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Top Programmatic Advertising Trends for 2021
Sometimes, the pace of change makes my head spin. A few months back, I was talking to a colleague about streaming services in light of all the time I’m now spending at home. I was asking about HBO, specifically (I just gotta have my Game of Thrones, you know?). “It’s HBO Max,” she corrected me.
Great, I thought. Another streaming service to keep track of.
“Yeah,” my colleague responded, “and don’t forget Apple TV+, Disney+, Peacock, and Quibi.”
Wait, what? Back up. What the heck is Quibi!?
Every day, there seems to be some new streaming service, social media platform, or technology to account for. Which isn’t anything new, except that it’s coupled by the lasting impact of the super-stressful-what’s-going-on-when-can-we-go-back-to-normal COVID-19 outbreak.
It’s enough to make any digital marketer a little queasy. And when it comes to one of the most important pieces of the advertising puzzle, programmatic display advertising, the rapid explosion of new media is hardly making things any easier. Before we dive into the trends that are emerging in 2021, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page.
Quick Refresher: Programmatic Display Advertising, Explained
In Beginner’s Guide to Programmatic Display Advertising – Everything You Need to Know, the Cardinal Digital Marketing team put our heads together to create a tidy definition of programmatic display advertising. Here’s the gist: programmatic display is “the practice of using intelligent software to automatically buy digital advertising space on different channels and platforms,” one that accounts for tens of billions of advertising dollars each year.
Display ads are everywhere. Embedded at the top of major news outlet websites or nestled in the sidebar of your favorite blog.
As we see it, there are three fundamental parts to programmatic advertising (or “programmatic buying,” as it is often referred to):
- You buy ad space through an ad exchange, such as Google Ad Exchange and AdSense, or Microsoft Advertising.
- You enter your bid(s) against your competitors, which can be done using real-time bidding (RTB) software, or a demand-side provider (DSP), which allows you to automate bidding across multiple exchanges at once.
- Your ad will be displayed in a given channel or medium if you’re the highest bidder. And you’ll pay each time your ad is displayed.
Key Terms in Programmatic Advertising
Marketers and their darned jargon, am I right? Here is some of the terminology you’re likely to come across in conversations about programmatic buying, updated to reflect the 2021 landscape:
- Real-time bidding (RTB): RTB refers to the buying and selling of ad space online via real-time auctions that happen in milliseconds. If you’re bid wins, your ad is displayed at a given movement, for a given user, in a given ad space.
- Ad Exchange: A digital marketplace where advertisers and publishers buy and sell ads. Leading ad exchange platforms for programmatic advertising include OpenX, The Rubicon Project, and Google. Advertisers can automatically bid for and buy ads on multiple ad exchanges at the same time.
- Cookies: A cookie is a packet of data that stores information about your website activity. There are session cookies, tracking cookies, and authentication cookies, each with a particular purpose. Digital advertisers, at least in the past, relied heavily on cookies for targeting purposes. Today, data privacy regulations have changed all of that.
- Demand-side providers (DSPs): A DSP is any software that advertisers use to bid on and buy ads automatically, such as Turn, MediaMath, Invite Media, and DataXu. The point of a DSP is to automate the bidding process optimally, based on the advertisers targeting criteria.
- Supply-side providers (SPSs): An SPS is a technology platform used by publishers to sell advertising space automatically, such as Google, OpenX, Right Media, and PubMatic. The SPS sits between the website and DSP in a typical programmatic advertising model.
- Data Management Platform (DMP): A DMP stores information about consumers and customers, collected primarily through the use of cookies. Due to increasing data privacy regulation, the world of DMPs is changing in profound ways.
- Attribution model: Advertisers deploy various attribution models to understand the cause behind some action (a click, conversion, etc.) and the extent to which different ad campaigns influenced that outcome. There are, for example, First Interaction, Last Interaction, Multitouch, and Linear attribution models (among others), each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
Multichannel advertising: There is more than one ad exchange, and programmatic advertising makes it possible to run ads across exchanges and devices in a variety of engaging formats. - Display ad: Text, image, or video ads that are displayed on websites, social media, and other digital channels to build brand awareness or get people to click through to a landing page.
- Programmatic direct: A subset of programmatic buying (also known as “automated guaranteed”) that allows you to buy ad space programmatically without bidding. When the page loads and your targeting criteria are met, your ad will load.
- Cost per mille (CPM): This is the price that you pay for every 1,000 impressions your ad fetches on a webpage. As a general rule, the higher you set your CPM, the more likely you’ll win that bid and have your ad displayed.
- Over-the-top (OOT): OOT refers to video and television content available directly through an app and internet connection, without the need for a subscription to a cable or satellite provider. OOT is a very important channel in the world of programmatic buying.
Before we dig into the trends driving programmatic display advertising, we need to underscore just how steadfast the growth has been in programmatic buying. Statista predicts that programmatic buying will increase to $127 billion by the end of 2021. In their US Digital Display Advertising 2020, eMarketer predicts that programmatic advertising will bounce back in 2021, with a projected $3.93 billion increase in mobile spending, a $2.83 billion increase in video spending, and a $4 billion increase in direct transactions.
Finally, and as we’ll dig into farther on, we’re expecting tremendous growth within connected TV (CTV), podcasts, and other emerging channels. This all goes to say that programmatic display advertising is a big deal with lots of opportunities.
Trends in Programmatic Buying That Have Our Eyes and Ears
In preparation for 2021 (bye, 2020, goodbye), we’ve dog-eared six programmatic buying trends that will factor heavily into your ad spending strategy and targeting. While some may or may not apply to your business, we do recommend that you keep these trends in mind.
1. Over-the-Top (OTT) ServicesContinue Rapid Growth
Who knew that “Netflix and chill” would become so mainstream that it would drive programmatic display advertising? Well, here we are. According to Comscore, over-the-top (OTT) streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and others have added 20 million households in the past four years. Don’t look now, but OTT has gone mainstream! According to the same Comscore report, 62 million homes used OTT this past year, with 67% reach across homes with WiFi installed.
