Category: Blog Post

Continuing our 2024 Partner Predictions series, the Digilant team sat down with Brent Gaskamp, VP of Platform Partnerships at Oracle Advertising. With third-party cookie deprecation on the horizon (set to take place in late 2024), Brent discussed the proactive measures the industry is taking to prepare for the shift, shedding light on what advertisers may see in terms of measurement, consumer trends, audience targeting, and more. Let’s dive in!

The new year is a big one for our industry as Google will deprecate third-party cookies. What can agencies do today to prepare for deprecation as it pertains to audience targeting?

“As brands, advertisers, agencies, platforms, and data providers, we have a duty to consumers to protect their privacy. I think it starts there fundamentally.” – Brent Gaskamp, VP of Platform Partnerships at Oracle 

As the use of third-party cookies grew, they came under scrutiny as user privacy concerns increased throughout the years. Apple became one of the first companies to implement changes to its browser and operating systems to protect consumer privacy sparking a much larger, industry-wide conversation on third-party cookies and privacy. Google’s move to deprecate third-party cookies is arguably the final nail in the third-party cookie coffin. 

Fortunately, advertisers have had time to prepare for the change since its initial announcement in 2019. So, how do advertisers and brands get the signals they need so that they can accomplish their goals, in a medium where consumers are spending their time?

Brent notes a significant shift toward cookieless environments, particularly in CTV and mobile. We are seeing that cookie environments are eroding since advertisers have been proactively investing in CTV and mobile solutions. 

In terms of audience targeting, what changes should advertisers expect? For one, there may be new identifiers put in place and an increase in Mobile Ad IDs (MAIDS) as consumers continue to spend more time browsing and shopping on mobile devices. With new identifiers, the industry could experience more fragmentation – there won’t be a one-size fits all solution. 

And with the primary focus on first-party data, Brent says we may see an increase in walled gardens, “whether it’s a paywall or a a login to access your social or streaming accounts, there’s a lot of first party user data out there that’s enabled brands and advertisers to reach consumers in a lot of different places.”

Overall, data collaboration in the industry will be paramount. Companies like Oracle are working to support multiple identifiers and leverage a broad array of non-cookie dependent data to provide advertisers the signals they need for success. 

 

What considerations should advertisers keep in mind when attempting contextual brand safe advertising?

What’s important to note is that contextual advertising is not just about brand safety, but brand suitability. Brent cites an example where removing the word “knife” from brand safety criteria led to misguided targeting for a cooking-related product. While it is imperative for advertisements to appear in brand-safe environments free of negative and harmful content, advertisers must still consider the broad context of their ads to reduce missed opportunities. In today’s evolving video-centric landscape, consumers are increasingly engaged with more dynamic and interactive ads than ever before, and advertisers can use that to their advantage. 

As we continue to move away from cookies, there is no more, as Brent says, “easy button” for advertisers to push. While complexity will remain in the post-cookie era, Brent says that “we have a toolbox, and there’s a lot of tools in it that our industry provides us.” In 2024 and beyond, the focus must gravitate towards understanding consumer engagement in different content environments and strategically sourcing inventory to achieve optimal outcomes for brands.

 

What do you think are some big bets that advertisers should keep their eyes on in 2024?

Last but not least: Oracle’s big bets in the new year. 

As mentioned previously, an emphasis on first-party data will be prevalent as advertisers hone in on their third-party cookieless strategies. As such, retail media networks and advertising solutions powered by more enduring data signals like retail data will continue to be a driving force as they garner insights from customers. 

Brent also anticipates a focus on frictionless buys for consumers. In the ongoing effort to improve the consumer experience, many platforms are allowing transactions immediately within their platform, reducing the amount of steps for a consumer to make a purchase. With less friction, advertisers can reach consumers to drive conversions as they are directly engaged with content. 

Lastly, local and regional advertisers may start shifting their linear TV budgets to CTV inventory.  Historically, this has been a limited and expensive option for these advertisers, but with the opportunities available for granular targeting in the CTV space, these advertisers may have more of a voice in their media buys. 

 

We would like to extend a big thank you to Brent Gaskamp and the Oracle team for taking the time to chat with us!

The broad adoption of smartphones has paved the way for many recent media habits; the rise of gaming and drastic growth in the gamer audience is one of the most significant. Consumers now have access to millions of free-to-play, multi-player, and arcade games, across all genres, all at the tap of a finger. As such, there are an estimated 3.09 billion active video game players across the globe. In the US, 80% of people play video games, resulting in a video game market size of $97.67 billion (2022). 

Despite the tremendous growth, gaming is still overlooked by many advertisers. In 2022, gaming ad revenue only grew 7%, compared to 32% across CTV and 16% across social media. Often viewed as too “experimental,” advertisers are missing the power of video game marketing and a fantastic opportunity to reach vast groups of key audiences.

To underline why gaming should be mainstream in advertisers’ media plans, we’ve rounded up 4 key gaming trends that are sure to make an impact in the coming year. Along with an analysis, to help capitalize on these trends, we’re offering tangible solutions and tactics you can implement in your media strategy. Let’s dive in.   

1. Mobile Playing Time Edges Out Time Spent in Other Gaming Platforms

As mentioned, mobile has been a significant propeller of the gaming industry; as such, we’d be remiss not to put it at the top of our list. 

The vast majority of gamers, 64%, use their mobile device to play and engage and 12% of players exclusively use their mobile device. In the coming year, the average US adult will spend 25.5 minutes per day playing games on their mobile devices. In comparison, the same audience will spend 17.4 minutes and 18.2 minutes playing on desktops and consoles, respectively. 

Opportunity: In-Game Mobile Ad Buys

Projections indicate that by 2027, advertisers will spend $9.86 billion on mobile gaming alone, not including any eSports content consumed on a mobile device. There’s ample opportunity to reach consumers as they engage in mobile games; however, there’s also great competition. 

To stay ahead of competitors and drive success within in-game mobile ad buys, advertisers must ensure mobile ad buys aren’t lumped in with all other gaming ad buys. Mobile ads need to be strategically and methodically targeted and built for the mobile experience. Not only will this boost performance, but it will also improve the user experience, leaving a positive connotation between your brand and the consumers. 

