June 14, 2021

First, let’s review the basics.

What is programmatic marketing?

This is best defined as ‘using AI software to place ads,’ and is now about 15 years old. Advertisers and agencies use entities called ad exchanges to buy ad impressions in an automated process across a variety of mediums. This eliminates the need to reach out to individual platforms and negotiate placement on each one.

What is influencer marketing?

Arranging for an influencer to promote your product or service is based on some of the oldest concepts in the marketing industry: word of mouth and celebrity endorsements.  This can provide substantial credibility and “social proof” to your message. Negotiating with online influencers for their personal promotion on social media is a rapidly growing practice and has already changed the game for many brands.

How can programmatic and influencer marketing work together?

Influencer marketing is arguably a form of programmatic marketing, in that an influencer’s audience and reach is already distributed on various platforms at the same time. Additionally, once your influencer has created their endorsement you can then spread that message programmatically, selecting placement to a ‘lookalike’ audience that matches the influencer’s existing audience. This ensures that the influencer’s content will reach viewers that are more likely to be receptive to the endorsement. This has the added value of increasing exposure to the influencer, helping to add to the size of their following.

More directly, you can collaborate with your influencer and boost their post(s) that feature their endorsement, increasing the reach and frequency of the endorsement and improving its effectiveness.

You may also have the option of setting up retargeting campaigns on the influencer’s site and channels. This will programmatically ‘follow’ viewers who have seen the endorsement and feed them more ads that promote your product and service, adding to your brand awareness and providing the audience with an additional call to action and opportunity for conversion.

The use of influencers to market a brand is one of the oldest techniques in marketing, and incorporating this in an online format continues to grow in popularity. I’ve found that using programmatic marketing techniques in conjunction with influencer campaigns will extend the reach of your message and increase exposure to your audience.