Changed my mind about programmatic ads after a test campaign in Phoenix

Honestly, I used to think programmatic was just a waste of money for small accounts. But I ran a 3 month test for a local HVAC client in Phoenix, comparing it to manual Google display targeting. The programmatic campaign got us a 2.1% click rate versus 0.4% on manual, and we spent $800 less overall. What really flipped me was seeing how it auto-adjusted bids based on weather alerts for heat waves. Has anyone else had better luck with programmatic after being skeptical?

3 comments

3 Comments

norab2114d ago

Hold on, I gotta push back here. @sullivan.spencer actually has a point even if they phrased it funny - that pizza store example is EXACTLY why programmatic can fail for small local shops. Just because it auto-adjusts doesn't mean it adjusts smart. A 2.1% click rate on a heat wave alert is impressive on paper but what if most of those clicks came from people just checking their phone in a hotel pool? Phoenix has tons of winter visitors and snowbirds who don't actually need HVAC work. Manual targeting lets you block out zip codes full of rentals and second homes. Programmatic treats every click as a win but you're paying for those random pizza enthusiasts just like in that Wisconsin story. Weather alerts are cool tech but a good old fashioned spreadsheet of actual customer addresses would probably do more.

juliashah14d ago

I read programmatic auto-optimizes way better than manual for hyper-local campaigns.

sullivan.spencer14d ago

Yeah totally, it's funny you mention that cause I was just reading about how one time a guy set up a programmatic campaign for a local pizza place targeting just people within two blocks of the shop. It accidentally started optimizing for people who searched "deep dish" and then served ads to someone in a different state who clicked it like ten times and never ordered. The algorithm thought it was a genius move but the shop was just bleeding money on clicks from random pizza enthusiasts two towns over. Manual might take more work but at least you can tell it "hey stop buying clicks from that guy in Wisconsin who just likes looking at pepperoni.