Guide to Programmatic Advertising

The principles of advertising have remained the same over the years, but a few things have become simpler and more automated. For instance, both big and small businesses are moving towards programmatic advertising, which is using real-time data and technology to automate buying and optimizing digital ads. 

Programmatic ads is just one of the ways marketers are enhancing efficiency and eschewing manual insertion orders or one-to-one negotiations. The main goal is to help advertisers target audiences at scale with greater speed, accuracy, and ROI. 

Interesting data from a recent Statista survey show that global programmatic advertising spend hit 595 billion dollars in 2024 alone. This implies that you will undoubtedly require a robust programmatic advertising strategy to outperform your competitors or maintain a competitive edge. 

Throughout this page, we break down what programmatic advertising is, how it works and the various deal types. We’ve also simplified the platforms involved and how to run effective ad campaigns as a brand, agency, or performance marketer.

What Is Programmatic Advertising?

Programmatic advertising is media buying with the help of automation and data science. It’s the system behind those ads that are surprisingly relevant and seem to follow you from one site to another. That’s to say it puts your brand in front of the right audience at the right time with precise ad placement.

The idea behind programmatic ad buying ad type is simple: use software to decide, in real time, whether an ad impression is worth bidding on based on who’s viewing it. What makes it powerful is the granularity. Advertisers no longer have to commit to bulk buys or guess which publications their audience might visit. Instead, they can set rules, down to the specific behaviors, devices, or even wallet interactions they care about, and the programmatic advertising process does the rest.

For instance, if someone recently checked out three reviews of wedding cake vendors or even visited a cake shop in a mall, that’s a signal. Programmatic lets you act on that signal instantly, wherever that user shows up online. That means when that same user lands on another site or even opens a mobile app, a real-time bid is placed to serve them an ad. The ad appears instantly, often before the user even finishes loading the page.

This kind of targeting isn’t just useful for e-commerce or app installs. In sectors like trading, fintech, or Web3, where timing and user intent are everything, programmatic gives you the ability to reach decision-makers the moment they’re primed to act. Also, because it’s automated, you can scale without ballooning your media ops team or spending weeks in publisher negotiations, maximizing revenue and optimizing your advertising budget.

How Programmatic Advertising Works

Every time a user lands on a webpage or opens an app, a hidden auction begins. Here’s the flow: User visit → SSP → Ad Exchange → DSP bids → Ad served

• Step 1 (Targeting): The user visits a site where ad spaces are available for the most relevant campaign.
• Step 2 (SSP request): The page loads, flags the ad space, and sends a request to a supply-side platform (SSP). 
• Step 3 (That SSP passes it to an ad exchange): The exchange is a kind of high-frequency marketplace where demand-side platforms (DSPs) compete for the impression. 
• Step 4 (Ad Serving): Once the DSP bids happen, the highest bidder wins and has their ad in front of the visitor.‍
• Step 5 (Display and optimisation): If a bid wins, the ad renders instantly. At the same time, advertisers can collect performance data to improve targeting and bids in the future.

The whole thing takes less time than a blink, but what decides who wins? Data does. Each DSP is armed with targeting logic: recent behaviors, geo, device, and even on-chain events. 

Let’s say someone just bridged assets to a new chain or watched three videos about staking. Your Demand-Side Platform (DSP) detects the opportunity and initiates a bid. The higher the intent, the more aggressively you bid. You win; your ad shows up and that’s it.

You can see how this is completely the opposite of bulk buying. You’re making split-second decisions on each impression, adjusting in real time based on who’s watching, where they are, and what they’ve done. That’s what makes programmatic so effective for campaigns that demand scale and precision, especially in verticals like fintech, Web3, or trading, where intent can shift hour to hour.

What Are DSPs in Programmatic Advertising?

Think of the DSP as your command center. It connects you to multiple ad exchanges and data management platforms, pulls in your creatives, and helps you launch and manage programmatic advertising campaigns at scale. Once plugged in, it uses your targeting capabilities and rules, like wallet holdings, recent browsing behavior, or geo-data, to decide when to bid and how much to offer.

Blockchain-Ads, for example, operates a full-stack DSP that handles more than basic bidding. It offers wallet-based targeting, interest scoring, lookalike modeling, and access to Web3-specific premium inventory. That means if someone just interacted with a staking protocol or bought an NFT, the system can pick that up and serve your ad in real time.

A good DSP does more than just bid; it helps you zero in on the exact users you want, at the right time, with the right message.