AudioMob, for example, offers non-intrusive audio ads that can be listened to while consumers play their favorite free-to-play mobile games. Because these are audio-only ads, the audience continues to play while the ad reads during unique moments in the game experience.   

2. The Growth of eSports

Driven in popularity by younger generations, eSports are multiplayer games played in competitive environments with viewers, just as you would find in traditional sporting events. While some might question the direct comparison to “traditional sports,” the viewership numbers are nothing to scoff at. By 2025 year-end, eSports global viewership is expected to hit 640.8 million people, and 318.1 million of said group classify themselves as “eSports enthusiasts.”

As these games continue to rise in popularity, streaming platforms are looking for more ways to engage consumers outside of these live events. In the coming year, they will lean further into downloadable, on-demand content that consumers can watch at any time. 

Opportunity: Video Ads on eSports Content

eSports has long offered ad opportunities during the actual event with arena, player, or team sponsorships. However, a more accessible way for advertisers to throw their hat into the ring is through video ads played either during live events or within the aforementioned, on-demand content. 

Take Twitch for example. This live-streaming platform and gaming community offers various ad buys to reach 70 million monthly active users. They offer powerful formats such as cross-screen video ads played during live broadcasts, “homepage carousel ads” that are displayed front and center on the homepage alongside live-stream channel content, or “medium rectangle” ad formats to engage users as they browse for content to watch. Better yet, because Twitch is owned by Amazon, advertisers can engage Amazon’s first-party shopping data to target in-market users, interested in certain products. 

3. Unique Ad Formats Offer a More Realistic, Less Intrusive Experience

Every advertiser faces the battle of reaching consumers without being intrusive or interrupting their user experience. A recent study found that 70% of consumers believe advertisers don’t respect their digital experience and 95% report that their content consumption is interrupted by intrusive ads. More than ever before, advertisers must work to complement the user experience with ads naturally incorporated into their viewing and media habits. Gaming is no exception. 

Platforms, games, and providers are attracted to ad revenue but don’t want to deter audiences with intrusive ads throughout games. To remedy this, there is a focus on creating more unique formats that intrinsically incorporate brands into the gaming experience.  

Opportunity: Ads Created for Video Game Environments

All this to say, don’t be turned off by ads placed within live content, like eSports, or mobile games. After all, they are a great introduction to video game marketing to engage with gaming audiences. However, as advertisers grow more comfortable with gaming, unique or interactive ad formats are a great next step. These are ads placed within video game environments that don’t disrupt the gameplay performance or experience. 

More tangibly, consider a racing game. As players “drive” past out-of-home ads, these billboards will display your brand’s ad. Alternatively, a “soccer” game will display your brand’s messaging on the sideline boards, just as you would see in real-world soccer matches. 

These ad formats offer a unique experience to players with all the same targeting and measurement solutions advertisers expect with more traditional gaming ad buys. 

4. User-generated Content & AI Combine for Powerful Personalization

Gaming companies constantly iterate and improve games to keep players engaged and create community within their platforms. Today, one of the biggest developments enticing players is personalization through user-generated content (UGC). This is seen in various forms such as custom maps, skins, modules, or custom levels that players can build and share with other users. 

Popular games such as Fortnite, Minecraft, Super Smash Bros, and Roblox have all implemented UGC offerings. Roblox is probably the most notable with this concept as it provides their 70.2 million daily active users with seemingly limitless options for their users to create and share various worlds and game types. 

UGC is growing in popularity alongside progress being made within artificial intelligence, which is a match made in heaven. AI helps remove more tactical and tedious aspects of UGC, which in turn, streamlines the process, making it an accessible and easy-to-use feature for all gamers. 

Opportunity: Leverage Gaming UGC with Influencers

More content from games simply yields more opportunities for brands to get their ads in front of consumers. Especially within these user-generated environments, there will be ample formats to create unique and custom ads personalized for the user. 

However, this also opens new doors in the gaming influencer world. There’s a huge pool of gaming influencers with thousands, if not millions of followers on social media. As these influencers have more opportunities to create, feature, and promote UCG, it will draw more users to the games to try their unique features. More gamers means more viewers for advertisers. 

Power Up Your Advertising Campaigns with Video Game Marketing 

Whether you’ve dipped your toes into video game marketing or are eager to get started, our team is here to help reach your consumers among the growing gamer audience. Whether in-app, in-game, eSports or a combination, learn more about our comprehensive advanced gaming solutions here.

The ultimate goal for any advertiser and their ad budgets is to drive awareness of and growth for their brand. While that may be true, however, it’s easy to get caught up in the granularity of managing campaigns and their performance, losing sight of the bigger picture. However, taking a step back to assess the bigger picture, like how your brand stacks up in its category and industry, can reveal valuable insights that help keep marketing and advertising initiatives on track and drive results. 

The Importance of Brand Health and Measurement

Your brand’s share of search and voice is a way of measuring your brand’s health or foothold in its category. The greater your share of search the greater reach and popularity you have amongst your existing and potential customers, and a greater share of voice. 

Measuring your brand’s share of search, understanding the competitive landscape, and how customers find and engage with your brand is critical to your brand’s health and growth. With intelligence that speaks to these brand health elements, you can identify your brand’s strengths and weaknesses — and those of your competition — to unlock new opportunities. Furthermore, by measuring your brand health, you can better analyze the impact of your advertising campaigns on your brand over time. 

How Brand Health Tracking Can Help

Access to comprehensive data that illustrates the landscape of your brand category or industry isn’t always available — or easy to understand. However, Digilant’s Brand Health Tracking delivers digestible reporting on your brand’s health and how your brand stacks up by accessing more than:

• 800 million domains
• 25 billion keywords
• 142 geo databases
• 500 TB of raw website traffic from across the globe

While collecting, analyzing, and interpreting troves of data can demand extensive time and resources, it doesn’t have to. Brand Health Tracking simplifies the process by providing simple reporting that clearly highlights the insights and intelligence you need to back up your strategic media decisions and drive impact for your brand. 

Campaign Effectiveness

As mentioned, it can be easy to get lost in the day-to-day of running campaigns and driving performance. And while individual campaigns might successfully deliver on KPIs and even campaign objectives, it’s essential to periodically assess the efficacy of your campaigns on the overall brand and, most importantly, its impact on your desired audiences. Moreover, understanding the overall potential for business growth can reveal valuable opportunities for your brand. 

