Programmatic Advertising Services
As a specialist programmatic advertising agency, The SEO Works helps businesses reach the right audiences across digital channels, using data, automation and real-time optimisation to make every pound of budget work harder.
Programmatic advertising has transformed the way brands buy media. Rather than negotiating placements manually, programmatic ads are delivered automatically via demand-side platforms (DSPs), matching your message to relevant users across display, video, native, audio, connected TV and digital out-of-home environments, all in real time.
Whether you’re looking to build awareness, drive consideration or generate conversions, our programmatic advertising services are built around your commercial objectives, with a clear structure and measurable results from the outset.
Why Programmatic Advertising Matters
Programmatic advertising lets you place ads across some of the biggest digital environments around including Netflix, Channel 4, Sky, Spotify and YouTube reaching reaching precisely targeted audiences at scale.
It delivers ads across multiple channels
Campaigns can run across display, video, native, audio, digital out of home (DOOH) and connected TV (CTV).
It enables precise audience targeting
Programmatic campaigns use data such as demographics, interests, behaviours and intent to reach relevant users.
It uses real-time optimisation
Performance data is used to adjust bids, placements and targeting continuously, reducing wasted spend.
It supports full-funnel activity
Programmatic can be used to build awareness, drive consideration and support conversions.
It provides measurable performance insights
Detailed reporting allows you to understand how audiences, creatives and placements contribute to results.
What Our Programmatic Services Cover
Our approach to programmatic advertising is strategic and data-led, with every decision driven by performance.
A Structured Approach
We build and manage campaigns with a clear structure, ensuring performance can be measured and improved over time.
Understanding Your Business
We begin by aligning campaigns with your commercial goals, ensuring targeting, messaging and formats are relevant.
Strong Technical Foundations
Campaigns are built on accurate tracking, reliable data and clear account structure, ensuring consistent performance and reporting.
Audience Strategy and Targeting
We build audience frameworks using first-party data, contextual signals and third-party insights, refining targeting as the campaign develops.
Creative and Format Strategy
We work with client-supplied creative assets and adapt them for different placements and requirements to support engagement and performance.
Data-Led Optimisation
We analyse performance across audiences, creatives and channels to ensure your budget is used effectively and campaigns continue to improve.
How Programmatic Fits Into Your Marketing Strategy
While search captures existing demand, programmatic helps build awareness and influence consideration across a wider audience.
- Display advertising with clear audience segmentation, placement controls and creative rotation.
- Video and connected TV placements to reach customers on platforms such as Netflix and Channel 4.
- Native ads across large puiblishers like The Guardian work well because they don’t feel like interruptions.
- Audio programmatic extends your reach into podcasts and music platforms like Spotify.
- Digital out-of-home inventory is also available, which means you can coordinate digital campaigns with placements on roadside screens, retail environments and transport hubs.
When combined with paid search, social and remarketing, programmatic strengthens overall visibility and supports consistent performance across the full customer journey.
Our Programmatic Advertising Process
Here’s how we drive results using programmatic media buying services.
1. Campaign Foundations and Strategic Setup
Audience frameworks are developed to cover prospecting, mid-funnel and retargeting activity. Creative strategy is defined to match campaign goals, and account structure is built to support effective delivery and optimisation.
2. Campaign Activation and Refinement
Early optimisation focuses on removing low-quality placements, adjusting targeting and refining bids. Initial testing of creatives, audiences and bidding strategies helps establish performance benchmarks and identify early trends.
3. Insight-Led Testing and Development
Structured testing is carried out across targeting, messaging and bidding strategies. Attribution data is reviewed to understand channel contribution, and findings are used to refine campaigns and improve efficiency.
4. Scaling Campaigns and Refreshing Creative
Budgets are reallocated to prioritise strong performance, and creative assets are refreshed to maintain engagement. Additional formats and placements are tested to extend reach and improve results.
