The future of programmatic advertising became a topic of discussion, particularly following the restrictions that severely limited the use of third-party cookies. On the other hand, recent trends indicate that programmatic advertising will continue to expand its presence in our lives. The fact that global spending on digital advertising is going up every day and programmatic advertising is finding new ways to reach people seems to disprove the ideas of those who question its future.

Change itself is the only constant. It looks like 2023 will be a big year for changes to programmatic advertising.

Putting an End to Third-Party Cookies

Data is king in programmatic advertising. These days, cookies are used to give the majority of this data. However, consumers’ increased sensitivity to data privacy has prompted national, international, and commercial organizations to take action. Perhaps the most significant of these organizations is Google. We’ve entered a new era in digital media buying thanks to the disabling of third-party cookies in the market-leading Chrome browser. First-party data and membership systems used by publishers will become even more crucial.

In House Media Purchasing Increases

Advertisers are demanding greater transparency in media buying. Because of this, advertisers, particularly those that oversee sizable budgets and have the authority to hire staff skilled in programmatic advertising, do away with middlemen and buy their own media. This method decreases the expense of programming operations.

Growing CTV and DOOH

The year 2022 marks the return of television, which advertisers have long forgotten. This trend appears to be picking up speed in 2023 as well. With the increased adoption of smart televisions and the release of ad-supported subscription packages for services such as Netflix, television has become a massive platform for programmatic advertising.

The growing usage of digital screens for outdoor advertising also opens up new possibilities for programmatic. Spending on DOOH may take the place of any unusable advertising dollars, particularly in light of the cookie restrictions.

Contextual Advertising

2023 will see a lot of changes in programmatic advertising that will focus on decreasing cookie usage. Contextual advertising is one of these advancements.

Advertising in context is nothing new. Contextual advertising, which dates back to the days of conventional media, will be updated for the present era of advertising.

This time, contextual advertising will heavily rely on artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence will play a major role in determining the context that the content that the ad will be placed in will produce, especially in digital media that publish a lot of content.

Marketers have long talked about “brand communities.” However, there aren’t many companies that can genuinely implement this idea. The main cause of this is that companies keep acting like regular advertisers. But online communities require a completely different mindset. It’s a difficult shift, but the benefits are immensely fulfilling. A strong online community can develop into one of a company’s most important marketing tools.

Why Are Brand Communities on The Internet So Crucial?

The fact that people don’t like ads is the main reason why online brand communities are so important. You may communicate with your target audience in a far more personal and cheap way through online forums.

On the other hand, the value of online communities has increased as a result of the reduction in data sources following the restriction of cookies. Online communities are a great way to gather first-party data.

Is It Easy? Never!

To create online brand communities, advertisers need to make a significant mental shift, as we’ve already stated. However, such a shift is insufficient for the development of successful online communities. It’s a long road full of challenges. However, the accomplishment is tremendously rewarding.

The key to the success of online brand communities is for the brand to give value to the community. This should not be seen as a simple customer loyalty program. The brand must interact with the community in accordance with the platform on which it exists (such as a Facebook group or a Discord channel).

Of course, such interaction calls for courage. Negative comments are more likely to appear on a communication platform that is not under the brand’s control. Additionally, the majority of brand managers dislike criticism.

Negative comments are, however, steadily declining in well-managed communication platforms, according to study.

On the other hand, online communities have grown naturally around brands with special interests, like motorcycles or photography. There are hundreds of thousands of members in the online communities of some brands. There is no power held by brands over these communities. However, an online community created by the brand allows them to control communication up to a certain point.

Gaming companies and cryptocurrency communicators have started to decode the world of online communities. There are lessons other brands can learn from these industries.

If you have been in the media buying business for many years, you must remember the days of planning using macros in huge Excel documents. That era has long since passed. There are now more intelligent media planning tools.

However, just because media planning tools are easy to use doesn’t necessarily indicate that your work has gotten simpler. Back when media planning was done with simple tools, the only things you probably had to look at were the GRPs of TV channels and the sales numbers of newspapers. But the media industry has grown considerably more complicated in recent years. So you need all the help you can get. And that’s where the increasing number of applications for artificial intelligence might be useful.

More Efficiency

The main advantage of applying AI to media planning is higher output. Although this is not shocking, it is a truth that should be emphasized. According to research, AI can boost media buying productivity by up to 40%. In today’s world of ever-increasing business volumes, this is no small accomplishment.

Reduction of Human Error

In a media plan, adding one zero too many can have disastrous results. AI is helping to cut down on these kinds of mistakes. The reduction of such errors is crucial, especially with increasingly complicated planning frameworks.

More Accurate Budgeting

The price of numerous advertising places is determined dynamically today. As a result, it might be difficult to determine an exact media budget at the beginning of a campaign. However, a successful artificial intelligence can offer this competence. This makes handling money much simpler.

More Effective Planning

Using artificial intelligence in media planning not only makes work easier, but it also makes the work better. Artificial intelligence allows for much faster and more efficient evaluation of data, which is fairly laborious to do manually. The money for media is used to its full potential in this way.

Live Optimisation

We now have to adjust campaigns while they are in progress in order to make them more effective. However, maintaining control of everything round-the-clock is not realistic. Artificial intelligence ensures that campaigns are as effective as possible by keeping everything under control at all times, much like an employee who has no idea of overtime.

For decades, television buying has been done in familiar ways. Budgets are revealed when the people are divided into groups based on their demographic traits due to ratings determined using conventional techniques. However, the efficiency of this procedure has long been disputed. Both the fact that audiences are solely categorized based on demographic traits and the fact that measuring tools do not accurately reflect the audience’s overall activity are significant issues for advertisers. On the other hand, the legitimacy of the system is called into question due to issues that occur in the systems of businesses that measure in various countries and, in some cases, reach the level of scandal. Of course, sophisticated measurement methods used in digital media also influence the choices made by advertisers.