Improve your brand health today

Interested in learning more about Brand Health Tracking? Contact us to learn more about what Digilant’s Brand Health Tracking can do for you and your business. 

We’re nearing the end of 2023, which means advertisers are preparing and planning for 2024. But what should advertisers consider and keep in mind to ensure success ahead?

Our newest video series, 2024 Partner Predictions, explores what Digilant’s partners expect in the new year — areas of growth, challenges, evolving consumer habits, and more. To kick things off, we had a chat with Eric Davis, Head of Independent and Political Programmatic Demand at FreeWheel (a video SSP). Let’s see what he had to say. 

 

What does 2024 have in store for CTV?

As advertisers gear up for CTV ad campaigns in 2024, strategic allocation of their budget becomes a critical factor. Programmatic ad buying offers a streamlined and efficient means to deliver campaigns across internet-connected devices, utilizing real-time bidding (RTB), private marketplaces (PMPs), and guaranteed purchases.

While the share of programmatic ad views has seen an uptick compared to the previous year (FreeWheel has seen a 12% growth year-over-year), it’s worth noting that the bulk of CTV ad purchases are still carried out through manual processes; as Eric points out, only 35% of the FreeWheel premium inventory is purchased programmatically. The industry is actively tackling the pain points linked to programmatic CTV like frequency capping, fragmentation, and measurement, all of which will be pivotal topics in 2024.

 

FAST and viewer experiences in 2024

 

The rapid growth in FAST viewership can be attributed to the fact that these channels come at no cost to the consumer. “Because subscription fatigue is starting to set in, prices are constantly being raised for streaming services — there’s only so many services a household is willing to pay for,” says Eric. Viewers can access these linear-like channels on platforms such as Freevee, Pluto TV, Roku,  Xumo, Peacock — the list goes on. Not only does FAST resemble a linear experience, but the targeting and measurement capabilities produce more granular insights all while possibly reaching a new audience that wouldn’t be captured on streaming platforms or linear TV. 

And while there are several benefits to advertising on FAST channels, Eric outlines the many other opportunities that exist to further enhance and improve the viewer experience as FAST is still in its early stages. Currently, we see that programs have lengthy midroll breaks of up to 3 minutes, frequency cap limitations, and a portion of ad slots are not being filled. So, when consumers watch a program, they could be seeing the same ad multiple times throughout the break or possibly not see ads at all. And as Eric states, “we have to work together as an industry to solve these challenges.”

 

How is CTV targeting improving next year?

 

“The data is getting cleaner – custom data onboarding and targeting and [the use of] identity graphs is growing dramatically.” – Eric Davis, Head of Independent and Political Demand, FreeWheel

The holy-grail to effective advertising: data.

Consumers crave ads that are relevant to them. With more granular targeting techniques, advertisers will be able to provide an extra layer of personalization, reaching consumers at the right time and further moving them down the funnel. The use of identity graphs allow advertisers to obtain a single, unified view of a customer or prospect, opening up opportunities for more contextual and behavioral targeting. FreeWheel is expecting this emphasis on data to shape audience targeting campaigns, as they have already seen a 50% growth year over year. 

A big thank you to Eric Davis for taking the time to chat with us about 2024 expectations. Stay tuned for our next partner discussion!

In today’s hyper-competitive, crowded marketplace, what attracts consumers to choose one brand over another? Of course, consumers consider several factors before making a purchase, however, nearly all purchases — 95%, to be exact — have an emotional component. 

These emotional decisions are impacted by a customer’s perception of your services, a connection they feel to your values and messaging, reviews they’ve read online or heard from peers, or your general place in a market. In short, attributes that make up the backbone of  your “brand health.”

Brands who consistently track and analyze their brand health are setting themselves up for success, both present and future. As such, it’s an essential addition to other metrics your organization may already be tracking, such as revenue or growth. It safeguards your position in the marketplace, while also supporting the bottom line. 

In this blog, we’ll cover all the background information you need to know about brand health tracking, such as: 

• The definition of brand health and its key components
• The advantages of monitoring brand health
• The measurement solutions you can implement into your digital advertising toolkit.

What is Brand Health?

Brand health is a collection of customer metrics and insights that indicate how your brand is performing in the marketplace. This doesn’t entail “the numbers” (i.e., sales) but rather your company’s perception among consumers and how you stack up against competitors. 

While there isn’t one single meaning of brand health, all definitions are based on the customer experience associated with your brand and the emotional connection they have to your products and services. “Unhealthy” brands spark little emotional connection with their consumers; as such, they can’t distinguish them from competitors or other similar products. In contrast, “healthy” brands consistently deliver experiences that align directly with their brand promises and create positive experiences for customers, employees, and stakeholders.

How is Brand Health Calculated? 

Just like there’s no clear-cut definition for brand health, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to calculating brand health. Based on specific goals and objectives, brands will identify various factors that impact consumers’ perception of their goods, services, and reputation. Brands can utilize customer feedback portals, employee engagement, and survey and focus groups to obtain direct feedback on their health. Additionally, they can measure performance across metrics such as share of voice, share of search, category entry points, competitors (both direct and indirect), and brand strengths and weaknesses. 

The collection of this data tracked over time paints an ongoing picture of how a brand performs in the market, what consumers think of it, and how they use it. In short: brand health.

Advantages of Brand Health Tracking

Understanding the health of your brand apart from traditional success metrics gives you a more thorough picture of your organization’s performance and how you stack up against market competition. As advertisers know, the more information you can obtain, the better data-driven decisions you can make. Brand health is no different, as the data obtained in these studies provide many advantages for ongoing success, four of which are outlined below.

Identify company strengths and weakness 

Consumer priorities are constantly shifting and brands that can’t keep up with these changing priorities will be disadvantaged. Ongoing brand health tracking ensures you understand where you align with these needs and where you may fall short. Additionally, as you grow and diversify as a company, brand health calculates how these changes are performing in the marketplace and either supporting or detracting from overall ROI. 

Yields better understanding of the competitive landscape

Is your brand the top choice among consumers? Are consumers easily swayed to try a competitor product after purchasing from your brand? Why are consumers drawn to make continued purchases from one brand versus another? 

