How to learn programmatic advertising in 2026: a 7-step plan for beginners

You open a news app to check the cricket score, and a credit card banner loads above it. In less than a second, software decided you were worth showing that ad to, bid for the slot and won. "Earlier, if I had to advertise on Cricinfo, I would call up the Cricinfo guys," says Varun Satia, Kraftshala's co-founder. Today, all of that is automated.

That automation is programmatic advertising. This guide is a 7-step plan to learn it from zero, following one made-up campaign all the way through: Sahyog Bank's new credit card for 22-30-year-olds in six cities.

Key takeaways

• The short answer: to learn programmatic advertising, start with the free Programmatic 101 course on The Trade Desk Edge Academy, then do Google's free Display & Video 360 (DV360) training and certification on Skillshop. Then build proof of work (a media plan, a pacing sheet and a report), add Excel and one other ad channel, and practise explaining your plan in an interview.

• No coding needed. You need to understand how ads are bought, practise on a demand-side platform such as DV360, and be comfortable with numbers in Excel or Google Sheets.

• It is a large market. The dentsu-e4m Digital Advertising Report 2026 puts programmatic ad spend in India at ₹30,081 crore in 2025, 42% of all digital ad spend.

• Most jobs are at agencies. Entry roles such as Programmatic Executive pay about ₹4-5 LPA (Glassdoor India). All 34 Kraftshala alumni whose first job was in programmatic started at agencies or ad tech companies, such as Publicis, GroupM, dentsu, IPG Mediabrands and MediaMint, in the ₹4.5-6 LPA band.

• Time needed: the basics and the DV360 certification take a few weeks of part-time study. Being job-ready takes a few months, because you also need practice and proof of work.

What is programmatic advertising, in simple words?

Programmatic advertising is the automated buying of ad space using software. Instead of calling a website to book a banner, an advertiser sets an audience, a budget and a bid in a tool called a DSP, and the software buys the right ad slots one by one, in real time, across thousands of websites, apps and streaming platforms.

Varun's one-line version: "Programmatic is basically automated ad buying outside of the Meta and Google universe." Meta and Google run their own ad systems. Programmatic gives you the same kind of targeting and tracking across the rest of the internet: news sites, apps, YouTube, OTT platforms like JioHotstar, and even digital billboards.

Who needs it? Mostly large consumer brands, for whom the Meta and Google audience alone is not enough. Sahyog Bank wants to reach young professionals wherever they read, watch and scroll, and Instagram is only one of those places. That is a programmatic job.

Words you will see in this guide

For a longer list, see our digital marketing terms you must know.

• Impression: one showing of an ad to one person.

• DSP (demand-side platform): the software advertisers use to buy ads. Examples: Google Display & Video 360 (DV360), The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP.

• SSP (supply-side platform): the software websites and apps use to sell their ad space. Examples: Google Ad Manager, PubMatic, Magnite.

• Ad exchange: the marketplace where DSPs and SSPs meet and run auctions.

• CPM: cost per 1,000 impressions, the usual way programmatic ads are priced.

• CTR, CPA, ROAS: click-through rate, cost per acquisition (cost of one sale or lead) and return on ad spend.

• Pacing: whether a campaign's budget is being spent at the planned speed.

How does a programmatic ad get shown?

A programmatic ad is bought and shown in five steps, and the auction takes less time than the page takes to load. Here is the cricket-score banner, step by step:

1. Sahyog Bank's agency sets up a campaign in a DSP. Audience: 22-30-year-olds in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR and Chennai, interested in finance and travel. Budget, bid, format (banner and short video) and goal (card applications).

2. You open the news app. The app's SSP sends the empty ad slot to an ad exchange, with anonymous details such as device type, city and the topic of the page.

3. An auction runs. DSPs check whether you fit any of their campaigns and place bids.

4. The winning ad loads. Sahyog Bank's bid is highest, so its banner appears above the score.

5. The agency tracks and improves results. They check impressions, clicks, applications and where the ads ran, then change targeting, bids or creatives.

What are the main ways to buy programmatic ads?

Sahyog Bank might use programmatic guaranteed on two finance news sites for launch week, and open auction across apps after that, to keep the cost per application down.

What skills do you need to learn programmatic advertising?

To learn programmatic advertising, you need five skills: the ad tech chain, audience planning, hands-on DSP work, reading numbers and brand safety. None of them require coding. Here is what each one means:

1. The ad tech chain: how DSPs, SSPs, ad exchanges, data platforms and ad servers connect.

2. Audience planning: building audiences from first-party data (a brand's own customer data), contextual targeting (the topic of the page) and behavioural signals.