It’s a big, big market, but here’s the real kicker: growth in the reach of ad-supported OTT services is growing faster (+7% YoY) than their no-ad counterparts. This includes more than just media services, such as Hulu. New OTT video conferencing, chat, phone, and even household and commerce solutions are finding strong footholds in the market—and presenting new opportunities for digital advertisers.
With the wider availability of 5G and internet-enabled devices, such as smart TVs, connected devices (Apple TV, Roku, and the like), and gaming consoles (Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch, for example), OTT advertising might very well be the future of digital advertising. After all, who really wants to deal with a pricy monthly bill from one of the cable companies?
Fun fact: According to CTV Media, OTT ads have an average completion rate of 98%. It’s a highly captive audience that tends to let ads play through to the end.
2. The Rise of Connected TV (CTV)
In many ways, OTT services and connected TV (CTV) go hand in hand. While OTT refers to video content itself served directly to internet-connected devices, connected TVs (CTVs) are often the devices delivering the actual content. Your Apple TV, with installed and authenticated apps that can stream Netflix, Prime Video, and Hulu, is the most straightforward example. But there are many others, such as Roku and Amazon Fire Stick.
Hulu offers different levels of subscription with the least expensive option displaying ample ads. OTT services, like Hulu and Netflix, are one of the most popular ways to consume video media and are a growing channel for programmatic advertisers.
In our experience, CTV advertising is such a powerful part of programmatic buying for three central reasons:
- The ads are very, very targeted. You can reach people on specific platforms, devices, services, and demographics directly, with a high ad completion rate.
- The ads use video, which can be highly engaging and persuasive.
- The ads have high completion rates because people are willing to stay with the ad to continue watching their program. Think about the free Hulu solution: there you are watching your favorite episode of Seinfeld when you’re served up three short ads that you have no choice but to watch (unless you want to bail on George, Jerry, and Elaine). By the end of the episode, you’ve watched six full ads, start to finish.
This might explain why more players are crowding the OTT space, driving serious competition and growth. An eMarketer study (cited by Fierce Video), for instance, predicts that CTV ad spending will surpass $10 billion in 2021. As you know, in advertising, more competition typically drives the price of advertising down, though that outcome has yet to be seen.
In terms of CTV trends, here are two important things to keep in mind:
- People don’t like ads, but they tolerate them. And with more and more ad-free solutions available, you can expect increased pressure on ad-supported CTV services to reduce the volume of ads they display (how many times they interrupt your Seinfeld binge).
- It’s not one-size-fits-all. More devices, OTT services, and CTVs require more scrutiny by advertisers to make sure ads are optimized for specific audiences, locations, media, and devices. This will be essential to driving the kind of return you’re looking for from programmatic display advertising.
3. The Unmistakable Power of Mobile
OTT makes for a great segue to the prominence of mobile for digital advertising. Smartphones and tablets are the viewing media of choice for so many consumers. From watching Netflix shows on the go to browsing videos on YouTube and various social media channels, it’s no wonder that mobile has a 68 percent share of digital ad spending.
According to the same report from eMarketer, the pandemic has impacted mobile ad spend, causing spending trends to fall short of pre-pandemic forecasting. The aforementioned rise and viability of CTV must also be considered, which could cut into the share of mobile ad spend. Still, more and more people are putting smartphones in their pockets, with total global smartphone users to grow to 3.8 billion by 2021, up 300 million from 2020 estimations.
4. Do You Even Podcast, Bro?
Boy howdy, there’s a podcast for everything, isn’t there? I went Googling for instructions on how to replace my garbage disposal (don’t ask) and ended up three episodes deep into a home improvement podcast. Home improvement! And I swear I heard an advertisement on the radio for a true crime podcast detailing the case of the missing mountain bike stolen from my neighbor’s garage.
The point is, podcasts have become a medium of choice for digital consumers and, thus, an essential part of omnichannel digital ad strategies. Like OOT and CTV, podcasts represent a big and ever-growing audience. Actually, the podcast statistics from Statista are kind of staggering:
- 75% of the adult U.S. population is aware of podcasts. Just turn on your car radio during your next commute and you’ll likely hear an advertisement for a podcast. Most media producers repurpose their content for use in podcasts, with great success.
- Total U.S. podcast listeners expected to increase by 20 million over the next two years, to surpass 160 million in 2023. The variety, quality, and availability of podcasts make this a highly appealing digital experience for modern consumers.
- 49 percent of 12-34-year-olds listen to podcasts, indicating the preferences of this young, technically savvy demographic.
- 65% of people prefer to listen to podcasts on mobile devices. When you consider some of the other mobile stats we explored earlier on, this number should be of particular interest to ad buyers.
Two of the most popular podcasts in the country underscore the importance of this channel: NPR has nearly 27 million unique monthly listeners; iHeartRaddio has 26 million. There’s a big opportunity here, especially when you consider the fact that only 4% of total U.S. podcast ad spending was programmatic.
That number is expected to double by 2023.
There are a few key types of podcast ads to be aware of, some of which can be executed programmatically:
- Host-read ads in which the podcast host dictates the ad copy aloud. These ads are so effective because they’re seamlessly “baked in” to the podcast episode.
- Dynamically inserted ads. I was listening to a podcast about The Office that paused to play a third-party ad (not host-read) for a popular marketing tool (and tailored for this specific audience). These ads primarily target people based on IP addresses.
5. Regulatory Concerns and Data Privacy Issues Abound
Programmatic advertising doesn’t work much without the availability of user data. For better or worse, getting that user data is going to become increasingly difficult going forward. That’s because there is renewed scrutiny around data privacy, including new legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Google, for example, now limits the availability of search term data that advertisers have access to. The ability to cookie users, historically so important for programmatic buyers to track conversions, re-target, and so on, has fundamentally changed.
There are rumblings across the industry that these data privacy changes threaten to end digital advertising as we know it. We’re not quite ready to throw in the towel, however, especially when you consider how marketers are evolving to solve for more limited data availability.
Enter: programmatic native. Programmatic native ads have a seamless feel to them by fitting right into the channel in which they appear. Host-read podcast ads are a good example of these, where the transition into the ad is softened by the fact that the same person the user has been listening to is now reciting an ad.