Identifying key competitors and understanding how your brand stacks up using metrics like customer loyalty and retention paints a clear picture of where you stand in the marketplace. From an advertising perspective, this helps identify any lapses in your strategy or areas you can improve to connect with, draw in, and retain consumers.

Create benchmarks to better track impact over time

By regularly tracking brand health, you can easily compare how consumers view your brand over time. This helps better inform the impact of specific campaigns, news, or new product announcements. Additionally, regularly tracking your brand makes it easier to spot patterns or correct underperforming areas.  

Leverage insights for future business and campaign planning

As mentioned, regularly benchmarking brand health data helps businesses identify critical patterns and opportunities. Advertisers can leverage these insights for data-backed strategies and campaigns.

For example, if consumers are most receptive to your brand during the summer, advertisers can heavy up on media during these months. Alternatively, if Advanced TV is a significant trigger in your market, advertisers can use more strategic ad messaging across this channel to speak to consumers at this stage in the buying journey. 

With a robust understanding of your brand health, brands are poised with an entirely new data set to make more informed business decisions. Ideally, this yields better results and a more substantial return on investment. 

In Summary

In short, brand health tracking helps companies better understand how to attract and retain customers, make the most impact in their advertising strategies, and best compete and succeed in the marketplace. Beyond the tangible takeaways, it pushes organizations to look beyond revenue as a measure of success. It enables data-driven decisions, a strategic imperative for businesses looking to thrive in the long run.

Are you ready to better understand where you fall in the marketplace and improve your brand health? Learn more about our comprehensive Brand Health Solution here.

Industry professionals, leaders, and innovators recently gathered in New York’s Penn District for Advertising Week New York 2023. Over four days, individuals across the advertising ecosystem shared valuable insight and dove into thoughtful discussions concerning the industry’s future. 

Otniel Calderon, Digilant Sales Engineer, attended the conference and noted a significant focus on advanced TV*. As advertisers work to connect with consumers across critical channels, he’s shared five key takeaways covering everything from platform improvements to redefining the value of this channel. Let’s dive in. 

 

1. “Premium Content” is Rebranding

Historically, premium content, and therefore premium ad buys, entailed getting your brand placed within the newest TV releases or blockbuster films. Recently, however, advertisers have noticed that these new and shiny releases don’t necessarily yield top-tier results. So, if “premium content” isn’t garnering premium results, what is premium? 

Premium content is now in the eye of the beholder: the consumer. Take a recent example from Netflix; the USA Network show Suits first premiered in 2011 but has recently skyrocketed in popularity, earning the top spot in TV streaming for 15 weeks straight as of November 2, 2023. While this program aired over ten years ago, based on viewership numbers, it warrants a premium ad buy. In the age of streaming, premium no longer excludes older content; instead, it welcomes it. 

With different streaming services, consumers have more control over the content they consume, providing more opportunities for advertisers to reach niche audiences. Programs related to specific topics or interests may not be commercially “premium.” However, the ability to target networks and programs directly tailored to your target audience is nothing short of a premium ad buy. 

In short, advertisers need to rethink and re-prioritize generic “premium” content in favor of content that their respective consumers classify as premium. 

 

2. FAST is Quickly Making an Impact

Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, Disney+, and the like have been the center of TV news for years. And while they all still warrant significant time and attention, there’s a new TV player in town that advertisers would be remiss to overlook. Enter: Free Ad-Supported TV, otherwise known as FAST. 

Coined “Cable 2.0,” FAST offers nearly 2,000 FAST free, ad-supported channels to consumers. Viewers are flocking to this linear-like viewing experience primarily because FAST is an economical choice. With 72% of U.S. consumers saying there are too many subscription services, subscription fatigue is on the rise, as households can only pay for so many plans. And, as it turns out, most consumers are not averse to relevant ads, especially if the ads are personally relevant and they enable access to additional content.

Regarding relevant ad buys, FAST is just the answer advertisers are looking for. As mentioned previously, there is a need for a “premium” rebrand as FAST is currently not perceived under the premium content umbrella. However, many FAST channels often represent a specific show or genre —- for example, channels dedicated to Ted Talks, Friends, holiday classics, or Bob Ross. Advertisers have an excellent opportunity to target hyper-niche groups that may be more difficult to reach through streaming services.

 

3. Data Clean Rooms Provide a Solution for Gaps in Cross-Platform Connectivity

As the consumer journey grows more dispersed across platforms and devices, advertisers call for better cross-channel connectivity to maximize performance, measurement and audience targeting. From an advanced TV perspective, this challenge lends to one of the most significant gaps in advertisers’ channel adoption. Many advertisers agree that measurement falls short, leading to data fragmentation. Admittedly, there is still work to be done to bridge the gaps between platforms and the linear world. However, experts are confident we’re near cross-media conversion as data clean rooms answer for cross-platform data communication. 

These clean rooms combine data from all services — including offline data — which is then anonymized and aggregated into user and demographic groups. The data remains encrypted, making it impossible for anyone to access personally identifiable information (a future-proof solution as we near the official depreciation of Google’s third-party cookies in late 2024). Approved advertisers can use this data across platforms for deterministic audience targeting, measurement, and engagement. 

For advanced TV specifically, this identity tracking not only makes it easier to track the user within the TV landscape but also pushes the results and analytics back into a clean room to use across and understand the customer journey better. 

 

4. You Guessed It – AI Makes Waves in TV Advertising 

What would a trends prediction roundup be without the mention of AI? While conversions tout AI implementation across many areas of advanced TV, the most common theme was using it to improve the user experience — for both consumers and advertisers. We’ve outlined two examples of these improvements below. 

1. In an ongoing effort to reframe premium experiences, AI is here to help. This technology and machine learning can more quickly and better identify viewer’s interests, behavior, and demographics. This will help advertisers uncover new audiences and create more curated and personalized ad creatives to speak directly to viewers. It is a win-win for all as better-targeted ads create more relevant ad experiences, causing less disruption during the viewer experience. 
2. Frequency capping will be a major priority in 2024, especially as more brands turn to FAST channels to run campaigns. Advertisers often need help effectively capping their ad frequency in the fragmented space. AI and machine learning will help determine the more precise frequency that resonates with audiences.