3. Platform work: setting up campaigns, line items, budgets, bids and frequency caps (how often one person sees your ad) in DV360 or The Trade Desk.

4. Reading numbers: tracking CTR, CPA, ROAS, viewability and pacing, mostly in Excel or Google Sheets.

5. Brand safety: making sure ads don't appear next to harmful content or fake traffic, using tools such as Integral Ad Science (IAS) and DoubleVerify.

A note on older guides: many still recommend Moat for brand safety. Oracle shut down its advertising business, including Moat, in 2024, according to Marketing Dive. Learn IAS or DoubleVerify instead.

How to learn programmatic advertising: a 7-step plan

To learn programmatic advertising, follow seven steps: learn the vocabulary, learn DV360, understand audiences and data, get comfortable with numbers, build proof of work, learn one more ad channel and prepare for interviews. Each step builds on the one before. The times assume 8-10 hours a week.

Step 1: Learn the vocabulary (1-2 weeks)

Start with The Trade Desk's free Edge Academy, which has a beginner course called Programmatic 101. By the end, you should be able to explain DSP, SSP, ad exchange, CPM and the four buying types to a friend in your own words.

Test yourself with the cricket banner: can you explain, in five sentences, how it reached your phone?

Step 2: Learn DV360 and get certified (2-3 weeks)

DV360 is Google's DSP and the platform most Indian agencies use. Google's Skillshop has free Display & Video 360 training and a free certification exam. The certification shows recruiters that you know the platform's menus and workflow. The next section covers it in detail.

Step 3: Learn how audiences and data work (1-2 weeks)

Study the difference between first-party, second-party and third-party data, and how contextual targeting works. Changes to tracking cookies and stricter privacy rules have made first-party and contextual targeting more important, so spend most of your time there.

For Sahyog Bank, the first-party audience is its own app users who don't yet have a credit card. Contextual targeting is people reading finance and travel pages. Write down which audience you would use for which goal.

Step 4: Get comfortable with numbers (2 weeks)

Learn pivot tables, VLOOKUP and simple charts in Excel or Google Sheets. Most programmatic executives spend part of every day on pacing sheets and reports. If Sahyog Bank's monthly budget is ₹30 lakh, your pacing sheet should tell you by the 10th whether you have spent close to ₹10 lakh, and if not, why.

Step 5: Build proof of work (3-4 weeks)

Free certifications teach the platform. Recruiters ask what you have planned. Build these three things, for Sahyog Bank or a real brand you choose:

• A programmatic media plan: goal, audience, buying types, budget split by city and format, and the results you expect

• A pacing sheet that tracks daily spend against the plan

• A one-page performance report with three clear recommendations

Here is what separates a weak recommendation from a strong one:

The strong version names the number, the comparison, the action and the amount. That is what an interviewer is listening for.

Step 6: Learn one more ad channel (3-4 weeks)

Entry roles often mix programmatic with Google Ads, YouTube or Meta Ads, especially at agencies (our performance marketing tools guide covers the main ones). DV360 works like a more advanced version of performance marketing tools, so knowing performance marketing makes programmatic easier to learn and makes you easier to hire. It also helps you see where programmatic fits in a full media plan.

Step 7: Prepare for interviews and apply (2 weeks)

Practise explaining your Sahyog Bank plan out loud in five minutes. Interviewers for programmatic roles often ask how you would choose an audience, what you would do if a budget is spending too fast, and what you would change after reading a report. Apply to media agencies first, because that is where most programmatic jobs are today. Our list of digital marketing interview questions covers the general rounds.

How do you get the DV360 certification?

You get the DV360 certification by taking Google's free Display & Video 360 training and exam on Skillshop. Sign in with a Google account, search for Display & Video 360, complete the learning path and take the assessment. The certification is free and valid for one year, after which you retake the exam.

Three tips:

• Do the training before the exam. The questions follow the course closely, and the menus are hard to guess if you have never seen the platform.

• Pair it with practice. A certificate shows you know where the buttons are. A media plan and a report show you know what to do with them.

• Add Campaign Manager 360 next. CM360 is Google's ad server and tracking tool, used alongside DV360 at most agencies. It also has free training on Skillshop.

How long does it take to learn programmatic advertising?

It takes a few weeks to learn the basics and pass the DV360 certification, and about 3-5 months of part-time study to become job-ready, if you follow the seven steps above at 8-10 hours a week. The extra time goes into proof of work, Excel and a second ad channel, which certifications alone don't cover.