Programmatic native ads can fit right into the channel in which they appear. Many news outlets and blogs publish articles that the audience may not even know is sponsored.
Programmatic native ads don’t run afoul of ad blockers, they enable advanced targeting, and can potentially drive more click-through—all without violating new data privacy regulations. Programmatic native ads can be extremely effective, as they’re designed to fit the form and feel of the pages in which they appear. This explains why native ad spend is projected to surpass 52.75 billion by the end of 2020. In a recent Media Radar study, the top 100 advertisers increased native programmatic spending by 10% (YoY).
Something to consider on those cold nights when GDPR gives you fear.
6. More Platforms and Tech to Account For, Not Less
We mentioned the rapid rise of OTT and CTV. Yet, playing in the world of programmatic buying means constantly adapting to new players, platforms, and technologies. Here are some of the developments at the cutting edge that we’re telling our clients to keep an eye on:
- The demand for programmatic display advertising expertise. The margin for error or misguided, one-size-fits-all strategies just won’t cut it in 2021. That’s why one-fifth of digital advertisers will be moving their programmatic display advertising in house according to a recent programmatic buying report by IAB. To be successful in programmatic buying, companies need experts in the field that also have an intimate understanding of their positioning, selling proposition, audience, and long-term objectives.
- Programmatic ad placement for voice-activated platforms. Like podcasts, voice-activated platforms make for an interesting and rapidly growing slice of the broader digital advertising pie. What works and what doesn’t work in terms of ads on voice platforms is a specialization in and of itself—one that can pay tremendous dividends when executed properly.
- Digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising. Here’s another interesting corner of digital advertising well worth your attention. Think billboard-type ads, but 100% digital. You’ve probably seen these screens in the airport or walking through Times Square. Turns out, you can buy space on these screens programmatically, much the same way you would for more mainstream programmatic media.
- Real-time optimizations and enhancements powered by AI. In 2021, the question very well might be: how quickly can you adapt? Artificial intelligence has the power to help programmatic buyers optimize their campaigns in real-time, find the ideal audience, and improve overall performance. We predict that you’ll see more and more AI in programmatic buying this coming year.
In Sum: Power to the People and Time to Evolve
That conversation I had with my colleague about streaming services opened my eyes to what’s coming (or already happening) in programmatic display advertising. To the uninitiated, the proliferation of streaming services might be nothing more than a dizzying display of free-market competition. But what it really represents is a power shift: more than ever, people have the choice of what they want to watch, where, and on what device. If they want to do it free at the expense of watching ads, they can. If they’d prefer to pay for a premium, ad-free service, they can do that too.
While traditional cable TV subscriptions and the like still exist, we as consumers are no longer beholden to what those companies are selling us. In the world of smartphones, OOT, and CTV, people can stitch together the kind of viewing experience they want, on their terms, and for a fraction of the price that “normal” cable would cost.
Today, the soup d’jour is mobile streaming. Tomorrow, after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, drive-in movie theater experiences might make a comeback. Maybe people will be so thirsty for social experiences that they’ll congregate in Times Square not to watch the ball drop on New Year’s Eve, but to watch Frozen 2 on the biggest big screen ever built.
Digital ad buyers, you’ve been warned: lay people are in the driver’s seat, and they’re liable to change, switch direction, and run to the next thing faster than you can say “programmatic ad buying tiger team.”
8 Advertising Trends for 2021/2022: Latest Forecasts You Should Know
With almost 8 billion people on the planet, one might think that just putting an advertisement out there is good enough. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Advertising trends shift each year and there’s a lot of factors involved. Change in preference and emergence of new technologies are just a few of them. Add to that the Coronavirus pandemic that struck the world in late 2019 and pushed advertising budgets down, then you truly have a lot of uncertainties to face ahead.
There’s a reason why the top marketing automation software products are always updating. Each version takes into account what’s in and out in the world of marketing. However, the benefits of knowing the trends in advertising aren’t limited to these software developers alone.
Business owners, marketers, ad specialists, and even consumers can pick up a thing or two about them as well. This article discusses the latest trends that were prevalent in the most recent years until today. Which of them might become obsolete soon and which will remain strong through the years? Keep reading and find out.
Advertising Trends Table of Contents
Advertising has always evolved with the technology at hand. From the Egyptian’s sales message written on papyrus to the newspaper and all the way to mobile targeted ads. It has definitely come a long way.
But in 2020, the advertising industry suffered a huge blow as COVID-19 wreaked havoc across the globe. It caused a significant drop in advertising spend with Europe experiencing 9% and two of its biggest economies—Germany and France—experiencing 7% and 12% decline, respectively (World Economic Forum, 2020). Meanwhile, the impact of COVID-19 on US ad spend was estimated to reach $26 billion in March 2020 (Reuters, 2020).
On the bright side, though, one particular segment—search ads—soared due to the shift of consumer activities and shopping online. Experts now believe that advertisers will spend up to $99.22 billion on search ads in 2024, which is beyond their initial projection of $91.32 billion (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2021).
Even with these challenges ahead, the main objectives of advertising have remained. That is to inform, convince, and remind customers about a certain brand and its benefits. The only thing that is different now is that marketers are facing more uncertainties due to the pandemic and would need to be very agile in implementing advertising strategies moving forward.
1. Video Advertising
What are the major trends in advertising today? For starters, video advertising is still the top marketing medium today, with 86% of businesses leveraging them as part of their strategy (Wyzowl, 2021). Not surprising since it has already been big since the television era. The rise of the internet, computers, and mobile devices only provided more platforms for video ads to appear. It’s probably still going to be one of the most important advertising trends in the next 5 years. Sales reps and their sales tools are only too happy to accommodate these video ads to stoke revenues.
The ever-growing shift to mobile devices has rendered many types of marketing campaigns to lose their touch. It’s because email newsletters, long sales pages, and others are more difficult to read on a mobile screen. And since video is a format capable of conveying a message consistently across different platforms, it became a marketing staple.
There’s a lot of options on where to place a video advertisement in this modern time. YouTube may be the biggest video platform but social media sites are solid choices for video ads as well. Advertisers are taking advantage of the large user-base of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for their video marketing campaign.
