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What comes to mind when you hear “2024”?
If you’re a digital advertising professional (and if you’re reading this, we’re going to hazard a guess that you are!) then chances are that “signal loss” and “third-party cookie deprecation” are some of the first words that bubble up. What seemed like a far-off future when the headline “Google Delays Third-Party Cookie Deprecation to 2024” first broke is now a reality, with the official (though gradual) cookie phaseout beginning in Q1 of 2024 and appearing set to wrap up before the year’s end.
For travel and tourism marketers who are already navigating a highly saturated market—and given consumers’ increased price sensitivity thanks to the tumult of the last few years—third-party cookie deprecation makes things all the more complex. As such, it’s critical that advertisers in the industry begin implementing and optimizing cookieless solutions now, if they haven’t done so already.
For specific insights on how travel and tourism marketers can approach this transition, we spoke to Nicole Stahlecker, VP of Integrated Client Solutions at Basis Technologies. With over a decade of agency and digital media expertise—and extensive experience in travel and tourism advertising—Nicole brings a wealth of knowledge to this discussion. Read on for her top recommendations for travel and tourism marketers as they approach privacy-first advertising in 2024.
Nicole Stahlecker: So many travel and tourism marketers are sitting on a goldmine of first-party data. The problem? It’s often housed in distinct platforms across tons of different third-party vendors, rather than centralized in a customer data platform (CDP). Because that data is so disparate, marketers can’t action it collaboratively, or easily confirm when and how consent for it was given, since different platforms have different levels of privacy consent. This becomes particularly challenging for teams operating internationally, and as a result, they end up using only a limited amount of the data available to them and actioning it on the strictest of levels to ensure they’re meeting all data privacy regulations and requirements.
Since first-party data will be so critical to getting personalized messages in front of prospective travelers once cookies go away, finding ways to unify, organize, and maximize that data is absolutely key. To that end, there are two action steps marketers should take as soon as possible:
The first is to clean up existing data so that it’s organized and usable from a customer data privacy standpoint. This might include working with vendors and platforms to gain access to that data, and/or investing in a CDP. The second step is to come up with a plan for how to collect and house first-party data in a clean and organized way moving forward, so advertisers they can use it in future campaigns.
NS: When it comes to cookieless targeting, contextual targeting is key for travel and tourism marketers. There’s never going to be anything that beats that age-old marketing adage of putting your message in front of the right person, in the right place, and at the right time, and when it comes to those objectives, contextual targeting never lets us down. For example, tour companies know that the people most likely to book a tour are already going to be looking at other relevant information for that destination. By placing ads strategically near content about that location (such as on a travel blog that explores best times to book for that destination), advertisers can ensure they’re connecting with the right audience at a time when they’re likely in a decision-making mindset.
When it comes to attribution, leaning on your historical data will be most impactful. Just like keeping your first-party data clean, organized, and readily accessible is going to benefit your team, so too will keeping track of your campaigns and their results. Even though you won’t be able to track attribution the way you used to, you can compare your recent data to your historical data and make improvements based on that.
NS: Sure! First, let’s imagine you’re a museum, and you have one location in a single destination. When it comes to targeting, you might take want to advantage of geotargeted digital out-of-home ads to capture the attention of tourists who are physically walking around near your museum and might be enticed by these displays.
For larger companies, or those with a presence that extends beyond a single location, you don’t want to overuse geotargeting—and you certainly don’t want to assume that you know where your customers are coming from, as you might miss out on potential audiences. For instance, let’s say you’re a hotel with multiple locations. You would likely lean more heavily on targeting based on your first-party data by linking your data collection with your advertising platforms. This would allow you to both target people who performed specific actions on your site, as well as create predictive (AKA lookalike) audiences to find similar users. You’d then be able to target these audiences based on their booking history, other individual actions on your website, demographic information, and more.
The next several months will be a critical time for travel and tourism marketers to implement and fine-tune cookieless solutions to connect with their target audiences. By focusing on collecting, storing, and intentionally leveraging first-party data, as well as harnessing the power of contextual targeting, travel and tourism marketers can find success in today’s privacy-centric digital landscape.
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Want to learn more about the state of identity in 2024? We surveyed over 200 marketing and advertising professionals to discover how they’re navigating signal loss, third-party cookie deprecation, and the shift towards privacy-first digital advertising. Check out all the latest data and insights in our in-depth report.
Take a moment and pause. As you read this, consider the environment you’re in right now. How many tabs do you have open on your browser? If you’re on your phone, take note of how many apps you have running, the notifications pinging for your attention, the subtle pull of the endless stream of tasks vying for your focus. Perhaps you’re reading this while listening to music or a podcast? Maybe you’re skimming as you walk on an under-desk treadmill, or (perhaps most likely of all) you’re switching back and forth between reading this post and working on a project you need to complete by end of day.
In today’s digital world, we live in a near-constant state of distraction and multitasking. We are ever connected and our attention often divided, dispersed across screens and responsibilities. Given this inundation of content, it’s no surprise our attention spans are shrinking.
For digital advertisers, then, seeking and capturing attention is critical. After all, attention matters for memorability: If audiences can’t remember what they’re seeing from an advertising standpoint, it’s going to be difficult for them to remember the messages being served to them and the brands and advertisers connected to those messages. And if they can’t remember the brands connected to those messages, it’s unlikely they will use or purchase the products or services they offer.