 

5. The Future of CTV is Shoppable 

Retail media and shoppable ads have grown tremendously as online shopping continues to dominate. This year saw 218.8 million online shoppers in the U.S., with projections climbing upwards of 230.6 million people by 2026. To stay in step with digital buyers, innovators in the retail space highlighted current and future shoppable content available to advertisers through advanced TV.

Amazon and YouTube used the 2023-2024 NFL season to test shoppable ads as they released interactive opportunities that allow consumers to shop directly within the ad creative. NBC will be the next platform to test the waters as they plan to release shoppable content within their streaming service, Peacock.

These interactive experiences will help increase consumer engagement, reaching them wherever their attention lies. 

 

At Digilant, we recognize the complexities that come with advertising on advanced TV channels. Learn how Digilant, and our advanced TV offerings, can help you achieve your campaign goals and objectives by contacting us here.

*At Digilant, we use advanced TV as an umbrella term to describe non-traditional, not over-the-air broadcast TV that enables advertisers to use data to distribute, target, and measure advertising campaigns, encompassing CTV, addressable TV, OTT, and more. To learn more about advanced TV, download our recent guide The Essential Guide to Advanced TV Advertising here. 

U.S. spend on native advertising is expected to top $98 billion this year, accounting for three out of every five dollars spent on digital display ads. It will be money well spent. 

In an era where consumers are more discerning than ever, native advertising stands out as a subtle yet powerful approach that seamlessly integrates promotional content into the natural flow of the user’s online experience. This unobtrusive strategy not only respects user preferences but also enhances engagement by delivering relevant, informative, and entertaining content. Likewise, as social and search advertising channels become increasingly saturated and face mounting privacy concerns, native advertising can fill the gap, offering brands an authentic way to connect with their audiences in a contextually relevant way. 

Table of Contents

• What is Native Advertising?
• Example of Native Advertising and Formats
• Is Native Advertising Still Important in 2024?
• Why is Native Advertising Controversial?
• What Are the Benefits of Native Advertising?
• How Does Native Advertising Work?

 

What Is Native Advertising?

Native advertising is characterized by the seamless integration of promotional content within the organic context of a platform, website, or publication, with ad units designed to match the format and style of the surrounding content. Native ads blend into content on a publisher’s website by matching aspects like font, location, and image size of content to increase the likelihood of a consumer engaging with the ad. By matching the aesthetic and being contextually relevant to a site, native ads provide consumers with a seamless, nondisruptive advertising experience. These ads can appear in a variety of formats. 

 

Examples of Native Advertising and Formats

The goal of native ads is to not stick out, but rather to provide a seamless experience for the user while also delivering valuable content. For this reason, there’s a variety of formats a native ad can take, depending on the site and experience within which they appear. Below are a few examples of common native ad formats and manifestations. 

 

Social Native Ad Example

Social native ads are designed to look like just another post within a user’s social media feed, aside from some light “sponsored” labeling. The more authentic these ads can appear, the more likely they are to garner attention. 

Open Web Native Ad Example

Native ads on the open web are usually distributed through ad networks or other ad-serving platforms that match them with relevant publications. These ads blend into the flow and design of the site, and the content promoted within them reflects the themes and approach of the publication as well. 

Sponsored Content Native Ad Example

While there is overlap between open web native ads and sponsored content native ads, sponsored content native ads are more likely to refer to content that was created by or in partnership with a specific publisher. While this content will have a flag to denote it’s sponsored, it will still look very similar to other posts on the publisher’s site and might also be promoted through sponsored ad units on the publisher’s social media channels and other owned properties. 

Promoted Listing Native Ads Example

Promoted listing native ads appear on ecommerce websites such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, and other retail sites. They show up like other products or services that consumers see, just with an “Ad” connotation next to them. Native promoted listings greet consumers as they shop for products or services similar to those offered by the advertising brand. 

Suggested Content Native Ads Example

Suggested content native ads are slightly unique among native ad formats in that they don’t necessarily look like the rest of the content on the page. These ads are integrated into the publisher’s content, but they do not have the same appearance as the feed. They might appear at the end or within the content of an article, and are distinguished by cues such as “You May Also Like” or “Recommended for You.” 

 

Is Native Advertising Still Important in 2024?

The modern concept of native advertising in the digital age has been around for more than a decade, and the principles of native advertising date back to the humble origins of the advertorial. Despite its long history, native advertising has never been more relevant than it is today. 

Native advertising continues to deliver value to consumers while respecting the consumer’s experience. In fact, three-quarters of consumers say they trust the sponsored content delivered to them in editorial environments.

Particularly as third-party cookies vanish in Chrome in 2024, advertisers are going to need powerful ways to remain relevant with their audiences, despite the loss of the ability to track their actions across large portions of their consumer journeys. The contextual power of native advertising, in partnership with its robust user experience and the trust it fosters, means native advertising is going to be a more important component of the modern advertiser’s toolbox than ever before. 

 

Why Is Native Advertising Controversial?

Historically speaking, sponsored and branded content have come under occasional fire due to the possibility that consumers could mistake the promotional content as strictly editorial in nature and, thus, be misleading. This criticism naturally extended to native advertising in the digital age, particularly in its early days, before standards had been defined. 

Fortunately, a great deal of work has been done within the industry to mandate, clarify and standardize how sponsorship is disclosed within the context of native ads. For example, the Federal Trade Commission released “Native Advertising: A Guide for Businesses,” in which it provides details on its enforcement efforts to ensure native advertising is neither “deceptive or unfair” and that consumer interests are protected through proper disclosures of content sponsorship. The agency encourages native advertising content to feature clear, unambiguous language, labeling content with terms such as “Advertisement,” “Paid Advertisement,” “Ad” or “Sponsored Advertising Content.”

From an industry standpoint, IAB has also weighed in on the topic of native advertising with its “Native Advertising Playbook.” In this document, the organization lays out different native ad types and a framework for evaluating them, along with disclosure guidance from both IAB and FTC.

Ultimately, when advertisers and native advertising partners follow best practices, there’s little room for consumer confusion about the nature of a native ad and the content it promotes. Audiences appreciate clear disclosure of sponsorship relationships while still finding value in the content that is featured. 

 

What Are the Benefits of Native Advertising?