It’s not just the platform where videos can be placed that has changed. The format itself is undergoing rapid transformation because most people watch for content and not for production quality. That’s what challenges major business brands the most. It’s also the reason they are always on the lookout for changes in video advertising trends.
Video Advertising Trends:
- Shorter Ads. Since consumers have all the videos they can watch, they’ll only take interest in ads that can grab their attention. It affects the amount of time that people are willing to spend watching advertisements. This resulted in video ads becoming shorter, more appealing, concise, and direct.
- Shoppable Video. It shortens the customer journey by providing them with the option to buy products straight from the image or video. The feature works by showing a popup button that will take users to the product page.
- 1:1 Video. Instead of sending emails or making phone calls, marketers produce personalized video messages for their customers. This is becoming more popular and efficient since the quality of smartphones is increasing each year.
- Live Video. The real-time streaming of videos is gaining popularity within many businesses. It’s commonly used for product demos and interviews. But it’s also used for making behind-the-scene shots and others.
- Transcribed Text. Publishing the transcription of a video on a site with the actual video embedded is good for increasing the ranking. The content can even be turned into an independent entry for a blog; as long as it’s properly edited.
2. Personalized Advertising
This isn’t a new trend but it’s one that’s sure to grow as days pass by. That’s because there is an increasing number of methods for learning more about the customers and what they want. This includes tracking of clicked links, customer behavior, purchase history, survey responses, and more.
If you’re in the customer support sector, your go-to tool in this regard would be anyone from the customer experience management software solutions. Decision-makers, on the other hand, would prefer the more generalist tools, business intelligence applications.
Businesses are now trying a more people-based approach. This means that ads will now be geared towards targeting real people through emails and other registered user data. With more information available, marketers can provide customers with a better offer that’ll most likely translate into sales.
Targeted marketing isn’t confined to just a single form of advertising. It can be applied to practically any form—video, social media, TV, display, and even print advertising. This gives marketers a plethora of options for making sure that only relevant audiences receive their ads.
Finding out which people to show a particular ad to and the right time to show them is crucial. There are different approaches when it comes to that. This includes Database Marketing, Search Engine Advertising (SEA), Geofencing, and display targeting among others.
Database Marketing revolves around the collection of relevant customer data and converting them into actionable insight. SEA utilizes search engines to provide businesses with opportunities for ranking higher in organic search results. Geofencing, on the other hand, allows real-time targeting of users based on their current location. Finally, display targeting provides people with very specific display ads by taking their interests and used keywords into account.
Is targeted advertising effective?
- 63% of customers feel annoyed when receiving generic advertisement blasts.
- 59% of consumers claim that personalization plays a role in their shopping decisions.
- 80% will more likely do business companies that offer personalized experiences.
- By 2020, 51% of customers expect that businesses will provide them with relevant suggestions before the communication even begins.
- 90% of people think personalization is appealing.
- Personalized emails do 3x better than their batch-and-blast counterparts.
- 7% of display ads could benefit from dynamic content and personalization
3. Mobile-First Advertising
Just last year, more than half of the online traffic around the world came from mobile devices. When COVID-19 struck, global smartphone use surged to 70% (Statista, 2020). Most consumers used their phones for a significant portion of their shopping, browsing, and entertainment experience during stay-at-home advisories and country lockdowns. This resulted in brands making the move to ensure that their services, sites, and advertisements are mobile-ready.
This has affected almost all the digital advertising trends in the market. For instance, most videos are now filmed in an upright position to create what’s called a vertical video. That’s because the vertical format is perfect for mobile viewing. Therefore, smartphone users are more likely to find them engaging.
Stories, which made Snapchat really big, are also now huge trends in other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. And while they do work on desktops, they’re mostly marketed for mobile phones. Advertisers took notice of this and also started publishing ads in the story format.
It’s especially true for Instagram stories because they work perfectly for business brands. This is evident by the fact that 33% of the most viewed Instagram stories are created by brands (Search Engine Journal, 2019). And the addition of the feature that allows the advertisement to be placed directly within stories just made it bigger.
Another big use of mobile advertising is through games. A lot of mobile games are created with the format of being able to purchase resources with real-world money. This provides users with numerous in-game benefits. However, a popular way to acquire some of those perks without paying is through watching an ad. This gives brands a good way of promoting their apps or games since this advertisement form has a high completion rate.
What are the benefits of mobile marketing?
- Users can respond instantly
- It doesn’t require much content to be engaging
- Data created are easy to track
- It provides information to people in real-time
- The intended audience is easier to target
- Instant transactions thanks to mobile payment
4. Display Advertising
Display Advertising usually refers to visual advertisements using ad banners. It comes in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. The banners can also be deployed on various channel types such as blogs, video platforms, apps, social media, etc.
This form of marketing used to be an inefficient spray-and-pray method. Before, the content of a banner isn’t remotely relevant to users who see them. However, when the targeting options were introduced, it has become a major player in the field of advertisement.
Just within the last few years, display advertising trends have undergone an impressive array of innovations. First, it allowed advertisers to target keywords used by consumers. Then, it was able to catch relevant information regarding the users and their interests. And last but not least, remarketing.
Remarketing means approaching users who already have a visit history on the site, thus there’s some known information about them. Marketers can then use that information to create custom messages or content that’ll match the target audiences’ interests. Next step, profit.
Another growing trend in display advertising is the addition of videos in the banners. There are some supporting data that proves the increase of customer engagement with in-banner videos, compared to more traditional ones. According to Bannerflow, display ads that have a video embedded in them rake in an 18.4% higher CTR
Display advertising trends:
- Dynamic display ads
- In-banner video
- Mobile display ads
- Personalized display ads
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5. Print Advertising
First thing first, print advertising isn’t dead. It has silently made its moves in order to innovate to keep up with the digital world. However, the qualities that made it an effective medium – being trustworthy – never changed.
Think of when you read about the death of a celebrity in a newspaper. The first thing that’ll come to mind is sadness and sympathy. However, when reading online, the usual first impression is, “another hoax!” That’s one of the key differences that makes print advertising trends still worth looking into.
