Digital advertising is altering
There always seems to be something fresh, unpredictably, and strange around the corner. In an attempt to increase income, content platforms are integrating commerce, and commerce platforms are integrating content (and ads). Meanwhile, customer behavior continues to change, privacy enforcement is intensifying, and critical law protection for online networks may be lost.
2023 appears to be shaping up to be (yet another) exciting year for programmable ads. Here, we’ll examine seven programmatic trends to keep an eye out for and some of the ways that marketers can take advantage of them to fuel development.
A need for level-setting
With so much technology in our daily lives—the average US home will have 22 linked devices by 2022—it’s crucial for businesses to provide seamless cross-channel experiences to their customers. Today’s consumers anticipate a seamless advertising experience across all of their devices, whether they are viewing TV on their phones one minute and working on their laptops the next.
Additionally, businesses have a decreasing window of opportunity to capture consumers’ interest. Because Gen Z and millennials have grown up in the short-form video realms of TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube, they aren’t afraid to speed past content and advertisements that don’t grab their attention right away.
Marketers will need to learn the fundamentals in order to handle the difficulties and complexity. Advertisers should assess whether they are utilizing the resources already available because powering automated media performance involves complex processes. This entails spending money on campaign planning, upholding media etiquette, improving optimizations, and—most importantly—adopting technology that dissolves organizational divisions and hastens the implementation of digital media. Passive behavior in these areas will only put marketing organizations at risk of disaster and result in strategies that are more heavily influenced by fire drills than by brand requirements and values.
TV viewing habits are permanently transforming
The overall tendency in the TV industry is clear: Streamers are gradually ousting conventional TV.
By 2023, 230 million Americans—or 67.8% of the population—will be linked TV (CTV) users.
For the first time ever, non-pay TV homes (also referred to as cord-cutters and cord-nevers) will outnumber pay TV households this year. Additionally, it is anticipated that non-pay TV families will exceed pay TV households by more than 25 million by the year 2026.
Consumers are increasingly using digital technology to access the largest screen in their houses. Additionally, streaming platforms have been active in the competition for their attention and money, concluding acquisitions, securing content rights, and launching ad-supported levels in an effort to increase user numbers and diversify their sources of income.
Formats for digital music are expanding
Digital audio is undoubtedly becoming more significant as it takes up more of our day and engages viewers in ways that few other media can. It is a unique, engrossing, and compelling experience that produces results (75% brand memory rate, anyone?). Additionally, it has enormous unrealized development potential. According to estimates, the worth of podcast advertising is up to $40 billion less than that of other platforms. It is evidently time for marketers to take advantage of this chance.
The statistics surrounding digital music are interesting to read: In 2023, podcasts are expected to make up 5.1% of all digital media consumption (up from 4.7% in 2022). The typical daily hearing time for music in the first half of 2022 was 1 hour 56 minutes, up 27.5% from three years prior. 78.5% of internet consumers are presently utilizing digital audio. And even that is only the beginning.
The programmatic segment of digital radio ad expenditure is expected to reach 23.2% this year as it keeps growing. Audio provides a fantastic way to broaden programmatic spending, advance multichannel strategies, and reach a highly targetable (and mobile) audience in a brand-safe setting at a time when audiences can be oversaturated with visual advertising. Those who use this medium as a platform for innovation and rely on changing consumer listening patterns will probably be better positioned to stand out from the crowd in 2023 and beyond.
Internet outdoor advertising is growing
Consider getting up and leaving the home if you’re searching for innovation.
In fact, just behind social media and mobile, 47% of US agency and ad executives believe that digital out-of-home (DOOH) is creating the most creative ad possibilities. Additionally, DOOH is assisting marketers to cover the one-to-many gap created by the fragmentation of TV and radio audiences due to the power of digital.
A new private environment has emerged
Advertisers should be aware that although Google may have delayed the deprecation of third-party cookies from Chrome until 2024, between 50 and 60% of the signal integrity from third-party IDs has already been lost due to the actions of other platforms and browsers (such as Firefox, Safari, and Brave). In other words, we are already residing in the cookie-free future.
What does this imply for automated targeting and measurement? In other words, we’re still very much in the trial and error phase. Constantly new ideas are being introduced, and solutions that have been around for a while are getting new focus (hey, contextual targeting!). After publications and marketers have completed their experiments, it’s likely that the market will eventually settle on a small number of flexible and expandable choices. However, the key takeaway is to not wait around for the issue to go away. Now is the day to take action!
The retail media is changing everything
Retail media networks (RMNs) have been introduced by companies of all types over the past two years, opening up new spaces for ad placements and guaranteeing the spread of their exclusive first-party data. Others have become aware of the possibility as a result of Amazon’s income success, with Walmart, Target, and Kroger stepping up both their advertising and retail networks. eBay, Lowe’s, The Home Depot, Ultra Beauty, Dollar General, CVS, Walgreens, and Hilton.
In the US, the expansion of RMNs may result in $45.05 billion in advertising expenditures by 2023, with substantial knock-on effects. The marketing pipeline is being compressed and a paradigm change in digital advertising is being created that hasn’t been seen since, well, the emergence of programmatic! The ability to match unique customer Identifiers and ad views to SKU sales—all in a privacy-protected manner! The market is likely to grow, and given that stores are signing agreements with publishers, DSPs, and SSPs to get a piece of the action, the consequences could extend far beyond programmatic.
Although they’re still in their infancy, RMNs are unquestionably something to pay close attention to and use effectively.
Social media disruption is bringing about new forces
Social networks have experienced a turbulent period lately; in fact, The Atlantic recently questioned whether the era of social media is truly coming to an end. Although rising social ad spending would seem to suggest otherwise, there are definitely some intriguing, changing factors at work.
In 2022, we noticed:
As Meta lost billions of dollars, missed sales targets, and let go 13% of its workforce, Mark Zuckerberg’s company began to fall apart.
Key marketers literally fled for the hills after Elon Musk’s chaotic seizure of Twitter due to worries about brand safety on the platform.
In the face of declining stock prices, Snap is constantly fighting to monetize its user base and increase interaction with its goods.
Even though TikTok has been a great example of social media, it should keep an eye on its back as new rivals like Be Real acquire popularity. Gen Z is basically the key to the future of social; this generation’s acceptance of a social experience based in more engagement, entertainment, and genuine communication is the foundation of the changing of the social guard. Additionally, 60% of US teenagers claim that having a sense of “welcome and safety” is more crucial than having an open forum for discussion online.
As social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter search for new methods to grow their companies, 2023 will be a year of recalibration in social circles. For a hint as to where they should be making wise societal investments, marketers should turn to the younger generations.
Developments in Programmatic Ads for 2023: Conclusion
In the coming year, the advertising sector is expected to experience a digital revolution. And programmatic small universe will be right in the middle of it. It’s changing how audiences are defined and reached, what matters to those groups, which platforms and tactics are used, and how success is evaluated. The best marketers will be able to manage the industry’s current challenges and perhaps even make them work in their favor by remaining flexible and nailing the fundamentals.