The digital advertising industry is currently in the midst of a technological revolution, with the establishment of programmatic advertising players offering service providers a next wave of new technology in which they can streamline and secure their platforms. In recent years, rapid advancements in this space have prompted an extensive uptake of programmatic advertising. With annual growth estimated to increase 31% to reach $36.8bn by 2019, this technology is set to offer brands huge opportunities to innovate and ensure more relevant ads for their audience.
Yet, as with every technological revolution, programmatic advertising has brought with it a host of new solutions, each with a different purpose to serve. As a result, both buyers and sellers are now becoming increasingly inundated with new industry jargon, which has also left many at risk of feeling overwhelmed by the seemingly vast technicality of these services. This has stimulated one of the common misconceptions amongst advertisers; that the progression of advertising technologies will increase the complexity of the platforms they use, and therefore impact on their ability to distribute successful and cost-effective advertising.
It is no surprise that a hugely disruptive technology, which promises to streamline digital advertising and improve the experience of both buyers and sellers has been, and still is, met with some apprehension. However, with more companies embracing programmatic, it is now crucial for service providers to reassure their users, helping to guide them through the evolving ad-tech jungle and ensuring they are implementing new technology to best serve their business.
For brands to fully navigate this complex space, programmatic service providers must ensure their users know exactly how the technology works and what it offers. Adverse to the common perceptions of the technology’s intricacy, this technology works to simplify the process of ad buying, which ultimately enables brands to increase their productivity. Its ability to automate the buying and selling of media provides a digital ecosystem in which companies are able to streamline the distribution targeted, serving quality adverts to the right audience in real-time ultimately ties back to making advertising easy for the advertiser. Easy advertising is something programmatic players, no matter how advanced or experienced should not neglect and it is down to the people in these industries to make programmatic accessible for all.
By replacing many of the manual processes previously conducted by salesmen and ad buyers with an automated alternative, advertisers are able to improve the speed and efficiency of their advertising with ease. Therefore, when implemented correctly, programmatic advertising is able to unlock the simplest and most successful advertising to date. Not only this, but its versatility for integration with other emerging technologies offers brands many opportunities to combat the ongoing challenges currently facing the industry.
For example, the ability of programmatic to automate advertising has raised a few concerns amongst advertisers, particularly over ad spend and ad fraud. However, one technology which can be integrated within programmatic platforms to tackle these issues is blockchain. Blockchain technology holds the ability to collect a full audit trail of every transaction, providing a permanent and irreversible record of transactions which eliminate the risk of fraud. Not only does this technology offer a secure network for advertisers to operate within, it also increases transparency by allowing advertisers to see exactly where and to whom their budget is being invested.
Other ground-breaking technologies are also developing at the same pace as programmatic, which are allowing advertisers to collect extensive amounts of smart data to ensure consumers receive the right message, at the right time. The rise of this data through the recent growth of IoT and AI has increased the flow of personal data and enabled programmatic ads to transition away from traditional sales messages and promising greater creativity through personalised, automated ads based on user personal information.
With the progression of programmatic advertising now showing some signs of slowing, I predict that continuing advancements in ad-tech will create a host of new innovative platforms, which each help to solve a particular problem. As this technology emerges, it will become ever important for service providers to acknowledge their users and have measures in place to assist them in navigating this sector. As more companies come to embrace programmatic ads, the responsibility for service providers to educate customers will continue to rise.
In my view, the next-generation of digital advertising will be highly focused on implementing programmatic strategies, given its potential to streamline the process of ad buying and deliver creative, unique adverts for specific audiences. Should service providers be able to advise buyers and sellers on how best to integrate this progressive technology, there is no doubt that programmatic will continue to transform and unlock easy advertising for the industry.
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by Zheng Zhang
source: Fourth Source