The main reason for its recent success is that businesses are realizing the benefits that investing in the print market provides. A physical mailbox is now more exciting to fill up, as long as they’re not bills. That’s because our emails are usually filled with junk, spam, and subscription letters.
Another interesting aspect that makes print media still a big thing is the human’s love for tactile experience. This is now truer than ever since the digital era has begun. The feeling of being able to touch something provides a comforting feeling that its digital counterpart can’t. Thus, something tangible like print media is a good way of building connections and credibility to your audience.
Popular Print Advertising Trends of Today
- Customer stories taking the center-page
- Personalized content through the use of subscription data
- More creative use of different types of papers
- Smaller, more focused publications
6. Social Advertising
Social advertising is the use of Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms for advertising potentials. There are some benefits to paid social media advertisements. One is the sheer number of audiences that promotion can reach. As of January 2020, the number of social media users worldwide was 3.80 billion (We Are Social
, 2020). That number is projected to grow to 4.41 billion by 2025 (Statista, 2021). Aside from the potential reach of social media based on users, it’s also the perfect place to build your business or professional network by creating a page for your brand.
The options related to social media advertisements have now exploded too. LinkedIn and Facebook offer a remarketing capability to advertisers. There’s also now an option for sending private and sponsored messages to targeted customers. The receivers can be grouped through interests, demographics, or even a custom list.
Facebook is by far the biggest social media platform. That’s why it’s not surprising that advertisers are continually finding ways to use it as a marketing tool. One effective way of utilizing Facebook is by placing a short ad within popular or live videos. It has a high completion rate too, partly because most of them aren’t skippable. We can attribute a big chunk of its success to the videos that focus on engagement and brand awareness.
Another major highlight of social advertising is the use of popular social messaging apps. People spend a lot of time conversing with each other through these tools that marketers decided to leverage. Now, these apps aren’t just for sending messages and emoji cause it’s also a place to find advertisements relevant to users.
What are the pros and cons of social media marketing?
- Increased sales
- Improved search engine rankings
- Increased traffic to websites
- Improved marketing opportunities
- Needs daily monitoring
- Online exposure attracts data leaks, negative feedback, etc.
- Needs continuous active management
- Requires clear marketing strategy
7. Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic advertising uses AI to automatically buy ads that can target audiences more specifically. This process which involves a lot of automation is faster and more efficient compared to traditional advertising. This also translates into lower acquisition costs of customers and a higher conversion rate.
One of the main factors why companies shift to AI-driven ads is the increase in the number of channels for reaching customers. It’s getting harder even for a full-fledged advertising team to keep up. Therefore, programmatic platforms that are capable of using lots of targeting signals for individualizing advertisements are the perfect solution.
The big difference between traditional and programmatic advertising is that the latter can take place in real-time. It’s not an approach confined in digital space, however. It can be used for selling and buying various media types as well. This includes Out-of-Home (OOH) and display ads.
Programmatic advertising is a combination of big data processing, technical skills, and automation. That’s why it’s not a hundred percent automated method since it still needs human capital. Regardless, however, it’s still one of the online advertising trends to keep an eye on.
There’s a series of exciting trends that are transforming programmatic advertising as we know it. It includes the introduction of blockchain, 5G network, over-the-top models, voice-activated ads, and more.
Current trends in programmatic advertising
- More targeted programmatic advertising.
- The rise of voice advertising.
- Blockchain to counter the fraud and transparency issues
- Growth of Programmatic TV
- Programmatic Over-the-top and Connected TV
8. Increase in Search Ad, Social Media Ad, and Video Ad Spending
As we cited earlier, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant drop in ad spending; however, experts also predict that budgets for search ads will rise since consumers are moving their shopping activities online.
The rise of new technologies also provides new opportunities for advertisers to explore. It would continue the trend of growing each year and this set of advertising statistics supports the conjecture.
Video ad spending will continue to bloat as more consumers are going mobile. More companies would be adopting non-skippable, six-second, vertical advertisements for their marketing schemes. More optimized ads together with larger budgets will take advantage of video advertisement’s ever-growing potential.
Social media and e-commerce solutions are also growing at a frightening rate. Instead of getting overwhelmed, however, forward-thinking individuals are using the two simultaneously for maximizing sales opportunities. A fine example of this is Instagram’s shoppable posts. This allows businesses to connect their store straight from the social media’s “Buy” buttons.
Growing ad spending could indicate an interest in a particular platform. However, it could also mean an increase in expenses for promoting a brand. While ads provide an increase in ROI, especially when handled right, an increase in its spending also signals fiercer competition. That’s why it’s advisable to not rely on a single platform alone for an entire marketing strategy.
Ad Spending Statistics
- The spending on video ads is will reach $102.8 billion by 2023
- In 2018, marketers spent $30 billion on mobile video ads
- Experts predict that U.S. advertisers will purchase $3.8billion in TV ads by 2019
- Geo-fencing advertisement will grow to $2.2 billion market value by 2023
- 2018 global mobile ad spending amounted to $138.1 billion
- US display ad spending is may reach $46.69 billion by 2019
- In 2017, spending on print marketing flyers surpassed $15 billion
- Global ad spending in 2019 is may surpass last year’s spending with a 4% growth rate
Advertising Trends are Always Changing
With the many technological developments taking place and the uncertainties of COVID-19, marketers need to be on their toes and make sure they align their advertising strategies with the latest trends. Where, how, and when you advertise will constantly change with the times. That’s one thing we can count on.
If you own a business, this is a good opportunity to try and find a sweet marketing spot for you. If you’re a customer, make sure to not fall for deceptive advertising so as not to waste your hard-earned money. And if you’re a marketer, then you’ll always have to be on your toe because it’s your responsibility to keep up with these trends.
Trends transforming programmatic advertising in 2021
Programmatic ad spending is expected to reach $98 billion by 2021. This will amount to 68% of the total global digital media ad spending.
Programmatic advertising is a component of advertising technology that is the most crucial in relation to other forms of advertising. It is currently keeping the whole ad tech fraternity on its toes, waiting for what is going to happen next. In the coming years, programmatic advertising is set to act as the default trading method in media. Programmatic ad spending is expected to reach $98 billion by 2021, according to Zenith’s report. This will amount to 68% of the total global digital media ad spending.
