Programmatic advertising, OOH and DOOH: how to integrate online and offline in one plan

Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of ad space through platforms that decide, opportunity by opportunity, whether an ad is worth showing, to which audience and at what price. Instead of negotiating each placement with each media owner, the advertiser sets audience, context, budget and rules, and the technology executes the purchase across websites, apps, video, audio, connected TV and out-of-home screens.

OOH, short for out of home, is media displayed outside the home: billboards, building wraps, bus shelters, airports, subways, shopping malls. DOOH, or digital out of home, is the part of that universe delivered on digital screens. This guide explains how each piece works and how large advertisers bring online and offline into the same plan, starting from the audience's daily routine rather than the channel of the moment.

What programmatic advertising is and how it works

The programmatic chain has three main pieces, which talk to each other at every impression opportunity:

• DSP (demand-side platform): the buy-side platform. The advertiser or agency sets up audiences, bids, budget and creatives and buys inventory from multiple sources through a single interface.
• SSP (supply-side platform): the sell-side platform. The media owner makes its inventory available, sets floor prices and defines rules on who can buy.
• Auction: the environment where supply and demand meet. For each available slot, eligible buyers place bids and the winner serves the ad, in fractions of a second.

Around them sit data sources, verification tools and ad servers. Each intermediary may carry its own cost, and understanding this chain is part of planning.

Open exchange, private marketplace and programmatic guaranteed

The IAB, the international digital advertising association, organized programmatic transaction types into four categories. In the plans of large advertisers, three of them appear most often:

• Open auction (open exchange): the media owner offers impressions to any buyer. It delivers scale, with less control over where the ad appears.
• Private marketplace (invitation-only auction): the media owner offers impressions to a selected group of advertisers, usually at higher prices. Bidding still takes place, but among known buyers.
• Programmatic guaranteed: the format closest to traditional direct buying, with volume and price agreed between media owner and advertiser and execution automated.

The fourth category is the unreserved fixed rate, known as a preferred deal. Names vary across platforms, so it is worth confirming in the contract how each deal is defined.

Brand safety and viewability

Brand safety is the set of practices that keep an ad from appearing next to content incompatible with the brand. Brand suitability defines what is appropriate for each brand, which varies by category and moment. Viewability indicates whether the ad appeared in the visible area of the screen for the minimum time set by the measurement standard in use.

Alongside these two sits invalid traffic, generated by bots or fraud. Common practices include inclusion and exclusion lists, independent verification, private deals with selected media owners and review of the reports on where the ad ran. An impression nobody sees is not cheap, whatever the CPM.

What OOH is and what DOOH is

OOH media follows people as they move around and in the places they frequent. Its strength lies in its physical presence in daily routines, in the context of the location and in the fact that it cannot be skipped like a video ad. It is one of the forms of offline media, alongside linear TV, radio and print.

DOOH brings the possibilities of the digital screen into that environment. Content can change by day and time, several brands usually rotate on the same screen, and creative can respond to data such as weather or time of day. What sets it apart from digital still holds: the screen is seen by several people, at varying distances and for a few seconds.

Programmatic DOOH

In programmatic DOOH, screen inventory is offered through sell-side platforms and bought through DSPs, with rules on location, time and display conditions. Because a single play is seen by several people at once, deals usually rely on audience estimates per play rather than the logic of one impression per person. Programmatic supply and audience data vary by market and by screen operator, so it is advisable to confirm with each one what is bought this way and how audience is estimated.

Connected TV

Connected TV, or CTV, is video watched on a television over the internet: streaming apps, free ad-supported channels and video platforms on the big screen. It sits between linear TV and digital video: a large screen, often shared viewing, and programmatic buying with targeting. The recurring challenge is combined frequency, because the same person may see the ad in several apps and on linear TV without any single tool seeing the total.

Plan around the audience's routine, not the channel of the moment

Online and offline do not speak to different audiences. It is the same person who drives past the billboard on the way to work, sees the screen in the office elevator, watches a series on connected TV at night and searches on their phone before deciding. When each channel is planned separately, with suppliers, targets and budgets that do not talk to each other, the plan repeats the message where it is not needed and leaves gaps where the decision happens.

The starting point is mapping the audience's routine: where they travel, at what times, in front of which screens and at what moment of the decision. From that map, each medium gets a role, such as reach, frequency, context or demand capture. The channel of the moment enters the plan if it fulfills one of these roles better than the alternatives.