So, how can advertisers better capture attention in the year ahead? By taking an audience-centered approach, crafting creative that captivates, and focusing on high-quality ad placements. Read on to learn key considerations for capturing audience attention, cutting through the clutter, and crafting winning campaigns in 2024 (and beyond).
We live in an age of endless distractions fueled by a desire for instant gratification. Bored by the video that popped up on TikTok? Just scroll. Underwhelmed by the show you’re watching on Netflix? Hop over to Hulu. Not a fan of the playlist you originally picked for your workout? Here’s an AI-generated one based on the songs you listen to most!
How can advertisers break through this noise to both capture attention and sustain it?
It starts with having strong creative. With a literally endless supply of other content available at all times, advertising teams need to ensure their creative is standout so that their audiences don’t tune out, scroll by, switch apps, or simply forget about it.
In 2024, audiences will consume more than 12 hours of digital media per day. In this context, it’s not simply enough to get a message in front of audiences. Advertisers can do every single thing right with their tech and targeting—getting in front of the perfect person at the perfect time—but if the creative is a miss, then they’re not going to capture that individual’s attention or make the most of that opportunity.
Instead, advertisers need to produce thoughtful creative that tells their client or brand’s unique story in a way that resonates and drives action. To do so, advertising teams can embrace a host of strategies and tactics, including:
Beyond investing in standout creative, digital advertisers looking to capture attention must focus on the quality of their ad placements. There’s a big difference between delivering 100 impressions on a low-quality site (or with low-quality targeting) that lead to zero conversions vs. 10 high-quality impressions that lead to two conversions. This focus on quality is especially important given the rise of made-for-advertising sites (MFAs) and the steady increase in low-quality AI-generated content, both of which can syphon ad spend away from higher-quality inventory.
Advertisers should actively seek to avoid bidding on this inventory in their campaigns, leveraging tools like a dynamic MFA blocklist and taking advantage of buying methods like programmatic guaranteed and private marketplace (PMP) deals to secure high-quality and premium placements. Additionally, advertising teams will benefit from leaning into KPIs that gauge the quality of impressions to determine not only if their ads are being seen but also if they’re sticking with audiences.
The final consideration for capturing audience attention in 2024? Focusing on identifying, getting to know, and targeting ideal audiences with precision.
Marketers should re-double their efforts to familiarize themselves with their target audience, conducting (or investing in) thorough market research to grasp their demographics and behaviors. From there, advertisers will want to tailor content to those distinct audiences by creating personalized ads addressing their specific needs, desires, and pain points—and, of course, to make sure those ads are reaching those audiences on the channels where they’re spending time.
Advertising teams can leverage pre-bid segments and custom PMP deals, and tools like custom bidding algorithms and pixel-based verification, to both capture and measure users’ attention, helping marketers answer the questions: What have people actually seen, and what’s stuck with them? They can then use the data and insights they gather to make optimizations responsive to their audience’s wants and needs. By putting audiences front and center, advertisers can maximize outcomes and craft campaigns that inspire action.
In digital advertising, seeking and capturing audience attention is not simply a strategy—it’s a necessity. As consumers gain access to an increasing amount of captivating content, advertising teams that focus on getting a compelling story in front of the right audience on the right channel will find success.
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Want to learn even more about how to make the most of your campaigns this year? Check out our webinar, Future in Focus: 2024 Digital Advertising Trends. In it, Basis Technologies’ VP of Media Innovations and Technology Noor Naseer shares insights and strategies to help advertisers tune out the noise and instead focus their attention (see what we did there?) on the most important, proven trends in 2024.
What do working out, putting money in a 401(k), and running an advertising campaign have in common?
They all require an investment—whether that be time, effort, or money (or all three!). And, like with any investment, people expect a return. Avid gym goers expect to get stronger. Folks investing through their 401(k) accounts expect those funds to grow. And brands spending money on advertising campaigns? They expect for that money to drive revenue.
Today, we’re digging into how marketing teams can maximize their return on ad spend (ROAS) by adjusting their target ROAS bidding strategy. We’ll explore what a target ROAS strategy is, when to use one, and how to fine-tune your target ROAS in different scenarios to maximize returns. Ready to become an ROAS rockstar? Read on!
Before we dive into what target ROAS is, let’s review the basics. ROAS is a metric that tells advertising teams how much revenue they are generating relative to their advertising spend.
How do advertisers calculate ROAS? Easy—they use the following formula:
ROAS = (Revenue ÷ Ad Spend) x 100
So, if you spend $100 on a campaign and it generates $200 in revenue, your ROAS = (200/100) x 100, or 200%.
Target ROAS is an automated bidding strategy offered by many programmatic advertising platforms. As the name suggests, it optimizes campaigns towards a “target” ROAS value, which is set by an advertising team based on historical conversion values.
For instance, if you are using a target ROAS strategy and set a target of 300%, machine learning will automatically optimize your bids towards the placements that are most likely to generate $3 of revenue for every $1 of ad spend. To be clear, this doesn’t mean the technology will only bid on placements that will generate $3 in revenue, but rather that $3 per every $1 of ad spend is the average revenue target it will optimize towards.
