As 2022 draws to a close, the advertising industry has globally managed to shed the pandemic blues. This year that saw some of the largest post-pandemic global events, like the FIFA World Cup 2022 that took place in Qatar towards the final leg of the year.
Brands have spent billions on building a solid presence across the world, and this year was a great year for the digital ad industry as well. Studies estimate that two-thirds of all ad spending globally in 2022 went to digital media. Such a strong movement in the digital space resulted in 2022 being one of the most astounding years for programmatic advertising globally.
Let us examine how the market for programmatic advertising evolved in 2022 and how it can reshape the world of advertising in the years to come. Here are five trends from the year that look set to carry forward into 2023:
Automation Hit Deep
Programmatic advertising was built on the concept of automating ad spending, but in 2022, the sector witnessed an even bigger and deeper implementation of automation by brands. This new wave of automation differed from the past in the context of intelligence at play. In 2022, we witnessed a surge of personalization and intelligent ad management initiatives in the programmatic advertising sector fueled by artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Human interference was minimized or, in many cases, eliminated completely, and several results were achieved by successful players because AI-powered systems were never delayed in their decision-making. These systems were also unbiased, and directed ad spends towards only proven keywords and slots. This greatly improved sales efficiency.
The Shift Away From 3rd Party Cookies
With industry leaders like Google slowly phasing out support for 3rd party cookies, more businesses in the programmatic advertising space are now exploring ways to acquire proprietary data that doesn’t compromise user privacy. Traditionally 3rd party cookies conveniently tracked and supplied information to help configure programmatic ads for targeting, attribution, etc.
But as the market moves away from 3rd party cookies, both ad makers and ad marketplaces need to get creative and collaborate with brands. This way, they can leverage their digital channels to run campaigns, contests, or any other engaging initiatives and convince users to trust and supply data organically that helps with better and more personalized targeting.
The Savior in 5G
One of the biggest hurdles that programmatic advertising must deal with is ad blockers. Consumers utilize a variety of ad blockers to prevent ad placements on their favorite websites. From the consumer side, this use of ad-blockers was a necessity primarily because of the impact ads have on page load speeds. Heavy ad content will eventually result in the actual website content loading quite slowly, and this can be a frustrating experience when people flock to websites to get some info quickly.
With the advent of 5G cellular technology, however, internet speeds have been supercharged, and consumers get access to speeds that are as much as 20 times faster than the previous generation of mobile internet networks. With this blazing speed, the problem of slow page loads disappears even with ads. Also, it creates an environment where bids can happen faster, and more content-heavy ad formats like videos can be leveraged within ad networks for better conversions.
Venturing Into the Gaming Market
There is explosive growth in the gaming industry worldwide, and studies predict that the global digital gaming market will be worth over USD 264.9 billion in 2023. 2022 saw an increased focus on leveraging gaming ecosystems by programmatic advertising platforms to deploy highly creative ads that engage users during gameplay.
Enabling gamers to monetize ad time by rewarding them with a game currency has become a widespread mechanism for better engagement on ads. Brands can use the guaranteed watch time to build creative hooks within their ads for better conversion.
Explosive OTT Growth
Since the pandemic began, OTTs worldwide have seen surging demand from consumers. The best part about the demand is that more consumers are willing to use the ad-supported model rather than pay for an ad-free experience. Studies show that nearly 72% of US households prefer ad-supported free content to be aired on OTTs.
Programmatic advertising is now gaining significant traction in the OTT marketing space as brands find OTTs to be a very direct interaction medium that connects with audiences across geographies, demographics, and income grades.
In a Nutshell
As we enter 2023, the trends covered here are likely to witness heavy growth in the programmatic advertising sector. As digital-savvy consumers flock in masses to the internet for almost all their activities, from entertainment to shopping and even education, the future holds immense potential for programmatic advertising.
Gaining a competitive advantage with intelligent bid management and effortless automation is the key focus area for businesses today in this space. This is where our customizable service platform for all your digital advertising needs becomes an asset. Backed by futuristic technologies and decades of expertise in the digital ad space, we have what it takes to bring better conversions for your ad budgets. Get in touch with us to learn more.