Artificial Intelligence technologies introduction will increase the efficiency of Programmatic advertising; other technologies that enhance its functionality includes 5G and machine learning. Opening of different channels for advertising like Podcast, Digital Out of Home, ads that have been voice-activated, Audio programmatic advertising, AR/VR, and smart devices provides marketers with more options while also providing the customer with a more personalized and engaging experience. It is much better compared to TV ads of yore that divided customers according to demographics alone.
Top Trends In The Programmatic Advertising Industry
1. AI in programmatic advertising.
Audience management strategy is maturing progressively, currently with marketers understanding the connections between measurement, targeting, campaign optimization, and audience selection. The use of Artificial Intelligence in programmatic advertising will continue to rise. This is because it provides the marketers with deluge data that enables them to target the right people at the right time, right channel, and device and with the right message.
To move customers further into their purchasing journey, artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine learning help by moving through large volumes of information to find patterns in real-time. These technologies propose the next better action, and predict the outcome to a specific individual customer. With Artificial intelligence, it is not just speeding and scale that it can bring to the marketing process, but also intelligence that no human can match at that speed and scale. This is what makes AI vital in the marketing process.
Artificial Intelligence will enable marketers to analyze the behavior of a customers in a real-time basis, with multiple data points like age, gender, location, History, preferences, device, platform, and more. Mapping the user data With Ad viewing metrics, it will be able to suggest in what format to place an ad, where, and when. Artificial intelligence helps in increasing the overall ad effectiveness due to its ability to recognize buyers’ patterns accurately. It then places an ad accordingly. This, therefore, reduces customer acquisition costs.
AI programmatic advertising has considerably attracted the attention of many advertisers in the last two years. According to a 2018 survey by Deloitte, 82% of the early adopters of AI reported a positive investment return for their AI initiative. This shows that AI programmatic advertising will grow stronger over the next year as a result of the advertiser’s increase in faith in It.
AI-based bot Watson from IBM, for instance, is already popular in the UK and the US. Watson is currently undergoing developments for optimized programmatic media in buying. IBM’s vice president of Marketing Analytics, Ari Sheinkin, shared officially in one of its blogs the after-effects of programmatic media buying by Watson. It indicated a staggering 71% reduction in Cost Per Click (CPC).
2. Digital Out of Home (DOOH) combined with mobile location data.
Combined with mobile location data, DOOH is capable of redefining how advertisers/ marketers can deal with the vital last mile between the store and home, or online and offline. A direct impact is guaranteed on the scale and speed of conversions while connecting advertising and buying.
On the grounds of efficiency and scale, DOOH advances nicely to the programmatic buying model. However, the real trends in space to look out for in 2021 are:
- Integrated Home to Out-Of-Home programmatic advertising approach. This will provide a smooth going experience for customers.
- The utilization of mobile location data and integrating it with DOOH to drive conversions, especially in the offline world.
There will be a drastic shift in the coming years from just buying or trading ad spaces outdoor to estimating audience data to help in targeting the desired audiences with ads where they probably are, at any particular time. Advertiser’s budget will be more productive as programmatic in DOOH allows specific audience planning and buying. It will increase efficiency, measurements, and brand safety.
Programmatic DOOH is a medium that is good-for-all. It will provide both experimental and performance marketing as it gets more accurate with first- and third-party information from companies.
3. GDPR ultimately proves to be advertisers’ friend, not foe
General Data Protection Regulation was announced last year in Europe, After the Announcement, it looked like a setback to marketers initially. However, it is gradually turning to be beneficial. Seeking consent and guarding the privacy of user information regulation was seen to be limiting at the start, but apparently, it is resulting in reliable data and also cleaner as time goes by.
In terms of the scale of data, advertisers saw a downfall, but on the other hand, the data available was of high quality. This trend will see an improvement over the years. This is because digital platforms are adding policies along with the data privacy norms. First-party data is the cleanest and most reliable source of data for a marketer, and it has hence become more important. Brands now have the privilege of communicating directly and transparently with the consumers on the benefits of sharing their details. High quality publishers or trusted brands will not face a hard time with these regulations. Newer brands are hence expected to push a little harder to gain trust.
Cleaner data means lesser but more relevant targets. This will create mutual trust between the publishers and the customers. It also applies to advertisers and their customers. Programmatic provides the assurance of reaching out to those who are more likely to make an informed decision.
4.Voice-activated ads go beyond smart devices in the home.
The use of Voice-based in-home devices has been increasing over the years. In the past year, Amazon stated that more than 100 million Alexa-Enabled devices were sold. Customers spoke to Alexa more than a billion times compared to 2017.
Programmatic advertising has played a vital role in enabling marketers to make use of these ad spaces. This is across in-home smart devices, on-apps, and in-store audio ad opportunities. Additionally, Vibenomics, which is one of the OOH ad solutions, allows consumers to connect with brands via in-store background ads, ads in taxis and Elevators, Waiting room CCTV’s etc.
5. 5G network will enhance all forms of programmatic advertising.
The high bandwidth of 5G enhances THE ADTECH ecosystem with speed because websites or videos will process faster, enabling ads placing or delivery at the right mediums with perfect timing and with lightning speed. By 2024, the use of 5G tech is estimated to expand to 1.4 billion users. This means that programmatic advertising will have an ample audience to run sharper and interactive ads without lags across mediums.
6. Wearables’ technology will revolutionize programmatic advertising
One example of wearables is the smartwatches. Their market penetration has grown exponentially in the past few years. A report published in 2019 by Strategy Analytics states that smartwatch shipments globally rose to a whopping 44% year-on-year. This translates to 12 million units in 6-8 months.
Programmatic Advertising is already following this trend and it’s making its way towards this new medium. As the Wearable ecosystem expands, programmatic ad tech’s inherent ability to track, analyze, and optimize campaigns will attract more significant opportunities based on more accurate users and ad consumption data.
7. Blockchain & Ads.txt will continue to guard advertising.
By helping reduce the number of intermediaries, Blockchain has been able to tackle ad fraud in programmatic ad tech. The technology has also been paramount in removing domain spoofing. This makes sure that publishers are legitimate and enables transaction using cryptocurrencies. Ad reselling vendors are problematic to the advertising industry. Publishers are now enabled to host ads.txt accepted files on their servers.