One of the reasons native advertising has become so popular is that it provides benefits not just to advertisers, but also to consumers and publishers. Some of the many benefits include the following. 

 

Higher CTRs and Performance for Advertisers

According to research by Outbrain and the Content Marketing Institute, the average CTR of native ads outperform push advertisements by 5-10X. This higher performance leads to a better overall return on ad spend (ROAS). In addition, because native ads provide access to valuable content, they tend to throw a halo around the brands that leverage them. 

A Powerful Experience for Users

Publishers and advertisers can appeal to audiences with a seamless native advertising experience in which they encounter the sponsored content unit as a part of the natural experience of the page. Plus, because native ads are designed and placed to find users in discovery mode — that is, when they’re broadly considering a topic or product category — they add value to the on-page experience. 

Better Relationships and Monetization for Publishers

Native ads blend seamlessly with the publisher’s content. This leads to a better overall user experience, encouraging users to spend more time on a publisher’s site. Native ads also tend to have a higher yield for publishers, and successful campaigns can lead to ongoing partnerships between publishers and advertisers, fostering long-term relationships that benefit both parties.

 

How Does Native Advertising Work?

Creating a successful native advertising campaign involves a strategic and creative process that integrates promotional content into the natural flow of a platform or publication where a target audience is most likely to be seeking information. Here are the four key steps involved:

 

1. Define Objectives and Target Audience

A strong campaign begins with a clear definition of objectives. What are you trying to achieve? Is it brand awareness, lead generation or sales? Understanding your goals will shape the rest of your strategy. 

Next, identify your target audience. Who are the people you want to reach with your native ads? Develop detailed buyer personas to understand their demographics, interests, and behaviors. This information is crucial for crafting content and finding outlets that resonate with your audience.

2. Content Creation

Content is the heart of a native advertising campaign. Create content that aligns with the interests of your target audience while conveying your brand’s message subtly. Depending on the platform and format chosen, this could be in the form of sponsored articles, videos, infographics, or social media posts. Ensure that the content is informative, valuable, and engaging. Collaboration with content creators, copywriters, and designers might be necessary to ensure your content and presentation is top-notch.

3. Integration and Placement

Choose the platforms and publications where your native ads will appear. This should align with your target audience’s online behavior and preferences. Work closely with the selected publishers to seamlessly integrate your content into their environment. Ensure that the content matches the format, tone and style of the surrounding editorial content, so it appears organic and seamless.

4. Measurement and Optimization

After your native advertising campaign is live, it’s crucial to analyze its performance. Examine the data to understand what’s working and what isn’t. Adjust your strategy accordingly by refining your content, targeting, and distribution methods. Native advertising campaigns often benefit from ongoing optimization to maximize their impact and ROAS.

Conclusion

The key to successful native advertising lies in its ability to provide value to both brands and their target audiences. By crafting content that aligns with the interests and preferences of readers, advertisers can foster genuine connections and trust. And, importantly, they can drive their most coveted audiences from mere awareness to true consideration. 

Going forward, native advertising will continue to evolve, driven by advancements in technology, changes in consumer behavior, and the quest for more engaging and personalized content experiences. With a clear understanding of the nuances and principles of native advertising, brands can navigate this changing landscape and build stronger connections with their audiences, ultimately driving meaningful results in a world where content remains king.

Today’s consumers are flooded with products and services to choose from. In response, advertisers are working overtime to stand out among the competition while simultaneously facing tighter budgets and more pressure to drive results. Faced with this mix of challenges, advertisers must find the most effective ways to efficiently move consumers down the funnel.

With the right combination of data, messaging, and targeting, you can help consumers learn more about why your brand, products, or services provide them with the best value. By using carefully crafted messaging, you can showcase unique selling points, product features, or brand attributes that set your brand apart from the competition and fulfill your consumers’ needs. 

Audience data is a powerful tool for finding, targeting, and driving consideration amongst existing and prospective brand customers. With targeted campaigns — fueled by audience data and insights — ensure you reach the right consumers with ads that speak to their respective needs and interests, driving them further down the funnel. Additionally, you’ll avoid wasting media dollars on uninterested, unsuitable consumers, or existing customers. 

Keep reading as we’ll outline exactly how you can get started using audience data to create powerful consideration campaigns. 

1. Dive Deep into Audience Data to Reach Your Ideal Customer

As audiences move through the customer journey, from awareness to consideration, each touchpoint should be more targeted and purposeful than the last. As such, ads should speak to specific interests and needs, which requires proper customer segmentation. This can be done in two steps.

Step One: Segment Your Core Audience with First-Party Data

The first step comes from utilizing advertisers’ most valuable resource: current consumers. First-party data provides valuable information such as consumer demographics, attributes, purchase history, and product interest that can be mirrored to create more memorable touchpoints with new customers. 

Let’s look at an example. 

A Los Angeles-based pizza restaurant is expanding with new shops throughout California. Using their loyalty rewards data, they are able to identify two unique consumer groups that make up the majority of purchases at their stores. 

The first is Gen Z-aged consumers who primarily make purchases on Friday and Saturday nights, dine in, and typically order one pizza and a drink. The second group is millennial-aged consumers who order online through the app for carry-out. They typically order a few pizzas and a side or dessert, seemingly an order for a family. This information will help shape the different audience segments the brand should focus on targeting in the areas they are expanding. 

Step Two: Enlist an Audience Analysis Tool for Better Personalization

In-depth audience analysis expands into areas that first-party data doesn’t cover such as media habits, and personal values, where audiences typically discover new brands and other psychographic data. These tools leverage global consumer data to gain insights into each audience’s characteristics and identify the most likely opportunities for your media to reach these consumers for the highest impact.  

Let’s look back at the pizza restaurant and what an audience analysis tool would uncover. 

Gen Z college students spend at least four hours a day on social media. They use TikTok as a primary source of product inspiration and finding new brands. When it comes time to decide where to eat, they prioritize price and finding “a good deal.”

The millennial-aged consumers are avid podcast listeners and subscribe to at least three TV streaming services. They value fresh, healthy ingredients and reliability when deciding where to eat. 

The restaurant can use this information to identify what channels and messages they can use to make a targeted impact on new customers.

