Choice before_volume

01

What programmatic buying covers

Programmatic buying belongs to execution: the media plan sets the job of each channel, and the buying decides where the impressions come from and at what price. The environments we buy include news and special interest sites, online video, digital audio and digital out of home screens. The budget can move between environments mid-campaign based on results.

Programmatic buying suits a campaign that needs reach across several publishers, audience targeting or the option to change the buying mid-campaign. If the campaign needs a specific placement or a content partnership, buying direct from the media owner may suit better. A combination is one option, and the choice is made campaign by campaign.

02

Audience and frequency

Targeting by audience, area or data segment focuses the impressions, but every restriction shrinks the reachable audience and can raise the price of an impression. A campaign restricted to a very small area or a narrow segment may not find enough people. We size the targeting so the audience matches the budget, and we set a frequency cap.

Retargeting reaches people who have already visited the site. Its audience is small and cookie restrictions have narrowed it further, so its share is agreed by the campaign objective.

03

Viewability and traffic quality

A purchased impression is not always seen, and some traffic can be invalid. We measure viewability and invalid traffic independently, because they can vary from one flight to the next without the click rate showing it. We agree with you which media and placements are excluded, and we update the exclusion list from the measurement data.

20.3 %* of 18 to 74-year-olds, around 803 000 people, say they use an ad blocker online. Blocking does not necessarily cover all online advertising, but it is one reason why the number of impressions bought does not equal the number of people reached.

04

Costs and results

We report the buys and their costs by publisher and format. The cheapest impression does not necessarily deliver the cheapest result, so the price of an impression is judged alongside what the campaign delivered on the agreed metric.

A better click rate alone does not mean a better business result. When the goal is a purchase or an enquiry, conversion tracking goes in before the first flight and the buying is steered by it. When the goal is reach or attention, we assess viewability, frequency and viewing.

05

Assets for programmatic buying

Programmatic buying needs an asset for every format bought. When the client uses NØRR3 Marketing Engine, the DCO & Templates app produces versions in supported formats from an approved ad template, and store-specific offer versions can be produced from a feed once the feed is connected and maintained. The Assets page explains how the work is shared with the advertising agency.

06

What our campaigns have shown about buying

High-impact formats have cost two to three times more per impression than a standard banner, but their click rate has been several times higher, so each click has cost less.**

In our campaigns, sites close to the subject have often delivered better viewability or click rates than broad news sites. In display and native, regional newspapers have earned better click rates, while national media have delivered the volume.** So we choose publishers by the campaign objective and judge them by results.

Retargeting has often delivered the best click rate, but with its small audience it has not carried a campaign. The result has come from reaching new people.**

* NØRR3 Media Insights, Norstat panel, wave 9, August 2026, n = 2 022, aged 18 to 74. Question: which of the following describe you, self-reported use of an ad blocker online. Margin of error ±1.7 percentage points. ** NØRR3's own campaign bank, campaign reports 2024–2026: each lesson recurs in campaigns across at least two industries and two advertisers.