8. Omnichannel or integrated programmatic ad is the way to go.
According to Forrester, omnichannel marketing is defined as the art of digitally sequencing adverts across channels. This is consistent and relevant to the individual buyers’ life cycle. With programmatic advertising, this is precisely the way to go.
9. Podacasts, audio programmatic, and Programmatic TV are all set to grow.
The move from cable to OTT (over-the-top) services such as Amazon Prime and Netflix through a screen connected to the internet (TV set) now rules the paradigm of the television industry. While the shift is still going on from traditional cable tv to OTT, programmatic advertising is tasked with making sure that advertisers get the best from both worlds.
In Podcast and audio programmatic advertising is expanding significantly. Reports by IAB and PwC are showing increased growth in podcast advertising in the US.
10. Personalization will remain paramount.
The two biggest buyer demographics are Millennials and Gen-Z generation, who love all their stuff to be customized. Personalization in advertising will become unavoidable in the future. In response, Programmatic customization is increasing. This allows marketers to offer highly personalized and relevant messaging to a target group. In conjunction with AI predictive modeling, the programmatic ad technology can serve more specific messages at the right time and place.
Programmatic Advertising Stats
A third of marketers have more data than they could ever analyze.
A survey of 260 UK marketers by Qualtrics found that 35% of interviewees stated that the data collected on their customers was more than they could ever analyze. It adds that 11% believe that mass data collection adds little value in trying to understand their customers. When it comes to the type of data that advertisers are collecting, 94% stated that they monitor levels of satisfaction. 51% said that they look at sentiments from social media and 65% said that open emails were critical in choosing the right product.
H&M is the world’s most-searched-for fashion brand.
An average of 30 million searches happens per month worldwide. At the top of the list of global favorites is the Swedish giant H&M. Zara follows next with 25 million searches while Nike, Adidas, and ASOS jointly coming third with 15 million searches each.
Burberry leads on the list of luxury British brands in the world. Followed by Victoria Beckham and Ted Baker.
49% of agencies are using their ad technology for programmatic media buys.
According to New research by IPONWEB and ExchangeWire, 49% of the entire advertising fraternity is carrying out programmatic media buying with their technology. This is enabling the agencies to gain better performance across various vital media measurements and buying criteria. The research originates from a survey of 129 programmatic professionals. The research concluded that 58% of agencies in EMEA depend on their technology while 56% used US agencies.
UK heatwave causes a 17% increase in online purchases.
Since the start of the summer heatwave, British retailers have noted an upsurge in online sales. This was primarily influenced by shoppers turning to their phones when it’s too hot to sleep at night. Nighttime online visitors to retailers increased by 26% and a general increase in purchases by17%.
80% of consumers want transparency from retailers on the use of AI.
This is to disclose how they are using technology. Come clean on its use to market products. The creepiest technologies, according to the consumers are; emotion detection rated by 58%, 57% cited facial recognition technology that recognizes a person, and sends preferences to marketing assistants. The coolest among most of the consumers were fingerprint scanning to purchase items and get home delivery.
42% of consumers say they receive one or two Amazon packages every week.
This is caused by the high demand for Amazon products. 42% of consumers state that they get one-two packages per week from amazon. The number increased to 50% for customers aged 18-25 and 57% for customers of between 26-35 years.
72% of consumers do not prefer video ads over other types of online advertising.
Despite the fact that it was predicted as a significant trend, 72% of consumers prefer different types of online ads rather than video ads. This is according to a Choozle’s 2018 Digital Advertising Trends survey. Besides, just 7% of respondents acknowledged being influenced by google home served ads, and 6% via Amazon’s Alexa. It also found that 54% of the respondents did not use ad blockers in six months prior to the survey. 43% said that advertisements affect their emotions in a negative way. Lastly, 44% said that they do not clearly understand how their private data is being used. 89% think that companies are not doing enough in keeping their data safe.
The overall number of devices in the world having an ad blocker increased from 142 million to more than 615 million.
Over 90% of marketers believe that privacy focused data training for marketers of the future is a mandatory.
The report indicates that 94% of marketers believe that a focused education on regulations of data, and how to apply them is a must for the coming generation of advertisers. Three-quarters of the marketers agreed that having this information would enhance the image of the industry while also giving the entrants an advantage in their career.
More than 50% of all digital media was programmatically traded in 2019 in Australia.
Zenith predicts an upward growth trend in the programmatic advertising digital media as Australia traded more than 50% all digital media that was programmatically traded. The video will most likely drive growth in the coming year, according to the research.
What is a DSP (demand-side platform) ?
Thanks to big data, the object of demand today is the target audience instead of advertising space itself. Thus, those advertisers who have access to the demand-side platform have access to the tool that makes this data work.
What is a Demand-side Platform?
DSP stands for Demand-Side Platform, a software that is used for programmatic ad buying, typically via bidding in RTB auctions. The purpose of the DSP is to buy the impressions on the suitable inventory and show them to the users that meet the target requirements for the optimal (minimum) price.
DSPs are commonly used by advertisers, in-house marketing teams, advertising agencies or Agency Trading Desks (ATDs). Utilizing DSPs, media buyers get access to multiple SSPs, Ad Exchanges, and Ad Networks through a single interface, allowing them to purchase rich media, video, mobile, and native ads in real-time. The process of buying inventory is performed automatically within seconds making the trading less time-consuming and much more profitable.
DSPs are the flip side of SSPs (Supply-Side Platforms). SSP is a technological platform that represents the interests of the publisher and sells advertising inventory. The DSPs transmit the bids from advertisers along with inventory requirements to SSPs. When the winner of the RTB auction is defined, taking into account the interests of both parties (advertiser and publisher).
Why do media buyers use DSP in advertising?
1.Global Reach and Integration
Most of DSPs integrate with RTB Exchanges; however, some of them provide access to premium or high-class inventory while others don’t. Some DSPs are connected to global Ad Exchanges, whereas others start partnerships with local premium publishers only.