Top DSPs like The Trade Desk, StackAdapt, and, of course, Blockchain-Ads stand out because they combine rich audience data with algorithmic bidding. They can optimize for metrics such as CPA, CTR, or even LTV. That way, performance marketers and brand teams can adjust results instantly, maximizing their programmatic advertising cost efficiency.

What Are SSPs (Supply Side Platforms) in Programmatic Advertising?

The SSPs are supply-side platforms. They’re what the tech publishers use to sell their digital ad inventory in real time. While a DSP helps advertisers buy ad space, an SSP helps publishers manage, price, and deliver those advertising spaces efficiently.

At the moment a page loads, the SSP reads available placements and pushes that data into the ad exchange. From there, DSPs compete to place an ad. However, the SSP not only serves as a mediator but also significantly influences the outcome. It applies auction logic, sets floor prices, and can prioritize premium bids over lowball offers to maximize revenue.

Top SSPs include Magnite, PubMatic, and Criteo. But most don’t offer the hybrid access that Blockchain-Ads provides, reaching both Web2 and on-chain audiences at scale. Not to mention that Blockchain-Ads connects with six major SSPs across North America and Southeast Asia.

In short, the SSP is the seller’s cockpit. It helps publishers boost revenue, maintain control over who buys their inventory, and deliver better ad experiences for users while ensuring optimal monetization of their advertising space.

What Is an Ad Exchange in Programmatic Advertising?

An ad exchange is the digital auction house where buying and selling meet. It connects DSPs and SSPs in real time, letting them trade individual ad impressions in milliseconds within the broader programmatic ecosystem.

When a user opens a webpage or app, the SSP flags the available ad slot and sends it to the exchange. There, DSPs submit bids based on targeting rules like device type, geo, session behavior, or wallet activity. The highest bidder wins, and the ad appears before the page even finishes loading.

You can think of it like a stock exchange, but for ads. Each impression is a tradable asset in the digital advertising space. Instead of stocks and bonds, it’s user attention that’s on the table. And instead of brokers, algorithms do the work, relying on real time bidding (RTB) to maximize ad spend efficiency.

DSP vs SSP vs Ad Exchange

These three components power every programmatic transaction, but they serve very different roles. The best way to describe them is as distinct players in a high-speed auction:

• DSP (Demand Side Platform) is the buyer’s agent. It helps advertisers decide which impressions to bid on, how much to offer, and what ad to show. It pulls from audience data and campaign goals to drive smarter bidding.
  
• SSP (Supply Side Platform) is the seller’s rep. It helps publishers manage their inventory, set floor prices, and push available ad slots into the auction. It ensures that impressions are sold to the highest and most relevant bidder.
  
• Ad Exchange is the auction house. It sits in the middle, routing supply from SSPs and demand from DSPs. It matches bids with impressions in real time and finalizes the transaction within milliseconds.

Here’s the simplest way to picture it:

Types of Programmatic Buying Models

Programmatic campaigns aren’t all built the same. Depending on your budget, goals, and how much control you want over inventory, you’ll need to choose the right buying model. There are four core types:

• Open Auction
• Private Marketplace (PMP)
• Preferred Deals
• Programmatic Guaranteed

Each of the types of programmatic advertising model serves a unique role in your ad strategy. We’ll break down how they work and when it makes sense to use each one.

Open Auction (RTB)

This is where most programmatic campaigns begin. The open auction model lets you bid on every single impression as it becomes available, right as a user lands on a page or opens an app.

You set your targeting, define your bid rules, and the DSP joins live auctions across thousands of sites. If your bid wins, your ad shows up instantly. It’s fast, flexible, and ideal for campaigns that need reach, real-time optimization, and room to test creatives.

Still, you’re bidding against everyone. That opens the door to fraud, low-quality placements, and limited transparency. That’s why tools like Blockchain-Ads give you better guardrails: wallet filtering, clean inventory access, and smart bid pacing.

Private Marketplace (PMP)

When you need better control and cleaner placements, PMPs offer a tighter path. These invite-only auctions let advertisers bid inside a private pool curated by the publisher.

You still get real-time bidding, but without the noise of the open market. 

That means more predictable environments, stronger brand safety, and premium supply like top media sites, crypto dashboards, or high-engagement Web3 content hubs.

Rates are usually higher, but the quality makes it worthwhile. With Blockchain-Ads, PMP access covers high-authority domains in fintech, iGaming, and decentralized finance, helping serious advertisers avoid the randomness of broader or multiple ad exchanges.

Preferred Deals

Sometimes, you don’t want to fight in an auction or wait. Preferred deals let you set a fixed CPM with a publisher and get early access to their impressions.

