Amid economic uncertainty, the advertising ecosystem is maintaining its resilience. With budgets continuing to grow, there is a sense of optimism that seems at odds with the economy at large.
This positivity is not ill-founded. Many companies were able to successfully navigate the previous pandemic-affected years by being agile and effective with their spend, and these lessons will not have been forgotten.
It’s also worth noting that the last recession, in 2008, saw a boom in ad tech in its immediate aftermath. Tough times call for creative thinking, and we once again expect the industry to rise to the occasion, providing solutions that can help maximize both budgets and consumer impact.
The increasing importance of SPO
While Supply Path Optimization (SPO) may not be a new development per se, going forward we will see it take on a new-found importance as ad budgets become stretched and marketers are pushed to increase their effectiveness.
Traditionally, media buyers have looked towards SPO to increase bid efficiency and cost transparency. While these will be vital for the future, SPO’s increased value will come from its ability to help answer the addressability question, as the cookie deprecates and increasing privacy legislation is enshrined into law.
Brands will look for solutions that can ensure an optimal path to media buys, while also extending reach in cookie-constrained environments. At the same time, first-party data and user intelligence tools will become a cornerstone of modern advertising.
Brand consolidation
When it comes to tackling the addressability gap, brands will look to platforms where they can consolidate their efforts through contextual packages across omnichannel solutions. As a result, publishers with a diverse range of verticals and varying content will be in high demand.
Ultimately, brands will look for partners who are already well ahead when it comes to testing out cookie alternatives and who will perform well against their KPIs, as well as providing incremental reach, insights, and scale.
Interactive ad formats will become vital for audience insights
Advertisers are aware of the importance of first-party data heading into a cookieless future. The question now is how to gather it. While regular customers may be willing to give their information to trusted brands, harnessing insights on new audiences is tougher. Interactive ad formats offer advertisers a way to bridge that gap.
Not only can these provide vital attention insights, but interactive ads also enable advertisers to use direct-to-consumer advertising and in the process open up new avenues to additional first-party data.
Whether this is through gamified ads or survey-like promotions, interactive formats provide access to more granular data that brands wouldn’t have had otherwise. We expect to see brands use them across a number of channels, including CTV, in the next year.
The rise of programmatic retail media networks
In 2022, US retail giant Walmart partnered with the Trade Desk to launch its own DSP. This trend is likely to continue as more retail media networks look to employ a programmatic approach; where owned inventory is connected to off-site properties and third-party media for omnichannel reach in retail campaigns.
Following in the footsteps of Amazon and Walmart, more retailers and category leaders are likely to create partnerships like this, helping to provide advertisers (their “suppliers”) with a more extensive reach, while cashing in on high-margin ad revenues that deliver closed-loop attribution.
For these solutions to be effective, marketers and brands will need to adopt a front-facing approach. While the loss of third-party identifiers has been postponed till 2024, those who do not adopt a proactive outlook now will find themselves left behind as the economy recovers.
Despite ad budgets continuing to grow, the industry needs to show its resilience, flexibility, and creativity in order to continue grabbing consumer attention.
By Sonja Kristiansen, Chief Business Officer at TripleLift