Target cost per action (otherwise known as cost per acquisition or CPA) is also an automated bidding strategy, but it optimizes bids towards a different goal than target ROAS. Target CPA takes the amount you’re willing to spend per a specific conversion or consumer action, and bids with the goal of achieving the highest number of conversions or consumer actions based on that amount. For example, you might set a target CPA of $20 per new customer. Machine learning will then automatically optimize bids towards gaining as many conversions as possible at or near that target cost.
Target CPA is often used in lead generation campaigns and is best suited for teams who want to acquire customers at a predetermined cost. Target ROAS, on the other hand, is best for those who want to generate the most revenue possible for a specific amount of ad spend, and it can provide more flexibility amidst market changes. For example, an e-commerce brand might benefit from using a target ROAS strategy to maximize their ROAS leading up to the holidays. A B2B startup, on the other hand, might benefit from using a target CPA strategy, to ensure they’re acquiring customers within their set budget.
Both target ROAS and target CPA strategies rely on conversion data, but they use it in different ways. With target CPA, machine learning optimizes towards a specific conversion value. With target ROAS, on the other hand, machine learning uses historical conversion values to try to achieve your target ROAS. For example, if your online store historically saw $6 worth of sales for every $1 of ad spend, you might use that information to set a target ROAS of 600% ($6 in sales ÷ $1 in ad spend x 100%) to continue to make the same return on ad investment.
Advertisers should use a target ROAS strategy when they have a specific ROI (return on investment) goal for their advertising efforts. It’s also important they have a clear understanding of the value associated with different conversions, so that the bidding strategy can use those values to optimize for desired returns.
Beyond having sufficient data to inform this strategy, there are specific scenarios when advertisers might benefit from using target ROAS:
To set up a target ROAS strategy, advertisers must first define their conversion values based on historical data. In other words: They need to have a clear understanding of how much revenue can be generated by different customer actions. Once those values are defined, advertisers can select a target ROAS bidding strategy based on existing data and set a target ROAS value based on their unique objectives.
This target ROAS value then guides the bidding system as it makes optimizations. But just like any strategy, it’s important to monitor and adjust based on performance metrics (more on this shortly!).
Often, teams will set an ROAS target based on a known value of doing business, likely due to an understanding of what margin of revenue is required on ad spend to ensure profit.
But remember that the goal of this bidding strategy is to maximize revenue—and simply setting a target ROAS and forgetting about it is not guaranteed to result in the best returns. In fact, with a bit of testing and optimization, teams can make adjustments that result in a greater ROAS.
So, how can advertising teams go about determining what ROAS target will result in the most profit? Even if a target ROAS metric is being met, that’s not a guarantee that you’re capturing the maximum amount of profit available. A higher ROAS target may result in similar revenue, with lower spend. A lower ROAS target may conversely result in increased revenue, with similar spend.
To determine if performance is short of what it could be, here are a few things to consider:
By observing the interactions between these components over time, teams can figure out whether their target ROAS is too low, too high, or just right. Let’s dig into a few scenarios to see what this looks like in action.
In this scenario, your target ROAS is likely too low. Though you’re getting closer to your target ROAS, you’re losing out on profits because you’re spending more on ads even though your revenue is the same.
Let’s dig into an example of what this might look like:
Imagine a team’s target ROAS is set to 200% (i.e., make $2 in revenue for every $1 of ad spend). In the past, they were spending $25 on ads and bringing in a revenue of $100, with an ROAS of 400%. But, since their target ROAS is 200%, their ad spend is being shifted in a way that spends more on ads without an increase in revenue. If they’re now generating a revenue of $100 at a cost of $40 in ad spend, they are technically getting closer to their target ROAS with their new ROAS of 250%. But, they’re spending more to do so! In other words, they’re getting less bang for their buck.
That’s why the recommendation here is to increase your ROAS target based on the higher historical ROAS your account had. In other words, if you were spending $25 on ads and generating $100 in revenue, set your target ROAS to 400% and monitor.
In this instance, your target ROAS is too high. The optimization strategy is reducing spend in an attempt to hit a potentially unattainable ROAS target at an “acceptable” revenue volume.
Here’s what this might look like and how a team could adjust their target ROAS in such a scenario:
Let’s say a team sets their target ROAS to 500%. In the past, they generated $100 in revenue at a cost of $50 in ad spending, meaning their past ROAS value was 200%. Now that their target is set to 500%, they are currently generating $75 in revenue at a cost of $25, putting their current ROAS at 300%.
Like scenario 1, this team’s ROAS is getting closer to the target ROAS, but they are missing out on revenue—only, this time, it’s because their target ROAS is too high, which means the platform is lowering spending in an attempt to hit a higher ROAS. In this scenario, the best thing the team could do would be to lower the target ROAS and monitor campaign performance.
This is a great situation to be in! In this instance, you’re spending a bit more, but making a bit more at the same time. Here’s an example of what this might look like:
Imagine your target ROAS is set to 200%. In the past, you generated $100 in revenue at an ad spend of $50, meaning you were hitting your target at an ROAS of 200%. Now, you’re generating $200 in revenue at a cost of $100 in ad spend. Your ROAS is the same—200%—but you’re generating more revenue than you were in the past.
Teams have a few options here, depending on what their business goals are:
This is another beneficial situation to be in! Your team is consistently hitting its target ROAS, but they might be able to increase profits and/or revenue—either by spending less for the same revenue, or by spending a bit more in advertising to generate additional revenue.
