users.

As such, this book offers an excellent, accessible, and highly readable introduction to the world of programmatic advertising. It starts from the very basics and covers ground fast without getting too technical or too deep into the weeds; Dominik Kosorin is a nerd that knows how to measure his enthusiasm!

The Basics:
- Cookies: a small piece of data sent by a web server and stored in a web browser as a text file. It serves to store session information and user preferences, as well as to track and identify users across domains.
- Pixels (tracking): a piece of code implemented as a tiny (1 x 1) image embedded in an email message or a webpage. Used to track user activity and collect third-party data.
- Ad Inventory: available ad space on web pages, etc...

The Players:
- Advetisers (buy side): people/companies looking to purchase ad space to peddle their wares.
- Publishers (sell-side): blogs, media sites, etc. The "canvas" on which advertisers hope to plaster their ads.
- Demand-side platforms: used to purchase ad-space in an automated way across a wide range of inventory.
- Agency trading desks: specialized media buying units (usually within large media organizations) that handle all programmatic media activities for their clients.
- Supply-side platforms: they make it possible to sell ad inventory in an automated way. They connect publisher inventory to a number of demand sources.

How it works:
Programmatic advertising happens using the OpenRTB protocol (real-time bidding). It goes like this:
1. a user visits a website (a publisher's site). At this point, the web page hasn't even loaded and the ad space is virtually blank.
2. supply-side platform issues a bid request ("hey guys, I have a potential buyer over here! Open for bids!).
3. demand-side evaluates the upside and sends what they're willing to pay to have their ad paraded in front of the prospect.
4. supply-side evaluates the offer (in most cases, many competing offers)
5. supply-side notifies the winner
6. winner sends ad payload (what to display on the page, i.e. ad copy, video, banner, etc.)
7. supply-side serves the ad on the publisher's page.

All of the above happens in 1oo milliseconds or less, before the page has a chance to load.

This entire process from beginning to end is explained in much more detail in Kosorin's book. He also touches upon issues concerning privacy, governing bodies, ad-blocking, mobile platforms, data categorization, and much more.

We can all become a bit more tech-savvy when it comes to the new landscape of advertising, more importantly, how our data are traveling across the digital spaces and who is handling it.

Highest recommendation!

[Dicle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good starter book but it gets to secondary / new issues too fast before explaining fundamentals well. There is better free online content explaining the exact same things in a clearer way.

[Frederik · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rating of 3.5 would be the most accurate but to make sure I read my highlights again in the future the book has to be rated 4 instead of 3. There are definetely a lot of sections which are worth reading when being new to programmatic advertising. If the book was properly updated to match the programmatic ecosystem in 2022 it would definetely grant a rating of 4-4.5. However, some of the details are simply outdated. Finally, the structure and some of the explanations in the book could be better which would also grant a higher rating. Due to the lack of similiar books about programmatic advertising, I would recommend this one.

[Dick · Rating 3 out of 5]

There aren’t many books you can find about programmatic ads trading out there so you don't have a lot of choice. This book is a fair introduction of the industry and did a good job organizing different themes and trends, but you can do better just reading articles online. Honestly this book is a little scammy as its incredibly short and the total content is at most slightly longer than what you can find in wikipedia. There is little reason for you to buy one.

[Paul Rambaud · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very solid brief synopsis of the programmatic advertising industry and eco-system. I would recommend this for those who are new to the industry and veterans looking to refresh their memory.

[Vahe Hakobyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good starter book. However the promise of "in-depth" is profoundly misplaced through the content.

[Yanal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book for summarizing the space

Broke it down to the right categories and then explained the parts of each.I made plenty of highlights and I'll come back for reference.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was remarkably educational - highly recommended.

[Megan Ocampo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this book for work. Lots of jargon, data, and information. Need to reread in the new year!

[Rakesh Kumar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of a book is very good for someone who is trying to understand the basics of Programmatic advertisement. A very simple book and clear explanation. I would like to recommend this book,

Further two suggestion for the author :
1. The programmatic advertisement is a rapidly changing marketing tech with the change in new features, requirement, challenges. Hence come up periodically, maybe once in a year to enlighten your readers.
2. Request you to put in case studies as well, It makes the understanding clearer and helps to imbibe the practicality & application of theory

[Riana Siregar]

Just finished this book. It is a good book for anyone who are new to the sector. It does help you get up to speed to understand the basics and fundamentals as you are cruising into more depth.