Ad Tech Analogies: Simple is the New Smart (The Online Shopping Cart Analogy)

Next up in our ad tech analogies series: The Online Shopping Cart Analogy, which explains how programmatic direct buying works.

First things first: What's programmatic direct? It's a reserved (guaranteed) buy with fixed rates negotiated directly with the publisher and executed in programmatic environments using Deal IDs.

It becomes a little bit easier to understand if you think about the way you shop online. You go to a retailer's website, browse their inventory, and select what you want – sorting through different variations of items, like color, size, quantity, etc. You drop the items in your shopping cart, submit your payment information, and you're done. You didn't have to work with a sales person or a support person or anyone else to facilitate your purchase. And you know what you're getting is guaranteed to be shipped to you at exactly the specifications you set – otherwise you wouldn't have been able to buy it.

In this way, online shopping works very much like programmatic direct – which is essentially making direct ad inventory purchases from publishers without facilitating them manually, by syncing directly into their ad server.

Next week we'll dive into The Rue La La Analogy, which explains how private marketplaces and private exchanges are not the same thing.

Learn more about the programmatic advertising opportunity with Centro, here.