Here’s what this might look like:
Similar to the last example, let’s say the target ROAS is 200%. In the past, your team generated $100 in revenue at an ad spend of $50, making your ROAS 200%. Now, your team is still generating $100 in revenue at the same spend of $50, and your ROAS has stayed consistent at 200%. Since you’re hitting your target, this is good—but, it’s possible you could make slight adjustments to your target ROAS that would make your campaign even more profitable.
Teams in this situation have similar options to scenario 3, but with a slight twist: It’s difficult to know if you are hitting the limits of available revenue, or if there is more out there to obtain. As such, here are a few options to explore:
Fine-tuning your target ROAS is both an art and a science: It takes time and experimentation to figure out what the ideal ROAS target should be in any given scenario. In complementing that experimentation with the insights and advice outlined above, advertisers will be well on their way to making the most of target ROAS bidding strategies.
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Interested in more expert insights on how to make the most of your campaigns? Connect with us and learn how our media strategy and activation services can help you further fine-tune your digital campaigns to meaningfully connect with audiences.
Stay ahead of the curve with these key trends set to shape the programmatic advertising landscape in 2024.
2024 is shaping up to be a dynamic year in programmatic advertising.
Signal loss is top of mind throughout the industry as third-party cookie deprecation in Google’s Chrome browser becomes a reality: Cookies will be disabled for 1% of users in Q1 of 2024, and the rest appear set to be disabled by year’s end.
Then, there are all the mixed economic indicators and similarly complex consumer behaviors. The US is not in a recession, despite several years of warnings that one was imminent, and unemployment remains low. Still, consumers’ sentiments about the economy and their own financial outlook are souring, federal student loan payments resumed in October, and consumer spending has begun to slow. It’s all increasing advertisers’ need to be more nimble, agile, and creative as they strive to reach consumers on the channels where they’re spending time—and to do so with messages that resonate within the larger economic context.
As if that wasn't enough, there’s also the fact that 2024 is a presidential election year in the US, with forecasts calling for record-setting political ad spend that will have significant impacts on programmatic inventory in the months ahead for political and non-political advertisers alike.
All this to say that 2024 will likely be a wild ride for digital advertisers. And though many things are uncertain in advertising, there’s one constant that has proven reliable year in and year out for the past decade: programmatic advertising. Programmatic digital display ad spending is forecast to grow by 15.9% YoY in 2024, and programmatic digital video by a whopping 20.9% (outpacing the projected 13.6% anticipated for digital ad spending overall).
To take advantage of this growth, especially in context of all the aforementioned complexity, digital advertisers will need to have a pulse on key trends within the programmatic landscape. To that end, we’re digging into how advertisers can make the most of seven key programmatic advertising trends to level up their campaigns in the year ahead.
For the last 20 years, much of programmatic advertising—specifically, cross-domain tracking, targeting, and attribution—has relied upon third-party cookies. But cookies are soon to be a relic of history: Browsers like Firefox and Safari have long since bid them adieu, and Google Chrome’s gradual phase-out has begun. Couple this with data privacy regulations such as CPRA, CCPA, and GDPR, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency on iPhone, and increased privacy demands from consumers, and it’s clear that adapting to signal loss and embracing privacy-friendly alternatives will be key for programmatic advertisers in 2024.
Unfortunately, as of mid-2023, most industries had not embraced cookieless alternatives for programmatic buying. As advertisers adapt to signal loss in 2024, they will have to implement and fine-tune privacy-friendly targeting and attribution strategies within their programmatic campaigns. These tactics could include leaning more heavily on first-party data, leveraging contextual targeting and geotargeting, bidding on premium inventory, using anonymized data sources, targeting using individual platforms’ proprietary data (ex. on social platforms like LinkedIn or through retail media networks), embracing alternative identifiers such as LiveRamp’s RampID, and using audience profiling to create lookalike audience segments.
Since its dramatic public debut in late 2022, generative AI has made waves in the world of digital advertising, and it will continue to shape the programmatic landscape in 2024. The emerging technology will all but certainly present new opportunities as well as pose key challenges—and advertisers will need to navigate its usage with care.
Generative AI could exacerbate problems like made-for-advertising sites (MFAs), since it allows users to produce content rapidly and with minimal human oversight. In other words: Generative AI could end up leading to a lot more low-quality ad inventory. To avoid bidding on this inventory in their campaigns, programmatic media buyers should seek out solutions that allow them to use dynamic MFA blocklists to avoid serving ads on those sites, thus ensuring ad spend isn’t being wasted on low-quality inventory.
GenAI will also continue to transform the paid search landscape, as more and more people turn to AI-powered search engines or simply chat with bots instead of searching at all. Though search ads will continue to be an effective way to connect with consumers in 2024, advertisers should keep an eye on audience behaviors to ensure they’re placing ads where people are searching for information and taking advantage of new opportunities that AI presents as it evolves.
Despite these challenges, advertisers also shouldn’t simply ignore generative AI or the ways it can simplify certain aspects of their programmatic campaigns. For instance, AI can help streamline parts of the content creation process, so long as a human is always reviewing for accuracy and brand voice alignment. In particular, it can help with generating variations of creative for specific audiences, to create more personalized advertising experiences.
