With the rules and best practices for programmatic advertising continuing to evolve, it’s important to stay on top of the latest trends of this rapidly growing marketing channel. Programmatic ad spend is positioned to surpass $150 billion globally by the end of 2023, according to Statista.
With that in mind, here are the programmatic advertising trends you need to know in time for the coming 2022 holiday season:
1. Slow death of the cookie
The depreciation of third-party cookies has been dragging on for some time, but it is coming. And, when it does, there will be alternatives for programmatic marketing.
Of course, Google will still allow first-party data, so regulated first-party cookies will remain a focus for programmatic. Harnessed with precise detail, first-party data can provide incredible value for advertisers – from browsing behavior to preferences. In fact, Digiday reports that 51% of marketing professionals are investing more in contextual targeting. We expect this trend to continue.
Three key methods to extract the most value out of first-party data are:
- Launching registration walls
- Widening your user data pool
- Segmenting your audience and the use of contextual targeting
2. Connected TV (CTV) growth
During the height of the pandemic in 2020, TV watching and online streaming soared. Nearly 40% of waking hours were spent in front of a screen, with the public spending double the amount of time per day watching streaming services compared to pre-pandemic numbers.
While these changes occurred over a short period of time, the opportunity for further growth within programmatic advertising, including the buying process, tactics, and measurement, all need to be reimagined.
Traditional practices within TV advertising will not apply to programmatic for CTV. The brands who are quick to act on these changing behaviors will win.
3. Growth of mobile gaming for programmatic display
In 2021, there were an estimated 3.24 billion gamers globally. Last year, we talked about the rise in G-Commerce and the advantages for early adopters. The bottom line: The gaming industry has transformed into a lucrative advertising platform.
Increasing competition in mobile gaming advertising means your creative campaigns must reach the right audience, at the right time and in the right place. Harnessing the power of programmatic marketing will be invaluable to scale the appropriate ads to the users you want to target and win.
4. Greater creativity is required to reach customers within display
As consumers see advertising increasing in their daily lives, ad fatigue or “banner blindness” is creating new obstacles for marketers. Brands need to find more creative ways to connect with audiences. As a result, we expect to see a greater need for:
- Personalization. The use of data feeds and dynamic creative can target your audiences on a wider scale and result in higher conversion rates.
- Video. Most programmatic video ad budgets go to mobile—65.2% in 2022. Ad spending against non-video formats on mobile will still account for more than half of mobile programmatic display ad spending through 2023. However, given recent growth of social video advertising and increasing interest in TikTok among advertisers, it’s likely that video will continue to gain share of mobile programmatic display.
- Testing and optimization. This will be especially important in a world without third-party cookies. Marketers must test and optimize for better CTR.
5. Next-level campaign management
Having a powerful campaign management and reporting tool will be invaluable to your marketing team’s ability to heighten CTR and maximize ROI. Being able to schedule ads, publish in real-time and utilize real-time data for key insights will be imperative to achieve your business goals.
Being agile and responsive is crucial to compete in today’s volatile business environment. Combining real-time insights with automated production ads and of-the-moment campaign management is now the winning trifecta. If you need assistance with your programmatic strategy, contact us today. Our teams are ready for you.
