Programmatic is the process of automated matching of two opposing sides (i.e. matching the needs of buyers and sellers) or matching a process to a program.
In marketing and advertising, programmatic is specific to the automated process of buying and/or selling ad inventory based of price, targeting and placements. Most programmatic ad placement processes are targeted and auction based, in which an advertiser can select the audience targeting to determine the inventory that they want to bid on in an “automated” process, which is matched against publishers’ presets for selling that inventory. Programmatic advertising requires a stream of information back and forth between user, advertiser and publisher. Programmatic advertising may refer to Display Advertising, Video Advertising (including OTT), Audio Advertising, Native Advertising, Social Media Advertising, and more.