We live in an age of instant gratification and sensory overload. Engaging content and entertainment live right at our fingertips, a single scroll or swipe away. And marketing teams? They’re all vying for that precious, and increasingly fleeting, attention.
To better capture attention in the year ahead, advertisers will benefit from focusing less on the quantity of people viewing their ads and instead selecting KPIs that gauge the quality of those views. By focusing on the quality of their ad impressions, teams can determine not only if their ads are being seen, but more importantly, if they’re garnering enough attention to be remembered.
Additionally, advertisers should take the time to prioritize crafting compelling creative and to focus on placing that creative in front of the right audiences to capture attention, build broad awareness, and drive action. By obsessively seeking their target audiences’ attention—rather than chasing cheap impressions that may or may not drive action—advertising teams can break through the noise and build successful campaigns that resonate in the year ahead.
Awareness-building and fundraising efforts for the 2024 election cycle are already underway. But as advertisers head into 2024, teams in all industries—political and non-political alike—should prepare to adapt to the complexities of the election year itself.
With a landmark $12 billion in ad spend projected for the campaign season ahead, it’s important for advertising teams to be aware and plan in advance for times when programmatic inventory becomes more limited and CPMs skyrocket as political advertisers make major ad buys during the most critical stretches of their campaigns. Key days to keep in mind are those leading up to primaries, as well as the weeks and days right before Election Day (especially in swing states).
For advertisers outside of the political realm, one way to approach this challenge is to focus on channels like programmatic digital out-of-home and audio, which political advertisers have been slower to adopt. Another is to focus on environments that don’t allow political ads, including streaming video services like Disney+ and Netflix.
Beyond the 2024 election cycle’s impact to inventory and budgets, there’s another layer of complexity for advertisers to contend with: the inevitable spike in mis- and disinformation. Thanks to generative AI, it’s easier than ever for false information to be created and circulated. This is especially pressing given the contentious presidential race at the top of the ticket, as well as a highly partisan and emotionally charged electorate.
To break through the noise, advertisers should keep brand safety at the forefront as they build and execute their programmatic campaigns in 2024. By leveraging tools like alllowlists and blocklists, leaning on offerings from partners like NOBL, Comscore, Grapeshot, and Peer39, and steering clear of low-quality inventory, advertisers across industries can ensure their ads are appearing in suitable environments that align with their values and voice.
In 2023, more than two in every five new programmatic ad dollars went to connected TV (CTV). And this year, US CTV programmatic video ad spend is projected to grow by nearly 18%—with programmatic accounting for 88% of total CTV video ad spending.
Given viewership trends, digital video’s popularity amongst advertisers makes plenty of sense: Traditional TV viewership is plummeting, and the number of people tuning into ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) content is skyrocketing. Platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Max have ad-supported tiers in place that are demonstrating consistent growth, and new opportunities are on the horizon with Amazon’s plan to launch an ad tier for Prime Video.
Additionally, CTV is a particularly appealing channel for advertisers in the context of third-party cookie deprecation, since it is already cookieless. As such, teams will be able to continue to utilize it as they have in the past to reach engaged audiences.
By leveraging different video channels and placements—social media, CTV and streaming, DOOH, display—digital video advertisers can make the most of their digital video advertising efforts by crafting an omnichannel experience and connecting with people when and where they’re consuming content.
From the rise of #deinfluencing, to the shift towards smaller and simpler homes (buh-bye, McMansions), the past few years have seen a push towards cutting down on waste. And with advertisers concerned about made-for-advertising sites (MFAs), bot traffic, ad fraud, domain spoofing and more—not to mention the increased focus on digital advertising’s carbon impact—it feels like an appropriate time for the programmatic ecosystem to prioritize minimizing waste as well.
In 2024, teams should focus on value over volume and proactively steer clear of low-quality inventory like MFAs. Exploring inventory opportunities beyond the open marketplace—such as programmatic guaranteed and private marketplace (PMP) deals—can help ensure high quality placements and access to premium inventory. Further, teams can better capture their audiences’ attention by focusing on placing the right creative on the right channels by removing impressions below set thresholds.
By taking these steps, advertising teams can make the most of their ad spend and reduce the amount of their campaign budget that gets wasted on low-quality placements and/or impressions. And as if that wasn’t enough, it’s also good for the environment: A recent study found that an ad viewed for twice as long produces two-thirds fewer emissions. And given that programmatic advertising produces more than 215,000 tons of carbon emissions in a single month, minimizing the number of low-quality impressions served will have positive impacts that extend far beyond a campaign itself.
In the realm of social media advertising, the last several years have been more than a bit turbulent—and 2024 is shaping up to be yet another chapter in that seemingly unending book.
The latest: X is proving itself to be an environment unsuitable and unsafe for many brands, with many major brands pulling their ads from the channel as a result. Reddit, on the other hand, is seeing new levels of interest, TikTok is wildly popular and continuing to gain traction (especially since threats of a ban are still on pause), and old standby Meta is slowly evolving and has a lot of targeting opportunities despite ongoing regulatory threats.
Advertisers also have to contend with the stagnating social media growth in the US, as users are joining platforms at a much slower pace than in recent years. Amidst these shifts, advertisers will have to be nimble and adaptable with their social campaigns this year. The focus on attention that will help teams minimize waste and maximize impact will also prove useful for these channels, where users tend to have particularly short attention spans, and using new formats (such as social search ads) will help advertisers bolster impressions.