However, the digitization of television is a harbinger of major changes in television purchasing in the near future. The driving force behind this transformation is the rise in the number of smart televisions, which are in higher demand as a result of price reductions and the widespread use of streaming video services. The idea of connected TV (CTV) is gaining popularity as a result of these devices.

Programmatic television advertising is now viable because to the CTV concept’s growing popularity. The effectiveness offered by programmatic advertising may also mean that advertising dollars that have moved away from television return to television.

Programmatic advertising makes it possible to measure the entire target market. This solves the main issue with traditional TV metering techniques. Additionally, the limitations of categorizing the target audience primarily in terms of their demographic traits will be lifted. Programmatic advertising allows for far more flexible categorization.

Programmatic advertising also greatly facilitates the work of media buyers. Automation facilitates media and purchase budget optimization. The ability to carry out campaign optimization while on the fly is a significant benefit of programmatic television advertising.

Every day, linear TV occupies less and less room in our lives. The main reason for this is that streaming platforms provide far more intriguing content in a far more convenient format. However, sports, news, and game shows remain popular on television. The increase in advertising revenues, thanks to the more effective use of new technology by television, can make television return to its old days. Of course, we can’t say that television will return to its golden period, but it may cause media buyers to reconsider television.

Getting traffic for everyone is a big challenge. This is it, whether you’re a media titan or the owner of a modest corner store. If you don’t really produce content in a niche area, the content you produce is very difficult to get noticed. If you generated your content for a business reason, everything is considerably more challenging for you. Because there are many people that want to promote the website, like you.

Advertising and content marketing are two efficient methods for increasing website traffic. Most website owners consider these two approaches to be substitutes for one another. Is it really like that? Let’s have a look…

Advertising Increases Traffic Quickly

The most crucial marketing tool utilized to increase website traffic within content marketing is SEO. But search engine optimization is something like black magic. Because Google, the king of search engines, doesn’t fully explain how it works or even uses the phrase “SEO,” it’s nearly impossible to forecast exactly what effort will yield.

The most important thing everyone knows about SEO is that it is very difficult to get quick results. It takes time for content on websites with low attribute authority to rank first in Google. However, business requires speed.

Here, advertising is crucial. If you need a new content page to get people to your site quickly, all you have to do is advertise. However, you should also be aware that traffic on its own is meaningless.

Good Content Converts

Advertising is effective in attracting traffic. However, conversion must be your primary objective. You need quality material for it.

The issue here is that high SEO rankings aren’t always a result of quality content. Google finds a good correlation between content quality and search result ranking in English. However, the same is not true for less spoken languages. It takes effort to produce quality content produced in these languages according to SEO techniques.

Advertising and Content Marketing Should Go Hand in Hand

For long-term results from your website that are cost-effective, you should combine content marketing and advertising. You should not misinterpret these two marketing tactics as substitutes for one another.

While you should concentrate on content marketing for content that you hope will have long-term success, you should concentrate on advertising for time-sensitive marketing initiatives. By doing this, you may maintain steady website traffic without going over your spending limit.

The first thing we do when the economy is struggling is reduce our wasteful spending. Brands also do this.

Nearly everyone anticipates a global economic downturn. As a result, businesses are implementing safety measures. They reduce the costs they believe are unnecessary. Among these costs, advertising takes the lead.

However, there is a serious issue at hand. Can you make sales without advertising?

The practice of corporations reducing their advertising budgets during economic downturns is not new. We have observed that during numerous worldwide crises, advertising spending has substantially decreased. This, however, is a practice that dates back to a time when conventional advertising predominated. Things have changed a little since then.

The structure of advertising spending is where there is the most disparity. In traditional advertising, having a high advertising budget nearly always equals success, but in modern advertising, a significant influence can be made with a lesser budget if it is used wisely.

So, this business isn’t as dangerous as it used to be, and if you’re smart, you can make a difference with a small budget.

Budget cuts for advertising during a crisis are highly risky. Let’s look at the reasons for this.

If You Lose Your Voice, You Lose Your Market Share

When a brand cuts its advertising budget, it creates a huge opportunity for its competitors. This circumstance has occurred frequently throughout history. The most well-known of these instances was when McDonald’s in the 1980s reduced their advertising spending. Following McDonald’s error, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell upped their advertising budgets and saw significant revenue growth.

Today, that still holds true. Brands have the ability to seize market share from rivals by acting aggressively during times of crisis.

The Consumer’s World Changes

The intensity of the economic crisis alters the worldview of the consumer and, consequently, the connection they form with your brand. Consumer trust is poor during these times, and the brands they are loyal to go through significant shifts. The consumer’s confidence in you will be undermined by your absence during this transformation. Consequently, it will be quite challenging to protect your current sales.

Advertising Is Not an Extraneous Expense

At the beginning of our article, we said that we cut some expenditures that we deem unnecessary in times of crisis. We made sure to emphasize that one of these costs is advertising. This is a significant error, though.

Like any of your finances, your advertising budget might need to be reduced during a crisis. However, drastic cuts to your advertising budget could leave you unable to support current sales and risk permanently ceding market share to rival companies.

There are some options available to you.

• Examine your marketing spending plans. Focus on efficiency.
• Recognize your consumers’ struggle. Create campaigns and messaging that are specific to these challenging times.
• Be reassuring and upbeat. People need to relax.
• Keep track of every dollar you spend. Consider receiving a return on your investments more than ever.
• Don’t keep your voice down. However, concentrate on generating a return on your assets more quickly.