Programmatic Curation: the latest targeting trend in advertising

 “Programmatic curation” and “inventory curation” are the new buzzwords. Even Google talked about it during their conference last November, when they introduced their curation tool through Google Ad Manager.

As you know, brand safety, ad fraud and return on investment are crucial points in Programmatic Advertising. Advertisers and agencies are always on the hunt for a new super targeting solution. That’s where Programmatic curation comes to the rescue!

Imagine being able to launch an impactful campaign (video, in-app, display, etc.) from the start. Wouldn’t you be interested in knowing how to do it?

The answer: Programmatic curation.

Important point: like for every targeting solution, defining your audience and your persona is key before launching any marketing campaigns.

What is curation?

Inventory curation means that ad supply is filtered, segmented and packaged in order to keep high-quality segments. We refer to these segments as “curation packages” when we talk about ad curation.

Ad curation is not new, but wasn’t used as much as now by publishers, advertisers, and Demand-Side Platform owners. For example, DSP owners are now developing a personalised supply portfolio for their clients for better performance. It’s a service we are proud to provide, at Ted Jordan.

Curation allows advertisers to deliver their ads on high-quality audience segments only and stop wasting money on low-quality inventory. The targeting is then granular, customised, and more transparent. Data comes directly from publishers, which leads to really specific and granular curated packages.

Inventory curation is also great to stop delivering on MFA sites or MFA inventory. MFA sites are Made-For-Advertising sites. These low-quality sites are mainly created to display as many ads as possible. The ratio of ads to content is shockingly high; MFA websites bring little to none information. There are billions of MFA sites around, which often makes it impossible not to deliver on them.

But, now, with Programmatic ad curation, it’s possible to avoid these sites.

How does programmatic curation work?

Programmatic curation is based on ingenious machine learning models that constantly scan and analyse inventory and data. This way, the best possible curated inventory is created for you and is available to use. When you launch a campaign, it’s much easier to scale from the start. With Programmatic curation, you also know exactly where you deliver. You can now avoid low-quality inventory that you can’t always block with blocklists or exclusion segments.

Inventory curation also provides access to premium inventory, only available through deals; a specific deal ID is then created for each custom curated package. Premium inventory may be an in-app inventory, suitable for your mobile app campaigns, or CTV curated deals, if you’re launching a Connected TV ad campaign, for example.

With inventory curation, you can target web pages with low ad loads, or ad placements that don’t refresh content too quickly. The Trade Desk and Yahoo offer similar targeting options, where you can directly access MFA-free publishers, through their tools: TTD Sellers and Publishers 500+, Yahoo Backstage.

Know that Programmatic curation deals are activated through a Demand-Side Platform, but targeting is done on the supply side (through an SSP, for instance). Inventory curation uses real-time signals from SSPs and DPSs, which allows ad curators to provide continuous relevant inventory.

If you want to reach valuable audiences without wasting your budget on low-quality domains, ad formats, or segments, you should definitely learn more about Programmatic curation.

And if you’re new to Programmatic, we highly recommend that you learn Programmatic basics to avoid campaign set up mistakes that could cost you a lot (of time and money).

New to Programmatic?

If you’re new to Programmatic and want to learn the basics of this advertising solution, or if you’re just looking to get certified to increase your chance of job interviews: join a Programmatic Course.

Ted Jordan designed this online course for beginners to advanced learners.

Upon completion of the course and if you pass the final test, you’ll receive a certification.

Programmatic curation deals

Programmatic curation deals offer great advantages for brand advertisers. Curated packages allow advertisers to focus on premium inventory for their brand and scale more easily.

Compared to regular targeting solutions that often focus on exclusion, Programmatic curation focuses on performance. This means higher win rates, lower CPMs, and more predictable delivery thanks to advanced algorithms.

But there is more!…

Better transparency and control

Advertisers know exactly where their ads are appearing and gain better control over their campaign delivery.

Relevant targeting

Targeting is improved and, therefore, is more relevant because first-party data and precise data are used.

Easier access to premium inventory

Curated inventory packages allow advertisers to launch their campaigns quicker, without worrying their ads will be delivered on low-quality domains or sites, such as MFA sites. Also, curation allows advertisers to access premium inventory directly, which helps reduce CPMs and trading costs.

Ready for a cookieless world

Programmatic curation relies on first-party or shared data (and efficient contextual targeting when possible), which increases the amount of relevant information collected for specific audiences, formats or domains.

With Programmatic curation, the inventory will always be relevant, even when cookies will disappear (if they do, one day…); curation bypasses cookies and third-party identifiers.

Why use curation for in-app campaigns?

When you launch in-app campaigns, it’s almost impossible to avoid low-quality app inventories using regular targeting options.

For most mobile apps, there are two versions: Android and iOS. And low quality apps use hundreds of domains and subdomains, which makes it really difficult for advertisers and brands to exclude these when running in-app campaigns.

With about 2M apps available on Google Play and Apple App Store (in November 2024), no exclusion lists could stop your campaign to deliver on all unwanted apps. The number of mobile apps is constantly changing, because new apps are launched and low-quality apps are removed by app stores.

Programmatic curation is revolutionising in-app campaigns.

Thanks to Programmatic curation, it’s possible to target specific apps only instead of trying to exclude them, or select high-quality apps only, for example. Targeting can be done in various ways: device ID, contextual metrics, category, rating, most-used apps by gender or age, etc.

For example, iOS’s focus is on games, while Google Play focuses on educational apps (source: 42matters).

Inventory curation deals can be used to target a young audience or B2B executives, for example, targeting apps that are used by these audiences.

With Programmatic in-app curation, you can target the right audience from the start: no more wasted budget on low-quality inventory, more predictability, lower CPMs, higher engagement rates.

Now, you know what data curation is, how Programmatic curation works and why you should use curated packages for your video or in-app campaigns. Interested in learning about our Programmatic curation deals? Contact us today.


Get certified in Programmatic; join our Programmatic Online Course.

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