As new opportunities arise, marketers should look to their audiences to identify the social platform(s) where they can forge the most meaningful connections.
Digital advertisers will be awfully busy this year as they navigate the complexities of Google’s third-party cookie deprecation, the 2024 election cycle, heightened consumer privacy demands, economic turbulence, and more. By leaning into key programmatic trends, advertisers can ensure they are meeting consumers where they’re at and making the most of their programmatic ad investment.
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Looking for even more insights into the trends that will shape digital advertising in 2024? Our report, Future in Focus: 2024 Digital Advertising Trends, covers the most critical trends advertisers should have top-of-mind as they plan and execute their campaigns.
Digital video is everywhere: from the TikToks and Reels we scroll through when we first wake up, to the news we digest during our lunch break, to the videos that pop up as we browse dinner recipes, to the YouTube videos we watch on the treadmill, to the TV we stream as we’re winding down for the evening. Thanks to this omnipresence, digital video provides advertisers a distinct opportunity to connect with people when and where they’re consuming media—and in a highly engaging and captivating way.
In this guide, we explore how savvy marketing teams can leverage digital video channels effectively and cohesively to create a customer journey that engages audiences and inspires action. We dig into the latest trends, insights, and research to help advertisers integrate digital video successfully into their paid media campaigns.
Ready to level up your digital video advertising expertise? Download your copy of the guide today!
It’s been over a year since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an interpretive rule that enhanced the regulation of digital financial services marketing under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), ushering in a new era of regulatory scrutiny for marketers in the space.
Given the increase in digital advertising investment from financial institutions (FIs), it’s more critical than ever for advertisers working for FIs to understand and adhere to these regulations. However, legal documents like the 13-page CFPB ruling can be difficult to understand.
If you’re a finserv marketer looking to make sure you understand everything you need to know about this ruling, you’ve come to the right place. This piece will break down what the ruling means, how it’s changed the advertising landscape, and how marketers can adapt.
Even before the CFPB ruling, there were some regulations in place to ensure financial institutions marketed their products and services in a way that was clear and non-deceptive. After all, these products are inherently quite personal and, as such, they need to be advertised in a way that builds—rather than erodes—trust.
Pre-CFPB ruling, financial institutions were responsible for ensuring their advertisements met messaging and targeting requirements outlined in the CFPA. Specifically, FIs had to make sure none of their ads were “unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices” in how they portrayed and/or targeted their products or services. To comply, FIs adopted many internal processes to ensure that all aspects of their advertising—from the creative, to the messaging, to the targeting—were reviewed by internal legal compliance teams and/or evaluated by compliance third parties.
But as investment in digital channels has grown, FIs have spent more and more money purchasing advertising services from third-party companies. These agencies and other service providers are helping brands develop messaging and creative, and, in some cases, actually executing on different campaigns. In other words, there are a lot of different third-party organizations and companies that can make up the matrix of an FI’s advertising operations, and while some FIs handle everything internally, some leverage full-service external offerings, and others use a combination of the two.
Here's why all of this matters: Before the CFPB ruling, it was the financial institutions who were responsible for ensuring their ads and campaigns maintained regulatory compliance. But what happens when an external agency oversees crafting messaging and developing creative, or when a third-party service provider handles targeting? That’s where the CFPB interpretive ruling comes in.
With the CFPB’s interpretive rule, it’s no longer just financial institutions that are culpable for regulatory compliance and who bear responsibility for the messaging and targeting of their ads: Agencies and third-party service providers are also responsible. In other words, all the digital marketers who contribute to an FI’s campaigns are as subject to the CFPA as the FIs themselves.
Now that financial services marketers can also be held liable if they violate the CFPA, it’s no longer an option just assume (or hope) that that FIs are maintaining compliance and not doing anything that’s considered “unfair, deceptive, or abusive”. Instead, Service providers must ensure they are doing due diligence on their end so that their campaigns—specifically, the messaging and targeting of their campaigns—comply with all necessary regulation.
So, how can agencies and other service providers set themselves up to comply with this CFPB ruling? Here are a few key strategies:
With the new CFPB ruling, agencies and other service providers need to take a step back and ask: “How well do we understand the CFPA, and what systems do we have set up to ensure we adhere to it?” If your team already has deep expertise—great! If not, there’s an opportunity to collaborate with your legal/compliance department to dig into these regulations and up your team’s expertise.
When your team has an expert-level understanding of these regulations, you’re in a better position to lend that expertise to your clients. Which leads us to our next strategy…
Service providers need to communicate clearly and work closely with clients to ensure campaigns meet all regulations and to demonstrate that they can trust you and your capabilities when it comes to compliance. This might mean lending that aforementioned expertise on how to best leverage different digital channels within campaigns while maintaining regulatory compliance. It could mean developing new review processes across both service providers and FIs. Or it could mean building new methods of communication around campaigns to ensure all parties are on the same page about messaging, creative, and targeting tactics.
