With significantly disruptive technologies arriving by the day, no industry is spared of the tides reshaping advertising economics. We have come a long way from the dot-com bubble, moving swiftly into a digitized era that screams exciting new technologies and unmatched artificial intelligence.
Forbes has placed the total revenue of the ad industry at $600 million in 2015 with an annual growth rate of 5 percent. Advertising is not just compartmentalized into TV ads or OOHs anymore. The space is transforming quickly.
The top 5 trends to watch out online advertising industry:
1. Cross-device tracking and targeting of customers
Consumers today use a number of devices to remain connected. While at work, they may browse through their desktops, and on the go, they may be checking out their favorite pages through their mobiles and tablets. In such a scenario, brands need to remain consistent at content and branding, even as consumers move from one device to the other.
2. Hyper personalization
Marketers need to be on their toes when it comes to fully understanding, knowing and keeping up with customer expectations. With the advent of big data, brands today have access to a huge amount of information that can help delve into customer behavior, demographics, frequency of purchase and many more conversion-related factors. That is crucial information for brands—to present themselves to potential consumers at the right place, at the right time.
3. Relevant ads
It’s all about digging deep into data and analyzing in real time what makes your potential customers tick, what are their most-visited websites, or even their favorite apps. Once this data is available, brands that provide similar products or experiences can position their ads to be easily viewed and even have a high probability of clicks and visits by customers.
4. Native advertising
When a website features an ad with content style similar to its own, the approach is termed as native advertising. Brands are viewing it as a great opportunity to engage customers. A fine example of such advertising is when an ecommerce fashion website uses somebody’s content because it conforms to its brand’s style among other reasons. Native advertising is fast becoming a prime way of attracting millennials who tend to be put off by on-the-face messages.
5. Interesting creatives
Ad blockers are being seen as a huge threat to the online ad world. With users having the capacity to block out ads, the industry may have to take a huge blow. In order to combat this situation, publishers need to showcase their creative best. Shoddy content and boring visuals will just drive away customers and eventually lead to users blocking advertisements. To sustain and survive, brands need to spruce up their game plans and present engaging content and exciting creatives.
While ad-tech has been alleged to underplay human creativity, the game is about something more important—understanding your market psychologically. Although ads are selected through automation nowadays, you should be able to tell if the labels, color codes, and artwork being used need to be modified, quickly and safely.
Author Bio: Preethi Vagadia is currently a Senior Business architect with the Service operations practice at a well-known IT Industry in Bangalore. She has worked in several process improvement projects involving multi-national teams for global customers. She has over 8 years of experience in mortgage technology and has successfully executed several projects in logistics management, logistics integration, reverse logistics, AdServer Software Solutions, and warranty software.
