Programmatic vs Problematic

As the fastest growing medium in advertising history (yes, that includes print, broadcast and radio), programmatic is set to make up more than 50% of digital sales revenue worldwide by 2018.

If your franchise is not on board- it’s time to jump in, feet first – like many of your competitors already do!

In the most simple of terms, programmatic is utilizing the massive amount of consumer data that is available to systematically target audiences.

Essentially, this ensures that you reach the right audience, at the right time. After all, did you realize that only 1 % of people viewing your ad at any given time actually have an immediate need for the product or service you are offering?

A great example of programmatic is seen with Amazon. Ever browsed for a new vacuum cleaner, only to notice that the entire Internet now seems to be personally geared to vacuums? That is programmatic advertising.

So what happens if, as a franchisee, you aren’t authorized to roll out such campaigns, in general?

The best solution is to create (or have created) a landing page for your local business. You then provide coupons, discounts and independent marketing tactics across the web, directing traffic to your landing page.

Let’s say you own a franchised sandwich shop. You can utilize what’s called ‘geo-fencing’ to target audiences in your local zip code, during the hours of 11:30 and 2:00 pm on weekdays. You can target any searches for “sandwich shops” or “lunch options”.

You can effectively layer on as many distinctions as you want, offering the most comprehensive digital targeting that has ever been available.

Another great benefit to programmatic is for franchisees that own multiple locations across a greater area. Let’s use the sandwich shop again as an example: imagine advertising to sports fans from “Local Team X” to stop in at any franchise location for a special discount.

Programmatic advertising is fast acting, responsive and innately flexible. For a franchise owner, this allows you to constantly assess your market, what is working, what is not, and allows you to make swift changes to your tactics, in order to follow your audience.

As some experts are growing fond of saying, “local is the new national”. It’s no longer about the greatest, most widely cast net. It is about picking and choosing the exact location of your net, and casting around only the ‘fish’ you want to serve that very day.

For franchises, this represents a potential win-win. As brand recognition will remain a key influencer on the national market, you will be busy taking full advantage of reigning in your local market, converting customers and customizing offers.