In the context of this ruling, it is critical for teams to have an in-depth understanding of how data is collected and leveraged. This is especially important when there are multiple sources of data used in a campaign—for instance, if an FI uses both first-party data as well as second- or third-party data they’ve purchased through a data collection agency. Both agencies and FIs themselves need to get clarity on how data is collected and stored (and anonymized, if applicable), as well as how consumers can opt in or out, depending on their personal privacy preferences. In other words, it must be clear to all involved parties where data comes from and how it is being utilized.
Though the CFPB ruling may have made things a bit more complex for many financial services marketers, it will also help agencies and other service providers ensure they are connecting with customers in a way that builds trust. By embracing the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of consumer financial protections, strengthening partnerships with the financial institutions they serve, and clarifying how data is collected and stored, agencies and other service providers in the financial services space can meet today’s regulatory demands while satisfying consumer expectations—in other words, a win-win.
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Making sure campaigns are compliant with the CFPA is one critical piece of running successful campaigns in the financial services industry—but it isn’t the only one. In today’s privacy-centric world (and with the deprecation of third-party cookies in Google Chrome fast approaching), advertisers also need to make sure they’re connecting with consumers in privacy-friendly ways. Like adhering to the CFPA, using privacy-friendly advertising solutions can help financial services advertisers strengthen trust with key audiences.
Eager to learn more about advertising in a privacy-friendly way? Check out our guide, Beyond Third-Party Cookies: Your Guide to Privacy-Friendly Advertising.
A decade ago, the phrase “You’ve got to check out this new podcast!” would have befuddled most people. But today? It’s almost as common as hearing “Can I get a side of ranch with that?” at a pizza joint in the Midwest. It’s no secret that the podcast industry is booming, with more and more people tuning in to an unending variety of shows. There’s a podcast for almost every niche interest you can think of—including, but not limited to, pens, video game music, and Denzel Washington.
In a society where multitasking is the norm, podcasts offer a blend of information, entertainment, and advertising that weaves seamlessly into people’s daily routines. For marketers, this presents a distinct opportunity to connect with audiences when and where they’re engaged, and in contextually relevant environments, to boot.
That said, podcast advertising is a new(er) and ever-evolving space, and many marketers likely have some questions, such as: “Should I consider podcast advertising?” “If so, how can I get started?” “How much do podcast ads cost?” And, of course, “How can I place my ads on that podcast dedicated to pens?!”
We’re here to help: Read on to get the lowdown on everything advertisers need to know to harness the power of podcast advertising.
Before we dive into the nitty gritty of podcast advertising, let’s take a quick look at where the podcast space stands today. Here’s what marketing teams should know:
Considering this popularity among listeners and the increased interest from advertisers, it’s no wonder more and more brands are incorporating podcasts into their omnichannel strategies!
To advertise on podcasts, marketing teams first need to consider their target audience(s). Knowing your audience’s preferences, interests, motivations, and behaviors will help you select podcasts that align with your brand and message.
Once you’ve determined who you’re trying to reach, it’s important to get clear on your campaign goals and to align those goals with KPIs to measure progress. For podcast advertising, some of the most common KPIs include:
Next, it’s important to consider how you’re going to tap into podcast inventory. You can either purchase podcast inventory directly from a publisher (i.e., as a direct buy) or purchase it programmatically. Which purchase method you choose depends on your campaign goals, as well as the type of podcast ad(s) you’re running. Bonus: A good DSP will allow you to track podcast campaigns alongside all your other digital advertising channels, so you can understand the impact of your podcast ads within the context of your omnichannel efforts.
“This all sounds great,” many advertisers might say. “But how much do podcast ads cost?”
Generally speaking, the average cost per mille (aka CPM, or cost per 1,000 listeners) of a 30-second podcast ad is around $18, and a 60-second ad averages $25. That said, podcast ads can vary significantly in cost, depending on factors including the length of the ad, the type of ad, and listenership of the show.
There are many different types of podcast ads available—and selecting the best ones to utilize depends largely on your individual audience, campaign, and goals. Check out some of the most popular types of podcast ads below:
In addition to deciding which type of ad to use, it’s important to consider which podcast (or podcasts) are the right fit for your campaign. And when it comes to finding the right podcast, the best place to start is getting clear on who you’re trying to reach.
Once you’ve determined your target audience, you can hone in on which podcasts/podcast networks will best reach them. Contextual targeting is a particularly effective opportunity here: Because there are shows for basically any given topic, brands can find those that align with their product or service and then speak directly to engaged audiences who have a high likelihood of being interested in their offerings. For instance, a financial services brand might place ads in podcasts focused on personal finance, and a home goods brand might place ads in podcasts focused on interior design. Even more, contextual is privacy-friendly way to reach the right consumers.
In addition to contextual targeting, advertising teams might choose to dig into show demographics to determine where they can best reach their audience: For example, an auto brand wanting to reach Gen Xers might focus on certain news podcasts that are particularly popular with that generation.
A question that often arises when it comes to podcast advertising is whether to spread your ad budget across multiple podcasts or concentrate it on a single show. Though there’s no hard and fast rule, there are many benefits to diversifying your podcast ad placements, including:
Plus, since weekly listeners average nine podcast episodes per week, advertising on multiple podcasts can help teams connect with more listeners—and/or to connect with audiences at multiple touchpoints along their customer journey. By strategically advertising on multiple podcasts, marketing teams can reach audiences in contextually relevant environments that drive action and engagement.
