Retargeting, Programmatic and Sequential Ads

Retargeting, Programmatic and Sequential Ads

Retargeting, programmatic and sequential ads are different ways to use creative (ad campaign) and display to reach a target audience. This article will detail the differences between each one.

Retargeting: These refer to banner ads served to people who already visited a specific site. For example; you are looking for a new dress and go to the J. Crew website to look for one. Once you’ve finished your search on J. Crew and leave the site (without buying) you’ll start to see banners ads driving you back to the J. Crew website. These types of ads can help customers move for the consideration phase to the conversion – in this example you might be more inclined to click on the J. Crew ad and finish your purchase of the dress. Here’sa good article about Retargeting.

Programmatic: These are not specific to only digital ads however they are used in the digital space as a way to buy inventory (ad space by bids) automatically. The key about programmatic is that it guarantees impressions (ad views) and it’s a great vehicle to test, run and buy ads in real-time to reach a specific consumer. This enables the marketer to buy inventory/impressions across multiple publishers and even use lookalike customers to target. For examples and more in-depth information please see this article.

Sequential: as its name may infer this requires the use of different messages served to a user based in previous action. Sequential messages may be used for retargeting. Using the example above; if you added the dress to your shopping cart but didn’t complete the purchase. The retargeting ad that might follow you to the next website may have the message “left something in your cart” or “if you complete the purchase we’ll give you 5% off” This is an article that details how sequential messaging is used on Facebook.