How to build an integrated plan

• Define the business objective and the metric that will judge the entire plan, not each channel in isolation.
• Map the audience's routine and decision moments, using first-party data, research and audience information from media owners.
• Give each medium a role and a metric consistent with that role.
• Allocate budget by role, not by channel, as discussed in the article on media budget allocation.
• Develop a single creative idea, adapted to the context of each screen: exposure time, distance and available sound.
• Plan combined frequency across TV, CTV, digital video and DOOH.
• Define measurement before the campaign goes live, including which markets will be held out to serve as a comparison.

How to measure OOH and DOOH

Out-of-home media was not built for clicks, and measuring it by clicks or QR code scans underestimates what it does. Measurement combines a few approaches:

• Reach and frequency estimates: calculated from foot and vehicle traffic and from audience data provided by screen operators or measurement companies. They are estimates, and it is worth understanding the methodology behind each number.
• Geographic tests: comparable markets are split between those that receive the media and those that do not, and the difference is observed in sales, branded searches, store traffic or qualified leads. The method is detailed in the article on media incrementality.
• Complementary signals: branded searches and website visits by region, and recall surveys comparing exposed and unexposed groups.
• Mix models: they estimate the contribution of each medium using aggregated data over time, as explained in the article on marketing mix modeling.

The same applies to digital programmatic and connected TV: platforms report delivery, and the business impact requires a comparison with a scenario without the media.

Common mistakes

• Choosing a medium for its novelty, without defining what role it plays in the audience's routine.
• Splitting online and offline budgets into silos, with targets that do not add up.
• Buying programmatic on the lowest CPM without looking at viewability, environment and invalid traffic.
• Treating DOOH as a banner on a big screen, with too much text for people who pass by in a few seconds.
• Measuring OOH by clicks or QR codes and concluding that the media did not work.
• Ignoring combined frequency across linear TV, connected TV and digital video.
• Failing to confirm what is being bought in each programmatic deal and how audience is estimated.

Hypothetical example: a launch with online and offline in one plan

The following case is hypothetical and illustrative, with no client or market data. Imagine a health insurance company launching a corporate product in two metropolitan areas, aimed at HR managers and owners of mid-sized companies.

The team starts with this audience's routine: commuting by car along business corridors, office buildings with screens in the elevators, business news on their phones during the day, series on TV at night. The decision involves research, comparison and a conversation with a broker.

The plan assigns roles. Static OOH near business hubs and DOOH in corporate elevators during business hours build reach and presence in the routine. Programmatic in a private marketplace with business publishers deepens the message. Connected TV, with controlled frequency, takes the film to the big screen. Search and the website capture the demand generated and route it to the sales team.

To measure, the team compares two similar markets: one receives OOH and DOOH from the start, the other four weeks later. The main metric is qualified leads in the CRM by region, tracked alongside branded searches. Before starting, the team records what will be done with each result. In the end, the discussion shifts from which channel brought the lead to how much the integrated plan added.

Frequently asked questions about programmatic advertising, OOH and DOOH

What is programmatic advertising?

It is the automated buying and selling of ad space. The advertiser sets audience, context, budget and rules in a DSP, and the media owner offers inventory through an SSP. At each impression opportunity, an auction or a negotiated deal decides which ad appears and at what price, across websites, apps, video, audio, connected TV and DOOH screens.

What is the difference between OOH and DOOH?

OOH is all media displayed outside the home, such as billboards, building wraps, bus shelters, airports and shopping malls. DOOH is the part of that universe delivered on digital screens, which make it possible to change content by time of day, rotate brands on the same screen and use creative that responds to data such as weather. Part of DOOH can be bought programmatically.

What is programmatic DOOH?

It is the purchase of digital out-of-home screens through programmatic platforms, with rules on location, time and display conditions. Because each play is seen by several people, buying usually relies on audience estimates per play. Supply varies by market and by screen operator, so it is worth confirming what is available and how audience is calculated.

Does offline media still make sense for large companies?

It does when it plays a role in the audience's routine that digital does not play in the same way, such as physical presence along the commute, the context of the place or a shared big screen. The decision should not start from an opposition between online and offline, but from the map of the audience's moments and the business metric the whole plan needs to move.

How do you measure the results of OOH media?

By combining reach and frequency estimates with geographic tests, in which comparable markets either receive the media or not and the difference shows up in sales, branded searches or qualified leads. Recall surveys and mix models complement the reading. Measuring by clicks or QR codes underestimates the effect of a medium that was not built for clicks.

To plan online and offline around the audience's routine, explore our Media area.