Podcast advertising is an effective way to connect with audiences during their everyday routines. Whether during their morning commute, a mid-day walk, their daily workout, or while they’re cooking dinner, people tune into podcasts at many different times and in a variety of contexts. And, with a wide range of podcasts available—spanning topics like wellness, sports, true crime, health and fitness, news, politics, and more—advertisers can use the power of context to reach target audiences in a privacy-friendly way that fosters serious engagement.
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Interested in learning more about how podcast advertising fits within a holistic digital audio advertising strategy? Check out our guide, The Digital Audio Advertising Guide: A Channel That Can’t Be Beat. In it, we analyze the latest trends, insights, and research to help advertisers make the most of their digital audio ad spending.
Is it just us, or does the digital advertising world feel like it’s changing faster than your favorite coffee shop’s menu at the first hint of fall (white pumpkin mochas, anyone?) It can be hard to carve out time to just sit down to get in a good read—or even know what to read once you find a few minutes.
Enter: our content recommendation quiz. Whether you’re in the mood for a deep dive or a read-it-in-one-go piece, a quirky article or something a bit more buttoned-up, this quick quiz will identify the perfect read for you.
Over the past several years, the B2B advertising landscape has evolved dramatically. Perhaps the most notable shift is the rapid increase in digital ad spend, from just 29% of total B2B ad spend in 2019 to 47% in 2023. That’s a growth of more than 62% over just a few years!
This digital transformation is due to a variety of factors, including the lasting impacts of the COVID pandemic, a new demographic of younger B2B buyers, prolonged economic uncertainty, and the explosion of both time and advertising dollars spent on digital channels.
Amidst this digital revolution, B2B marketers face a challenging task: Find the right balance of channels and targeting to reach key consumers with the right message at the right time. To help B2B marketers as they approach this challenge, we called on Sean Cleary, Basis Technologies’ VP of Integrated Client Solutions, to answer a few key questions. With nearly 15 years of experience spanning campaign management to client and media services, he brings a wealth of knowledge to the B2B advertising space.
Read on for Sean’s top insights for B2B marketing in 2023:
Sean Cleary: To run a successful B2B campaign, marketing teams need to think about what their unique story is and how they’re going to tell it. Once they’ve got that nailed down, the focus shifts to getting that story in front of the right audience on the right channel.
In the last few years, we’ve seen this big shift to digital channels. And with these digital channels, there are now opportunities to hone in on targeting so you can get your message in front of the right audience for your specific product or service. Take, for instance, TV. Many teams might think of it in the more traditional format of buying in mass scale. Or radio, where you’re paying for ads that are reaching very broad audiences. But now, with digital channels like CTV and digital audio, we can leverage former mass broadcast formats into more targeted, efficient, and relevant activations. In other words, we’re not wasting money on scale here.
Beyond CTV and digital audio, there are a few other digital channels that B2B marketers are really leaning into to get their specific story in front of the right audience. Digital out-of-home is one, especially now that there are more screens in more places. Thanks to this explosion of DOOH screens, B2B marketers can now reach target audiences in contextually relevant environments. Take, for example, having a presence on a screen in a hospital elevator. For a health tech company, this would be a prime spot for reaching decision-makers at hospitals who might be looking for new technology solutions.
Another is social, but this is a channel where it’s especially important to think about the specific message you’re telling via a specific platform. For instance, many teams want to leverage TikTok, and that’s great. But TikTok is a fun, quirky environment, and the same creative that works on, say, LinkedIn, isn’t going to be as effective in this space. So, you may be able to connect with the right people on TikTok, but if you’re not connecting with them in the way that they are wanting to be engaged with then it’s not necessarily worthwhile to do.
SC: Effective segmentation and targeting. The focus on these has increased a lot in the past few years, likely because digital channels have exploded and advertisers have realized how much more specific you can get with your ad spend thanks to digital segmenting, targeting, and measuring capabilities.
For B2B, in particular, advertisers are often looking to connect with a very specific group of people, and they need to give specific messaging to that audience. Teams want to spend the right amount of money and have the right impression thresholds as they reach these audiences.
To do so, it’s important to have really rich audience data, and to be able to slice, dice, and activate it in a strategic way. Because there are a lot of people B2B brands could target—but what’s important is focusing in on specific audiences, ensuring ad spend is aligned with those people you want to target, and not wasting ad spend elsewhere.
SC: One thing B2B teams should be paying attention to is keeping their data clean and organized. Depending on who you’re partnering with and where you’re running ads, some folks will promise you leads. But the question is: Do you really want other people handling your potential customer data? Do you have confidence that they have the security and compliance in place to be able to manage that data responsibly?
This is important when it comes to privacy compliance, as well as regulation of your own customer data. Because when we think about recent developments in regulation, we know that consumers have the right to ask anyone who has their data to not use it anymore. So what happens if you got a consumer’s data from someone who got their data from someone else? How are consumers able to opt out?
For folks trying to get those leads, it’s beneficial to capture them directly (ideally, through a form fill on your own website). If you capture the leads yourself, you have a lot more control over the ability to qualify those leads and guarantee your practices are privacy compliant.
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Interested in working with experts like Sean to level up your B2B marketing efforts? Connect with us and learn how our media strategy and activation services can ensure your B2B campaigns are telling your story on the right channels and in a compelling way.