5. Conversion Optimisation and Funnel Refinement
Audience targeting is enhanced, and creative messaging is adapted for different stages of the user journey. Ongoing testing ensures campaigns remain aligned with performance goals.
6. Strategic Planning and Future Growth
A clear plan is developed for the next phase, including budgets, testing priorities and seasonal activity. All insights are documented to support continued optimisation and long-term performance.
Programmatic Case Study
Our client, a home improvement retailer, was running search conversion campaigns but had no presence at the top of the funnel. People weren’t searching for them because they didn’t know them. They needed reach, and they needed it in the right context.
We ran programmatic display and connected TV across Sky and Channel 4 inventory, targeting homeowners in the 35 to 54 age bracket using third-party intent data. Prospecting audiences were kept separate from site retargeting, so budget went on building awareness rather than chasing people who’d already found them.
Over a 20 week period the campaign delivered over 21.2 million impressions at an average frequency of 3.4. Branded search volume increased by 18% during the campaign window. Assisted conversions through paid search, where programmatic was the first touchpoint, were up 23%.
Why Partner With Us?
We’re a UK programmatic advertising agency with experience across B2B and B2C, from mid-market businesses to national brands. Partnering with The SEO Works means working with a team that applies structure, consistency and expertise to every stage of your programmatic campaigns:
- Award-winning experience across a wide range of industries
- Dedicated account managers aligned with your objectives
- Clear reporting focused on meaningful performance metrics
- Recommendations based on real data
- Cross-channel planning across paid search, SEO and paid social
FAQs on Programmatic Advertising
What is programmatic advertising?
It’s the buying and selling of digital ad inventory in real time. A demand-side platform bids for ad impressions as they become available, using audience data to match your ads to relevant users across a wide range of publishers and formats.
What’s the difference between programmatic advertising and display advertising?
Display advertising describes the format: banner ads, rich media, video. Programmatic advertising describes how that inventory is bought. Most display advertising today is bought programmatically, but programmatic also covers video, native, audio, CTV and DOOH. The two terms get used interchangeably fairly often, which causes a fair amount of confusion.
What formats can programmatic ads cover?
Display, video, native, audio, connected TV and digital out-of-home, all managed from a single campaign. The right mix depends on your audience and what you’re trying to achieve.
What is programmatic display advertising?
It uses automated buying technology to place banner and rich media ads across websites and apps. Rather than buying space on a fixed list of sites, you’re targeting specific audiences and reaching them based on their interests, behaviour and intent signals.
What is programmatic media buying?
It’s the process of purchasing digital ad inventory through platforms using real-time bidding. It replaces traditional, manual negotiation with publishers and allows for far more precise targeting and ongoing performance optimisation.
How much does it cost?
It varies quite a bit depending on the format, audience and level of competition for that inventory. CPMs for broad display can be under £1. Premium CTV inventory CPMs can be £20 or more. We work with clients to define realistic budgets before anything launches, and we’re honest when a budget isn’t enough to generate meaningful data.
How long before I see results?
You’ll have early performance data within the first two to four weeks. Programmatic campaigns generally improve as the platform gathers more data, so month three tends to look quite different from week one. We set expectations around this from the start.
Does programmatic work for B2B businesses?
It can, yes, but it requires a different approach. Firmographic targeting, contextual placements around relevant industry content, and account-based marketing (ABM) tactics tend to work better than broad audience targeting. It’s most effective as part of a wider B2B strategy rather than a standalone channel.
How do you measure success?
We track conversions, cost per acquisition, engagement, return on ad spend, reach and frequency. We report regularly and clearly, and we explain what the data means rather than leaving you to interpret it yourself.
What makes you different as a programmatic advertising agency?
We manage programmatic alongside paid search and SEO, so your campaigns are planned in the context of your full digital strategy rather than in a silo. We’re also straightforward about what’s working and what isn’t, with access to a dedicated account manager at any time.