2. Expand Your Customer Base with Lookalike Audiences

Using both first and third-party data, you’ve identified your most valuable customers. Now it’s time to find new ones. The audience attributes identified in the process outlined above can be used to build custom audiences to target consumers who look and act like your most valued customers. As the campaign runs, optimization tools prioritize consumers most engaged with your content, moving them further down the funnel. 

As mentioned, the key to driving consideration is to personalize the content toward each consumer. From audience analysis, brands know what these consumers prioritize. As the consumer learns more about your brand, serve even more personalized ad creative that speaks to their specific needs and interests.

One more look back at our pizza restaurant showcases how this can be put into practice. We know that the Gen Z consumer prioritizes a good deal and uses social media as their main form of media consumption. The pizza shop can geo-target college campuses near their new locations, offering customers 25% off their first in-store order. 

As for the millennial-aged consumer, ease of purchase is a priority. They can target these consumers by offering 10% off when they sign up for their app. Alternatively, data analysis revealed that most of these consumers are ordering for a family, so a mid-week promotion offering 10% off when ordering two or more pizzas would encourage orders outside of the typical weekend rush, for instance.

3. The Key to Successful Consideration Campaigns 

By focusing on building consideration, you can take consumers from simply being aware of your brand to understanding why your brand is the right choice for them. Ads must be relevant and interesting, offer value, and hopefully encourage action. To achieve this, you must understand your specific audience and how best to reach them across their media journey. If you haven’t already, consider how you can implement audience data into your consideration campaigns to more swiftly move consumers down the funnel. 

Digilant’s Full-Funnel Digital Media Solutions

At Digilant, data is at the core of everything we do. We provide in-depth audience analysis using proprietary modeling algorithms built from 18 million+ consumers across 40+ countries, with over 4,000 attributes. This empowers our clients to better understand their target group, focus media spend, identify what creative messaging will have the most impact, and optimize toward the most engaged audiences. Interested in learning more about opportunities for your media to reach your ideal consumers and make a higher impact? Contact us today to learn more. 

Today’s consumer spends nearly seven hours a day online. So, it should come as no surprise that seven of the ten most popular channels these users rely on for product discovery are digital. During this discovery stage, shoppers may organically end up on your website or social page — but it’s best not to leave it up to chance. 

In today’s digitally saturated, hyper-competitive market, it can be tricky to nail down exactly which tactics help keep your brand top of mind with consumers versus which fall on deaf ears (or rather, distracted eyeballs). If you’ve found yourself confused or overwhelmed with which channels and tactics are best to create engaging and memorable brand awareness touchpoints, keep reading.

In this blog, we’ll outline exactly how to build a brand awareness campaign, what strategies are best to introduce your brand to consumers, and how to stay top of mind until they are ready to convert.

 

Quick Tip: Don’t Waste Brand Awareness Campaign Dollars on Existing Consumers

An easy step toward maximizing the ROI of your brand awareness campaigns is to suppress everyone you know who is an existing customer. While it’s essential to engage existing customers, general brand awareness campaigns are not the way to do this. The messaging and intention of these campaigns are to introduce your brand to potential customers and stay top of mind until they are ready to convert. Don’t waste precious media dollars targeting an audience you already know is familiar with or loyal to your brand (that’s what nurture campaigns are for!). 

 

Stay Top of Mind, You Never Know When People Might Convert

It’s easy for advertisers to get into the weeds of picking the best data to target the right consumers with the right message, at just the right time. And don’t get us wrong, this strategy provides immense benefits and value. But, it’s best applied further down the funnel.

When it comes to brand awareness, take a step back. The key to a successful brand awareness campaign is just that, make people aware of your brand. Introduce consumers to your brand, familiarize them with your products and services, and build the framework for future interactions that ideally will move them down the funnel. While they might not be in the market for your product or service at this exact moment, if they are in the future, you want to ensure they’ll think of your brand.

Use strategic pop-ins here and there to remind consumers of your offerings. These ads don’t need to be overtly tailored or targeted, but frequent enough that when it does come time for a consumer to convert, they’ll recollect an interaction they had with your brand in the past. 

This is most efficiently done with an omnichannel campaign, ensuring your message is reaching your audience across different channels and devices. As devices become more interactive, nearly any channel can be used at any stage of the funnel. Nevertheless, we do find certain channels lend themselves very well to brand awareness campaigns. 

 

The 3 Best Channels for Brand Awareness Campaigns

Below we’ve outlined three of the top channels we recommend for brand awareness campaigns and how you can incorporate them into your digital media plan. 

1. Advanced TV

This year, U.S. adults will spend nearly two hours watching connected TV (CTV) every day. Even better news for advertisers, about 73% of connected TV viewers prefer to watch free ad-supported content vs. paying for ad-free CTV content. As streamers tune into their favorite programs, advertisers should take advantage of pre-roll and in-stream ad placements. 

These CTV ad placements provide a great opportunity to showcase more information about brand features or product attributes than a typical display ad. For that reason, use these ad spots to convey information or provide answers to common questions consumers have about your brand. 

2. Digital Audio

While it is customary to reach consumers as they browse their phones or watch TV, digital audio provides ad opportunities even when consumers aren’t looking at their phones. Brands can integrate themselves into consumers’ everyday routines, reaching them when they are driving, cleaning the house, working out, or commuting to work. 

The power of digital audio ads doesn’t stop there, however. Consumers are highly engaged with the content they are streaming which lends itself to a higher brand recall for digital audio ads. Digital Audio ads have a 24% higher brand recall than display ads and 67% of podcast listeners remember the ads they hear on podcasts.

3. Digital Out-of-Home

Over the last five years, digital billboard inventory in the U.S. has grown 37%, providing brands with more ways to reach their customers. These ad placements allow you to increase your brand’s visibility when consumers aren’t engaged with their devices. Brands can reach on-the-go consumers with impactful ads across various digital screens such as billboards, salons and gyms, taxis and gas stations, and everywhere in between. 

Thinking down the path to purchase, using foot traffic and mobile location data, advertisers can utilize retargeting to reach users who have been exposed to a DOOH ad. So while DOOH holds great value in keeping your brand top of mind, the campaign data can be used in conjunction with other tactics to create customized cross-channel experiences. It’s a win-win.

