Do you ever feel like you’re shooting for a constantly moving target in ad tech? Keeping up with the evolving digital landscape can be time-consuming, but luckily for you, there are a variety of programmatic advertising tips and industry events to keep you in the know on digital media — like last week’s AdExchanger 2017 Industry Preview! The New York City affair hosted an impressive turnout of industry’s most influential players and showcased some of the hottest technology products and trends for 2017. If you didn’t get the chance to check it out, don’t worry! We spoke with industry experts across the board and recapped the three essential programmatic advertising tips you’ll need for success in the year ahead:
1. Authenticity & Relevance of Content
Today’s consumers expect to be shown ads that are intrinsically relevant to them. It isn’t enough to reach your target audience anymore; now the content also needs to be authentic and meaningful to the individual for optimal impact. Campaign success is often judged on the answer to a single question, “Was the content actually consumed?” Just because your target audience landed on the right page with your ad doesn’t mean they were actually impacted by your message. Leverage more than sophisticated targeting capabilities to engage users; go the extra mile to make the experience enjoyable, meaningful and relevant for each precise user in order to influence their brand perceptions and decisions.
2. Holistic Approach to Buying & Planning
How often do you use devices beyond your desktop for those “I want to know,” “where do I go,” and “how do I buy” moments in the day? Chances are, you’ve already used your phone or tablet at least once today — whether it was checking your Facebook feed during breakfast, listening to your favorite Spotify playlist on the go or streaming the latest reality TV competition from your couch. With the fluidity of today’s technologies, a cross-device approach is a necessity for media planners and buyers. Marketers need to have a holistic view of the inventory and environments available, or they will risk missing out on reaching consumers in several stages of their daily journey.
3. Multi-Touch Data Integration
I’ve heard many marketers say, “We have lots of data across several marketing systems about our consumers’ daily habits and preferences . . . now what? How do we bring it all together? What programmatic advertising tips do you have to solve for this one?” One of the greatest challenges in marketing is capitalizing on data that is spread across several disconnected resources. Often, different devices will capture different user IDs, making it extremely difficult to manually merge key information. In 2017, many believe there will finally be a data integration breakthrough as advertisers demand a multi-touch attribution model that really works across platforms. For example, the travel and hospitality industries are already teaming up to build new bridges when it comes to sharing flight, hotel and credit card spending data. When data is integrated across all offline and online platforms, marketers will be able to target current and new audiences even more effectively and make extremely efficient media buys. Notice a reoccurring trend? Today’s takeaways are all built upon the same foundational theme — making the consumer experience a priority. If you’re still craving more 2017 predictions or programmatic advertising tips, check out these must-read posts for additional insights: Top 3 Programmatic Video Advertising Tips for 2017 and 4 Takeaways from eMarketer’s Digital Trends for 2017. Or download our latest research into programmatic pricing for a look at the 5 trends that will be difficult for advertisers to ignore in 2017.