Almost all DSPs give access to a range of inventory worldwide on the desktop and mobile screens and allow media buying in multiple currencies. When choosing a DSP, it is important to find out beforehand what traffic verticals and ad formats the DSP supports.
2. Effective Targeting
Demand-side platform definition would be incomplete without targeting. Precisely this function utilizes the user data to make the message as relevant as possible to the viewers.
DSPs can target:
- according to the context (targeting specific URLs based on the topic of the page);
- according to the geolocation, county, city, time zone;
- according to the browsing behavior;
- according to the gender, marital status, income, level of education;
- according to the device (desktop, mobile, tablet);
- according to the language, etc.
Such options as frequency capping (how often the same ad appears in front of the same user), dayparting (which part of the day) make advertising even more individualized. The cookie-level retargeting will help to find the users who once visited your website but didn’t convert and remind them about the offer. Each RTB DSP platform may use different kinds of data, like unique first-party data or third-party data collected from DMPs (Data Management Platform). DSPs may integrate with DMPs, this way they access additional audience data essential for campaign optimization and retargeting.
Some DSPs focus mainly on CRM data, whereas others only on the mobile data. Hence, before choosing a DSP, it is crucial to find out what data your DSP offers, on which segments and how big is the reach for those segments.
3. Right Inventory and Brand Safety
The first thing that determines the success of RTB campaigns is the inventory choice. Since DSP platform allows to pre-define the type of inventory for purchasing it’s easier to aim for success. For instance, in-app ads typically have higher engagement rates than mobile or desktop. Knowing such fact, the brand that strives to raise engagement can choose to serve impressions only in apps.
Another example, the brand wants to promote the new mobile game. The logical step will be showing the creative in other apps since the product is not working on the desktop.
As for brand safety: adding some of the applications to the whitelist, the advertiser can shorten the inventory selection period, immediately posting on the sites with the highest performance. The blacklist, on the contrary, can eliminate the inefficient inventory or block fraudulent or potentially harmful sources for the safety of your brand’s image.
4. Reporting and Campaign Analytics
Demand-side platforms allow advertisers to track the performance of their ad campaigns in real-time. Most of DSPs offer granular statistical reporting on click-through rate, website traffic, page view, engagement rates, and more.
Regardless of the fact, that the ad campaign runs across different Ad Exchanges at the same time, a DSP gathers information from all sources. After this, it delivers it as a consolidated custom report. Reporting helps to see what works and what doesn’t and to define a strategy for future campaigns more effectively.
5. Minimal budget
DSP advertising allows small and medium brands to launch and customize their advertising campaigns. This move reduces the extra costs typically consumed by third-party service providers. Most DSPs make it possible to start a campaign having a couple of hundred dollars on personal balance.
It’s worth to notice that every Demand-Side Platform has own pricing model. DSPs work on CPM, CPA, CPE, CPI or a CPC basis, each of which has own specifics of calculation. As a rule, CPM (cost per mille) is one of the most widespread of them. In such model, the payment is counted per thousand impressions.
Since DSP platform is bidding each time on the different impression, the payment is distributed evenly, after each impression served, not 1000 impressions at once. The auctions run according to second-price auction. The winning bidder pays the second highest bid for inventory plus $0.01, (not the actual highest winning price).
The critical thing to remember is, the pricing models featured above do not contradict each other. Those are the parallel directions that can effectively complement and reinforce each other for the majority of programmatic media buying ad campaigns.
Why you should be using programmatic native ads?
Native ads have so much potential that I don’t believe is being explored enough today. True, they may not seem all that interesting if you only focus on your bottom line. A good retargeting strategy for display ads might generate more conversions if you’re looking to sell a product.
However, in comparison to display prospecting, case studies proved that native ads truly shine when it comes to driving traffic and boosting brand engagement in the long term.
Display is a great way to keep your brand name out there while measuring effectiveness by tracking impressions and reach. But with marketing strategies like business storytelling peaking in this age of content, advertisers should really make better use of the goldmine that is programmatic native.
Native vs. display prospecting
Native ads are more cost-effective than display ads
Doing native ads programmatically means you get many of the benefits of programmatic display: automated media buying, effective targeting and audience insights for further optimization. A 2016 Think With Google report found that when the “Flex Frames” native format was introduced by The New York Times, “click-through rates increased 6x compared to equivalent banner ads, and viewable impressions jumped 4x.” According to a DoubleClick analysis of traffic across its network in 2017, users are twice as likely to click on a native ad as they are to click on a traditional banner.
We’ve been seeing similar results in our campaigns. A campaign we ran for a client in the banking industry saw a 158 percent higher CTR (click-through rate) for native than for the display prospecting ads. Conversion rate was 450 percent higher for native than for display prospecting.
Here’s the kicker: Cost per attributed site visit was 36X more expensive with display ads as compared to the native placements.
Native ads excel at driving traffic
The goal of a well-implemented native ad is to lead the user to a piece of content that will capture their interest. With that in mind, native ads are great for both prospecting new audiences and promoting content. They can improve brand perception and eventually build a stronger relationship between your brand and your audience.
You should take advantage of the fact that native ads are more likely to be read and shared by their audience, according to Nielsen and IPG Media research conducted on behalf of Sharethrough. Rather than driving traffic to a product page with the aim of a sale, engaging your audience with an interesting article or video that fits the initial context will make a long-term positive impact on your branding.
And I’m not just talking about driving virtual traffic. According to a joint study by Sharethrough and Placed, programmatic native ads are also better at driving in-store traffic than standard display ads.
Native ads are a nicer experience for the user
Say goodbye to the ad-blindness effect of obnoxious banner ads. The abovementioned Nielsen study for Sharethrough found that native ads receive double the visual focus of banner ads. Because native ads blend in with the surrounding content, they are adaptable to their environment and therefore look less disruptive than display ads.
At the end of the day, the reason a good native ad is of value to users is that it provides the user with compelling content, which leads to conversions like video watching and signups.
As a bonus, the adaptability of native ads means that they perform particularly well on mobile. Knowing that mobile use is constantly growing and rapidly outpacing desktop, this should be a good incentive to focus more on programmatic in the long run.