It’s a direct offer: if the user matches your criteria or target audience, your ad gets the first shot. If you pass, the impression rolls into the open auction. There’s no bidding war, just clean priority access at a stable rate.

This model fits repeat campaigns or remarketing efforts where you know the audience and just want smoother delivery. With Blockchain-Ads, preferred deals help advertisers reach wallet-connected users, recent dApp visitors, or repeat platform traders before competitors even get a chance.

Programmatic Guaranteed

Some campaigns demand zero uncertainty. Programmatic guaranteed deals lock in volume, rate, and placement with no auctions involved.

You prebook impressions in advance weeks or even months out and the publisher agrees to serve every one of them exactly as planned. That’s critical for video launches, big awareness plays, or date-sensitive pushes where scale and control are non-negotiable.

How to Launch a Programmatic Advertising Campaign?

Getting started with programmatic advertising isn’t complicated, but success depends on having a clear structure. Every strong programmatic advertising campaign follows six key steps, starting from goal setting all the way to monitoring and fine-tuning.

We’ve broken down the flow below to help you move from planning to execution in a way that’s efficient and repeatable for online advertising.

Step 1: Define Campaign Objectives

Every effective programmatic advertising campaign starts with a clear goal. Are you driving brand awareness, collecting leads, boosting app installs, or pushing sales? Each goal maps directly to how you build your campaign, what you track, where you show up, and how aggressive your bids get.

"Get more users" isn’t a real objective. “Get 10,000 new mobile signups from the UK at €2.50 CPA in 30 days” is. That kind of clarity shapes targeting rules, buying models, and platform choice.

For example, if your goal is ROAS on NFT marketplace users, your entire digital advertising bid logic will center on wallet activity, repeat visits, and funnel depth. Set your KPIs early so the DSP knows what success looks like.

Step 2: Choose the Right Buying Model

Once you have a clear objective, the next step is picking the programmatic buying model that fits.

Open Auction gives you scale and flexibility, which is perfect for testing and optimizing fast. PMP works better if brand safety matters or if you're targeting regulated sectors. Preferred Deals give you consistent access to specific users, and Programmatic Guaranteed locks in premium inventory and timing for major launches.

The budget also shapes this choice. Smaller budgets may stretch better in open auctions. Bigger campaigns that can’t miss a date or placement should go with programmatic direct guaranteed deals.

Pick the model that matches your risk tolerance and control needs, not just your wallet size.

Step 3: Select the Right DSP (Demand Side Platform)

Your DSP is the control center of your programmatic advertising campaign, so make sure it aligns with your goals. Key things to look for: targeting options, inventory depth, ease of use, reporting tools, and support.

Some DSPs are built for mainstream brands, while others, like Blockchain-Ads, support on-chain signals, wallet segmentation, and multi-format creative execution across crypto and regulated industries.

If your audience is niche like Web3 game audiences or high-intent like DEX traders, NFT collectors, or fintech app users, you’ll need a DSP that goes deeper than standard demographics. Also check for features like frequency capping, pacing tools, and support for postback tracking or cohort reporting.

Step 4: Build and Upload Creatives

Programmatic campaigns support multiple ad formats: display banner ads, native placements, video ads, and even full-screen mobile interstitials. Each DSP will have specific upload specs for size, file type, and rotation logic.

Strong creative matters as much as targeting. Dynamic ads that pull in location, product, or wallet data can lift performance sharply. Native creatives tend to blend in better on Web3 newsfeeds or community forums, while video ads work best in apps and high-attention zones.

Don’t just upload and go, test multiple versions. That lets your DSP optimize for CTR, engagement, or view-through rates in real time.

Step 5: Set Budget, Bids & Targeting

Once creatives are set, you’ll need to define how much you’re spending, how aggressively you’re bidding, and who exactly you want to reach.

Daily and total budgets should match your objective, with pacing set to avoid early burn. Bid strategy depends on the buying model; manual bidding works well for open auctions; target CPM or CPA works better for optimized flows.

Targeting can be as broad as geos and devices or as specific as wallet types, browsing behavior, and intent signals. Blockchain-Ads, for instance, lets you reach users who’ve interacted with specific contracts or crossed a DEX recently.

Set caps, define filters, and run tight.

How much does programmatic advertising cost?

There’s no fixed rate. What you pay depends on inventory quality, bidding strategy, competition, and how tight your targeting is. Most campaigns use CPM (cost per mille), where you pay per thousand impressions.

In high-demand markets or niche audiences, like wallet holders on Solana or frequent DEX users, CPMs can rise fast. That’s because the DSP knows those impressions are worth more.