A full program is longer but covers more. Kraftshala Marketing Launchpad, a digital marketing course with placement, takes 6 months full-time or 11 months part-time and teaches programmatic along with every other major digital channel.

Where can you learn programmatic advertising?

You can learn programmatic advertising for free on Google Skillshop and The Trade Desk Edge Academy, through paid Udemy courses, or in a full program with placement support such as Kraftshala Marketing Launchpad. Here is how they compare:

For a detailed comparison of 10 options with fees, duration and limits, read our guide to the best programmatic advertising courses in India.

How does Kraftshala Marketing Launchpad teach programmatic advertising?

Programmatic is taught to every Marketing Launchpad student as a separate module, because Kraftshala's agency hiring partners, such as Publicis, dentsu, IPG, Omnicom and HiveMinds, run large programmatic budgets and need trained people.

In the Programmatic Advertising and CM360 module, you learn:

• How DV360, The Trade Desk and Campaign Manager 360 work

• The ad tech chain: DSPs, SSPs, ad servers, exchanges and data platforms

• How auctions work, and the difference between programmatic guaranteed, private marketplace and open buying

• How to set up campaigns for many cities or a small local area

• How to build pacing sheets and plan audiences

• How to track results with Floodlight tags and attribution

• How to prepare for the CM360 certification

The live project asks you to plan a complete DV360 media campaign for a bank, much like the Sahyog Bank example in this guide. You present it and get feedback from industry leaders, the way you would at an agency.

Because the program also teaches Meta Ads, Google Ads, e-commerce ads, SEO and AI search, content, analytics and Excel, you can apply for programmatic roles and for wider performance marketing roles. Not sure programmatic is your lane? Our guide on which digital marketing specialization to choose has a 30-day test for each one.

What programmatic advertising jobs and salaries can you get in India?

Entry programmatic jobs in India, such as Programmatic Executive and Programmatic Analyst, pay about ₹4-6 LPA (Glassdoor India), and AmbitionBox puts Programmatic Analysts at ₹5.3-5.9 LPA with 1-3 years. Most people then move into media buying and programmatic management. To compare with other roles, see the digital marketing salary per month guide and the digital marketing career path.

Source: Glassdoor India programmatic salaries. AmbitionBox's figures are similar: Programmatic Analysts average ₹5.3-5.9 LPA with 1-3 years and ₹6.5-7.2 LPA with 3-6 years (182 salaries, October 2026). Actual offers depend on the company, city and your skills.

Most of these jobs sit at agencies. "Most of the programmatic jobs are on the agency side," Varun said, adding that he expects more to move to brands over time, but "not a lot has happened as of today." So the main employers are:

• Media agencies such as WPP Media (formerly GroupM), Publicis Groupe, dentsu, IPG Mediabrands and Madison

• Ad tech companies such as PubMatic, InMobi and Affle

• OTT and video platforms that sell their own ad space

• Large e-commerce, banking and fintech brands with in-house teams

What do real programmatic careers look like?

Real programmatic careers usually start at an agency. All Marketing Launchpad alumni whose first job was in programmatic started at media agencies or ad tech companies, in the ₹4.5-6 LPA band.

Of the 34, 18 started at Publicis Groupe companies (including Publicis Global Delivery and Performics), 5 at MediaMint, 4 at GroupM, 3 at dentsu, and the rest at IPG Mediabrands' Kinesso, AdPushup, AffinityX and Sabio. Their band matches the Glassdoor and AmbitionBox ranges above.

Here are some of their paths. Profiles are published with consent, and CTC bands come from offer letters.

Two things stand out. Very few of them studied marketing: the list has an engineer, a biotech graduate and several B.Com and BBA graduates from cities like Baripada and Berhampore. And the tools in Mayank's day, The Trade Desk, DV360 and DoubleVerify, are the same ones this guide asks you to learn.

Kraftshala Marketing Launchpad

Programmatic advertising is automated ad buying across the internet beyond Meta and Google, and it makes up about 42% of India's digital ad spend.

If you want structured training with placement, Kraftshala Marketing Launchpad is a digital marketing course with placement that teaches DV360, The Trade Desk and CM360 inside a full digital marketing curriculum. It runs for 6 months full-time or 11 months part-time, live and online, with 9+ live projects. It reports a 94% placement rate, 3,300+ students placed with 800+ hiring partners and an average CTC of ₹5.5 LPA, and refunds 60% of the fee if your offer is below ₹4.5 LPA, subject to terms. The fee is ₹1,64,000 + 18% GST (₹1,93,520), with EMI from ₹7,198 a month. You can see the full syllabus on the Marketing Launchpad page and read the placement reports.