 

Set Your Brand Up for Success with Strategic Brand Awareness Campaigns

While brand awareness campaigns are top of the funnel, consider them the building blocks or foundation of your digital advertising initiatives. You’re laying the groundwork and familiarizing consumers with your brand. 

As such, these campaigns require a long-tail strategy using a variety of key channels to ensure you reach consumers with just the right frequency and consistency. Using just the right mix of channels and tactics, there’s a higher likelihood that consumers will recall your brand message when the time comes for them to make a purchase. 

At Digilant, we understand it can be difficult to discern exactly which digital brand awareness strategies are right for your brand. We’re here to help build you a custom strategy designed specifically to reach your audience. Get started with a custom digital media strategy built to achieve your digital advertising goals. Contact us here to learn more. 

Many factors have contributed to the exorbitant growth of programmatic digital advertising: better technology, a need for better targeting, and the introduction of mobile phones, to name a few. Experts no longer question the validity of programmatic marketing or if advertisers use it. Instead, people now look to the future to see how they can work to combat any drawbacks people face to grow programmatic marketing and to help advertisers reach their audiences even better.

Before we dive into the different facets of programmatic, it’s helpful to look at the last decade or understand how programmatic quickly climbed up the ladder of digital advertising to become a preferred tactic amongst advertisers.

Check out our explainer of what you need to know about programmatic advertising here.

Basic Programmatic Glossary

Demand Side Platforms (DSPs)

A piece of bidding technology or ad servers with optimization and inventory links. They allow audience buying via RTB across multiple sources of inventory. Using algorithmic driven evaluation techniques, DSPs can determine which impressions to buy in real-time.

Demand Management Platforms (DMPs)

Used to manage cookie IDs and to generate audience segments, which are subsequently used to target specific users with online ads. Advertisers now buy media across a vast range of different sites. DMPs can help tie all that activity and resulting campaign and audience data together in one, centralized location and use it to help optimize future media buys and ad creative.

Supply Side Platform (SSP)

Supply refers to the seller of media – in most cases, the publisher. SSPs are vehicles for publishers to make their inventory available for programmatic buying via an exchange type marketplace. SSPs are sometimes referred to as yield-optimization platforms. 

Ad Exchange

An ad exchange is technology that enables advertisers and publishers to buy and sell digital ad inventory programmatically with real-time bidding.

A brief history of programmatic digital advertising

To understand programmatic advertising, we have to travel back to 1994 when the first banner ad was displayed. Hotwired.com made a deal with AT&T to display a banner ad on their site for three months. Over this period, the ad resulted in a rumored 40-50% click-through rate, which will astonish any current-day advertiser who is accustomed to industry-standard CTR rates of ~0.06%. 

And for the next few years, digital advertising mirrored this simple and straightforward process. Advertisers worked directly with publishers to negotiate pricing and placement. These ads were about reach, not relevance. 

Flash forward two years as the internet continued to gain more mainstream use and integration into society. At this point, advertisers had jumped on board, and they too wanted to advertise on these new websites. This led to creating the programmatic ecosystem’s first element: an ad server – DoubleClick to be specific (which would eventually be purchased by Google for  $3.1 billion in 2007).  

Right before the turn of the millennium, competition arose for DoubleClick as they couldn’t keep up with the demand. From 1998-2000, we saw a boom of ad servers that allowed advertisers to place their ads on various sites within the network. 

In this same time frame, Google launched AdWords, which allowed advertisers to run CPC-priced campaigns on the Google networks. This isn’t exactly the moment programmatic was born. This only allowed advertisers to run in the Google network; however, this would eventually lead Google down the path of more targeted advertising. 

In tandem with Google’s journey, the beginning stages of programmatic advertising were on the rise. At this time, ads were first-come, first-served (literally). Backed by name-brand recognition and power, Google launched AdSense, their display network, in 2003. Unlike other moments in the timeline of programmatic, this too had its ups and downs. AdSense quickly became synonymous with spam and ad fraud. And what did Google do to combat this? They launched the Panda update, which still affects how sites are ranked by reducing ranking for low-quality sites. 

Google was not the only player during this time working through the bumps and bruises of digital advertising; however, their journey indicates that no company had a linear line to what we know today as programmatic. And it only grows more complex. 

The Birth of Real-Time Bidding

The next decade of programmatic advertising history (the 2010s) cannot be easily outlined linearly. However, most simply put, in 2009, we saw the first use of real-time-bidding (RTB). RTB allowed for the first big wave of programmatic advertising, and the process is as follows:

1. A visitor lands on a page, and the publisher sends a bid request to the ad exchange.
2. The ad exchange makes the user’s profile available to all bidders.
3. The advertiser’s bids are automatically sent to the exchange by the bidding algorithm.
4. The highest bid wins the impression.
5. The high bidders’ creative is served, and the page is rendered.

This entire process happens within one-tenth of a second. This way of buying and selling ads in an open exchange allowed advertisers to bid on specific consumer personas, such as demographic or device type. And the seed was planted. Gone were the days of digital display ads simply used for reach; now, there was an era of relevance. 

But to be clear, because RTB gave people the first real glimpse into the world of programmatic, many people believe that this is the only way to purchase ads programmatically. However, programmatic digital advertising has grown much beyond the 2010-era. Check out our explainer to find out everything you need to know.

The Importance of an Effective Programmatic Partner

Realistically, you could launch a programmatic campaign, and go about your day, week, or however long the flight is running. The computers will work to target the audience parameters and targeting you have in place. However, with such great data available to advertisers, the days of “setting it and forgetting it” should be long gone. 

The element of the human touch remains priceless to programmatic – even if it is a technology-driven industry. Just as programmatic ads’ buying and selling happen in-real-time, so too should the optimizations and analysis. 

At Digilant, we understand that programmatic campaigns need fostering in order to reach their full potential. Our team of highly qualified campaign solutions analysts monitors our client’s programmatic campaigns every step of the way to ensure the audience is reached effectively. Where traditional agencies can be slow to react, overly complicated, and high-cost, we are proactive, agile, and readily available. As we monitor campaigns, we can quickly adapt to what is working while also shifting away from what is not. This also allows us to uncover new audience insights that can be established for use in current and future campaigns. 

Interested in learning more about how Digilant’s passion and industry expertise will ensure your programmatic digital advertising campaigns reach new heights? Let’s talk.