You can also set CPA or CPC goals depending on how your DSP handles optimization. With Blockchain-Ads, for example, campaigns can bid based on ROAS or LTV, using event tracking and cohort data to guide spend.

The more intent and data you bring to the table, the more efficiently your budget works.

What are Programmatic Advertising Targeting Options?

Targeting is where programmatic shines. You can combine multiple filters to reach exactly who matters. Common options include:

• Demographic: Start with demographic targeting. If you're running a high-ticket crypto investment tool, age and income matter. You don’t want 19-year-olds; you want seasoned earners.
• Geo: With geo, you can target by city, zip, or region. That’s perfect if your license only covers specific regions like Europe or if you’re running an in-person event.
• Device: With device targeting comes in when the product experience differs. A browser-based DEX? Stick to desktop.
• Behavioral: Opting for behavioral targeting lets you reach users who’ve already shown intent. Think of someone who spent five minutes comparing wallets; your ad picks up that trail and lands where they are next.
• Contextual: Then there’s contextual. Say you're promoting a staking dashboard; serving that ad on a “best staking coins” blog post just makes sense. The content matches the offer.
• Retargeting: As for retargeting, it is about re-entry. Someone bailed at checkout? Bring them back with a nudge, like a native banner in a news feed.
• Lookalikes: Then, lookalike targeting finds people who act like your best converters. You feed in your top cohort; the system finds more with that same pattern.

Step 6: Launch and Monitor

Once live, your focus shifts to performance. Track metrics like CTR, CPM, CPA, VTR, and LTV depending on your campaign type. Use real-time dashboards to catch issues early. Are costs spiking? Is engagement dropping off? Is one ad outpacing the rest? Shift budgets or rotate creatives quickly.

A/B testing is also key here. You want to run different headlines, formats, or bid rules side by side. Programmatic marketing is not a one-time event because the best results come from hands-on monitoring and small, smart adjustments made daily.

What are the top programmatic advertising platforms?

Choosing a programmatic advertising platform comes down to what you’re running and who you’re trying to reach. Some platforms focus on clean interfaces and broad access. Others, like Blockchain-Ads, go deep, especially for high-intent or regulated audiences.

• Blockchain-Ads
  This is where crypto, gaming, fintech and a ton of other campaigns run with intent. You get wallet-based targeting, smart contract filters, and access to over 10,000 publishers. This option is built for scale but sharp enough to reach a DEX user mid-transaction.
• The Trade Desk
  One of the big names in the space. Brands love it for global reach, rich reporting, and cross-device delivery. It’s a good fit for awareness campaigns that need mass exposure.
• StackAdapt
  StackAdapt is particularly recognized for its native advertising and video capabilities. It’s simple to use and solid for content-heavy campaigns that need engagement more than volume. Think whitepapers, product demos, or tutorials.
• PubMatic
  PubMatic functions primarily as a supply-side engine, yet it remains relevant. You get access to quality placements, especially if you're chasing high-viewability inventory or news publisher traffic.
• Magnite
  Magnite is comparable to PubMatic, but it excels in video and CTV. If your campaign involves streaming platforms or sponsored video placements, it’s one to watch.

Programmatic Advertising Formats

Most programmatic campaigns rely on three main ad types: display, native, and video. Each format serves a different stage of the funnel, and choosing the right one can shape how users engage, click, or convert. We’ve broken down examples of programmatic advertising channels here to show where they work best and how they show up across Blockchain-Ads’ publisher network.

Display Banners in Programmatic Advertising

Display ads banners show up where users scroll, click, and act. You’ll see them in sidebars, headers, and between content blocks. Standard sizes like 300×250 or 728×90 still work, but what makes them hit is how you use them.

With rich media, these banners can animate, expand, or include countdowns, carousels, and swipe triggers. They're perfect for flash sales, token listings, or last-call reminders.

Blockchain-Ads delivers these across high-traffic crypto sites, exchange dashboards, and DeFi interfaces. If your goal is visibility plus action, this is where you start.

Native Ads in Programmatic Advertising

Native ads don’t look like ads because they blend into feeds, match the site’s tone, and often land between headlines or post previews. That makes them harder to ignore and easier to trust.

You’re placing a story rather than pushing a pitch. That’s why native works so well for long-form offers, tool launches, or lead-gen content like reports and whitepapers.

Video Ads in Programmatic Advertising

Video ads goes where static can’t. These placements autoplay inside content blocks, pop up before a news clip, or take over screens between mobile app sections. Some you skip, others you watch to the end, if they earn it.

Video works when you need to teach, show, or trigger an emotional hook. It’s built for product reveals, walkthroughs, and brand awareness.

Benefits of Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising is more about clarity, speed, and sharper results than buzzwords. When you use the right programmatic platforms and tools, your ads show up where they matter and adjust as your users move.

These are the core gains:

• Targeting with precision
  You control who sees the ad, when it shows, and why. Filters like wallet history, browsing habits, or geography let you stay focused, ensuring your programmatic ad reaches the right target audience.
• Faster campaign cycles
  Ads launch quickly. You don’t wait on manual deals or back-and-forth emails typical of the traditional media buying process. The system does the heavy lifting.
• Smarter use of data
  Every campaign teaches you something. You track impressions, adjust bids, and refine delivery without delay, thanks to data management platforms (DMPs) that support real-time optimization.
• Better performance at lower cost
  With tight targeting and efficient bidding strategies, you avoid waste. That means more impact for less programmatic advertising cost, maximizing your advertising budget.
• Creative versatility
  Display, native ads, social media ads, and video formats all run under one roof. You can rotate visuals, update headlines, or swap CTAs on the fly.
• Smoother workflows
  With Blockchain-Ads and similar DSPs, every part of the ad buying process, from setup to reporting, happens in one dashboard. No clutter or switching tools.

Programmatic advertising gives you scale, speed, and insight without the guesswork or manual drag that holds traditional advertising back.

Common Challenges of Programmatic Advertising

Even with the right DSP, programmatic campaigns can run into issues if you don’t control for quality. These are the most common problems that can drag down results:

• Ad fraud
  Invalid clicks, spoofed domains, and non-human traffic can bleed your budget if not filtered out at the DSP or exchange level.
• Cookie loss
  The decline of third-party cookies makes it harder to track users across sites, limiting the effectiveness of traditional retargeting models.
• Complex tech stack
  Using separate platforms for bidding, tracking, and reporting creates disconnects. That often leads to lagged data, duplicated costs, or missed insights.
• Low-quality traffic
  Without strict inventory filters, your ads can end up on junk sites or with zero viewability. That damages performance and brand trust.

Here’s how to reduce those risks:

Use data management platforms DSPs like Blockchain-Ads with built-in fraud prevention, wallet-level filters, and integrated DMP/SSP access. Replace cookie-based targeting with on-chain signals or first-party audience logic. Keep your stack tight by unifying bidding, delivery, and reporting in one place. And always apply inventory controls so you show up where your audience actually is.

Future Trends in Programmatic Advertising

We appreciate that programmatic advertising isn’t standing still, just like traditional media buying evolved in its era. Leading programmatic advertising platforms are already adapting to new rules, new identifiers, and new channels, shaping what the next 12 months will look like in the programmatic advertising landscape.

Cookie deprecation is forcing a shift

With Chrome retiring third-party cookies in Q1 2025, demand side platforms (DSPs) like The Trade Desk are investing in first-party frameworks like UID2.0. StackAdapt is expanding contextual targeting and modeled audiences to help advertisers access ad exchanges and sell ad space more effectively. Blockchain-Ads, in contrast, already bypasses cookies entirely by targeting on-chain behavior, wallet types, contract actions, and holding patterns, demonstrating how programmatic advertising relies on innovative data sources and advanced programmatic advertising strategies.

Retail media and CTV are pulling more budget

Programmatic isn’t just banners anymore. Amazon and Walmart now offer self-serve retail ad networks, expanding the reach of programmatic advertising. At the same time, connected TV (CTV) inventory is growing fast across platforms like Roku and Samsung Ads. Expect more cross-format planning between display and streaming, which further increases global programmatic ad spend and the overall programmatic advertising cost efficiency.

AI-powered pacing and bid adjustment is becoming standard

Most top DSPs now deploy AI to manage bid floors, rotate creatives, and predict conversion windows, optimizing programmatic advertising cost and performance. Blockchain-Ads adds another layer by factoring wallet signals into those pacing rules, showcasing how programmatic advertising continues to evolve with advanced technology and data management platforms (DMPs).

Privacy-first identity is now a competitive edge

The platforms leading the shift aren’t waiting for regulations. They’re building compliance in. Blockchain-Ads’ hybrid data management platform (DMP) is already built for Web3-native privacy, making it easier to segment without exposing personally identifiable information (PII). These aren’t far-off ideas; they’re here now, and if your DSP isn’t already moving, you’ll fall behind in the programmatic advertising ecosystem and miss opportunities to reach your target audience effectively.

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